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Viruses, worms, and their related kin are only one type of malware that can affect your computer. They are the ones that get all the publicity, but other types of malware can cause you just as much frustration and potentially even more computer malfunctions than their famous relatives. If you don’t care what they are and just want to eliminate them, go to Section 3.

Tracking Cookies

These are the most benign of thing classified as malware. Tracking cookies are placed automatically in your browser and e-mail program by advertisers. Nearly all Websites use cookies, and it would be nearly impossible for most Websites to work well without them. Tracking cookies are a little different from other cookies, because the companies that use them do so for one reason only: to try to market to your personal interests. Some people think that’s a benefit, but it scares other people to think that these unregulated companies gather your personal interests, use it to send you advertisements, and possibly sell the information to 3rd parties. Whether or not the tracking cookies contain any personal information, or if they can be linked to things like credit card numbers or other unique information is up to debate. But many people prefer to err on the side of caution and delete all tracking cookies to be safe.

Spyware

The purpose of spyware is essentially no different than that of tracking cookies. It’s the method used to do the tracking that makes the difference. Whereas with tracking cookies it’s a fairly passive process—you visit a site the advertiser advertises on, and the cookie is checked as you pass through—the spyware actively monitors your computer and Internet usage and reports back to Big Brother all sorts of information. Spyware can even include key loggers (capturing every keystroke you type, hoping to learn your password) and other obviously criminal activity, or they can just be used to market stuff to you based on your usage habits.

Adware

Combine spyware with targeted advertisements delivered right to your desktop, and you have the most commonly despised form of malware on the market: adware. Not only does adware monitor your activities (online and off), report it back to Big Brother, but it also fetches and displays advertisements on your screen, forcing you to view many more ads than you would see without them.

The problems with adware are numerous:

• The software steals your computer’s resources (memory, hard drive space, processor time) to show you advertisements you probably don’t want to see and probably never requested.
• The constant opening and closing of popup windows, animated banner ads, and so on can cause memory leaks and other problems, resulting in numerous system crashes and lost data.
• Adware steals the revenue from legitimate advertisers that support the Websites you visit. It’s a bit ironic, but adware can hide legitimate ads and force you to view the adware advertiser’s ads instead.
• Adware often installs even more adware on your system without ever asking you if it’s okay to do so.
• The advertisements found in many adware systems is often vulgar (if not downright obscene) and of questionable legality.
• Popup blockers and antivirus software are often defenseless against adware, because it often comes bundled with legitimate software.
• Uninstalling adware can be extremely challenging, if not impossible! Advertisers often hide their software, embed it inside of other software you want to use, don’t provide any un-installation process, or make you go through so many hoops to uninstall it, that the average person simply gives up in frustration.

Back Doors

Adware does not usually try to deliberately take over your computer and make it unusable. That’s just often a side effect of several competing adware programs running amuck on your system. Contrast that with back doors, where the entire purpose of the program is to compromise your system and turn it into a zombie slave for someone else to use.

Back doors are often found inside Trojans (which are caught by most antivirus programs), but they can also hitch a ride in other malware. In fact, this is a trend that is likely to grow more and more common. This means that to protect yourself from back doors, you will need to scan with both antivirus and anti-malware programs to be safe.

The primary reason that the “bad guys” want to “hack into your system” (or infect you with a worm) is to place a backdoor into your system. This allows them to later use your computer in a concentrated attack against other (much more interesting) systems, or to use your computer to start churning out tons and tons of spam.

The “attack against other computers” has been proven quite successful in bringing down Internet giants like Microsoft, Yahoo, eBay, and many others. The “using your computer to send spam” trick is relatively new, but is expected to grow with frightening intensity. Now that it is against the law in the U.S. to send spam, the spammers want to distance themselves from it as much as possible, so they offload the dirty task of sending spam to… you. Your computer gleefully sends out thousands of spams (each one placing YOU in violation of the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act of Congress and thus at risk for being fined) until your Internet Service Provider cuts off your access in an attempt to surgically remove your problematic machine from the network. And the spammer? Clicks a button and triggers another zombie slave to take over for you while you deal with all the legal hassles.

Back doors classically have been used to allow third parties to snoop around inside your computer for credit cards, trade secrets, or even interesting video on your attached Webcam (like turning it on while you and your spouse are enjoying a romantic evening in bed). This all has happened, and it continues to happen, though it’s not as prevalent as the media makes us believe.

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