Spyware - What Everyone Needs to Know

What is Spyware?

Spyware is a type of malicious software that is installed on your computer without your consent. It is usually a very small piece of software that installs so quickly you don't even know it. Once installed, it runs in the background undetected. The purpose of spyware is to take partial control of your computer or to intercept data from your computer. Spyware is created by unscrupulous developers who wish to take something from you for their own purposes. What is taken depends on the purpose of the spyware, and could be anything from bandwidth to highly confidential personal information.

Some Examples of what Spyware Does

Some spyware takes control of your computer and can turn it into a "zombie" that is under the control of the programmer. Hijacked computers are often placed into "zombie farms" that include hundreds (or thousands) of other computers that are also under control of the spyware owner. These zombies are often rented to spammers or hackers who use these computers as mail relay agents or in targeted attacks against other websites.

What is Spyware?

Spyware is a general term for malware that is installed on a computer by infected pages on the Internet, or comes from software and other packages that was installed on the computer by the user. Incorrectly labeled as viruses, spyware has proliferated over the last 8-10 years (since about 2000) and has caused many computer users to have major headaches, causing computer reformats and file loss. This type of software is what this document is going to concentrate on.

Spyware can come in the form of Ad-ware, Hijackers, tracking cookies (although not all tracking cookies are bad), rogue security software, ransom-ware (an advanced rogue security software), and keyloggers. New types of spyware include rootkits which can be very difficult, if not impossible to remove from a computer system. I will speak more on that later. The primary point of spyware, however, is that it is a piece of software installed on a computer system without the user's consent or knowledge, and is typically very difficult (or seemingly difficult) to remove.