The Case Made For Popup Blockers
Internet surfing today is alot more dangerous than it was years ago. Cybercriminals, hackers, etc seem to be everywhere. Websites that appear legitimate and benign are designed to set the unwary up by having viruses encoded in their pages. The viruses can have one of many different effects.
They can simply be spyware, designed to monitor your activities and report on them to their creators. Others can be of a more malicious nature like deleting your hard drive, deleting only certain types of information (like the zero sector which controls file management), disabling an un updated virus protection system (to make your computer vulnerable to even more viruses), stealing password information, and even stealing your personal information. The latter two of which can lead to identity theft.
They can even hijack the victims computer and turn it into a drone. One virus can
even hijack the victim’s browser or change the homepage. Dial up computers can be subject to isp hijacking, which means that they are using the fraudsters “isp.”
The source of much of this can come from pop ups. Now before I proceed, let me simply state here that there are many legitimate pop up companies who use it for legitimate advertising. They aren’t doing anything wrong. I have nothing against them. But then, there are others who do nothing but encode their sites with malicious code in their popups. This coding gets stored in your temporary internet files where they can, in their own turn, do their respective jobs.
As mentioned above, these “jobs” can have be one of a variety of things, from simple spying on your Internet activities to logging your keystrokes and sending the information to their originators. This is where your identity information can be placed at risk. How? These spywares can log your information from such sites as your online banking, your favorite place to shop (while online), etc.
To an unprotected computer and its owner, these viruses can be a nightmare and can lead to a number of computer problems and, in some cases, the victim’s financial ruin. One of the first warning signs can be that the computer will start running noticeably slower. Another is unwanted messages and popups that appear on the victim’s computer. In the case of the isp hijacker, the only warning I am aware of is that the browser freezes, goes silent, then redials (to some expensive 900 number).
Some of the operating systems in use today have features that block most or all of the popups you may encounter. But they are not enough. They do not update enough to keep track of every popup you may encounter. Another, external pop up blocker is needed.
Today, popup blockers are added in security bundles made by security software manufacturers, Some of the more up to date browsers carry the same features. The costs of such software need not throw you into a lather as you can get free, or low cost, versions online that are just as effective. Whichever software you decide to purchase, remember to keep it updated.
It should be noted that the computer user is not the only victim in the popup war, the legitimate companies who uses them as a form of advertising are also the victims. Most popup blockers do not know the difference between good ones or ones with malicious code in them, so they simply block them all. Some makers of popup blocker software give the users the option of filtering certain ones (at the user’s dicretion) in from select domains. While others do not.
Not all popups are dangerous, but there are enough of the dangerous ones around to make surfing the Net a dangerous proposition. Two good ways to minimize these dangers is to install and keep updated an external popup blocker software and install firewall/security protection. They can be two parts to the same software. The important thing is to install them, keep them updated, and keep them active in your system. These can go a long way in keeping your financial and personal information from getting into the wrong hands.
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