Welcome to DR's note, your weekly dose of knowledge from Circuit Stitch Blog.

 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.

Welcome to DR's note, your weekly dose of knowledge from Circuit Stitch Blog.

 This week I start a series called Know thy enemy

    In this series, we will talk about different forms of Malware that can affect your computer.  I kind of started this last week with my DR note about ransomware.  This week we will talk about spyware. 

    So what is spyware?  How does it work? How do I get it?  I will hopefully answer all of these questions and possibly anymore you have.  So let us start with what is spyware?  Spyware infects your computer and gathers information about you, that is where the spy part comes in.  The ware part, when used with computer, is used to describe a type of computer product, like software, hardware, firmware, you get the point.  So spyware spies on us to gather things like websites you visit, things you download, any usernames and passwords you use, payment information, or anything you do personally on your computer.  It doesn't have to do all these things to be considered spyware.  It could just do one of these things. I'll be giving an example later on about different forms of spyware.

    Unfortunately, spyware is everywhere, I can guarantee you have spyware on your computer or cell phone right now.  So at this point you're probably like “Dan what are you talking about, I don't have any spyware on my computer or phone.”  or” I use a program to keep spyware off my computer and phone, so there is no way I have any on my devices."  Well that is the thing, like real life spies it is sneaky, infiltrating your device without you even knowing, or you even gave them free access to your device.  So what am I talking about?  Most of the apps or social media site you visit or use have one form or another of spyware that they use.  When you agree to the terms and conditions, it is in there that they can collect data on use to be used how they see fit.  Granted, they aren't allows to do anything illegal with it, and we all know how big business is truthful and trustworthy.  But let me descend my soap box.  This is why you must look out for what you are doing online.

    I am not asking you to delete your social media accounts, but to be cautious.  Now can hackers use spyware on you?   Yes they  can, and they do by forms like Trojans, spoof emails, phishing attacks, and security vulnerabilities.  Now it is not just limited to only these types of attacks, but these are the most popular.  This is why you make sure your computer or cell phone is up-to-date with the latest software, and your anti-malware programs are up-to-date as well.   Just please stay vigilante and watch your butt out there.  As always, if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to call or email me.  Have a great day.