by C. L. Easey

Created on: June 03, 2009

Malware can have adverse affects and can infect a computer system in many different ways. Malware can infect a computer through e-mail, downloading from the internet as well as installing an infected program. Malware can usually be removed by performing an anti-spyware scan on an infected computer system.

One way in which malware can infect a system in through e-mail. Most people click on an attachment that unknowing installs malware onto their machine. One way to prevent attachments from causing a problem is to install a virus-scan program that will scan all e-mail attachments. The best way to prevent malware from getting installed though an e-mail attachment is to not open them at all. This is especially true is a user does not know who sent the e-mail. Unfortunately, there are many spam messages that are being sent that look legitimate that an easily confuse the average user. Many times these types of messages can be prevented by using a good spam filter.

Another way in which malware can get installed on a system is by visiting an infected or compromised web page. Luckily there are many ways a user can protect themselves from these types of sites. The first thing a user needs to do is to install the Firefox browser. Once the browser has been installed an add-on called No-Script needs to be installed. This extension prevents computer scripts such as Flash and Javascript from running on a web page. The user is required to allow a script to run on each web page that is visited. Google can also be used to prevent infected of hijacked sites from loading. A warning message from Google will be displayed is a site is found to have malware.

Programs that are installed on a computer can possibly contain malware or other types of spyware that can harm a computer. Some programs that are freeware or ad-supported can contain malware that can send information to a central server. It is important to have an aint-virus or anti-spyware real-time scan enabled when installaing software. Most software that is downloaded from legitimate sites usually does not contain malware. However, software that comes from a site that is not that well known may not scan files that are available for download.

The easiest way to remove maolware is to perform or run a full anti-spyware scan on the system. There are many anti-spyware programs available such as Spybot - Search and Destroy, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware as well as SuperAntiSpyware. A user can also scan their system online such as running a PC Safety scan from Microsoft OneCare.

Learn more about this author, C. L. Easey.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.