Elijahfell

If you have been downloading software — games, peer to peer files and the like — on your computer, it just may be possible you have also been downloading spyware adware. Known to infect a computer system by piggy backing on to innocuous programs, spyware adware has the potential to become a very malicious program. Traditionally, on its own, all adware does is track your Internet browsing history and generate tailor made ads marketers think you will be hooked by. However, more often than not, adware also becomes a component of spyware — a software that is programmed to do any number of spying activities on the host computer — and the two together can become a nightmare for the computer user.

Since the main purpose of spyware adware is to track a user’s Internet browsing, it is quite possible for this program to log key strokes related to bank account and credit card information — as it has been known to do. Once the key strokes have been logged, a component in the program then sends the information back to the writer of the malicious code and he or she can then do whatever they want with it. Usually this involves selling to a third party and by then, your information could have gone through any number of hands and your identity compromised significantly.