Protect your computers against viruses, spyware

Many of the e-mails I receive these days still focus on spyware and Trojans infecting computers today. The problem has been mitigated somewhat over the years, but as anti-spyware programs are rolled out, the bad guys do a better job of developing software to get around it.

What's in it for them? I get that question a lot.

Some of it is financial; at one time people were paid by the number of times a Web page was opened or a link was clicked on. It wasn't long before someone figured out that if they automated that process — such as creating a program to infect computers and tell them to open a Web page 100 times an hour as a pop-up box — then some money was to be made.

Some are trying to sell a product; a good friend of mine recently was infected by a persistent Trojan installed in his system tray that kept nagging him that he was infected and telling him to click there to spend $39 to get rid of it.

There's also the satisfaction factor. Some hackers just like to muck with stuff, and there is little better explanation than that.

The issue is very serious, costing billions of dollars in annual productivity in the workplace. And there is identity theft to worry about as well: A group calling itself the Russian Business Network last week hacked the Bank of India's main Web site and reprogrammed it to deliver malware, password-stealing Trojans and more. One of the information stealing Trojans included in this massive install of malware was the variant of TSPY

—AGENT.AAVG spyware, which, according to Trend Micro, steals keylogged user names and passwords from mail program logins.

What to do? Get protected, of course.

For years, I have been harping on you to get anti-virus software, either paid versions or the excellent free AVG Free Edition. Now comes time to get anti-spyware on every machine out there. Microsoft built some basic protection in to Windows Vista, but if you are running XP, visit the Microsoft Web site and install Windows Defender. It is basic protection to be sure, but it is far better than nothing. Set it up to scan your PC once a week when you're not using it (the daily default is better) and be sure to remove what it finds.

There are paid products out there, many of which with confusing names (designed to get out to download and install the wrong one). SpyBot Search and Destroy and Ad-Aware are both good, free programs, but you have to be very aware of soundalikes that are Trojans themselves.