Foxfire - Do You Protect Effectively From Spyware? Articles | Computer Security

Spyware is software that is able to see all your actions in your computer and although not all Spyware is bad, it becomes very dangerous if they are programmed to behave badly. This kind of software generally get installed in your computer after visiting a harmful website. Most of the times it is necessary that you do certain things in order to get infected by this type of software, but sometimes Spyware takes advantage of errors in the browser software in order to infect your PC.

As a long time programmer, I know that all software is full of errors. In fact, after releasing a Windows version, some sources said that there were more than 63,000 errors in the code, which although many could think this as shocking news, to me this is normal stuff that I see all the time while developing software. ºThis is not a strange thing, but the norm.

Errors are very normal in software, but when you try to take away a competitor from the market, as Microsoft tried to do when Netscape was the browser of choice among most people and had 90% market share, then you add features very fast to lure people to your option without thinking about security implications and this is how errors multiplied in the software. Moreover, not only were errors introduced, but also inconsistencies in the overall design that made the software very hard to change and the whole software even more difficult to maintain.

This doesn't happened with the Mozilla Foundation, creators of the Firefox Browser, since they were concentrated in the design of the software and the overall security instead of their market share and this is the reason why many security conscious people use it every day. If you manage your bank account through the Internet, you cannot afford to be insecure on the Internet. Even if you only exchange email on the Web, Spyware could be very harmful because of problems like identity theft.

Just think about it. Would you be comfortable knowing that there is certain software in you PC that is recording all you actions, keystrokes, mouse movements, passwords, emails, everything you do, and sending that information to some hacker at the other end of the planet? I wouldn't and you certainly shouldn't because your financial future could be at risk. Sure, you could stop using the Internet to be more secure, but you also could stop driving your car for fear of an accident, but it is better to protect yourself and enjoy the benefits of technology. The first step is easy: stop using Internet Explorer that comes with your PC and switch to the much more secure browser from the Mozilla Foundation.