What is Malware?
Malware is any software that has been written or distributed with less than good intention. The term covers viruses, trojan horses, spyware, adware, browser hijackers, diallers and other nasties. Scumware is another generic term for malware.
What does it do?
All sorts of things, from spreading silently with little ill-effect, to blowing huge holes in the security of corporate IT systems.
Who writes and distributes these things?
In the early days, many viruses were written by spotty, nerdy teenage geeks to impress their friends. I always thought this was strange, because these inadequates are the sort of people who are unlikely to have any friends to impress. These days, cyber crime is big business and much malware is spread by individuals and organisations operating on the fringes of, and often completely outside, the law.
How can it be stopped?
Fortunately, there are many excellent anti-malware products, lots of which are free. See my links page for details of some of the better ones.
Sadly, some so-called anti-spyware products are the opposite of what they claim to be, so be careful. Here’s a link to a page on the well-respected SpywareWarrior website that lists an astonishing number of products that are not what they seem. I always research anything that looks too good to be true before I install it and I advise you to do the same. However, products accessed via my links page should cause no problems.
An excellent source of malware information is Gizmo Richards’ TechSupportAlert website. Any anti-malware product reviewed favourably here is likely to be sound. Here’s a link to Gizmo’s recent article on free security programs.
What’s the downside to stopping it?
To some extent, all anti-malware products have an adverse impact on the performance of your system. Older systems will run noticeably slower when the protection is installed. Ironically, it’s these very systems that are likely to need the protection more anyway, because earlier versions of Windows, Outlook Express and Internet Explorer are even more vulnerable to infection than the modern editions. It can be difficult to strike the balance between security and performance on a machine that’s already sluggish, so it might be worth treating yourself to a nice new one. I keep an eye on the PC market and can usually give advice on where the best bargains are to be had.
If you can’t stretch to the £250 or so for a new system unit, and need your existing machine to run reasonably fast, try installing only AVGFree, SpywareBlaster and SpyBot. Between them, they’ll give protection that’s adequate for most and won’t slow your machine too much.
Malware is any software that has been written or distributed with less than good intention. The term covers viruses, trojan horses, spyware, adware, browser hijackers, diallers and other nasties. Scumware is another generic term for malware.
What does it do?
All sorts of things, from spreading silently with little ill-
Who writes and distributes these things?
In the early days, many viruses were written by spotty, nerdy teenage geeks to impress their friends. I always thought this was strange, because these inadequates are the sort of people who are unlikely to have any friends to impress. These days, cyber crime is big business and much malware is spread by individuals and organisations operating on the fringes of, and often completely outside, the law.
How can it be stopped?
Fortunately, there are many excellent anti-
Sadly, some so-
An excellent source of malware information is Gizmo Richards’ TechSupportAlert website. Any anti-
What’s the downside to stopping it?
To some extent, all anti-
If you can’t stretch to the £250 or so for a new system unit, and need your existing machine to run reasonably fast, try installing only AVGFree, SpywareBlaster and SpyBot. Between them, they’ll give protection that’s adequate for most and won’t slow your machine too much.
