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Many smaller companies do not keep in house IT staff. As a result, desktop PC’s do not get their regular updates and get clogged with spyware and viruses. We offer weekly visits to do the necessary updates. Computers which have updates done regularly run faster and do not broadcast sensitive information onto the Internet. It is important to do regularly Windows Updates to patch any known vulnerabilities and to guard against the latest exploits of hackers. Not doing so can cause you to become infected by an Internet worm or virus simply by connecting to the Internet. Like all programs, operating systems (OS's) are released in an imperfect, "satisfactory" state. This means that even off the shelf they are rife with bugs and security flaws. As these are discovered by hackers or security firms, the OS's parent company (in this case, Microsoft) releases patches to fix the security holes. It is vitally important to the security of your computer to regularly download and install these updates. In addition PCs should be checked to see if they are already infected with any viruses or worms. If you have virus protection software loaded on your computer, you should make sure that the virus definitions are kept up to date and scan your computer regularly. If you do not have virus protection software on your PC, you can still check to see if you are infected. All customers are encouraged to maintain up-to-date virus protection on their PCs to avoid future infection. Spyware programs are applications that send information via the Internet to the creator of the spyware, or the publisher. Spyware usually consists of core functionality and functionality for information gathering. The core functionality appeals to users and entices them to install and use the spyware. The End User License Agreement (EULA) informs users of the information-gathering actions, but most users overlook this information. Information that is sent to the publisher is normally used for improved direct marketing purposes. The type of sent information differs depending on the spyware program. In order for the publisher to properly digest the gathered data, some spyware programs send a unique identifier with the gathered information. Users often overlook the information-gathering
functionaility of spyware, leaving them unaware that the spyware
publisher is gathering data from their computers.
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