Spyware Terms and Definitions

What Is Spyware?

A spyware is a very tricky software and one has to admire the brains to come up with a crime ware of this sort. That surely doesn’t mean that we support this unique form of cyber crime, but it does deserve credit in some way. Just think about it, if there were no spywares, there wouldn’t be any anti spyware companies. Now that would be a blow to the industry’s head, wouldn’t it? All this talk about spywares and anti spywares, what exactly are they?

Spyware is exactly what the term says, it is a software that spies on the user’s activities, while he is working on the computer. The information thus collected by the spyware is sent to the spyware creator. The reason why this is termed as a cyber crime is because the information is stolen from the user’s computer by the spyware and is sent to the spyware creator without the user’s consent or sometimes even without his knowledge regarding the stealing activity.

The information that the spyware hacks into may be something as harmless as monitoring the user’s browsing activities or something as harmful as stealing passwords, gaining access to user’s bank accounts, sending spam mail to the user’s mailing clients, etc. The latter form poses a more malicious threat in the form of identity theft that is nothing less than a criminal offense. The difficulty of removing spyware comes from its ability to hide or even disguise itself as some useful program so as to avoid detection.

There have even been some reports of the stolen information being sold to some third party, all thanks to the spyware creator. A spyware can find its way to the computer through many ways, i.e., either by browsing certain websites and clicking on an icon or even a pop up advertisement and the most common channel is through simply viewing any received HTML containing e-mail messages. As soon as the user clicks any icon or a pop up, the downloading process begins.

The funny part about this process is that throughout the entire time the downloading is taking place, the user doesn’t even have the slightest clue about it, simply because he has never authorized the download.

The Spyware Adversary- Anti Spywares

This is perhaps the only answer to spyware problems, your knight in shining armor, if you may call it. Anti spywares are responsible for getting your computer rid of spyware problems. An anti spyware does a thorough search of any sort of spywares in your computer and it works in two stages, namely, detection and deletion. Since a number of spyware programs are written, practically everyday by the spyware creators, the anti spyware databases are also kept up-to-date with the latest spyware threats and detailed information about them.

Anti spywares also have the option of restoring the deleted data or in this case, restoring the deleted spyware. That’s because, some spywares that come along/are attached with a video or a game download are essential for the game or the video to run effectively. In addition to this feature, the description of the particular spyware detected along with its threat level, i.e., whether the threat is high, medium or low is summarized after the scanning process.

Sometimes the description also includes information like the nature and the purpose of the spyware (what it was meant to do) and even displays the website/webpage of the spyware creator. Scheduling scans and auto updates are some of the regular features of anti spywares. This is done in order to ensure the safety of the computer from new spyware and other malware threats. Most of the anti spywares also have the feature of alerting the user if the user is about to download a program or a file that has a spyware attached to it.

Spyware Terms

Given below are some of the spywares that affect the computer along with its capabilities to harm the system:

• Spyware: It is any program that monitors the user’s activity on the Internet without his knowledge.
• Adware: Though they are considered as a useful tool by the advertisers, adwares are perhaps the most annoying program that can affect your computer. These softwares are programmed to keep track of the user’s browsing activity and accordingly pop up advertisements relating to that subject. For example, if the user is browsing a website on cars, especially lone riders, the adware directs the keywords on the page, i.e. cars or lone riders to the software database and sends the user a pop up ad either on car sales or about hydraulic transmissions. The problem starts when the adware program does not find the specific keywords in its database and sends a pop up ad that is irrelevant to the user’s subject of interest. In this case the user will be displayed a pop up such as a dating service or self help books/courses, which is totally irrelevant. Though adwares are not considered very harmful they are known to reduce your Internet connection speed and your computer performance.
• Trojans: They are nothing but deceptive harmful programs aimed at stealing important data and sometimes even disrupting the entire computer system. Trojans are known to disguise themselves as useful tools and programs tricking the user to install/download them. They even download additional malware so as to overwrite and sometimes delete some data from the computer. The utmost danger that Trojans pose is giving access to intruders to the user’s computer with the help of “backdoors”. Once the intruder gains access to the computer, he is free to do anything he likes, namely gaining access to the user’s online bank accounts, playing around with the user’s mailing lists, etc. The very thought of Trojans entering the systems of a corporation or even the defense system’s computer gives goosebumps threatening their security.
• Scumware: Scumware is nothing but programs that re-locate the user to some other sites when he intends to browse another website. They are known to display additional pop ups on the user’s screen and also monitor the user’s online activity.
• Keyloggers: This is the most common and dangerous malware that can infect the user’s computer. They keep track of all the keystrokes that the user types on the keyboard. The alarming fact is that the user has no idea that his keystrokes are being monitored and later retrieved by the intruder. The recorded keystrokes help the intruder to know the user’s password and other information that the user has access to.
• Parasites: They are programs that are installed without the user’s consent on his computer and engage in activities that may affect the system leading to low Internet speeds, etc
• Dialers: These programs affect the user very badly since he might receive phone bills at high rates. That’s because when this software is installed, the user is disconnected from his usual Internet connection provider and connected to another provider. Though they don’t spy on the user’s online activities they can surely bring some extra zeros in his phone bills.
• Browser Hijackers/Browser Helper Objects: These programs are scheduled to run immediately whenever the user uses Internet Explorer. Some of them are used for monitoring the user’s surfing activities. This aspect threatens the privacy of the user.

There is a constant war between spywares and anti spywares. However, anti spywares are always 10 steps ahead when it comes to this competition thereby detecting and destroying any spyware threat that they encounter in the user’s computer. Nobody needs to guess who survives this war, do they?