Edafio - Bothered by Spyware? Five Tips to Avoid It by Kim Komando

Five Tips for Spurning Spyware and Browser Hijackers (continued)

By Kim Komando

3. Know good cookies from bad cookies. These little text files have a bad reputation. But much of that is based on ignorance. Cookies actually perform valuable services. For instance, they can shoot you right into a site so you don't have to enter your password.

Here's how cookies work: Say you visit the ABC Book Co. You buy a book. The company downloads a text file to your computer, which includes an ID number. That's a cookie.

When the ABC site opens, it says "Welcome back, Joe!" How does it know? The ABC Book Co. has the information about the sale two weeks ago in its database. It matches the ID number in the cookie to the sale information, and customizes the page for you.

When you next make a purchase, you won't have to enter your credit-card number or address. That will already be filled in. Again, that came from the database, and was enabled by the cookie.

That is all very convenient. But there are less desirable cookies, too. They're called tracking cookies. Say you visit the XYZ Brain Surgery site. There's a banner ad there. It is linked to an advertising services company. It downloads a cookie. The cookie says, "This person visited XYZ Brain Surgery."

Next, you go to a heart transplant site. The banner ad there is associated with the same advertising company. The browser sends the cookie to the banner ad. The ad adds a notation that you visited the heart transplant site.

Over time, the tracking cookie builds a profile of your interests. The advertising services company sells this information. That's why you start getting advertising for medical equipment.

4. Warning: The Web bugs are watching. When you visit a site, you may be watched by a Web bug. This is a tiny graphic, measuring one pixel by one pixel. It sends information to another computer.

Included will be your IP number and the main address of the Web site you visited. That Web site can use the Web bug to transmit other information your e-mail address, for instance to the Web bug's mother computer.

Why would that site send your e-mail address? Money.

" Everybody starts out with innocent intent, but it is all driven by the profit motive," says Roger Thompson, vice president of development at PestPatrol, which publishes computer security software.

As you surf, Web bugs from advertising companies pop up on other sites. Each advertising company uses this information to build a profile. The result? More advertising. Sigh.

5. Beef up your security. What other actions can you take? First, use common sense. If a site offers to download a program, refuse. If it asks to be your home page, say no. And keep Windows updated. You can set more recent versions of Windows to do that automatically. Or open Internet Explorer. Click Tools and Windows Update. Follow the prompts.

If you do those things, you will avoid the hijackers. The tracking tools, though intrusive and irritating, are less dangerous. Much of this stuff can be stopped with security programs. McAfee and PestPatrol have well-regarded programs. I like SpywareBlaster, which is free.

If you block the spyware/adware programs that come with freeware, the program that you did want may not work. In that case, you may want to leave the spyware/adware running. At least, you'll know it is there.

You can remove spyware/adware that is already on your computer. Try Ad-aware or Spybot Search and Destroy. I have links to these and many other security software programs, most of them free, on my site (www.komando.com/bestshareware).

Kim Komando is the host of the nation's largest talk-radio show about computers and the Internet. She also writes a weekly column for more than 100 newspapers and a Q&A column for USA Today.

Edafio Technologies, LLC utilizes information technology to provide computing solutions to business problems. Located in the Cantrell West building in Little Rock, Edafio’s clients include the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Arkansas Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Monsanto, McFarland Eye Center and Perfect 10 Distribution.

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