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19 Des 2009

How Do You Know if Your PC is Infected with Spyware?

By Scott McKenzie

Spyware, the worst form of malware with the potential to steal your identity, does a good job of hiding itself so that you cannot simply look on your computer and see if you have any spyware programs installed. Because of this, in order to find out if your computer is infected with spyware, you have to look for signs that there is some type of spyware that is affecting your system, so that you can quickly do something about it before your personal data has been stolen.

Slowing of the computer performance is the first sign that shows you might be having spyware on your computer. Computer allocates its resources between multiple running programs to maximize their performance and to make them work effectively. Spyware is also a program which is running in background all the time and computer resources needs to be allocated to it which eventually slows computers performance over time.

The next sign is multiple strange program names coming up when you view a list of all running programs. There are spyware programs that are able to hide their presence, but if you see the names of programs that do not look at all familiar, chances are that they are spyware that was unable to mask itself from your computers program detection.

Occasionally these are created by trustworthy programs " for example, AOL used to install a number of different trial programs when you added them to your hard drive - but they can also be caused by spyware that is attempting to get you to download a program in order to steal some of your identity or infect your computer further.The third sign of spyware is when you find icons on you computer for trial services that should not have been installed.

As mentioned previously, even if nothing too severe has occurred to your computers performance, you still need to remove it in order to ensure that worse spyware does not install itself in the future.In addition, if it has been a long time since you have reformatted your hard drive, chances are you have at least some low level spyware that may not be dangerous, but is going to be negatively affecting your computer.

Apart from being difficult to find, spyware is also difficult to get rid of. If you don't manage to get rid of the entire spyware program, most of them can then reinstall themselves, therefore it's essential to use special software to successfully locate and uninstall it.

Spyware, even non-invasive spyware, can cause a host of problems for your computer and put you at risk for identity theft. If your computer is infected, you'll probably notice it's running slower, but there's a lot of work going on behind the scenes as well. Even a seemingly innocuous spyware program can attract malicious programs that can record personal and financial data. If you think your computer might be infected, you should make it a top priority to remove it before it's able to collect and disseminate your personal information.

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