How many spyware items are infecting your computer?

I just had, by mistake, a plug-in called Intelligent Explorer attach
to my browser. What a nightmare! I have another article on this
topic, but this brings home a point. Spyware or adware items are
continually infecting computers. Most computers have no protection
from them. Most frightening is the frequency of them. From the
InfosecWriters web site, "According to a 2004 survey by America
Online and the National Cyber Security Alliance, 91% of users
questioned were familiar with the term spyware. Only 53% believed
their computers were infected, but a scan found that 80% of their PCs
had some type of spyware installed on them." It goes on to say,
"...The average number of spyware components per computer was 93 with
one computer having well over a thousand."

What is Spyware?

Butte College (www.bctv.butte.edu/support/spyware.html) offers this
definition:

“The term ‘spyware’ is broadly defined as any program that gets into
your computer without permission and hides in the background while it
makes unwanted changes to your user experience.

Spyware is generally not designed to damage your computer. The
damage it does is more a by-product of its main mission, which is to
serve you targeted advertisements or make your browser display
certain sites or search results.

At present, most spyware targets only the Windows operating system
(Internet Explorer).”

To be fair, spyware can be harmless, for example tracking cookies
don’t do much. While such things infringe on your privacy, they don't
really harm anything. Others, however, are extremely dangerous.

So what do you do about it?

No spyware program seems to do everything, but there are a lot of
goods solutions out there that can help. Here is a list of some of
the top Spyware tools to look at:

1) Try Ad-Aware 6.0 Professional from LavaSoft (there is also a free
version with less functionality)

2) Spybot Search & Destroy from PepiMK Software

3) Xoftspy form Pareto Logic

4) Spyware Guard from Javacool Software is a free program

5) Pest Patrol (now part of Computer Associates by acquisition)

6) McAfee Anti-Spyware

One thing is for certain: you do need to take spyware seriously.
For some reason, too many people out there think anti-virus solutions
are the end-all solution. They are not.

And, when all else fails?

Finally, as drastic as it seems, if your computer has been infected
with a large number of spyware programs, the only solution you may
have is backing up your data, and performing a complete reinstall of
the operating system.