In honor of Cybersecurity Month, we would like to start your week with tips to stay safe online. Today’s subject: Adware.

Adware is software that pops-up annoying advertisements. While some of these aim to make money by hoping that you’ll click on the ads, some of them are out to steal your personal information, track your browsing history or even record your keystrokes.

Here are some tips to protect yourself:

• Sometimes adware writers take a sneaky approach. They setup their program to run quietly in the background to spy on your activities.
• Scan your computer with an anti-malware solution once a week.
• Make sure anything you download from the Interne tis from a reputable site. Otherwise, you risk installing adware on your machine or device.
• When you’re online, a simple click can often all it takes to install a piece of malicious software. Be careful of what you click online.
• Ignore pop-ups that tell you that your computer is running slow or unsolicited e-mails that promise to increase your computer’s performance.
• Make sure you have antivirus software installed on your computer and that it is setup to automatically run scans weekly.

Be Smart. Be Aware. Be Secure. ERMProtect.