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Ira Winkler, CISSP, is president of the Internet Security Advisors Group. He is considered one of the world’s most influential security professionals, and has been named a “Modern Day James Bond” by the media. He is author of Spies Among Us and Zen and the Art of Information Security.

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Internet Security Examiner

Would you know if your computer was infected with spyware?

November 21, 6:28 PM

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Today’s security tip: Download and use Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT). It’s free. While I previously recommended that you use anti-spyware, I did not recommend a specific tool. Again, this one is free and runs on just about all Microsoft PCs in use.

A report came out today that states that Microsoft’s free MSRT cleaned up almost 1,000,000 PCs in its latest release. Of course, none of the people who were infected with spyware knew they were infected. This meant that their computers were basically not under their own control, and that all information on their computer was vulnerable to hackers around the world.

The MSRT is updated once a month and has been responsible for cleaning up tens of millions of computers around the world. While it is free, it does have it’s limitations, and is not a complete anti-spyware tools. Specifically, it is only updated once a month. It also does not run all of the time, to prevent new infections.

However, it is a free, once a month safety check. You will still need the other software, but this should be loaded on all Windows computers.

For more info:
Ira’s books, Spies Among Us and Zen and the Art of Information Security, cover security topics in detail. For any questions, please go to Ira’s website and click on the Contact Ira link.

Author: Ira Winkler