Spyware

One of the most invasive forms of malware out in the wild is Spyware, software which spies on you, sending your private and confidential information onto others without your knowledge.

With the ever increasing use and trust of computers for all areas of your life, including credit cards, banking, and a whole host of other sensitive and confidential information, no-one can afford to let criminals to have a free reign over this wealth of private information.

Although the information gathered by spyware can sometimes just be things as innocent as web usage habits, with the spying being done on behalf of unscrupulous market research companies, all too often the data stolen from your computer can have much more serious implications to you, and quite often leads to situations such as identity theft.

Spyware can gather information from you by using various methods including keyloggers (which record every key pressed, allowing for password retrieval amongst other things), searching your internet history, and searching for stored usernames and passwords in applications. The information is either sent on in real time or is written to hidden files on your computer which are later forwarded onto the cyber criminals.

There are a surprisingly large proportion of computers which are infected with spyware, and it is usually found bundled with free software downloaded from the internet. And, due to some of this software having the inclusion of this spyware written in the small print of the terms and conditions, removal of it by off the shelf products is a bit of a grey area. There have been many anti-virus software vendors taken to court for removing this type of unwanted software.

Due to this, anti-virus software will rarely solve the problems generated by this most serious of all malware threats, so specialist anti-spyware software needs to be used. However, not all spyware is found and removed by any one package, so it is strongly recommended that you scan your computer with two different products, and keep them regularly updated.

Using a personal firewall is also highly recommended, as these can be configured to notify you if a new program is trying to send data out to the internet. This feature can often allow you to stop spyware from ‘calling home’.

The best way to avoid spyware is to avoid untrustworthy websites, never open suspicious looking emails, and to never download and install free software unless you are confident the source can be trusted.