RSS feedsIf you’ve ever been plagued by pop-ups, had your browser hijacked, been puzzled by unexplained system crashes or the mysterious reorganisation of your desktop, then you have already experienced some of their symptoms.
Both adware and spyware programs are capable of sneaking covertly onto your machine, where they then hide. Once in residence they can perform a wide range of actions.
Adware markets products or services. It often finds its way onto your machine when you download a piece of ‘free’ software. It is not unusual for software creators and distributors to offset costs by placing a search bar on your desktop that directs you to their websites.
A lot of adware is also linked to spyware, and the latter is often used to carry out marketing activities. Spyware differentiates itself by the capacity to collect information, then report it back to its originator and share it with third parties. Some spyware can steal screen grabs or log key strokes, and is often activated for specific end-user activities, such as banking, shopping or emailing.
Both adware and spyware are potentially dangerous, and can be benign or malicious, depending on how they are used. Not all adware is benign and not all spyware is malicious.
