As a child you were told to behave well throughout the year because Santa is watching you. Santa had elves everywhere reporting your every misdeed and good deeds to Santa. Well, Santa is watching you even now. This time it?s not his elf but Backdoor Santa. Backdoor Santa is watching your every move on the internet.
This is because Backdoor Santa is a Malware (bad program) on your computer and gives you no reason to celebrate its presence. Although like the real Santa, the Backdoor Santa is also keeping an eye on your behavior, on the internet. It is like a spy noting down your internet activities.
So how did you get it in the first place? Remember that cool looking toolbar you downloaded to help you with your internet searches? It had such great features that you felt you absolutely must have to most pleasurable surfing experience? Well that is how you got this silent little spy on your computer. Toolbars like Alexa and Hotbar lead the pack when it comes to installing Backdoor Santas on your computer. And before you think it, you cannot uninstall them so easily.
So, you have antivirus program. An antivirus program is good against viruses and worms only. It will not remove spyware, adware and other malware (bad programs). Backdoor Santa is not a virus. It is a spyware, a program meant to spy on you. You need an anti-spyware program to get rid of Backdoor Santa.
Once Backdoor Santa downloads through bad toolbars, they begin keeping a watch on all your internet activities. They view and report (to remotely placed controlling programs) your browsing activities. Your net behavior is studied and analyzed. Then, they start directing your internet searches to websites they want you to see and visit. This is why they are installed on your computer in the first place, to modify your internet behavior to benefit the installers.
Just when you thought that anti-virus software was all you need, mischievous programs such as the backdoor Santas call for actual specialized spyware software today to fight off their presence and potential threat.
Backdoor Santa is also an URL logger. URL is the address of the website you visit. It reports back every website address you visit during your internet activity. This report is analyzed for your internet behavior and then your search results are diverted to match your behavior, but to profit the Santa installer.
Backdoor Santa is also a cookie installer. Cookie is a small program saved in your temporary folder to facilitate faster download of web pages and update web pages you visit repeatedly. Backdoor Santa starts downloading and saving third party cookies (cookies belonging to websites other than those visited by you). This again alters the way you surf. Unwanted web pages keep opening for you to view.
You may say that this cannot happen to you as you have antivirus programs installed. But antivirus programs work against viruses. Backdoor Santa is not a virus. Antivirus programs will neither detect nor remove Backdoor Santa from your computer.
Take preventive measure and have a good anti-spyware software installed on your computer protecting you from such bad programs. Anti-spyware program will not just remove Backdoor Santa, it will also prevent Backdoor Santa from downloading again.
