“What’s the biggest threat to business networks in 2005? Front-line IT managers and security firms increasingly peg spyware as public enemy No. 1.” Spyware: IT’s public enemy No. 1: ZDNet
Dearly Beloved
Having lost most of my day to a sudden spyware/trojan infestation of my laptop, I’m inclined to agree with the above. Despite the efforts of our outsourced IT helpdesk not to mention my own beforehand, the battle is lost and a rebuild is scheduled for as soon as possible. On my home PC, I browse with Firefox (only ever using IE for Windows Updates) and I cannot recommend a better course of action to take than getting a decent browser, firewall and anti-virus combination setup on your PC.
For those wishing to embrace this ‘holy trinity’, the cost of doing so is as follows:
Firewall price: £0.00/$0.00
Browser price: £0.00/$0.00
Anti-virus price: £0.00/$0.00
Add an hour of your time to read the install/help files, get familiar with the applications and tweak them to suit and you will have made it a lot less likely that you’ll get spyware. Add SpyBot, Ad-ware and Reg Cleaner to your no-cost shopping list and you’ll then have the means to clean out the stuff may be lurking there already.
Here endeth the lesson.
Amen, brother! Preach it! Cast out the demons of spyware and leave the sinful trojans behind. 😉