Fact 1:

Spyware can easily be installed on a system without a user’s knowledge. Infections can originate from open ports in your firewall or by not having a firewall, visiting some malicious websites or installing some software that bundles the spyware with its install package.

In many cases one infection can propagate more infections by installing other spyware software in the background without the user ever knowing something is going on.

Basis of this Fact:

It only takes one open port in your firewall or just one piece of software to infect your system. After that majority spyware is designed to Downloads & install other pieces of software to infect & re-infect your system with even more spyware.

Fact 2:

There is no software available that can remove 100% of all spyware.

Basis of this Fact:

In a recent studies by PC world & others, tests compared 9 of the top spyware scanning & removal applications against each other. Each application was tested on a system infected with common spyware threats, & then compared against each other to see which product was best at spyware removal & detection.

The top three applications detected only 65% to 85% of the spyware on the test system, while all the other application detection rates were well below 60%.

So trusting just one piece of software for spyware removal is not a good bet.

Fact 3:

Spyware can make your identity information just a few mouse clicks away for criminals.

Basis of this Fact:

Spyware has helped many criminals get personal information in just a click of the mouse. A special type of spyware called a key logger can record your account numbers and passwords & then send them off to the writer of the spyware program on your system. Online Identity theft & fraud now leads the way as the method of choice to rip people off as it is simple to do & the chances of getting caught are small.

Fact 4:

Spyware can slow down your internet speed dramatically.

Basis of this Fact:

Every piece of information that leaves your Laptop via the Internet has to use some of your bandwidth. A heavily infected system can send a significant amount of information out at any given time.

This seriously limits the availability of bandwidth for legitimate uses & the user suffers a dramatic loss of speed.

In many cases, spyware can turn your Laptop into nothing more then a zombie that relays things like spam & viruses which uses even more system & bandwidth resources.

Fact 5:

Spyware takes away precious system resources from your Laptop, making boot times longer & overall performance much slower.

Basis of this Fact:

This is self explanatory. Your system only has so many resources available to complete tasks. Every program (good or bad) requires system resources; spyware takes away resources from legitimate Laptop programs.

Fact 6:

A survey suggests that over 90% of computers are infected with some type of spyware.

Basis of this Fact:

90% sounds like a lot, but imagine all the stuff your Laptop does day in & day out. All the websites you go to & all the programs you may have downloaded. So when you know that it only takes one bad website or one bad program to infect you & then you add up all the places you could get spyware from 90% is not that surprising.

Fact 7:

Some types of spyware can install programs to allow hackers complete control over your system.

Basis of this Fact:

Everyday users are having their systems hijacked & used to create problems. This often results in someone from the outside using your Laptop to send out spam & viruses or linking with thousands of other computers to shut down websites & launch other kinds of attacks.

What can I do to protect my system?

* Run more than one spyware scanner on your system.

As stated above no scanner catches 100% of all spyware so running more than one scanner increases the chances of catching spyware on your system.

* Scan often.

Scanning often makes sure you get rid of spyware before it has a chance to Downloads more spyware or send your personal data out.

* Keep your system updated.

Make sure you have auto updates turned on or go to Win update often so you get the latest security patches.

* Do not go to websites or Downloads programs you are not sure of.

You can use the new phishing filter in IE7 to check websites & do a Google search for any new programs to check if they have been reported for spyware before downloading & using them.