While the Internet is a powerful resource and provides users with many useful and often entertaining things to see and do, it also has its dark side.
Most people are familiar with freeware, shareware, cookies, media players, interactive content, and file sharing. What they may not realize is that some of the aforementioned may contain code or components that allow the developers of these applications and tools to actually collect and disseminate information about those using them.
They can track your surfing habits, abuse your Internet connection by sending this data to a third party, profile your shopping preferences, hijack your browser start page or pages, alter important system files, and can do this without your knowledge or permission.
The security and privacy implications of these exploits should be quite obvious and undesirable on any system or network!
Proweb highly recommend using Malware Bytes. This software is very effective in finding and removing software that is potentially harmful to your PC and network.