You Need More Than An Antivirus Program:
Remember back to those days when the most important thing you could do on your computer was install an antivirus program? Indeed, the media world went crazy when it came to informing people of the imminent risk of having your computer infected with a nasty worm or "trojan horse". Interestingly, whilst the risk of your computer contracting a virus is still quite high these days - there is now a greater problem out there.
You see, viruses were mainly created to cause havoc in the computing world. Some programmers used to sit down and code a nasty program which would cause various errors such as changing the system time by 20 minutes so you were always late. Whilst this was particularly annoying for the user, it didn't pose a major security threat. Even to this day, computer viruses are, in general, more of a hassle than a major security nightmare.
Unfortunately however, computer viruses are just one of the many things you need to protect your computer from. No longer are you able to get away with just one antivirus program being installed on your computer. Instead, there are now programs out there to tackle emerging issues such as adware, spyware, and malware.
All These Different Types!
Yes, there are many different names for each of these individual programs. Indeed, spyware and adware are two completely separate things - but at the end of the day, the ultimate goal of both is to get you to spend money at a particular place. Let's break down one category to show you exactly what we are talking about.
- Adware:
Adware is basically a program that you do not intentionally download (usually a very small program bundled with something else, or downloaded without you knowing), which then goes about showing you specific ads. Of course, more often than not you will probably think that the ads being shown are the result of internet advertising. But what you don't know is that there is actually a program on your computer which is responsible for popping one of these ads up ever so often.
Why would someone create a program that does this? Because eventually, if an ad is shown to you enough times, you might decide to purchase the product or service being shown. If even 1 person does this - the adware has been worth it for the creator. And because so many people do fall for it - there is a massive incentive to create and distribute adware.
