Personal computers that play unwitting host to "zombie" code are proliferating at a startling pace, according to a new report.Incidents involving the malicious code, also known as "bot" code, reached 13,000 from April through June, according to a report from antivirus-software maker McAfee. That's quadruple the number tracked by the company in the previous three months. McAfee estimated that 63 percent more machines were exploited by bot programs and by spyware and adware--their slightly less insidious, but more common, cousins--in the first six months of this year than in the whole of last year. <IMSOMAD>
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I have talked to many people who think the free program or programs they have installed are protecting them. :! This is wrong, the idea behind the free one is to show you that there is a problem not to remove all spyware. A recent study shows that 80% of all computers have spyware on them: http://ebarrelracing.com/forum/index.php?topic=3758.0 This means if you are using a computer that has the Windows OS on it you most likely have spyware on your computer. As of yet there isn't any spyware for MAC but as the OS becomes more popular the odds raise to someone creating spyware for it.
One way to see if you have spyware installed is to leave your computer on and see if it starts going to websites on it's own. Just turn your computer on connect to the internet and leave it alone, if it starts opening your browser and going to differnet websites then you have a browser hack installed. Another way is to watch the icon on the bottom of your screen that looks like two little computers if the are blinking while you are connected to the internet and while you are doing nothing you may have spyware. Another way to tell you have spyware is to startup your computer and leave it on and if it tries to connect to the internet on it's own you may have spyware.Yet another way is if you computer is slower than it used to be and even to the point that is will start shutting down on it's own. If a site that you go to all the time will not open or display properly
<GOTCHA> You might be surprised who is installing this stuff find out more about who and what they are installing here: http://ebarrelracing.com/forum/index.php?topic=3764.0 or even more here: http://ebarrelracing.com/forum/index.php?topic=3060.0
Lexmark (yes the maker of the printers) is one of the many companies that install this crap: http://ebarrelracing.com/forum/index.php?topic=3760.0
The only free one that works well is Microsoft's free program. Although you have to have the key code for the OS also you have to have Windows 2000 up to XP installed . Find out more about that here: http://ebarrelracing.com/forum/index.php?topic=3764.0
Alot of problem lie in Internet Eplorer to the point that The Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team has ask that people use other browsers: http://ebarrelracing.com/forum/index.php?topic=3656.0 Also read: Is IE emptying your bank account?
Some people use Netscape but it doesn't display the same way as IE so if you are designing website you have to use both. And if the site you are viewing was designed just for IE you may be missing some of the site. The one I use is Firefox it displays much the same way as IE without as many bugs and it has lots of extras you can install like the forecast for free without the ads the weatherbug has that also has a radar built into it. You can also change the way it looks by going to themes and installing them there. You can find Firefox here: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
