Protect Yourself from Drive-By Downloads

By Matt Williams

Drive-by downloads is a term coined to cover program programs that download onto your registry without your consent, knowledge or intervention. Drive-by downloads don't trick you into installing them, they usually install on their own along with downloaded freebies like screensavers, games, music or email.

Once you've been a victim of a drive-by download, your os may get bombarded with irritating pop-up ads, it may slow down considerably, your web browser's home page may change, and your privacy may be compromised. Your desktop is now infected with adware and spyware capable of stealing your private, unofficial information.

Drive-by downloads can clog your Desktop's resources making it run slower than usual or even cause potentially harmful operating systems errors. If your Computer crashes frequently, you could be a victim of a drive-by download. Not only are these crashes inconvenient, you could lose information as a result.

Not only is info loss a real possibility because of drive-by downloads, but info theft is also particularly likely. Spyware programs called keyloggers record every keystroke and send this data back to a arbitrator. From there, the arbitrator can extract passwords, PIN numbers, credit card information and anything else you may have entered.

Graphic pop-up ads for porn sites are additional side effect of drive-by downloads. These are particularly objectionable to parents due to the graphic nature of the ads that their children might see.

Because drive-by downloads happen without your knowledge, it's critical to protect yourself. First, re-think your web-surfing habits. Free downloads like smilies, screensavers, games and file-sharing music sites are notorious for drive-by downloads. Don't open unexpected attachments that come in your email. Stay away from websites that rely heavily on pop-up style advertising as their revenue stream such as bootleg video and game websites, porn websites and free file sharing websites.

In addition, if you use Microsoft Ie, upgrade to Ie 7 and be sure to use the built-in pop-up blocker and phishing filter. Ie 7 has also made changes designed to combat drive-by downloads such as enforcing all browser windows to display their address bar so users are less likely to follow windows they believed were from legitimate websites.

Ie 7 also prevents hackers from using HTML links with excessive or unusual characters designed to cause the user's operating systems's buffer to overflow and run malicious code when parsing the link. It also will notify you when a website is trying to download a program.

The next step you can take to protect yourself from drive-by downloads is to find and purchase a reputable anti-spyware program like XoftSpySE. Be careful of the unsolicited pop-ups you encounter offering a free anti-spyware tool as these utilities themselves often contain spyware. Only purchase an anti-spyware program from a reputable company that you trust.

Once you have an anti-spyware program installed, set it up for recurring registry scans and automatic updates. Just like anti-virus programs, anti-spyware programs come with cyclical definition updates to address new threats. The anti-spyware programs can also clear any spyware it finds on your operating operating system.

Investing in this technic pays off right away with a better performing Pc that's cleard of all the malicious junk. You'll have piece of mind, a faster and more secure Os.

Clean Drive-By Downloads