What is the difference between adware, spyware, malware and virus?
Before we find the distinction between the three terms, one main issue to highlight is that you would not want to have any of them in your system.
Adware:
Adwares are software applications that are
supported by advertisements (Advertising
Software).
It automatically display advertisement when the software is running. It
is one of the way a programmer can offer his application at a reduce
cost or even for free. Most of the time, a license can be bought to
remove the advertisement permanently.
Spyware:
Spywares are a
progression from adwares. In order to provide the user of adwares with
more targeted advertisements, various forms of statistics and
information on user's activity on the system is tracked and sent to
advertising companies. Sometimes these are done under the hood without
user's knowledge and consent. Like spying on your habits and activities
on your computer. Thus the term spying
software.
Malware:
Malware are malicious
software
that affects the normal functionality of your system. Sometimes,
annoying pop up will appear out of no where to direct you to some sales
sites. Sometimes emails spams will automatically be sent from your
system. Adware and spyware progress to a malicious state if it start to
affect the use of your system actively instead of just showing you
passive advertisement.
Virus:
Virus
are malware that spreads and installs themselve without the knowledge
of the system user. You may open an infected file and once the file is
opened, the virus will installs itself on your system and wait for
chance to propagate to the next unsuspecting user's computer. Some even
have the capability of transmitting themselves via the network to
infect other system in the network. Some virus (trojan horse) will
enable some backdoor to allow access of your system to unauthorized
party.
Removal of Adware, Spyware and Malware.
There are many rock solid commercial applications for the removal of adwares, spywares and malwares and it is interesting to note that these companies often release a version that is free for personal use. Of course these free versions come with some form of restriction. But still they would suffice for your personal computer.
Three main weapons against Adware, Spyware and Malware.
Two main companies i want to introduce here.
First is Lavasoft.
It is one of the first company to conceive the idea of coming up with
adware / spyware removal software and to date, they are still the
leading provider of Anti-spyware / adware solutions. They have a free
personal version available for download.
The restriction on the
free version is that there are no automatic updates and it does not run
in the background. Therefore, it would take some amount of discipline
to run manual checks on your system regularly. It would be also be
possible for you to schedule it in your scheduler task to run on every
Sunday or any day that you like it to run.
Another is AVG, it
started of as one of the top free personal anti virus solutions, now it
has already diversify to provide other security solutions like
anti-spyware. One thing that is good about AVG is that a fully
functional trial version will revert to a free version after the trial
period. And while it is fully functional, it can be run in the
background to provide continuous protection against adware and spyware
for your system. After the trial, both AVG and Lavasoft provide similar
functions of on demand update and scanning.
Working on both
application is relatively straight forward, it is strongly recommended
that you download the latest definition file and do a complete scan for
your system during the initial installation. There after, before every
regular scan, do remember to update your definition file.
During the scans, likely hood is that you will discover tracking
cookies. These usually can be safely deleted.
Both AVG and Avast! offers great protection for your computer.
Just
download from the respective site. Personally, i am using Avast! and
will go deeper on it. Whatever the functionality, parallel can be drawn
for AVG too.
After you install Avast! it will prompt you for a registration code,
this can be obtained from Avast! website for free.
For
me, Avast! anti-virus is an install and forget about it solution. After
the initial installation, do a update of the virus database and allow
Avast! to run in the back ground. Avast! will automatically download
virus definition file and any program updates that is available. After
the initial installation and set up, you are protected on the following
fronts:
- Instant Messaging
- Internet Mail
- Network Shield
- Peer to Peer (P2P) Shield
- Standard Shield
- Web Shield
With todays reliance on the internet, Firewall is one of the must have for both business and personal computers. It is your first level of defense against external threads. It is very useful in the detection and blocking of adware and spyware.
As most adware and spyware will try to connect to the internet, your firewall will warn you of the application's attempt to connect to the network. An important point to note is that we should always check and verify the connection attempts and not just blindly "Allow" access to the internet.
A couple of comprehesive and free firewall solution can be found at Comodo or ZoneAlarm. Although Microsoft includes a build in firewall, it is no where near in comparison to what comodo or ZoneAlarm offers.
Do remember to disable the Windows Firewall when you replace it with either Comodo or ZoneAlarm.
