Advertisement
  1. SEJ
  2.  ⋅ 
  3. SEO

Microsoft Purchases GIANT Anti-Spyware

Microsoft Purchases GIANT Anti-Spyware

Here’s an interesting story. Microsoft, who’s Internet Explorer browser is full of holes which make it able to accept browser programs and add-ons which sometimes can be spyware, has now purchased an Anti-Spyware company. Something kind of stinks here.

Why not fix Internet Explorer security holes so spyware cannot infect the computers of Microsoft users? Kind of reminds me of Bill Gates driving through the neighborhood at 2 in the morning playing mailbox baseball, and Steve Ballmer showing up the next afternoon to sell “indestructable mailboxes” door to door.

Well, offering a paid anti-spyware service may be more profitable than reforming IE. P2pnet.net reports
Microsoft is the new owner of the GIANT anti-spyware company.

Having been plagued with e-bugs, Bill and the Boyz say they’ll use intellectual property and technology assets from the acquisition to provide Microsoft Windows customers with new tools to help protect them from the threat of spyware, and other deceptive software.

And, “key personnel from GIANT Company will be joining Microsoft’s security efforts,” says Microsoft.

It’ll make the software available to Windows customers in a, “spyware protection, detection and removal tool, based on the GIANT AntiSpyware product” beta within one month, it promises.

According to Microsoft, “The tool will be configurable to block known spyware and other unwanted software from being installed on the computer. It will be available for Microsoft Windows 2000 and later versions.”

Ray Bonneau, who owns an on site computer repair, information technology solutions company Dallas Computer Solutions pipes up on How to Stop Spyware from Infecting your System.

1. Download and install all of the latest updates to your software. Once a week you should be checking for software updates to install. This will help protect you against the latest threats.

2. Use a firewall. Many people have a direct connection the Internet and do not setup and run a personal firewall. This can potentially be very dangerous. Firewalls should be running for protection against many potential problems including hackers, spyware, and data protection. Windows XP has a built in firewall. Make sure you have updated your system to Service Pack 2 (SP2) if you have Windows XP. Microsoft has added many security features and fixed bugs in this update and should be updated as soon as possible.

Sygate Personal Firewall is a free personal edition firewall that works pretty well.

3. Install and run Spybot Search & Destroy. Spybot is a great spyware detection and removal tool. This is a free tool that should be run often to make sure spyware has not been loaded onto your system. Every time that Spybot is used make sure that all of the latest updates are downloaded first. Updating to the latest Spybot files will allow detection and removal of the latest spyware programs. You can download Spybot at http://www.safer-networking.org.

4. Install and run Adaware. Adaware is another free spyware/adware detection and removal tool. I’ve found that using just one spyware detection tool is not enough. Using these two tools will detect and remove a majority of the spyware programs on your machine. This tool should be run in conjunction with Spybot. Again, make sure the latest updates are downloaded and installed each time Adaware is used. Download it at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/.

5. Use an Anti-virus program. Viruses can cause a lot of headaches for people. Since Viruses have been well publicized, I have noticed many people have an anti-virus program installed. However, people never update to the latest definition file. This is a must because the latest definition file will provide defenses against the latest viruses. If you do not update this file, you are only protecting yourself against the viruses that are known to the date of the definition file. Either setup your anti-virus program to automatically update the definition file every week, or make sure that you manually update the file every week.

6. Use Mozilla Firefox 1.0 browser. Change your browser to the recently released free Firefox browser. Internet Explorer has many holes that spyware programs target and exploit. Microsoft has tried to keep up and release updates to fix the problems, but it seems like after every fix a new vulnerability is discovered. To protect your system, just download Firefox and start to use it as your default browser. Firefox is setup very similar to Internet Explorer; so learning how to use the new browser will not be a problem. You can configure the browser to block pop-ups. This is a nice feature to battle those annoying pop-up windows. It also has a great tab feature. This allows you to open multiple pages inside one browser window. Visit http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ to download the latest version.

The above spyware prevention system should help your computer or network stay protected and running at optimal performance. If you have never run a spyware program such as Spybot or Adaware I think you will be amazed at what is detected on your system. Sometimes I find over 100 suspect spyware programs installed on computers. No wonder your system is running slow.

Category SEO
ADVERTISEMENT
SEJ STAFF Loren Baker Founder at Foundation Digital

Loren Baker is the Founder of SEJ, an Advisor at Alpha Brand Media and runs Foundation Digital, a digital marketing ...

Microsoft Purchases GIANT Anti-Spyware

Subscribe To Our Newsletter.

Conquer your day with daily search marketing news.