Spyware, Adware and other malicious softwares: What are they?

The world we live in today is mostly governed by high-speed in almost every aspect. From the cars we drive to the internet that we use. It's all about speed, fast and now. Technology has taken steps in keeping up with the phase of modern human life. Because of the steady climb of the internet and information technology towards better and more convenient ways of mass transferring of data, photos, audio and video files and almost transferable and moveable piece of information over a network, people have also found numerous ways of keeping up with the drastically changing network environment.

But with all the technology present and ready for utilization anytime, anywhere, the number of malicious softwares like spyware, that are not necessarily viruses but poses the same level of threat if left to be challenged and unchecked, have also grown to triple their previous size and keeps on growing.

Malicious softwares are the kinds of softwares that automatically activate a link while we are on the internet. Their main function is to act like an annoying salesperson who wouldn't take no for an answer. They lead our computers to sites that have a hyperlink or permanently hyperlink a page for us. There are two distinct kinds of malicious software, one is the adware and the other one is the Spyware.

Although both act in the same direction, they do have differences. We are well aware of what a pop-up ad is and how it can be annoying at some point in the time we are using the internet. A pop-up ad however just pops up at random during any occasion that we are using the internet. Programmers have devised a way to insert a pop-up ad into the programming string of a webpage. They usually insert it in the beginning of a webpage. Programmers usually rewrite the whole programming string at the start of the webpage so it won't be noticeable to the real author. On the other hand malicious software like spyware and adware are independently programmed applications and doesn't need the help of a webpage to trigger its effects.

Spyware and adware works by entering your computer and constantly opens a link for an ad. Although spywares don't really affect your computer right away, unlike a virus where computers have the drastic and almost instant effects Spywares just sit inside your computer opening up links to and ad or directing you to it. One thing you'll notice is that the spyware is constantly getting in the way of your business and the spyware is pretty hard to detect because it does not contain the usual programming string normal viruses have. You could say that spyware is a hybrid program that confuses a normal anti-virus program.

Spywares get passed on to our computer virtually undetected, but software vendors have come up with a way of solving our spyware problems for us. They've come up with a spyware detection software that scans the computer for programming codes that would normally have a lot of hyperlinks.

Spywares are really a menace to us and our computers but with the right information and the proper tools we can protect our investment from spyware, adware and anything else they can come up with.