What Is Adware and How to Protect Your Devices In 2024

September 12, 2024 By Christine Margret No Comments 7 minutes

In this guide, I will answer the most asked question: “What is Adware.” Have you ever noticed that you start receiving ads while installing or running an app? These ads show up on your screen using a software called advertisement-supported software, or Adware. To learn more about how it works and how you can prevent it, stick to this blog.

What is Adware

Note: Adware can be malicious and harmful to your data. To keep yourself 100% secure, I strongly suggest following the best cybersecurity practices. Also, as a cybersecurity expert, I will advise you to add a top-notch VPN like FastestVPN and antivirus software to your digital toolkit, regularly update your system, and avoid downloading suspicious links.

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What Is Adware?

Adware is software that shows annoying advertisements and downloads on your screen while a program is running. The ads are typically displayed through pop-up windows or banners within the program’s user interface. While adware is commonly designed for PCs, mobile devices can also be vulnerable to adware attacks.

Software developers often use legitimate or ad-supported software to recoup development costs, which may also reduce users’ software costs. However, in some instances, these ads can pose cybersecurity risks or direct users to malicious websites.

How Does Adware Work?

It embeds itself in an application on a user’s device by exploiting a security vulnerability. Users unknowingly download adware while installing an application that is already vulnerable or exploited.

Once installed on a device, it pop-ups advertisements, aiming to get users to click on or engage with them.

Adware developers and distributors earn money each time a user interacts with ads. While some adware is legitimate and installed with user consent, it is often unwanted and can sometimes pose a security threat, though it is usually just a nuisance.

Types Of Adware

We can mainly sort adware into two types: Legitimate and Malicious. I will break it down further below to help you better comprehend the concept of both adware types.

1. Legitimate

Legitimate adware is software that users download with their explicit consent, often in exchange for benefits like free or discounted software. This type of adware helps cover the software’s development costs by displaying ads to users. For example, some software is available in two versions: a free, ad-supported version and a paid version without ads. Users who prefer an ad-free experience can opt to purchase the paid version.

2. Malicious

Malicious adware is designed to deceive or abuse users, often making it difficult for them to refuse or opt out of consenting to it. This type of adware may overwhelm users with unwanted advertisements or use deceptive tactics to gain consent. While adware is considered malicious if it deliberately delivers harmful software, even some legal adware can unintentionally create security vulnerabilities that malware might exploit.

Types Of Malicious Adware

Some types of malicious adware are:

1. Man-in-the-middle Attacks

A Man-in-the-middle attack refers to a situation where an attacker intercepts and inserts themselves into a conversation between a user and an application. The attacker can either listen in on the communication or pretend to be one of the parties involved, making it seem like a regular exchange of information is happening.

2. Potentially unwanted programs (PUPs)

A potentially unwanted program (PUP) is software that users may not want, even after agreeing to download it. PUPs mostly include dialers, spyware, and adware and are often downloaded in conjunction with a program that the user wants.

3. Spyware

Generally, Spyware is considered malicious software intended to infiltrate your system, collect data about you, and send it to a third party without your permission. However, the term can also apply to legitimate software that tracks your data for commercial purposes, such as advertising.

What Is Mobile Adware?

It is similar to adware and is designed to infect mobile devices. It can either infect your device through a downloaded application from a third-party store, or web browser pop-ups. Some mobile adware are dangerous because they trap you to click on ads without you knowing and ultimately cause you to subscribe to premium paid services.

How Do You Detect Adware?

Here are some telltale signs that indicate that your device is infected with adware:

The most abvious sign that your device infected by an adware is constant pop-ups particularly on pages that normally wont show ads like search engine or email inbox.
Unknown apps that you haven’t downloaded appear on your screen. Adware is mostly concealed as fake apps. If you see an app that you did not install, avoid launching it.
Another common sign that you are dealing with adware is ads showing up on your lock screen or notification panel. Ads must not appear in these places, including text messages, notification panel and lock screen.
Getting redirected to different pages quite frequently.
A sudden change appears in your homepage, default search and browser settings.
Your device starts to quickly drain the battery as adware or other viruses run in the background of your operating system and consume your device’s battery.

How Do You Remove Adware?

If you have identified a malicious app, simply deleting it would not be enough. To ensure maximum protection follow these additional steps:

Download Android antivirus software and scan for adware
Boot up your device in Safe Mode
Uninstall suspicious apps
Change app admin permissions
Reset your browser cache and settings
Turn Off malicious website notifications
Disable “Customization services” (If the option is available)
Factory reset your device.

How to Prevent Adware?

To prevent adware, always update your operating system/software. Never click on mysterious files, and don’t download attachments from unknown sources.

Use an ad blocker. FastestVPN offers a high-quality ad-blocking feature to protect your online privacy on the go. You should also install antivirus and anti-malware programs and only visit trusted sources for online shopping and browsing.

How to Get Rid of Adware on Android

If your Android device has got the adware, then the best practice is to delete all the recently downloaded apps that contain adware inside.

In case, if you couldn’t find the malicious app then don’t forget to reboot your Android device and use the safest browsers to known more read our guide on most secure browsers to protect your online privacy.

How to Remove Adware from Chrome

Follow these quick and simple steps to remove it from Google Chrome:

Open Chrome on your device
Go to the top right corner
Click the three-dot menu to open Settings
Click Advanced (mentioning at the bottom)
Go to Reset Settings
Under Reset Settings, click “Restore settings to their original defaults”.

How to Remove Adware on Mac

The best way to remove Adware from Windows or Mac is to use the adware removal tool. However, if you want to remove adware from Mac manually, then follow these simple instructions:

Open Activity Monitor from LaunchPad
In Activity Monitor, look for the suspect application (usually InstallMac and Genio are common adware apps)
Click on the Force Quit button appearing on the top left corner of the window
Navigate back to the suspect app and drag it into the trash
Restart your Mac device
Empty Trash.

Remove Adware from Phone

This is a generic method to remove adware from a phone:

Open phone’s Settings
Click on Apps
Find the malicious app and uninstall it ( Remove all the recently installed apps if you can’t find the malicious app)

If you find that the app needs to be Force stop then Follow these steps:

Tap on Clear cache
Tap on Clear data
Restart your phone.

Conclusion

Adware is a malware that traps you to click and install malicious software into your browser and bombarded ads on your screen. You can keep your browser secure by installing anti-malware software and avoid clicking on the unknown sources. Last but not the least; never forget to frequently perform scans to keep your system protected and up to date.