Spyware: The New Cancer
by: Andrew Wroblewski
Just like cancer, a computer virus program, whether Trojan, adware, or spyware can be deemed as any executing program that can infect your computer by recreating a copy of itself onto your system. Just like with cancerous cells in the human body, if not detected in time or found to be in the wrong place, any of these infectious programs can find themselves replicating and creating havoc throughout other parts of the machine.
When spyware was first discovered, just as was the case with cancer in the human body, it perplexed those who were infected by it because until something becomes known to the general public, there can be no reason for cure for that certain disease. For example, there was no cure for polio until the vaccine was created by Dr. Salk, and there was no cure for Trojan horse programs until they were discovered to have caused mass havoc. So if there is knowledge about what types of adware, Trojan, and spyware programs are infecting millions of people across the planet each and every day, why is there no cure for such programs?
There is a simple answer to this question, because economically, it doesn’t make since to have one solid end all be all type cures for these infectious programs. The reason for this is because countless numbers of suppliers of virus protection and detection programs would be remiss to find a cure for these things because it would subsequently put them out of business. This is not to say that they are out there putting these programs into circulation just to drum up business for their companies, or are they? It has been a conspiracy theory among countless numbers of people that the pharmaceutical industry in the United States finds themselves not wanting to find a cure for cancer because it would dampen their profits from having to buy treatment medicine by the carload.
Every time there is a new virus of infectious program that comes out, just like with diseases where you have to get a shot to prevent yourself from catching it, you have to update your detection programs to check for this before your computer gets infected with it. In all seriousness, spyware and virus detection programs are great because they can make you feel a lot more secure in your day to day computer life. Although you might grip and complain for having to download updates and security patches to your system through various programs every night before you go to bed, it will only take one of those programs that you are being protected from for you to have your world turned upside down. Until there is a cure found to stop all virus program infections, the only way to protect yourself is kill or be killed and that is what these programs can do for you. Regular checkups are the key to staying healthy.
About The Author
When not on his soapbox, Andrew Wroblewski is doing battle with the thousands of spyware programs that can affect you via his ant-spyware and spyware removal website:
http://spyware.pcwash.com where you can get a free spyware scan of your computer system.