How Spyware Spreads And Why Is It A Serious ThreatSpyware is the biggest and most nightmarish computer security threat that anyone can encounter now a days. It is a must that every computer user knows how spyware spreads and why is it such a serious threat. There are two answers to how spyware spreads, it can either be with your consent obtained in correctly or using any vulnerability in your computer In the former case the spyware comes bundled with an application that may either be freeware or be shareware. In such a case the software developer might be sharing some revenue that the spyware company earns by displaying ads on you computer or by selling your information. In the second case the spyware uses any vulnerability on your computer that allows unauthorized code to be executed on your computer without your consent or in most cases without even your knowledge. This may even be done using drive by download where a maliciously crafted web page or an email would trigger the download and installation of spyware on your computer. In order to understand why spyware is such a serious threat, you must know what does spyware do. It snoops around in your computer and collects your information. Now this information can be of any type moreover it can be of any nature. The job of spyware is to harvest as much of information as is possible. While spyware can be programmed to steal only specific types of information, there is no saying which spyware tool does what. In order to further understand the concept we have to understand how does spyware work. Once installed on your computer the task of spyware is to steal your data. This is done in two ways, it can monitor all the keystrokes of the computer and it can take a periodic screen shot of what is being displayed on the computer screen. In either way it can collect any kind of information that you may imagine and even that which you can not. The spyware generally comes with a key logger module and occasionally with a screen capture module. This is in addition to the modules which allow it to communicate to its originator over the internet. For the people who use dial up internet, this is a bigger issue since it would kick up their connectivity charges big time. It would collect your data, dial your internet and transmit your information at your own cost. While there are a number of tools to help you get rid of spyware, the best approach to remain safe from this threat if to know how spyware spreads and what can you do to ensure that your computer does not get infected. |