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The whole arena of spyware intrusion is extremely
fluid with the spyware
writers trying to outsmart everyone, and the software protection
writers
diligently working to keep up with the hundreds of new worms and
viruses
appearing nearly every day.
Fortunately, there are generous individuals and organizations who
have the
facilities to review the work of the Anti-spyware developers and
make the
results available for all of us everyday users of the Internet.
The challenge for us is to know where to go for these results and
recommendations, and to know which of the anti-spyware and
anti-virus
programs to use on our computers.
There are many web masters, newsletter, and Blog publishers who
constantly
monitor the results published by the anti-spyware reviewers. Most of
them
pass these information alerts on to their readers and subscribers,
often
offering suggestions and advice based on their own personal
experiences and
expertise.
A real benefit for us is that most of the top rated anti-spyware and
anti-virus programs are free, or available in Trial or Demo
versions.
All we need do is find out where to get them. But first, we need to
find
the reviewers who post the alerts.
If subscribing to newsletters and Blogs isn't your usual surfing
activity,
you can do a search for security alert newsletters or security alert
blogs.
For example, do a Yahoo search for "security alert
newsletter" (use the
quotation marks to get the most appropriate search results). Do the
same
for a Yahoo or Google search on "security alert blog".
(Blogs are web logs).
Investigate the first and second pages of the search
results and select
three or four of the listings as a starting point. Many newsletters
are
published on a monthly schedule and may not contain the most current
information. Some are published weekly. They may be better choices.
Blogs are usually much more current since Blog authors often
post their information every couple of days - some even on a
daily basis.
Blogs are riding a major wave of popularity. For the serious
searchers of
current information, this is a great benefit. There aren't
as many Blog sites as web sites yet,so it's often much
easier to find the information you're looking fo
Many Blog authors make their publications available for RSS (Real
Simple
Syndication) readers. If you have added a RSS reader to your
browser, you
can get up-to-the-minute alerts presented to you automatically. You
don't
need to go looking for them.
Many updated browsers, like Netscape 8 and Firefox include this
feature as
part of their package. Expect the newest Internet Explorer to have a
RSS
Reader, too.
Don't be overwhelmed by all of the information you get. After doing
these
searches and reviews once or twice, it will be a simple task to
select what
you need to keep yourself current.
For starters, it is generally accepted practice to select and use at
least
two anti-spyware programs. Choose from among the two or three that
receive
the highest recommendations and ratings from the newsletter and Blog
authors. Be especially watchful for and select one of those programs
that
provides 'Real Time' monitoring. (Which means that they monitor and
catch
any incoming bugs that may try to infect your machine while you are
online).
Downloading instructions are nearly always present with the reviews.
If
not,
you'll find sites like c|net.com to be a good source for download
links.
Just don't forget to check for and update your security software.
The
spyware writers won't give you a break if you do. (more
reading about security..)
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