Viruses & Spyware:

Viruses and Spyware are a serious problem for anyone using the internet today. It is imperative that you use good judgement before opening any email attachment or downloading any program from a web site.

Viruses impact everyone and cause problems worldwide, however they can be prevented if you just take a moment to think before opening email attachments. Many viruses pose as a message coming from a trusted friend or even SVIdaho.net itself. Do not open email attachments unless you are positive they are harmless. This can be difficult as virus authors are becoming more and more sophisticated. We at SVIdaho.net highly recommend that you install virus scan software. There are many commercial and free packages available.

We recommend: Norton AntiVirus by Symantec or VirusScan by McAfee

Spyware is a bit more tricky as it often doesn't directly affect the operation of your computer. Spyware is a type of computer program that tracks your actions on your computer and sends that information back to whoever installed the program. Some spyware is fairly harmless, for instance and internet retailer gathers information about you to personalize your shopping experience. In other cases spyware can be used to obtain personal information with the intent of identity theft. Spyware programs are often embedded within other programs that you want to download from the internet.

For more information about spyware, and how to combat the problem, we recommend reading the following articles:

Keep spies from skulking into your PC
Stripping Adware/spyware from PC Can Be Tricky