BBC - WebWise - What is spyware?
Anti-spyware is a type of software that is designed to detect and remove unwanted spyware programs. Spyware is a type of malware that is installed on a computer without the user's knowledge in order to collect information about them. This can pose a security risk to the user, but more frequently spyware degrades system performance by taking up processing power, installing additional software.
Spyware can also gather information about e-mail addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers. Spyware is similar to a Trojan horse in that users unwittingly install the product when they install something else. A common way to become a victim of spyware is to download certain peer-to-peer file swapping products that are available today. Aside from the questions of ethics and privacy.
While the term spyware suggests that software that secretly monitors the user’s computing, the functions of spyware extend well beyond simple monitoring. Spyware programs can collect various types of personal information, such as Internet surfing habits and sites that have been visited, but can also interfere with user control of the computer in other ways, such as installing additional.
Spyware.PasswordStealer may be distributed using various methods. This spyware may be packaged with free online software, or could be disguised as a harmless program and distributed by email. Alternatively, this software may be installed by websites using software vulnerabilities. Infections that occur in this manner are usually silent and happen without user knowledge or consent.
Spyware is a broad category of malware designed to secretly observe activity on a device and send those observations to a snooper. It is used by everyone from nation states to jealous spouses.
Spyware is the term given to a category of software which aims to steal personal or organisational information. It is done by performing a set of operations without appropriate user permissions, sometimes even covertly. General actions a spyware performs include advertising, collection of personal information and changing user configuration.
Spyware cost one substitute teacher her job and almost put her in jail. In October 2004, 37-year old Julie Amero was substitute teaching in a seventh-grade class at Kelly Middle School in Norwich, Conn. Amero, who said she wasn't an experienced computer user, had finished checking her personal e-mail and left the room briefly to use the restroom. When she returned, some children were standing.