WHAT IS AN ADWARE?

 

WHAT IS AN ADWARE?

When we surf the Internet, we can find a huge number of latent threats that can put the security of our computers and our personal data at risk. The Malware is one of these threats, as well as programs known as Adware.

In this article, we will see what adware is and how to remove it from our computers.

Adware

The Adware are small programs that, once installed on your PC, run automatically to display the screen of the computer a specific amount of advertising often unsolicited by the user. Advertisements are downloaded directly from the Internet to your computer, and in general, they are harmless programs although quite annoying.

The name “Adware” comes from the English word Advertisement, which translates something like advertisements, its first two letters Ad are used in the name given to this type of program.

Despite being generally harmless programs, they have their dark side. This type of application can collect personal information from users of a computer, by executing hidden code within the program. This type of malicious practice is called Spyware and is used by hackers to obtain personal information, which can be used to carry out fraud or any other type of illegal activity.

The Adware display advertising computer screen while surfing the Internet, or execute any given program. These types of virus comes with other files from internet by hiding into them

How an Adware works

The operation of Adware is quite simple, but efficient, to display unwanted advertising by the PC user. When we browse the Internet, the program is capable of efficiently tracking all our searches and generating a fairly complete profile of search profiles, in this way, it can display advertising that can resemble the captured search patterns and offer advertising information that In theory it is not unpleasant, but in practice it is a lot, and worst of all,

How Adware Spreads

The Adware can enter your computer in several ways. Among the main causes of infection with this type of program is the request for the installation of programs by websites that use these programs to invade us with advertising, an unfair technique, but which is used very frequently. When downloading the file, often under deception, the user installs the Adware on their own computer.

Another common way to spread Adware is by adding it to a software package, which is generally offered free of charge and comes with the Adware. Many times, the program that brings the Adware asks if we want to install this additional software, but other times it installs it arbitrarily, leaving the user exposed to the execution of Adware on their PC.

Are Adware Dangerous?

In general, Adware is not dangerous by itself, although if it is accompanied by spy code it can be. One of the disadvantages of having this type of program installed on our PC is that they can be very difficult to eliminate from the system and in many cases they are capable of being restored, so that we will require drastic measures to eliminate them, generally, manually and in command line and with administrator privileges or using specialized programs.

Avoiding Adware on our PC

The first recommendation to avoid these annoying programs is to avoid installing applications that we do not know, of course, common sense is always the best ally.

Another interesting tip is to use a good antivirus and keep it updated and well configured, to avoid unwanted connections to our PC. Of course, we must emphasize that maintaining real-time protection systems on our computer will help us prevent these types of programs from being installed.

Maintaining anti-spyware and anti-adware applications is very important, since if they are up-to-date they can prevent users from being bothered.