eTrust PestPatrol Anti-Spyware

PestPatrol is a powerful security and personal privacy tool that detects and eliminates destructive pests like trojans, spyware, adware and hacker tools. It complements your anti-virus and firewall software, extending your protection against non-viral malicious software that can evade your existing security and invade your personal privacy

PestPatrolI Main Features:

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Scans all or selected file types, including inside archives

Scans memory for active pests and kills the process

Zaps spyware cookies before they can phone home about you

Stops known and unknown keyloggers from hooking your keyboard

Quarantines or deletes any identified pest

Checks and removes pests from registry and start-up areas

Downloads and installs updates automatically on availability

Tells you the specific threat level of any pest found

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What is Spyware: Spyware is a fast-growing threat that represents a major security and privacy risk. Spyware is a program that is installed, with or without the user's permission, and can monitor computer activity while broadcasting the information back to an outside party that controls the program. Spyware comes in many shapes and sizes. Some types of spyware are simply an annoyance causing increased spam or unwanted pop-ups, while others can threaten your security. These pests often lurk silently on your computer until someone or something sets them off. Spyware can do more than steal your personal information. It can also rob your PC of its speed, stability and Internet access efficiency.

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Threats Posed by Spyware:

Confidentiality and Privacy - Spyware can steal passwords, personal data, credit card numbers and social security numbers, all which can lead to identity theft.

Integrity - A system has integrity when the information it contains remains as originally intended by the system's owner(s). Spyware can alter this system information without the users' permission and can therefore threaten system integrity.

Availability - Spyware may reduce a user's ability to access files or systems efficiently, when desired. A system that is down or extremely slow denies service to its users.

Productivity - Productivity is compromised when frequent ads pop-up, when bandwidth and storage space is consumed, when pages load slowly, etc. Spyware robs your PC of its speed, stability and Internet access efficiency.

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How You Become Infected

Spyware can be installed on your computer without you even knowing it. It happens in several ways.

Web Browsing - Spyware can be installed by ordinary surfing on the Internet. "Drive-by-downloads" are the most common.

Peer-to-Peer File Swapping (P2P) - P2P allows users to share files with other members within a file sharing community on the Internet. A good example of P2P is free music sharing websites such as KaZaA or Grokster. Although the websites are not spyware themselves, spyware is often bundled within the downloaded program. Another example of P2P that can install spyware is engaging in instant messaging or chat sessions.

Installing Legitimate Software - Spyware and adware can come bundled in software that you intentionally download. For example, adware comes bundled in free downloads such as screen savers with the consent to install buried in a long end user license agreement.

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Spyware Symptoms

Slower PC Performance - One of spyware's many effects is the significant slowdown of the performance of your PC. Your computer may seem sluggish, take longer to start when you turn it on, or take longer to get to the Internet. For example, a computer with as little as two adware applications could take more than 14 minutes to boot.

New Toolbars - Certain types of spyware such as hijackers can add new toolbars to your Internet Explorer that you did not knowingly install.

New Desktop Shortcuts - Some spyware may add new shortcuts on your desktop.

New Default Homepage - Browser hijackers change your default homepage to a different default homepage. Some homepage hijackers may prevent you from changing your browser's homepage back to its original default or prohibit you from visiting certain websites.

New Search Results - Hijackers can also change the results of a web search and point you to designated websites that you did not request in your search.

New Error Pages - Error hijackers will display a new error page when a requested url is not found.

Excessive Full-Page and Pop-Up Ads - Adware can inundate your computer with targeted ads based on web surfing habits that have been tracked. Adware can slow down your PC to a crawl.

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How to Protect Yourself

Run updated antivirus, anti-spyware and firewall software

Always apply Microsoft Windows security updates as available

Adjust your web browser security settings to "High Security"

Be careful where you surf on the Internet

Read all End User License Agreements (EULA) before installing new software

Do not click within pop-up ads, always click the X to close the window.