How to Stop Spyware (Education Edition)

My daily work routine has me maintaining and supporting about 60 workstations and a dozen servers. Due to the nature of the industry, I have to keep the computers and the network almost completely wide open and unrestricted.

In almost six years, we’ve had almost no spyware outbreaks.

The reason is simple: user education. I’ve spent more time trying to educate our employees about what not to do when they are on their own as opposed to trying to find technological barriers that providers overcome at every turn. So far, its worked.

If you are looking for ways to arm yourself in your own personal war against malelovent downloads to your computer, here are my following reccomendations:

1. Don’t take candy from strangers – We all learned this growing up and it seems the Internet is making us relearn this all over again.  If there is an unknown quantity to what you are doing, think safety first and avoid clicking uncessary links, downloads, and websites that just plain look shady.
2. Look a gift horse in the mouth – There is still no such thing as a free lunch.  So many of the computers I have seen with spyware get it from software that was downloaded to install a cool poker game or screen saver.  New leaps in technology on the net mean that you don’t have to download almost anything to play the simple games and do the simple things you used to need to install programs for.
3. If you have to think about it, you probably should’t – Notice a pattern?  I’m basically rewording the same idea over and over again; don’t trust ANYTHING on the Internet.
4. Keep your friends close, but don’t click anything they send you – Stealing your identity is a profitable business and the easiest way a hacker earns your trust is by faking something you believe is safe.  Many viruses steal your friends address books and send themselves to everyone in it so that the emails look like something completely innocent.  If you aren’t expecting it from your long lost cousin you haven’t talked to in five years, you probably shouldn’t click it.
5. Forwarded chains are the devil – I can’t preach this enough.  Stop forwarding emails that are cute.  It was started by a spammer or someone who was really bored and you’re letting the crazies win.
6. Google is your friend – If you have a question about a piece of software you are about to download, Google can usually give you a good answer.  Just type in the name of the program and the word spyware and educate yourself by relying on others past experiences.  This isn’t foolproof, but it might help.
7. If you are going to download, go to download.com – CNet (who runs download.com) approves every piece of software on its site to be spyware free.  Again, its not foolproof, but its a big step in the right direction.
8. Don’t click it….TYPE IT! – If a bank or Paypal sends you an email, never trust the link they send you.  Open your browser and type in the regular web address just like you normally would.  If something is wrong, the second you log in it will prompt you to fix it.  Phishing links are hard to decipher, and they will always get you when you least expect it.

If you think about what you do when you are online and don’t click shiny things that are trying to lure you into the depths of the Internet, you should be find yourself a lot less prone to the nasties.