If you want to know what is antispyware and what are the best programs of this type, the first thing we must do is know how we have reached this point, a point that goes back to the early 90s, when computers began to reach a large number of homes.
Practically since the first computers began to reach many homes, the first computers began to circulate. computer viruses, viruses that have evolved to perform different functions, so a category had to be created to encompass all so-called malware.
What is malware
If we talk about malware, we have to spyware, adware, ransomware, trojans and viruses Mainly, although there are more variants that are not commonly used in the times we live in.
El phisingEg it is not a malware, since it is not a software that can reach our team but a technique to try to steal our personal and banking data.
spyware
As we can well deduce from the name of this malware, this type of software is dedicated to collecting user data from both the hard drive and passwords, the installed applications, as well as collecting usage statistics that are later sold to third-party companies to find out to users and power focus advertising campaigns.
Adware
This is one of the most annoying malware since it is in charge of continuously showing us advertising on our computer, advertising that is sometimes not related to the use we make of our computer ... It is usually shown through pop-up sales and in many cases, we offer misleading information with which they want to get the money from us.
Ransomware
Ransomware has become the malware most used by friends of others who go directly to get money from a company or customer through a ransom. This type of attack encrypts all the content that is stored on a computer. The attackers ask for money in exchange for the password that decrypts the data. The problem is that nobody assures us that after paying, the hacker will give us the password.
The solution, make backups daily and obviously, we always have an antivirus at hand that is capable of finding this type of malware that for computer security companies has become a headache.
Trojans
Trojans reach computers disguised as other applications that seem legitimate with a completely different purpose, since their functionality is that of remotely control equipment.
Thanks to this type of malware, a large number of computers can be remotely controlled to knock down web pages performing a large number of requests simultaneously (DDoS attacks).
If the server where that page is hosted is not prepared for this type of attack, having so many requests simultaneously, ends up falling and stops being operational until the attacks stop taking place.
Virus
Computer viruses were the first manifestation of software that can affect the operation of a computer with just a few lines of text. Not only can they affect your performance, but also, they can delete content from the device, delete partitions, modify the system boot ...
What are the best spyware
Once we are clear about the different types of malware that we can face on a daily basis, we are going to focus on spyware and how to prevent our computer from being a potential source of information for friends of others.
The first thing we must be clear about is that most of the best-known antivirus integrates not just virus protection, but also against malware, spyware, Trojans and even ransomware, although with this type of malware they are not as effective since they are specially created to attack servers of specific companies.
Windows Defender
Using an antivirus is something that everyone should do, as long as their knowledge of internet and computer science is very low. As little as we know how the internet works, we know the risks of downloading applications from link pages, the risks of opening attachments in the mail of people we do not know ...
Microsoft's Windows Defender was born for those people with limited knowledge. Windows Defender is the antivirus that Microsoft includes in Windows 10, a completely free antivirus that is considered to be one of the best on the market by security experts.
The native antivirus of Windows 10 protects us, like the rest of the antivirus that we can find in the market from malware, spyware, Trojans, viruses and ransomware.
In fact, it allows us to prevent applications from doing unauthorized changes in the folders we select (folders where we store the most important data), in this way, no ransomware will be able to access this data and encrypt the files without the user's own consent.
Spyware Blaster 6
SpywareBlaster offers us protection against spyware, adware, browser hijackers and other potentially dangerous software blocking the installation of ActiveX codes used by this type of malware.
In addition, it also blocks the installation of malicious cookies that are dedicated to collecting information from us. The best of all is thate works without any problems with Windows Defender, so we can have both applications up and running.
SpywareBlaster 6 is priced at $ 14,95 for an annual license and is compatible from Windows 2000 onwards (XP, Vista, Windows7, Windows 8.x and Windows 10).
Spybot
Spybot - Search & Destroy is another of the tools that we have at our disposal to prevent spyware from doing its thing on our computer, since it is responsible for identifying and block any sending of information from our team.
The basic version allows us to protect our equipment from unauthorized data theft, but it also offers us protection against viruses, malware and other dangers that circulate daily on the internet. The Home Edition version has a price of EUR 11,99 and it is ideal for any home user.
SUPERAntiSpyware
Unlike the classic antivirus that slow down the computer (something that, by the way, Windows Defender does not do), SuperAntiSpyware it does not slow down our computer and works hand in hand with the Windows antivirus. It offers us protection from more than a billion threats of malware such as spyware, adware, Trojans, ransomwares….
It makes use of artificial intelligence to offer us a detection engine that is updated at all times. SUPERAntiSpyWare is priced per $ 39,95 annual license and we can download a trial version that we can use for 14 days.
AntiSpywares for Windows
As I have commented above, the best antivirus for Windows available in the market also offer us protection against spyware. However, the applications that I have shown you above focus their activity on spyware, so it is always rIt is recommended to use one of these solutions that they focus on them, that one that tries to cover all of them without doing it in a really effective way.
Be wary of free apps
As already demonstrated with the Avast antivirus, the applications that allow us to keep our equipment protected at all times completely free of charge are dedicated to steal information from our team to later sell them to third parties, so we must always distrust them.