The Good, The Ugly Of Internet

That the internet has made the world a global
village where man sees no man but can communicate with as many as he can is not in doubt. But due to the selfish nature of man, it predisposes man to abuse every given opportunity.
There are certain programmes on the internet that have negative effects on the users, and one of these is called “spyware”.
Have you ever clicked on an intriguing ad or link while surfing the web and had a barrage of pop-up windows flood your screen or your browser suddenly sends you to a slew of sites? Or have you ever installed a free download and notice your computer suddenly becomes sluggish because unknown to you a programme is now tracking your online movements?
The experience above describes how spyware program affects you and your computer. But what really is spyware?
Spyware is a type of malware that is installed in a computer without the knowledge of the owner in order to secretly collect data about an individual while browsing the internet. Spyware is installed on the computer to enable the perpetrators spy on the activities of the user.
Spyware can also be used as adware (or advertising supported software) whereby the software delivers unsolicited and annoying pop-up ads, collects personal information and changes certain settings on your computer. This deadly software can wreck havoc on your whole system. Spyware may occupy resources of the computer, that is if infected, can alter the functions of existing applications on the affected computer to the benefit of a third party.
Also, spyware poses several risks such as compromising a user’s privacy by transmitting information about user’s behaviour. Spyware can collect almost any type of data including personal information like internet surfing habits, user logging and bank or credit account information which can lead to loss of huge sums.
Spyware infections can cause stability issues such as application freezing, failure to boot, and system-crashes, while also making it difficulty for users to connect to the internet.
Spyware installs malicious software without your knowledge, monitors everything you type, records any passwords you have asked your computer to remember.
In the world today, we are exposed to cases of nude pictures of people appearing on-line and we keep wondering how most of these things happen. Well, most of the nude pictures flying on the internet are extracted from the victims’ files, using spyware. This has caused victims a lot of embarrassment and public ridicule.
The spyware can have access to almost every single file in the computer. The file is extracted and the sender uploads it online for people to visit their site or even sells it to buyers depending on how important the victim is.
In some other cases, large sums of money are stolen from people using spyware. The spyware is used to get the information about a victim and fraudsters use this information to defraud their victims.
Impersonation is also possible through social media, using spyware. There have been cases where facebook accounts of prominent persons have been hacked and large sums of money collected in the name of soliciting assistance from friends and associates of the victim. This malicious software poses a great threat to computer users and must not be left unchecked.
However, for us to avoid these nasty experiences, the following internet safe habits must be cultivated, to protect our computer and our privacy.
People should download programs only when their internet security software is active and up-to-date. When the internet security software is active and up- to-date, the computer sends users notification of internet sites that are not safe and insecured.
Free software should be downloaded only from a reliable websites. Many people, out of greed to get things free, always download softwares that are free not knowing they are playing into the hands of fraudsters.
Proper enquires should be made about the software we download. We should know exactly what the software is all about before we download it.
There is also the need to update our software regularly. This is because outdated programs are like unlocked doors and cracked windows for all kinds of malware. So, we need to secure our system by updating our software.
Finally, we should be encouraged to run spyware detective software to make sure our computer is safe and clean. Through this, we can avoid annoying pop-up advertisements, privacy invasion and system failures.

Egapi is a student of Benue State University, Makurdi.

Francis Adah Egapi