He installed a firewall to protect against hackers, a virus protection program to stop online bugs. He made sure to use e-mail on the Web rather than a program that downloads it -- and possible spam and other annoying or nefarious agents -- to his computer. He avoided installing instant messenger and chat-room programs, many of which are known to be associated with adware.
"All, apparently, to no avail," he said.
Harris said he equates the problem to "someone breaking into your house and someone saying you didn't have enough locks on your doors." He believes more responsibility should fall on companies to make sure the machines are protected. "I drive an 18-year-old car and a 12-year old truck and have a 10-year-old dishwasher. They are still functional. But not the computer."
It is difficult for even the most technology-savvy to avoid the problem.
In June, Philippe Ombredanne, a systems administrator and programmer from Menlo Park, Calif., bought a new computer. He said he was feeling lazy so he put off installing security software for a day. When he woke up, the computer was infected with one virus and about 30 spyware or adware programs, forcing him to erase data and programs from his hard drive and reinstall everything from scratch. "A vanilla computer with no protection has no chance on the Internet anymore," he said.
The SANS Institute, a Bethesda-based computer security research center, has studied what it calls the "survival time" of an unprotected computer hooked up to the Internet. A year ago, the average time before it was compromised was about 55 minutes. Today it's 20 minutes.
Johannes B. Ullrich, a technologist with the SANS Institute, said the challenge in controlling the adware and spyware programs is that they fall in a gray area between legitimate software and hacker-type programs designed to take over a computer.
"It's sometimes hard to figure out where they originally got adware from, whether it was part of an attack or whether a person installed it themselves without really knowing," Ullrich said.
The problem is prompting systems administrators like Ombredanne to recommend open-source alternatives. Open-source software is often developed collaboratively by volunteers and the code behind the programs is available for all to see. For years, technology wonks have argued about whether that makes the programs more or less secure than those with proprietary code.
He said he tells clients to use Gaim instead of AOL Instant Messenger and Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer and that companies are much more open to that advice than they were several years ago, because of adware and spyware.
Meanwhile, the problem of adware and spyware is creating a new type of Internet user -- one who is disenchanted with promises of technological bells and whistles and just wants the basics to work. Some are sticking to dial-up Internet service rather than upgrading to broadband because higher speeds on an "always on" connection create more opportunities for infection with nefarious programs. They are foregoing multimedia programs, basically using their computers as typewriters.
Harris and his wife are in that group.
At the height of his computer use a few years ago, Harris was so excited about it that he set up and maintained a Web site for his church and for some local charities. Now he dreads having to log on.
"I used to feel that the Internet had tremendous potential for communication and was a wonderful tool to use," he said. "I don't anymore."
