Kids Love Spyware - Do Your Know if Your Kids are in This Group? - By: IC

So you have a computer which is used by your kids and yourself or try to pay bills or get directions, for most American families a computer purchase is considered to be a great investment because of the many benefits that it brings however, not everyone knows exactly how to take care of it and keep it running smoothly without running into trouble. Most of the time computer problems emerge because of poorly coded software as well as the lack of random access memory, also referred to as RAM.

In a nutshell, the purpose for a computer to have two types of memory (RAM and permanent memory in a hard disk drive) is because it RAM is much faster than a hard drive so all of the applications that you run on a daily basis are loaded into RAM when you first open them for instance, Internet Explorer or Firefox are two popular browsers that when clicked are loaded into RAM memory for fast access, when you have too many programs open you will start to notice a computer gets slower and slower this is due to the fact that when the computer runs out of RAM it starts to use virtual memory which can be placed on the hard drive but since the hard drive is a lot slower than RAM you will notice that there is a lag related to the response times of your applications.

Different computers use and manage RAM in different ways, the main difference is the operating system that it runs. We mention random access memory in order to illustrate the following point, spyware -- adware -- malware, etc. are all applications that tend to use your RAM and make your computer run slow, not only that but they can gather sensitive information in order to take advantage of your browsing habits.

Kids and teenagers who love instant messaging programs such as the MSN messenger, Yahoo IM, etc. are all prime targets of spyware/adware companies such as Zango. This company distributes their spyware programs by masking them in content that will attract a young audience such as smileys or icons for instant messaging applications, kids and teenagers simply love the thought of customizing their messages and conversations through chat applications and they normally end up downloading software that brings a lot more than just cute icons. Another way that this company distributes their deceptive application is by grabbing videos from popular social video sites such as Youtube and syndicating them in their sites, the only difference is that in order for a person to watch those videos that they have syndicated, the user needs to download and install a software which will allow them to watch the video and as you can imagine the software that is downloaded is not very "user friendly"

The worst part is that once your children or anyone who uses your computer have downloaded such spyware/Adware the application is very hard to get rid of and if you try to erase it with and anti-spyware application you run the risk of ending up without an Internet connection because of the fact that such "programs" change your computer system files. If at this point you wanted to use your computer to get some direction from the web you with quickly notice that you have no Internet connection, and the first thing people do is to blame their old computer because it is too slow when the real problem is that spyware companies such as Zango have altered your system files, loaded applications you did not authorized to be loaded and then when someone tried to remove this harmful application from a computer, all of your functionality went out the window.

So the question remains are you and your kids educated about the risks of downloading "cute applications" from the Web? -- remember that your computer (your investment) as well as your personal data is at risk.

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