Click with caution — be careful where you surf

Read the fine print before you download anything

By Alyson Munroe

It can happen in a second. Just one wrong click of your mouse and you have an unwanted new home page or toolbar, a multitude of pop-up ads, strange desktop icons or all of the above.

If this sounds familiar, your computer is probably the victim of adware or spyware, or both. Adware is software that tracks your surfing habits and generates pop-up ads. Spyware, the more dangerous of the two, covertly records your keystrokes, surfing habits, passwords, credit card numbers, e-mail addresses and other confidential information through your Internet connection, and reports them back to advertisers.

Uncover where the unwanted programs came from

There are several ways you can become the recipient of unsolicited information or material. Sometimes web sites will throw you to other undesirable sites. Even a simple keyword search in your search engine could turn up links to inappropriate content. Clicking one of these sites by accident could infect your computer.

Other mistakes people make are innocently clicking the Yes button when a web site asks you to install software before viewing a page or when a pop-up window asks you to make a certain URL your home page.

Some web sites use a pop-up window that issues a “security alert” on your computer and prompts you to download a program to “fix” the problem. By clicking on that button, you could install spyware on your computer. In addition, inexperienced web users, such as children playing an online game, could be enticed by the language that advertises a product and click a link or button on a pop-up window.

Some shareware and freeware programs are bundled with adware and spyware. Freeware refers to programs that you use at no cost; shareware refers to programs you try for free and, if you like them, pay a small fee to continue use after your trial period expires. Examples include file-sharing programs, antivirus software, FTP clients, firewalls, games and others. Of course, not all of these programs will install junk on your computer.

Read the fine print before you download

It pays to be paranoid whenever you download something from the Internet. “I’ve learned that anything that’s free comes with a pretty hefty price tag,” says Angela Johnson, a Toronto programmer.

Her problems started after she downloaded a file-sharing program called Kazaa without reading the End User License Agreement (EULA). Johnson’s PC was plagued with pop-up ads, and she had a strange toolbar attached to her web browser when she logged onto the Internet. It sat below the address bar in Internet Explorer, with a search field and shortcuts to porn and credit card sites. Annoyed, Johnson uninstalled Kazaa using the Uninstall feature in her Control Panel, thinking she’d be in the clear. Kazaa was gone, but the pop-ups and toolbar were not part of the uninstall.

If Johnson had read the EULA, which typically appears with lots of legalese and fine print before a download begins, she would have realized that in exchange for using the free service, she would be served third-party ads and her online habits would be tracked. IT consultant Daniel Gresser, owner of Easytech in Toronto, agrees that it pays to be skeptical. “I can’t emphasize enough that the best plan is to avoid installing spyware in the first place,” he says.

Here are some tips to follow before downloading anything off the web.

• Read the fine print and be selective about what you download to your computer. If a window pops up asking you to download something strange, close the window. Beware of simply clicking No, because some pop-ups have fake buttons on them that mimic Windows buttons and are designed to trick you.
• If there doesn’t appear to be a way to close the window, right-click the taskbar at the bottom of the screen to bring up the Task Manager. From there, look under Applications, highlight Internet Explorer and click on End Task. You can also hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete to end your session; however, if your computer is networked, doing so will bring up a range of options.

Removing spyware from your computer

There are free programs that will scan your hard drive and remove adware and spyware for you. Gresser recommends Spybot-Search and Destroy and Spyware Doctor 5.0, which will scan your hard drive and guide you through removing adware and spyware.

Make sure to install the newest versions, just as you would install the latest versions of your antivirus and firewall software. Run them once a week to remove bad files that you may have downloaded to your computer.

The free MSN Toolbar blocks pop-up ads. You can actually see how many ads the toolbar has blocked while you are online. If you’ve downloaded something that has infected your computer, you can also try using Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool. It checks computers for malicious software — computer viruses, Trojan horses and worms — and helps remove it.

You can also use System Restore, which rolls the computer back to a time before the offending programs were installed. (Note: This command will not affect e-mail or Office documents created after that time. It just affects programs that were installed and/or system changes such as added hardware.)

Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore. The wizard will guide you through the process and ask you to select a date when you feel your computer was last working properly.

Update your programs regularly

Regularly checking Windows Update for security patches, and software and hardware updates, is another good habit. To access Windows Update, click Start > All Programs > Windows Update. You can set your system to check automatically by going to Start > Control Panel > Windows Update. Click on Change settings, choose Download updates, but let me choose whether to install them. Microsoft offers security advice to users of other operating systems on its web site.

Above all, be careful about the sites you visit and the files you download. “There are a lot of good freeware programs out there,” says Gresser, “but if it pops up [in a window] and asks you to download it, it’s best not to.”