Breaking, Entering Your PC
Spyware, the newest and nastiest online plague, can paralyze or commandeer a computer. Help is hard to find, but it's out there.
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Spycatcher
(Richard Hartog / LAT)
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COMPUTER SOFTWARE
THE NATION
SPYWARE
SPYWARE COMPUTER SOFTWARE COMPUTER CRIME
COMPUTER CRIME
By Terry McDermott, Times Staff Writer
It can, and often does, start something like this:
You're online, maybe searching for a specific piece of information, maybe just cruising the Web. I was investigating new search technologies that were advertised as useful in dealing with variations in the spelling of names and had read that Lycos, a pre-Google Internet portal and search engine, had developed some.
I found links for Lycos and clicked on one. That was the beginning. Within minutes, my computer was swamped with advertisements — pop-ups, pop-unders, pop-all-overs. There were so many I couldn't close them before others started appearing. I had to shut the computer down.
When it restarted, my Web browser had a new pornographic home page, and soon another flood of advertisements was underway. This time, I was able to get rid of most of it and resume working.
It went on for days. The blizzard of ads sometimes thinned, sometimes thickened. At times, there were so many that the computer couldn't process them all and froze. Every time I restarted, my home page was reset to the pornographic site. Every time I tried to do a Google search, a Lycos search engine appeared instead. New items for services called Bargain Buddies and Deal Helper were added to my Web favorites list.
I deleted these entries, but they would mysteriously reappear. Once, when I was being buried yet again by ads, I heard my computer modem dialing a telephone number. My computer is connected to a broadband Internet access service, so the only time I ever used the modem was to send and receive faxes. I couldn't imagine why the modem was dialing. More to the point, I couldn't stop it.
I have been using PCs since 1985 and have installed hard drives, operating systems, memory, CD-ROM drives and countless software programs. I've written some rudimentary programs to automate common word-processing tasks.
Joseph Turow’s The Daily You shows us the in depth look of behind the scenes of the advertising industry and its impact on individuals in the consumer society we live in. Every time you click a link, fill out a form or visit a website, advertisers are working to collect personal information about you, says Joseph Turow, a professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Then they target ads to you based on that information they collected. This tracking is ubiquitous across the Internet, from search engines to online retailers and even greeting card companies.
Andrews, J. (2010). A+ guide to managing and maintaining your PC (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
I was very interested in computers and technology as a child, both playing games and building fake parts for them. Still in elementary school, I was fascinated by these computing machines, spending hours on end working with DOS to satisfy my curiosity. Around my middle school years, Windows became graphical, and I found interest in even more computer games with even greater experiences and capabilities. Windows was the dominant operating system at the time, but I was soon to find there was a whole different world out there of operating systems. While out on vacation in Washington, DC, my Dad and I were able to meet with the local Tech Fanatics group, HackDC. It was here where I discovered Linux. Linux, an alternative to Windows, immediately grabbed my attention when I saw it in use. It appeared to me as something that only the extreme computer users even heard of. Upon my return home,
invades the most intimate aspects of our lives. The average American is exposed to 1500 ads a day. But,
Cueva, Maya. "This Is Your Brain On Ads: An Internal 'Battle'" NPR. NPR, 14 June 2011. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.
In order to consider the ethical issues involved with Internet security, we need to understand exactly how computer viruses work and how they can affect their victims. A computer virus is a small, yet highly sophisticated, piece of software that attaches itself onto real programs. Once the program is executed, the virus is brought to life in the system. Computer viruses are called viruses because they share some of the traits as biological viruses. Biological viruses use humans as their mode of transportation and infection, while computer viruses use home computers, servers, and handheld devices.
Schlosser, Sharon Shavitt, and Alaina Kanfer, who are experts in the areas of Marketing and eCommerce, Advertising, and Information Technology respectively, found that 63% of those surveyed either disliked or felt neutral about online advertising. (Schlosser) This explains that a large majority of internet users generally dislike online advertisements. There are several valid reasons behind this. One of these reasons is that users view the ads as annoying or intrusive to their internet use. They believe that the advertisements are distracting from the overall content of the webpage. According to a study conducted by Scot McCoy, who is an expert in the field of Management Information Systems, internet users are much less likely to re-visit a website which has advertisements as opposed to a similar site which does not include advertisements. (McCoy) In other words, if a user is able to find a similar site which does not include advertisements, they are much more likely to use and view that site as opposed to one which includes advertisements. However, a downfall of these studies is the fact of how out of date they
The computer evolution has been an amazing one. There have been astonishing achievements in the computer industry, which dates back almost 2000 years. The earliest existence of the computer dates back to the first century, but the electronic computer has only been around for over a half-century. Throughout the last 40 years computers have changed drastically. They have greatly impacted the American lifestyle. A computer can be found in nearly every business and one out of every two households (Hall, 156). Our Society relies critically on computers for almost all of their daily operations and processes. Only once in a lifetime will a new invention like the computer come about.
Advertisements are a huge part of our everyday lives. We see different types of ads everywhere we look; while watching television, listening to the radio, riding on the bus and even walking around your school campus. It seems like the whole world is being flooded by advertisements.
What is the “MALWARE”? A malware refers to software programs designed to damage or do other unwanted actions on a computer system. In Spanish, "mal" is a prefix that means "bad," making the term "bad ware" .Malware includes viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and spyware. Viruses, for example, can cause havoc on a computer's hard drive by deleting files or directory information. Spyware can gather data from a user's system without the user knowing it. This can include anything from the Web pages a user visits to personal information, such as credit card numbers.
My first real experience with computers, as we know them today, was while I was in the Navy. Once we learned to use commands called "Dos", we could make the computer do unbelievable things. I became obsessed with learning as much as I could abo...
My passion for computers started in high school, when my father bought a home pc. Then I got the opportunity to explore my practical knowledge with a young and an enthusiastic teacher. At first I started learning about the hardware...
Today, computers influence all lifestyles, and all different types of businesses. They have become an essential part of everyday life, from chatting, to e-mail, to commerce, to gaming. Almost every person in the United States has had some use on the computer. Since the technology age began, computers have become a mainstay in American and world society as much as the telephone, the automobile, and the television.
computers is one of the hardest things to do if you don’t have any experience with them, so this
In the year 1977 computers went on sale for the national public. Today in the year 2004 computers with connection to the internet are an essential item to have in the household. Accountants and typists are no longer the only ones buying computers. Age does not matter. Everyone needs a computer in the household. Computers help all kinds of people. Meeting different people’s needs, therefore computers are a useful tool for all age groups. Children, teenagers, adults, and senior citizens all can use the same computer, but they all use the computer for a different purpose.