How A Spyware Blocker Works

Spyware/Adware/Malware

All spyware and adware belong to a group of malicious software called malware, and these can be very disruptive, invasive and potentially damaging to your computer. Spyware and adware secretly monitor your online surfing and shopping habits or collect your personal and confidential information and report it back to the intruder, who stands to profit in some way from the data thats collected.

No matter what piece of software you use to protect your computer, the spyware blocker must be able to find the malware in order to remove it from your system.

Definitions Of Spyware/Adware/Malware

Spyware collects and relays the data from the compromised computer to a third party.

Adware automatically plays, displays or downloads advertisements. Some types of adware are also spyware and can be classified as privacy invasive software, adware often are integrated with other software.

Malware is the general name for any malicious software designed to infiltrate, spy on or to damage a computer.

 

What Is A Spyware Blocker

A spyware blocker program will protect your computer system against incoming threats from security holes in your web browser, this includes files that you download and run and the possibility of others physically putting monitoring software on your computer such as keyloggers. The spyware blocker program should immediately scan and notice whether or not a file is corrupted before it is executed on your computer this is called (Front Guard), the program should then notify you of any threats of monitoring software as well. Any anti spyware program you choose for your computer should ideally run in real time.

You can pick up these annoying and threatening programs unknowingly when you download online music, films, torrents or from even installing free software that has the spyware bundled with it.

 

Signs That Your Computer Is Infected

1. Slow or performance when you open programs or save files.
2. The browsers homepage has changed or takes you to a different site.
3. Fake and Random error messages.
4. An increased number of popup windows.
5. New icons appearing on the system tray at the bottom of your computer screen.
6. Increased number of new processes running in Task Manager.
7. Antivirus and other programs are disabled.
8. The browser unable to connect to the internet.

Beware of pop up windows that appear and displaying something like, to protect your computer download me. In almost all cases these are actually some form of spyware or adware rather than anti spyware !.

 

How Spyware Blockers Work

The Detection Phase
What ever piece of software you use the spyware blockers program must be able to find the malware in order to completely remove it, this is the detection phase and is carried out whenever you start a scan. The software will look at the currently running programs and common locations on your hard drive for adware. This is a crucial step and should be done in real time since adware can infect your computer just by visiting a website page.

Not every program on the market is equipped with a real time scanning element, and most free programs do not come with one or the function is disabled unless you pay for the realtime function. Usually free software only scans a computer when it is chosen to as a user action, but in between scans spyware and adware can get onto your computer where it can do significant damage before your next scan. This is why real time scanning is such an important feature for your choosen program to have.

The Interception Phase
During this step when the spyware blocker has found some adware on a computer it will take steps towards its removal, in some cases it will not let the file infected be downloaded to the computer. Adware is sometimes boot strapped against a legitimate download, and the fix for this problem is to just remove the adware and to save the original file. The spyware blocker can find these boot strapped adware, spyware programs even if they are hidden. Many times the adware will be disguised as a legitimate file or download without any real content within the item being downloaded.

These types of files are able to be detected during routine scans of the computer system, but if your spyware blockesrs has a real time scanning function then every time a file is saved to the computer the software will block or handle the adware, spyware as described above. Adware and spyware can also download with the cookies one encounters while surfing, these will also be picked up.

The Quarantine Phase
When spyware or adware is found the program will take steps to rectify the situation, before it atempts to remove anything, deletes anything or otherwise does anything with a suspected file, it will put the files into quarantine. Quarantine is a virtual area of the computers hard disk where the files are put and separated from the system. The spyware or adware cannot interact with your computers system, so your computer will be safe while you decide how you will handle the files that the spyware blocker finds.

Depending on what program you find yourself using, your computer system will be protected either through the implementation of a manual scan or through real time scanning of your system, its true to say that manual scanning is better than nothing in the fight against spyware and adware.