WHAT IS SPYWARE ?
‘Spyware’ is a shorthand term for “unsolicited commercial software” — that is, a program that gets installed on your computer which you never asked for, and which does something you probably don’t want it to, for someone else’s profit. Spyware often has the ability to broadcast your PC's sensative information out over the web. Things like passwords, key strokes, web histories, credit card numbers and much more can be stolen without you ever knowing. The Spyware problem has grown enormously recently, and many millions of computers are affected.
Want to know more about a specific Spyware threat? Our Spyware database offers detailed information about many of the worst parasites on the Web. Use the navigation above to search the Spyware database according to the first letter of the threat. Note: Threats that start with numbers (example: 123Mania) can be found under the "other" tab.
WHAT ELSE CAN SPYWARE DO?
WHERE DOES SPYWARE COME FROM?
There are three major ways unsolicited commercial software can make its way on to your machine:
Often if you are careful to read the small print when you install the software it will warn you about this, and it is sometimes possible to opt out. So always skim the licence agreement when you install and don’t just click Next-Next-Next... but you still can’t be sure they’ll tell you.
For this reason, you should never click ‘Yes’ to a “Do you wish to download and install...” prompt unless you are 100% sure you trust the publisher of the software, which might not be the publisher of the web site you are viewed — read the dialogue box very carefully.
Sometimes sites (or pop-up ads) try to fool you into clicking ‘Yes’ by stating that the software is necessary to view the site, or opening endless error windows if you click ‘No’, or claiming that the digital certificate on the code means it is safe. It means no such thing. ‘Microsoft Authenticode’, signed by companies like Verisign, means only that the company that wrote the software is the same as the company whose name appears on the download prompt — nothing more.
You can do your best to guard against this by ensuring you have the latest updates and patches from Microsoft. Still, there are usually a handful of security holes that have not yet been corrected, so you can never be 100% sure you are safe.
One way of reducing your risk of exploitation is to go to Tools->Internet Options->Security and set the security level for the Internet Zone to ‘High’. (If no slider is visible, click ‘Default level to make it appear first.) Then set the security level for the Trusted Zone to ‘Medium’ and add the sites you use and trust to this zone; you may need to do this quite often as many badly-designed sites just won’t work in high-security mode.
An alternative solution for the last two problems is just to use a different web browser for everyday browsing, and Internet Explorer only for sites you trust that stubbornly refuse to work with other browsers.
WHY DOESN'T MY ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE DETECT SPYWARE?
Technically, most unsolicited commercial software isn’t viral: it doesn’t spread from computer to computer, it just installs and runs on one system.
That doesn’t mean it’s not harmful, but anti-virus software does not attempt to detect all software that could be harmful. Whether it should is a tricky argument that ends up a question of where you draw the line.
Actually some anti-virus programs do detect some of the parasites outlined on these pages, but not nearly all, and not all versions of them. Parasites that install using IE security holes are more likely to be targeted by the anti-virus software vendors, but the selection of targets seems for the most part to be pretty arbitrary.
WHAT IS MY BEST DEFENSE AGAINST SPYWARE?
