Spyware
Spyware is a broad category of malicious software designed
to intercept or take partial control of a computer's operation
without the informed consent of that machine's owner or legitimate
user. While the term taken literally suggests software that
surreptitiously monitors the user, it has come to refer more broadly
to software that subverts the computer's operation for the benefit
of a third party.
Spyware differs from viruses and worms in that it does not usually
self-replicate. Like many recent viruses, however, spyware is
designed to exploit infected computers for commercial gain. Typical
tactics furthering this goal include delivery of unsolicited pop-up
advertisements; theft of personal information (including financial
information such as credit card numbers); monitoring of Web-browsing
activity for marketing purposes; or routing of HTTP requests to
advertising sites.
As of 2005, spyware has become one of the pre-eminent security
threats for computers running Microsoft Windows operating systems.
Some malware on the Linux and Mac OS X platforms has behavior
similar to Windows spyware, but to date has not become anywhere near
as widespread.In most cases no single product will remove even a moderately
infected computer. We recommend that you use a combination of the
following products:
Adware frequently refers to any software which displays
advertisements, whether or not it does so with the user's consent.
Programs such as the Eudora mail client display advertisements as an
alternative to shareware registration fees. These classify as "adware"
in the sense of advertising-supported software, but not as spyware.
They do not operate surreptitiously or mislead the user.
Many of the programs frequently classified as spyware function as
adware in a different sense: their chief observed behavior consists
of displaying advertising. Claria Corporation's Gator Software and
Exact Advertising's BargainBuddy provides an example of this sort of
program. Visited Web sites frequently install Gator on client
machines in a surreptitious manner, and it directs revenue to the
installing site and to Claria by displaying advertisements to the
user. The user's experience is that their computer begins displaying
a large number of pop-up advertisements.
Other spyware behaviors, such as reporting on websites the user
visits, frequently accompany the displaying of advertisements.
Monitoring web activity aims at building up a marketing profile on
users in order to sell "targeted" advertisement impressions. The
prevalence of spyware has cast suspicion upon other programs that
track Web browsing, even for statistical or research purposes. Some
observers describe the Alexa Toolbar, an Internet Explorer plug-in
published by Amazon.com, as spyware (and some anti-spyware programs
report it as such) although many users choose to install
Removal of spyware and adware can be achieved using several free tools (listed below), we recommend that you use a combination of the programs because as of yet no single program removes all infections. In severe cases the computer needs to be reformatted and have a fresh copy of Windows installed.
Microsoft Windows Defender (Formerly AntiSpyware)
Lavasoft AdAware
Spybot Search and Destroy
More information can be found at the AntiSpyware Coalition website
http://www.antispywarecoalition.org/