Adware or Spyware is the fastest growing threat on the internet these days and has been for a while. With more people being connected to the internet via broadband, it seems the people who create these programs are becoming more brutal in the reason for creating these programs. In the early 90's late 90's when one would discover that you were infected by these programs, I would say to myself "OK you got me now let me just find a program to get you off my PC." Now i cant say that at all because i know the power these programs now have.

How Dangerous are they?

Well back in they day, these programs would just irritate you by by changing your homepage to a sexual explicit web page and when you close the web page another one pops up, and so it would go until you find a way to get rid of the program. These days its different because more people are doing credit card purchases and internet banking and retrieving that information could leave you in a hole. These people who create these programs have more to gain now by retrieving your information. Here is a list of things these programs can do :

1. Monitor your keystrokes for reporting purposes.
2. Scan files located on your hard drive.
3. Snoop through applications on your desktop.
4. Install other Spyware programs into your computer.
5. Read your cookies.
6. Steal credit card numbers, passwords, and other personal information.
7. Change the default settings on your home page web browser.
8. Mutate into a second generation of Spyware thus making it more difficult to eradicate.
9. Cause your computer to run slower.
10. Deliver annoying pop up advertisements.
11. Add advertising links to web pages for which the author does not get paid. Instead,
payment is directed to the Spyware programmer that changed the original affiliates settings.
12. Provide the user with no uninstall option and places itself in unexpected or hidden places
within your computer making it difficult to remove.

How do i protect myself?

The best way to protect yourself is to purchase a product that can effectively clean and safe guard your computer. I recommend you take a free scan of your computer to see if you are infected with adware or spyware. The benefits to purchasing a product as to downloading a free product is that you can rely on the company that its product will be updated every day or week. This is essential because thousands of new adware or spyware programs are created daily. My best advise is to seek protection today. For more advise on how to protect yourself, you can visit my blog and website.