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CT Teacher Settles In Adware Trial
Less than two years earlier, Amero had been found guilty of four felony pornography counts and faced a possible sentence of up to 40 years in prison for allegedly allowing students in her Connecticut classroom to view pornographic images on her computer while she used the Internet. Amero had testified that the images simply “appeared” on her computer and she did not know what to do. The incident took place in 2004.
After reading of her conviction, Alex Eckelberry, a computer security expert, offered to perform a forensic analysis of the computer in question. Eckelberry’s 2007 report, which has not yet been made public, caused the judge to set aside Amero’s conviction and order a new trial.
Among Eckelberry’s findings were that the school did not have a valid anti-virus software license, and that adware disguised as a Halloween-themed screen saver was loaded onto the computer about a week prior to the incident. The report cited additional evidence of an adware/malware infection, based on settings on the computer which had been changed.
Ultimately, the report concluded, the teacher was not responsible for the adware infection and could not have known that the computer was infected. Mrs. Amero chose to settle the case with a guilty plea in order to spare herself the trauma of a second trial.
Could This Have Been Avoided?
In a simple word, yes. Amero’s case illustrates the pressing need for adware protection on personal computers. In the workplace, employers can be held liable for creating a hostile environment when pornographic images appear on employees’ computers. In the classroom or even at home, children can be exposed to adult material indiscriminately.
Beyond simple offense, adware, spyware and similar malware can create security and privacy issues for users. Identifying information, like account numbers, user names and passwords can be captured and exposed to third parties. These programs can also cause severe performance degradations that can bring an otherwise productive employee to a virtual standstill.
Effective Adware Protection Is Available
You don’t have to put up with a semi-functional computer that displays annoying or offensive advertising. You don’t have to worry about the security of your personal and financial information.
Instead, you can rely on the protection that XoftSpy SE offers. XoftSpy SE detects adware, malware, spyware and Trojan software by matching suspicious programs to its database of more than 40,000 known malware products. New signatures are added constantly, meaning that you receive up-to-date protection from even the latest, most dangerous and most offensive malware on the market today.
Don’t risk your personal and financial safety, and don’t expose your employees or co-workers, family members or friends to offensive and dangerous materials. Stop malware infections before they start by loading XoftSpy SE onto your computer today!
Photo Credit: Steve Woods
Why You Should Be Worried About The Spyware On Your PC
Spyware has firmly established itself as one of today’s most serious PC threats. Spyware is software that isn’t readily understood by the user. It may load itself on to a computer without the user’s knowledge, or it may masquerade as a program or utility with a seemingly useful function.
What Makes Spyware So Dangerous?
Spyware was initially crafted to load pop-up advertisements onto a computer, but it has quickly been adapted to perform a number of other nefarious functions, including monitoring the user’s online behavior, redirecting Web browsers to certain locations, installing additional malware onto the host computer, manipulating pay-per-click advertising revenue, changing configuration information on the host computer, capturing personal information like account names and passwords, credit card numbers, browsing habits and more. Spyware that is designed to capture personal information is also used to transmit that information to a third party. Information gleaned about a user’s browsing behavior often controls the type of pop-up advertisements that appear on the user’s computer.
Spyware differs from computer viruses in a few significant ways. Unlike a virus, spyware doesn’t usually “self-replicate.” Your infected computer will not attempt to pass on spyware to other computers, or attach itself to outgoing email messages. Instead, spyware may be disguised as a helpful utility application, may invisibly accompany another application, may pose as shareware or a security application, or may load itself without any fanfare at all.
Symptoms Of Spyware Infection
The most common symptoms of a spyware infection include:
• increased pop-up advertising, including pornographic and other offensive ads
• increasingly slow computer performance
• increased hard disk activity
• increased Internet activity not requested or controlled by the user
• application and system crashes
Normally, a computer does not suffer from a single spyware infection. Once infected by spyware, the computer tends to accumulate additional spyware, viruses and malware until the computer’s function is seriously compromised.
Despite the fact that spyware has been around for more than ten years, it remains one of the major threats to security for PCs running the Windows operating system. Macintosh computers are also affected by spyware as well, but due to the way certain applications like Web browsers are integrated into the operating system on Windows PCs, spyware poses a much more serious concern.
What Should You Do About Spyware?
If you don’t already have a spyware blocker loaded on your computer, load one immediately! XoftSpy SE offers all of the features you want in a spyware blocker and can identify more than 40,000 different spyware programs. In addition to blocking spyware, XoftSpy SE also blocks adware, Trojans and other malware that could be waiting to infect your computer.
XoftSpy SE will protect your personal information and protect passwords and other sensitive data. Your computer’s performance will improve, and once you install XoftSpy SE, you can schedule regular checkups to make sure your computer remains free of potentially dangerous spyware for good!
Photo Credit: Ines Teijeiro
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