Spyware on the computer. How to detect and remove spyware?

Almost all users are familiar with viruses and the consequences of their impact on computer systems today. Among all the threats that are most widely spread, a separate place is occupied by spyware, monitoring the actions of users and stealing confidential information. Next, it will be shown what such applications and applets are, and the issue related to how to detect a spyware program on a computer and get rid of such a threat without harming the system is considered.

What is spyware?

To begin with, spyware applications, or executable applets, commonly called Spyware (spy in English "spy"), in the usual sense, are not viruses as such. That is, they have virtually no impact on the system in terms of its integrity or performance, although when infected computers can permanently be in the RAM and consume part of the system resources. But, as a rule, this does not affect the speed of the OS.

But their main purpose is precisely tracking the user's work, and if possible, stealing confidential data, substituting e-mail to send spam, analyzing requests on the Internet and redirecting to sites containing malicious software, analyzing information on the hard drive, etc. itself It goes without saying that any user should have at least a primitive antivirus package installed for protection. True, most of the free antiviruses, not to mention the built-in Windows firewall, do not give full confidence in security. Some applications may simply not be recognized. Here and there is quite a legitimate question: "And what then should be the protection of the computer from spyware?" Let's try to consider the main aspects and concepts.

Types of spyware

Before you start a practical solution, you should be clear about which applications and applets belong to the class of Spyware. To date, there are several basic types:

• Keyloggers;
• Hard disk scanners;
• Screen spies;
• Postal spies;
• Proxy spyware.

Each such program has different effects on the system, so we'll see how the spyware penetrates the computer and what they can do in the infected system.

Methods of Spyware Intrusion into Computer Systems

Today, due to the incredible development of Internet technologies, the World Wide Web is the main open and weakly protected channel, which threats of this type are used for implementation in local computer systems or networks.

In some cases, the user installs spyware on the computer, no matter how paradoxical it sounds. In most cases, he does not even know about it. And everything is simple and simple. For example, you downloaded from the Internet seem to be an interesting program and launched the installation. In the first stages everything looks as usual. But then sometimes there are windows with a proposal for the installation of some additional software product or add-on to the Internet browser. Usually all this is written in fine print. The user, trying to quickly complete the installation process and start working with the new application, often does not pay attention to it, agrees with all the conditions and ... eventually gets an embedded "agent" to collect information.

Sometimes spyware on a computer is installed in the background, disguised afterwards on important system processes. There can be a lot of options here: installing unchecked software, downloading content from the Internet, opening suspicious e-mail attachments and even simply visiting some unsafe resources on the Web. As already understood, it is simply impossible to track such an installation without special protection.

Effects of exposure

As for the damage caused by spyware, as already mentioned, this is not generally reflected in the system in any way, but the user information and personal data are at risk.

The most dangerous among all applications of this type are the so-called key loggers, or more simply, keyloggers. Just they are able to monitor the collection of characters, which gives an attacker the ability to obtain the same logins and passwords, bank details or pin-codes of cards, and everything that a user does not want to make available to a wide range of people. As a rule, after determining all the data, they are sent either to a remote server or by e-mail, naturally, in a hidden mode. Therefore, it is recommended that special cryptographic utilities be used to store such important information. In addition, it is desirable to save files not on the hard disk (they will be easily found by HDD scanners), but on removable media, and at least on a flash drive, and necessarily along with the decoder key.

Among other things, many experts consider the use of the on-screen keyboard to be the most safe, although they acknowledge the inconvenience of this method.

Tracking the screen in terms of what exactly the user is doing is dangerous only if confidential data or registration details are entered. The spy simply after a certain time takes screenshots and sends them to the attacker. Using the on-screen keyboard, as in the first case, will not give a result. And if two spies work simultaneously, then you can not hide anywhere.

Tracking of e-mail is made according to the list of contacts. The main purpose is to replace the contents of the message when sending it with the purpose of sending spam.

Proxy spies are harmed only in the sense that they turn a local computer terminal into a kind of proxy server. Why is this necessary? Yes, only then, to hide behind, say, the IP-address of the user when committed illegal actions. Naturally, the user is not aware of this. Here, for example, someone hacked the security system of a bank and stole an amount of money. Tracking of actions by the authorized services reveals that the hack was made from a terminal with a certain IP, located at such and such an address. To the unsuspecting person come special services and sent to jail. Is not there anything good in this?

The first symptoms of infection

Now we turn to practice. How to test a computer for spyware, if suddenly for some reason crept in doubt about the integrity of the security system? To do this, you need to know how the impact of such applications is manifested in the first stages.

If the performance degradation is noticed for nothing, or the system periodically "hangs", or refuses to work at all, first you should look at the use of the load on the processor and RAM, and monitor all active processes.

In most cases, the user in the same "Task Manager" will see unfamiliar services, which previously were not in the process tree. This is only the first bell. The creators of spyware are far from stupid, therefore they create programs that masquerade as system processes, and it is simply impossible to identify them without special knowledge in manual mode. Then there are problems with connecting to the Internet, changing the start page, and so on.

How to scan your computer for spyware

As for verification, regular antivirus programs will not help here, especially if they already missed the threat. At a minimum, some kind of portable version like Dr. Web Cure It! Or Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool (or better - something like Rescue Disc with system checking even before it is downloaded).

How can I find a spyware program on my computer? In most cases, it is recommended to use the special-purpose special programs of the class Anti-Spyware (SpywareBlaster, AVZ, XoftSpySE Anti-Spyware, Microsoft Antispyware, etc.). The scanning process in them is fully automated, as well as the subsequent removal. But even here there are things that you should pay attention to.

How to remove spyware from your computer: standard methods and used third-party software

You can even remove spyware from your computer manually, but only if the program is not disguised.

To do this, you can refer to the programs and components section, find the desired application in the list and start the uninstall process. However, the Windows uninstaller is not very good, to put it mildly, because it leaves a lot of computer garbage after the process is over, so it's better to use specialized utilities like iObit Uninstaller, which, besides removing in the standard way, allow in-depth scanning for finding residual files or even keys And records in the system registry.

Now a few words about the notorious utility Spyhunter. Many people call it almost a panacea for all ills. Let us disagree with this. It scans the system for nothing, though sometimes it gives a false alarm. The problem is not this. The fact is that uninstalling it is quite problematic. The average user of all the number of actions that need to be performed, just the head is all around.

What to use? Protection from such threats and search for spyware on your computer can be done, for example, even with the ESETNOD32 or Smart Security package with the activated Anti-Theft feature. However, everyone chooses what is better and easier for him.

Legalized espionage in Windows 10

But that's not all. All that was said above concerned only how spyware penetrated the system, how they behaved, etc. But what to do when espionage is legal?

Windows 10 in this regard differed not in the best direction. There are a lot of services to disable (exchange data with remote Microsoft servers, use identification to get advertisements, send data to the company, locate using telemetry, get updates from several places, etc.).

Is there 100% protection?

If you look closely at how spyware penetrates the computer and what they do afterwards, there's only one thing to say about 100 percent protection: it does not exist. Even with the use of the entire arsenal of funds in security, you can be sure of 80 percent, not more. However, on the part of the user himself, there should be no provocative actions in the form of visiting dubious sites, installing unsafe software, ignoring antivirus warnings, opening e-mail attachments from unknown sources, and so on.