This week we continue Know thy enemy, and we will talk about Adware
So what is Adware? Well Adware is advertising supported software
for short, but what it means is, an automated unwanted software
designed to bombard users with advertisements, banners, and pop-ups. If you remember the early days of the internet, you know
how annoying pops are. Adware can be simple and intrusive, or it
can be in your face annoying to say “hey, click on me or else I will
stay here and ruin your life”.
So the next question at hand is, how do I get adware on my
devices? To put it simply, just like spyware, you probably
already have it on your device. Let's look at mobile devices,
since they seem to have the most adware on them. Have you
downloaded a game, social media, or really any app in general onto
your mobile device? I bet the answer is a resounding yes. Then
you have adware on your device. Let us look at the easiest
spotted adware, think about a free game you installed on your
phone. It has the little ad at the bottom of the screen, or if
you play a level or two, an ad will pop up for another game for you
to check out. It will say different things like No one above IQ X
can get past stage 5, or make a level look easy, but the autoplay
does dumb moves, so you're like “why would they do that”. This is
adware, it is designed to get you to click on it or be
annoying enough that they want you to pay money to get rid of it.
That is why you see No-ad versions or even premium versions. When
it comes to computers, a lot of freeware will have some kind of
adware baked into it. If you look at antivirus software that has
a free tier, you will usually get bombarded with ads to either buy
or to unlock different features if you give them some money. You
will notice a common theme amounts of different forms of Malware and
scams, and that is to separate you from your money. The idea is
to plant some form of deceit into your head, that the only way to
fix the problem is to throw money at it, whether that is through
fear or annoyance depends on the malware or scam. Also, it is
worth mentioning that even some software you pay for can come with
adware in it. This way the company can possibly get a steady
stream of revenue opposed to a one time buy.
So how do we get rid of and prevent adware? Now I am not going to
lie and say that you can not get rid of adware, because you can to
an extent. On the computer there is a program called ADWcleaner, this
will scan your computer for any potential adware. If it finds any,
then you can quarantine it, thus keeping it from infecting more of
your system. But with mobile, the root of the issue comes down to
what you download, install, and use on your devices. You can help
your situation and delete your history, use a pop-up blocker, or
even use an ad-blocker. Browsers that you use have the first
option, and others have all three, you just have to do a little
research. That is the one piece of advice I can give anyone is,
do some research, it doesn't take long, and you will be better off
because of it.
If you have any questions, please feel free to message me, I would love to answer them. Thank you and have a great week.
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