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I had not heard of Casalemedia before today but now I have a reason to write about it. I have been a long time believer that if someone could target me with ads on the internet that were of interest to me I would be much more intereted in the ads themselves. Of course I am not alone in this thinking as advertisers feel the same way.

A few days ago I was at a site that sells contact lenses looking to buy contacts online. Although I didn’t buy any contacts that day I found it strange that that very same company (which will remian nameless for now) had ads all over an about.com site about home theaters.

Strange I said in talking to a coworker. I moused over the ad and checked in my status bar and the ad was served by Casalemedia. I did a quick search for Casalemedia tracking habits and it seems that they place a tracking cookie on your machine and serve you ads based on the sites that you go to.

This of course is not new, what is new is that they seemed to have been looking at the algorithym and getting it closer to being right. Let’s say that I go to 200 pages a day, what should they serve ads for? What am I just merely searching though and what is really of interst to me?

I do not like the idea of spyware and I know that I should hate tracking cookies but now I am much more intrigues. How will casalemedia keep up a good database if I delete the cookie? Do they know me by IP, I have a work IP from this laptop as well as a home IP. This may look like very invasive technology but I am sure it will be refined over the next few years to the point where the sites that I go to will look significantly different than the sites that you go to. Will someone eventually just give you a toolbar ala Alexa that will just suggest you sites all the time that you would like to visit based on your surfing habits.

By the way Casalemedia is not the only provider of tracking cookies. Take a search around and you will see that there are many companies that do the exact same thing if you would like another resource to find out about how to stop the tracking there are resources at Spyware Warrior.

How prevalent is Spam? According to Scott McAdams, OMA Public Affairs and Communications Department (www.oma.org):

“Studies show unsolicited or “junk” e-mail, known as spam, accounts for roughly half of all e-mail messages received. Although once regarded as little more than a nuisance, the prevalence of spam has increased to the point where many users have begun to express a general lack of confidence in the effectiveness of e-mail transmissions, and increased concern over the spread of computer viruses via unsolicited messages.”

In 2003, President Bush signed the “Can Spam” bill, in December of 2003 which is the first national standards around bulk unsolicited commercial e-mail. The bill, approved by the Senate by a vote of 97 to 0, prohibits senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail from using false return addresses to disguise their identity (spoofing) and the use of dictionaries to generate such mailers. In addition, it prohibits the use of misleading subject lines and requires that emails include and opt-out mechanism. The legislation also prohibits senders from harvesting addresses off Web sites. Violations constitute a misdemeanor crime subject to up to one year in jail.

One major point that needs to be discussed about this: spam is now coming from other countries in ever-greater numbers. These emails are harder to fight, because they come from outside our country’s laws and regulations. Because the Internet opens borders and thinks globally, these laws are fine and good, but do not stop the problem.

So what do you do about this? Her are the top 5 Rules to do to protect from spam.

1. Do what you can to avoid having your email address out on the net. There are products called “spam spiders” that search the Internet for email addresses to send email to. If you are interested, do a search on “spam spider” and you will be amazed at what you get back. Interestingly, there is a site, WebPoison.org, which is an open source project geared to fight Internet “spambots” and “spam spiders”, by giving them bogus HTML web pages, which contain bogus email addresses

A couple suggestions for you: a) use form emails, which can hide addresses or also b) use addresses like sales@company.com instead of your full address to help battle the problem. c) There are also programs that encode your email, like jsGuard, which encodes your email address on web pages so that while spam spiders find it difficult or impossible to read your email address.

2. Get spam blocking software. There are many programs out there for this. (go to www.cloudmark.com or www.mailwasher.net for example). You may also buy a professional version. Whatever you do, get the software. It will save you time. The software is not foolproof, but they really do help. You usually have to do some manual set up to block certain types of email.

3. Use the multiple email address approach. There are a lot of free email addresses to be had. If you must subscribe to newsletters, then have a “back-up” email address. It would be like giving your sell phone number to your best friends and the business number to everyone else.

4. Attachments from people you don’t know are BAD, BAD, BAD. A common problem with spam is that they have attachments and attachments can have viruses. Corporations often have filters that don’t let such things pass to you. Personal email is far more “open country” for spamers. General rule of thumb: if you do not know who is sending you something, DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT. Secondly, look for services that offer filtering. Firewall vendors offer this type of service as well.

5. Email services now have “bulk-mail” baskets. If what you use currently does not support this, think about moving to a new vender. The concept is simple. If you know someone, they can send you emails. If you don’t know them, put them in the bulk email pile and then “choose” to allow them into your circle. Spam Blocking software has this concept as well, but having extra layers seems critical these days, so it is worth looking into.

In some cases, spies and covert operations are found in war grounds or politically tense regions. Now however, you can find spies and covert operations running undetected within your personal computer system as you use your computer and the Internet.

Have you noticed a suspicious slow down of your computer’s processing without any particular reason? Are you bombarded by unsolicited pop up ads that indiscriminately appear whether you are running a program or not? These symptoms may continue to happen despite checking your system and running your recently updated anti virus program to run diagnostics on your computer.

Unless you run the correct program, you will not be able to detect the real problem in your system: spyware and adware.

Adware are unsolicited programs that usually come bundled with freeware or shareware. Yes, sometimes things that seem to be good to be true usually come with unwanted invisible strings attached. Companies usually pay freeware or shareware creators to be able to capitalize and prey on unsuspecting individuals who download these programs. Adware cause unsolicited pop up advertisements in your computer and in severe cases, adware causes pop up advertisements to pop up soon as you boot your system.

Spyware on the other hand is more covert and usually undetected in your system until you run an anti spyware program. Spyware is used exactly to spy on you. In relatively mild cases, spyware is used to track your Internet browsing habits so that the spyware can report your preferences to build a marketing profile. This means that as you go about your Internet business, you are under surveillance and your basic right to privacy is impinged upon.

In severe cases though, certain spyware better labeled as malware, are used for criminal purposes and can steal keywords and other sensitive information based on your computer and Internet usage.

For instance, malware can take note of your keystrokes or take note of your credit card number and other vital information that can be used to steal your identity and generally put your security at risk.It is said that 9 out 10 computers are infected with spyware and to make sure that you are not part of statistical majority, you need run an adware and spyware cleaner to detect unwanted security and privacy breach within your system.

There are a lot of reliable adware and spyware cleaners in available to remove these unwanted programs in your computer. You must note however that some adware and spyware are intricately bundled within their parent programs that cleaning them out from your computer will inadvertently disable the legitimate programs they infect. This consequence is a necessary evil to clean your computer of unwanted adware and spyware. You should choose an adware and spyware cleaner that can also work proactively by preventing future accidental installation of these nuisances.

Adware and spyware cleaners work like your anti virus programs except that these particular cleaners target adware and spyware.Considering the trouble adware and spyware creators take to ensure that extracting installed adware and spyware from your computer system will be difficult, the adage about an ounce of prevention being worth more than a pound of cure applies in this situation. Be sure to install a reliable and secure adware and spyware cleaner in your system to remove existing security and privacy risks as well as preventing future hassle.

With adware and spyware programs becoming a perennial threat in the online world, it would be wise to have your PC always protected. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of spyware and adware programs lurking somewhere on the Internet, looking for a chance to get into your PC. Some of them may require that you click into one of their links in order for them to get into your system. But there are other more malicious programs that will actually force their way into your system if you are not that careful.

Once inside your computer, these malicious programs can do a lot of unpleasant things. Some adware programs will try to bombard you with a number of ads while you are browsing on your computer. No matter how many times that you try to get rid of them, they still keep coming on to you.

They may suddenly pop up over the website that you are currently browsing, therefore distracting you to take notice of their ads. One time won’t bother you at all. But sometimes these ads can get so persistent that they already become a hassle. They begin to disturb you and you may want to get rid of them.

There are also other programs that may bother you in a different way. These are spyware programs that can get as malicious as can be. These programs can get downloaded into your system secretly without you knowing it. And just like what the name implies, spyware programs try to spy up on you in a variety of ways. They can monitor your surfing habits and send it to someone from the outside who might find a use for it.
Where to Find Adware and Spyware Scanning and Removal Tools

Some spyware programs can log all your keystrokes. This can be very invasive and compromise your way of life. Such programs may be able to get hold of your secret personal information without you knowing it.

Through a spyware program that records all the letters and number that you punch in your keyboard, email addresses and passwords can be obtained. If you make purchases with your credit card online, this type of spyware program may be able to get your credit card number and other important credit information that may compromise everything.

There are also spyware programs that can force itself into your computer and do its dirty deed. It can scan into your computer hard drives and may make changes in your system. It may change your security settings and allow other malicious programs to come in. this type of spyware program can also prevent you from using certain legitimate programs and instead force you to use another type of software instead.

All these malicious programs can really become a serious problem if left unchecked for a long time. What you may need is a special software that may be able to scan your computer and search for unwanted programs like these and remove them effectively. Such programs may also be able to block such malicious programs from ever getting into your PC.

There are some software programs available online that offer you free scanning and removal of spyware from your PC. You can choose from a variety of legitimate programs that will be able to effectively do the job for you and for free. But most of the times, these free online spyware scanning and removal tools may not be able to provide you with the full protection that you need. You may need to purchase a spyware and adware removal software that may be able to provide you with the most comprehensive spyware protection that you need.

Spywares and adwares are not only annoying but more often than not tend to damage your computer software and sometimes can even cause some damage to your hardware too. These annoying bugs have become a bane for internet browsers worldwide. They have become a normal occurrence that we sometimes tend to ignore but God forbid we should never accept.

Spyware is computer software that spies on your internet usage. It collects highly personal and confidential information like credit card numbers, IPs and even addresses. The spyware program gets the credit card entries as the user logs them on a web form or an online application. Some spyware are even programmed to record your usage of the internet, what sites you visit, what files you download and how long you stay online.

The information are then sent or sold to advertisers which make good use of them for advertising campaigns that targets specific markets or audience. Usually, Spyware records IP addresses and shopping habits covertly or without the knowledge or consent of users. They do that in a number of ways. Some uses logging keystrokes to get information while some access the documents found in your computer’s hard disk.

The term spyware first came to use in 1995 but the adoption of its present meaning came five years later. Spyware has been identified as the top security threats to computers using the Microsoft Windows operating systems. And Internet Explorer users were found to be the ones more susceptible to spyware attacks. Because of the popularity of IE and Windows, spyware programs were created to specifically attack and find its way from the internet into IE and into the important parts of the Windows operating system.

The threats are real and that’s why the anti-spyware industry is flourishing. For every new spyware discovered, an anti-spyware program or update is created. These anti-spyware products usually disable or remove the existing spyware from the user’s computer system. Once installed, they also provide protection preventing a variety of spyware programs from installing themselves in your computer.

However, there’s a need to update these anti-spyware programs regularly. The World Wide Web is a fast pace medium. Everything in there changes quickly and even sporadically. The same goes with spyware. You never know when advertisers, web developers or even the government will come out with newer versions of spyware or adware that have improved ways of accessing your files and personal information. Some spyware program offer an uninstall option together with the program.

Most of the time, however, these uninstall options don’t work. Some even installs more spyware instead of removing that particular one. So, it is best that you rely on services of anti-spyware programs to fully remove them from your operating system.

But while it is good that there are various anti-spyware programs at your disposal, it is better that you prevent the installation of these spyware in the first place. Some of the techniques that you could use are to disable the automatic installations of programs in your internet browsers and to install pop-up blockers.

In some cases, spies and covert operations are found in war grounds or politically tense regions. Now however, you can find spies and covert operations running undetected within your personal computer system as you use your computer and the Internet.

Have you noticed a suspicious slow down of your computer’s processing without any particular reason? Are you bombarded by unsolicited pop up ads that indiscriminately appear whether you are running a program or not? These symptoms may continue to happen despite checking your system and running your recently updated anti virus program to run diagnostics on your computer.

Unless you run the correct program, you will not be able to detect the real problem in your system: spyware and adware.

Adware are unsolicited programs that usually come bundled with freeware or shareware. Yes, sometimes things that seem to be good to be true usually come with unwanted invisible strings attached. Companies usually pay freeware or shareware creators to be able to capitalize and prey on unsuspecting individuals who download these programs. Adware cause unsolicited pop up advertisements in your computer and in severe cases, adware causes pop up advertisements to pop up soon as you boot your system.

Spyware on the other hand is more covert and usually undetected in your system until you run an anti spyware program. Spyware is used exactly to spy on you. In relatively mild cases, spyware is used to track your Internet browsing habits so that the spyware can report your preferences to build a marketing profile. This means that as you go about your Internet business, you are under surveillance and your basic right to privacy is impinged upon.

In severe cases though, certain spyware better labeled as malware, are used for criminal purposes and can steal keywords and other sensitive information based on your computer and Internet usage.

For instance, malware can take note of your keystrokes or take note of your credit card number and other vital information that can be used to steal your identity and generally put your security at risk.It is said that 9 out 10 computers are infected with spyware and to make sure that you are not part of statistical majority, you need run an adware and spyware cleaner to detect unwanted security and privacy breach within your system.

There are a lot of reliable adware and spyware cleaners in available to remove these unwanted programs in your computer. You must note however that some adware and spyware are intricately bundled within their parent programs that cleaning them out from your computer will inadvertently disable the legitimate programs they infect. This consequence is a necessary evil to clean your computer of unwanted adware and spyware. You should choose an adware and spyware cleaner that can also work proactively by preventing future accidental installation of these nuisances.

Adware and spyware cleaners work like your anti virus programs except that these particular cleaners target adware and spyware.Considering the trouble adware and spyware creators take to ensure that extracting installed adware and spyware from your computer system will be difficult, the adage about an ounce of prevention being worth more than a pound of cure applies in this situation. Be sure to install a reliable and secure adware and spyware cleaner in your system to remove existing security and privacy risks as well as preventing future hassle.

Generally considered as some kind of potentially unwanted programs (PUP) by the Internet Security Company (McAFee,) adware and spyware could pause as a menace to original computer owners, web developers, and IT of certain corporations. Advertisements (adware) already included and mainstay of the program could present a threat or traffic nuisance for reason of its vulnerability to information disseminations, causing notorious cases of “identity theft,” that’d been threatening risk on the loss of personal properties, finances, bank’s credibility, financiers, and other financial institutions over the globe.

In the United States alone there is a rampant of identity theft to personal properties thru the process of transfer of ownership to a wrong person because of stolen Credit Card numbers, passwords, and other personal identifications robbed through the internet in forms of spywares that camouflaged use-legalities that are merely ignored by users and computer owners.

Adware and Spyware software present a totally different usage in program inclusions, and for the user. While adware is a legal part of the computer’s administrative settings, spyware is ironically a deceptive method, that’ll not directly pause as illegal for it may be included in some software that fronts acceptance. By the time it reaches the user’s end it reacts like semblance of some kinds of virus or worms; at times just ignored not to be serious and obvious, but with motives, to invade the accessibility and manipulations of some confidential information from the computer, to be transmitted to other end users who may just wait for any advantage taken from this kind of traffic interference.

How does Adware work?

When the adware database link discovers the effects of detailed interference on some confidential records, those that need financial consideration of return-payments in nature, and wherein, exclusive website agenda had already been diverted to the other end without having to pay from the mother source, it’d be too late to reconstruct to normal settings. It is expensive to replenish and change to untarnished software. At times immune anti-virus is also out there, but anywhere it goes about entails some extra expense on part of the developer.

What is Spyware?

Spyware is software that support adware usage by PC espionage on different activities in a computer such as e-mail or chat logging, but could easily cause to detour web traffic that’s detrimental to e-commerce if abused or used without consent; therefore, by no means the deceiving technology in adverse adware usability.

How the Adware companies try to screw us

A number of adware companies seem to feel bias about PC surveillance (spyware) for reason that, although, they had already disclosed specific data collections and transmissions on account of privacy security from their database link, it can’t totally control the chances of any outgoing data, where, and to whom it might be sent. Spyware technology has the capability to send not just the banner data from the mother PC, but could channel it to other interested parties that could even install-in to a new program.

The spyware technology is by far infused into the database without the owner’s awareness or consent, however, they come in as “drive-by downloads” or the user goes to click in options in “pop-up” windows, and immediately detoured to some other programs, either pornographic, or anything else without essence.

The adverse effect of adware is the fact that when it is installed in the computer and the user consents to include tracking features, it automatically becomes a “spyware” when used by another user who interacts with the “adware” outside any database link.

10 Ways to keep Spyware off your computer. Spyware is dangerous in the way that it adds up on your computer, stealing info and sending it away while really degrading the performance of your computer.

1. Keep your browsers security settings at High.- this can be found by going to tools to internet options to security

2. Use an anti virus program at all times. - For a freebie try AVG at www.grisoft.com

3. Use a different credit card for online shopping.- I have found this invaluable as I have a low limit on my “internet” credit card, also remember that you are guaranteed in many cases by your credit cards theft protection against any loss.

4. Install and keep active a firewall or use a router. - many people have a wireless router and if you do have a wireless router be sure to set WEP or WPA security on it.

5. Make sure your system is up-to-date with all patches and updates. - Go to start to all programs to Windows Update to make sure that everything is up to date

6. Check the addons that you use with Google to be sure they are not spyware.- There is always a feat that when you install free software that it may include spyware. This started back with the Bonzi Buddy and has not stopped since. You may need a pro or a piece of third party software to do this.

7. Never click yes when your browser asks you if you want to install or open some content coming from an organization you don’t know or don’t trust. - Often this is how you get a piece of spyware on your computer, when you go to a page and it wants to install something that is not Flash or something else you do not recognize say no, all that will happen is you may lose some functionality on the site.

8. Install an anti-spy ware program to enlarge the protection. -I know that there are a few free programs out there but for the casual home user they are not the most “set it and forget it” type software. I always believe the paid programs offer a bit more protection than anything free because of built in automation and tech support.

9. Never install a browser help or search bar unless it comes from a reliable source.- I personally use the Google toolbar and see no reason to add anything else.

10. Don’t click on email attachments that are executable files even if they look as if sent from known persons. - The best way to transmit a virus is for a virus writer to get someones computer to send the virus to all of their friends, no one knows they are sending it and the recievers often trust the attachments.

These are the most obvious tips. I know that every day I see lots of compromised machines and if you are looking for a better way to remove spyware you should run an antispyware program from safe mode in Windows so that the bad stuff has not had a chance to launch and protect itself yet.

Spyware and adware is a big issue today and the problem is only going to get bigger over the next few years. To understand how to rid your computer of spyware you have to first understand why it is being created in the first place so why don’t we look at that.

Companies in the past created spyware as a service to their advertisers. What would happen is you would install an application that you thought was cute or useful like Bonzai buddy or Comet Cursors and you used this knowing that it was free. What you did not know was that these “free” programs in fact were tracking all of the websites that you were going to and then sending back the information to the company that created the application, this seemed to be bad but not many people were too concerned. After the companies got this information on your surfing habits then they would change the ads on web pages, this is adware, so that they were targeting topics that you had shown interest in, and of course those companies were picking up the advertising dollars for placing those ads on your computer.

Now that you can see the basics of how spyware is created and why you can imagine how lucrative a business it is to create spyware. In fact the company that was Gator is now called Claria and made profits of $100 million last year. Since there is so much money to be made in the spyware business there are always a lot of new spyware being released. All of this spyware is probably really slowing down your computer and breaking your applications.

There are a lot of ways that a computer can get spyware and its cousin Adware. The most popular ways right now are still by installing programs that have the spyware embedded directly into it and is launched as soon as you install the program. Other ways to get spyware are from visiting webpages that drop Active X controls on your computer or run javascripts and even sometimes from objects placed within emails.

Most of the time getting spyware and getting rid of spyware is not very difficult but it takes some work on the user’s part, that’s you! There are several programs out there that will get rid of the spyware and adware but the two that are most common are Spybot and AdAware both of these programs are free to download and free to use. I have used Spybot and Adaware for years now and I never use just one of the two, I always use both as they seem to each catch spyware and adware that the other does not.

In the end you can not always rely on just one or two free programs but even just using these two free products will often make a big difference to speeding up and securing your computer. When you are ready you can look around and often find one or more great programs that will do it all in one place and do a better job at that.

Many people are only used to having one password for their PC and maybe a few on the internet but those of us working in larger corporations have gotten used to having more and more passwords all of the time and for IT support workers it is even worse as I know at my company we have to wrestle with passwords for our old as well as our new active directory domain. A report from RSA security, a large corporate security company illustrates the problems that people have with passwords.

One quarter of the 1,300 responding business professionals reported password-related security breaches. The study asserts that the burden of multiple passwords poses significant security risks and encourages user behavior that endangers compliance initiatives. Eighteen percent of respondents managed more than 15 passwords, but only 5 percent said they felt they could easily remember that many; 36 percent managed between six and 15 passwords. The majority, 82 percent, expressed frustration with the task of managing passwords at work.
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