Spyware - An Introduction

By: Steve Szettella

Perhaps one of the most annoying and infectious piece of technology to hit the internet in the past few years is spyware. Sometimes benign, sometimes devastating, I have seen very capable machines brought to their knees by the likes of new.net and coolwebsearch. On more than one occassion, clients have come to me convinced that their only alternative is to go out an buy a new PC to correct the problems caused by malicious spyware.

So, What is it?

First, spyware is generally any piece of software that collects data about the usage and/or user of the computer it is installed on and sends that information to another computer. Many people knowingly download and install software that is (or technically contains) spyware. Some examples are Kazaa, the Weather Bug, and BearShare. Many spyware programs are relatively harmless, if you're not concerned about the privacy of your online activities, that is. Often times, however, spyware programs are installed without the user's knowledge or permission, and begin to exert control over the host system.

What does it do to my computer?

Common symptoms of infection include:

How can I find and get rid of it?

Luckily, the programmers of the world have been hard at work, creating tools and catalogs of malicious software and bringing them together to create the anti-virus equivalent for spyware. Even better, some of the best tools available won't cost you a dime. My personal favorite is Spybot Search & Destroy. This tool scans your computer disks and memory for known spyware and other malicious software. It then presents you with a list of all of the problems it has found and you can choose to remove any or all of the items in the list. There are cases where Spybot will flag legitimate programs as spyware. These programs may be installed by parents to monitor their children's online activity, or some may choose to leave peer-to-peer file sharing software installed, such as BearShare. In any event, simply deselect them from the list, and clean your system.

If you're looking for a more comprehensive PC security solution, McAfee and Norton are both now offering anti-spyware products in addition to their anti-virus, personal firewall, anti-spam and privacy offerings. For most home users and many small businesses, it is well worth buying the entire security suite as a bundle. Both of these products offer very good protection against the myriad of threats out there. They are fairly easy to install and configure, and offer additional parental control features that can be very useful for those with children who use the family PC.

Hopefully this helps you sort through all of the buzz around spyware today. It is a huge problem that's not going away any time soon. The best you can do today is to clean what you have and protect your PC from getting more of it. Legislation is pending in several states to regulate spyware, but any meaningful enforcement is likely years away. For now, be safe.

About the Author:

Steve Szettella, the founder and creative force behind 4word systems, is an experienced IT professional with a broad background in technology. Most of his time is spent designing, building and deploying mission critical, line of business applications for a Fortune 5 company in the metropolitan Detroit area. Other projects that Mr. Szettella is involved in range from cutting edge technology startups to building websites and custom software for dozens of small businesses across North America. Steve also blogs regularly at blogger.com.

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