Electronics

[Silverfox1]

Has anyone had a problem with SPYWARE on their computer?

Last night my husband went to a blog that he goes to every day. It is a blog like a chatboard. It's a bunch of people who love to talk sports and our home baseball team. They chat during the game. He has used this blog for several years...until last night!

Last night he tried to log on and a window poped up stating there was a problem with his computer regarding spyware and would not allow him access to his blog. Nothing like this has ever popped up before.

We are two people who use their computers for fun, shopping, chat boards, etc. We had no idea what spyware was. We searched it out...we found out it is a very serious problem. His computer is being used by someone else to gain knowledge on what he does on the Internet. It also said his computer was full of viruses and it was very dangerous to keep using it for any reason. Today he took it to several places to see if he could get help and everyone want a minimum of several hundred dollars to take a look at it. In our search we found out the best thing to do was clean everything out....everything. Clean out his hard drive and go back to step one and reset his computer up to how it was when it was brand new....go back to factory set up.

Could someone please help. Tell us what we are dealing with. How dangerous it this? Can someone be getting private information like charge card numbers used when buying something on the Internet?

We don't know what to do. Any thoughts or suggestions sure would be appreciated.

One final note....just how important is security on a computer. Right now, my security just expired. Should I have some type of security? If so, is one better than another? I had Norton Security. Our computers are just 2 -21/2 years old.

Once again any help would sure be appreciated What is spyware, how does your computer pick it up, how dangerous is it and finally, is there a way to get rid of it?

Many, many thanks!!