Whenever you connect your PC to the Internet, it becomes a very vulnerable machine. Every time you log on to the World Wide Web, chances are you will see the ads warning you what horrible things are going to sneak their way into your hard drive. Malicous code sneaking into your computer can destroy years of hard work. It can email your credit card numbers to a criminal mob. It can give identity thieves a way to assume your very name. So, it seems to make good sense that the very first thing you want to do before you ever log on to the net is to find a reliable software package. You need something to help protect your computer against ever possible Internet intruder. But what kind of software should you get? Do you need anti-spyware software or anti-virus software or both?

Let’s take a look at what anti-virus and anti-spyware programs are designed to protect your computer against. A virus is a short string of code that attaches itself to your hard drive. It comes into your PC through files entering surreptitiously from the Internet. When viruses are activated, either via a timer or when you click on their file names, they launch their attacks. They can delete your data, edit your registry, or just slow everything to a crawl.

Spyware also arrives at your computer from the World Wide Web. Malicious programmers usually attach spyware to another piece of software. This program can come into your PC through email or off a third party website. Like a virus, it will activate when you open it. However, Spyware is not obviously harmful. Instead, the spyware program will start burrowing deep into your computer and sending information about your computer and your online activities to the person who created it. It might just be your email address. Soon your inbox is full of spam. Or it might be your financial records, stolen by an identity theft. The only way you can know whether you have spyware is the run a detection program, but you can make a good guess that it’s spyware if your computer runs slow.

So, you ask, what is the important distinction between anti-spyware and anti-virus software? The good news is, most of the time, modern computer protection provides you with both. Updating for both spyware and virus definitions at least every week, your protection software will know the definitions it needs to scan and disinfect your hard drive on a regular basis.

Anti-virus programs will usually integrate themselves into your email and web browser. This keeps malicious programs from ever infecting your computer in the first place. Anti-spyware software may perform the same function, but it is usually more from removing files that have already infected your computer. Anti-spyware will often provide you with a tool that will scan websites you are about to visit. It will stop you from logging on and tell you they contain malicious code or have been reported as installing spyware on other computers, or if the anti-spyware designer has safety concerns about the site.

To keep your computer secure and malware-free, your best option is to obtain software that protects you against both problems. Anti-virus software and anti-spyware software in the same package afford you a more complete, robust protection against the ever growing number of malicious programs that threaten your computer from the World Wide Web.

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