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Computer or PC Tips InformationThe Difference Between Spyware and Viruses
by:
Kara Glover
Feel free to reprint this article in newsletters and on
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article, please send a brief message to let me cognize wherever
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Word Count = 420
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URL: http://www.karathecomputertutor.com
Date of copyright: May 2005
The Difference Between Spyware and Viruses
by Kara Glover
kara3334@yahoo.com
Shin, a fictional character whose name means "faith" or "trust," sits by his laptop computer in the living room of his home in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. He is busy at activity for his boss, dictator Kim Jong-il. His job, to do sure several spyware gets into specific computers at the Pentagon so he can gain vital top private secret information. He's particularly interested now that the United States government suspects his country mightiness shortly conduct its 1st nuclear test.
With spyware sneakily
installed on the computers, he could, for instance, engage in the practice of keylogging. In another words, our "trustworthy" Shin could tract the actual keys on the computer hit by the Pentagon officials. This would-be help him discover their passwords, the content of email messages, encoding keys, or another means to bypass safety measures at our nation's defense fortress. Shin's not interested in bally computers at the Pentagon or devising them otherwise operable. That would-be be too bald and mightiness reveal him. He's just after information.
There are another types of spyware, sometimes called "malware" because they don't really spy on your computer habits. They mightiness instead just barrage you with annoying popups, for instance. Or they mightiness give you a several home page that isn't of your choosing, like one of an advertiser's. But for the moment those types of malware, or adware as it's sometimes called, aren't really useful for Shin. He wants to use spyware that really spies.
Over on another part of the globe in Turkey, a fictional terrorist sits with his own laptop computer in a suspected al Al-qaeda terrist cell. But he's not out to infect computers with spyware. That's child's play. He's out to bring the home down. This story is strictly hypothetical. But let's say the terrorist wanted to disrupt the daily hubub at a major American corporation. He'd infect the computers with a virus!
The terrorist mightiness try to attack the company's huge network by inserting a worm into it. Worms reside in RAM, and travel from machine to machine and, unlike the classic viruses, they attack the computers themselves rather than individual files. Really disruptive. This type of virus could possibly
do the computers inoperable.
Bring down the goings-on at a major corporation by spreading a worm through the computer network, and the terrorist could have a field day. But let's hope not.
So to summarize, spyware often keeps track of your computer habits, and viruses are often out to disable computers in several way. Therefore the difference.
©2005 by Kara Glover
Just about the author:
Kara Glover is a Computer Tutor and Troubleshooter. You
can find her online articles, tips, and tutorials on topics such as
Microsoft Word®, Excel®, and PowerPoint® at her website:
http://www.karathecomputertutor.com
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