Spyware is any application that tracks your online behavior without your knowledge or consent. Spyware infects nine out of ten PCs connected to the Internet and has eclipsed viruses as the #1 threat to online privacy.

Many freeware programs (and even some commercial ones) come with an abundance of spyware. In addition to invading your privacy, these programs are also a security risk to your computer. They access the internet to send your data, but hackers can utilize their connections to hack into your computer. These programs are not written with any regard for speed and effiency - they slow down your computer and your network connection.

Examples of known spyware are: Flyswat, Hotbar, Webhancer, Comet Cursor, Doubleclick and Gator.

Some suggested free utilities that can help you keep your PC free of spyware:

Malwarebytes.org
Ad-Aware
Spybot Search & Destroy
Windows Defender

11 Signs of Spyware

By Neil J. Rubenking
PC Magazine, March 2, 2004

1. You find a new finger-size hardware device connected between your keyboard cable's plug and the corresponding socket on the back of your computer. Or maybe someone recently offered you "a better keyboard."

2. Your phone bill includes expensive calls to 900 numbers that you never made—probably at an outrageous per-minute rate.

3. You enter a search term in Internet Explorer's address bar and press Enter to start the search. Instead of your usual search site, an unfamiliar site handles the search.

4. Your antispyware program or another protective program stops working correctly. It may warn you that certain necessary support files are missing, but if you restore the files they go missing again. It may appear to launch normally and then spontaneously shut down, or it may simply crash whenever you try to run it.

5. A new item appears in your Favorites list without your putting it there. No matter how many times you delete it, the item always reappears later.

6. Your system runs noticeably slower than it did before. If you're a Windows 2000/XP user, launching the Task Manager and clicking the Processes tab reveals that an unfamiliar process is using nearly 100 percent of available CPU cycles.

7. At a time when you're not doing anything online, the send or receive lights on your dial-up or broadband modem blink just as wildly as when you're downloading a file or surfing the Web. Or the network/modem icon in your system tray flashes rapidly even when you're not using the connection.

8. A search toolbar or other browser toolbar appears even though you didn't request or install it. Your attempts to remove it fail, or it comes back after removal.

9. You get pop-up advertisements when your browser is not running or when your system is not even connected to the Internet, or you get pop-up ads that address you by name.

10. When you start your browser, the home page has changed to something undesirable. You change it back manually, but before long you find that it has changed back again.

11. And the final sign is: Everything appears to be normal. The most devious spyware doesn't leave traces you'd notice, so scan your system anyway.

How to Avoid Spyware

By Sean Carroll
PC Magazine, March 2, 2004

1. Make sure to run an antispyware application. Perform on-demand scans regularly to root out spyware that slips through the cracks. Reboot after removal and rescan to make sure no ticklers, which are designed to reinstall spyware, have resurrected any deleted apps. Additionally, even though we are not overly impressed with any app's real-time blocking abilities, activate whatever your app of choice offers; it's nearly always better than nothing.

2. Give your antispyware some backup. In addition to an antispyware app, make sure to run both software and hardware firewalls and antivirus applications to protect yourself against Trojan horses (and viruses, naturally).

3. Beware of peer-to-peer file-sharing services. Many of the most popular applications include spyware in their installation procedures. Also, never download any executables via P2P, because you can't be absolutely certain what they are. Actually, it's a good idea to avoid downloading executables from anywhere but vendors or major, well-checked sites.

4. Watch out for cookies. While they may not be the worst form of spyware, information gathered via cookies can sometimes be matched with information gathered elsewhere (via Web bugs, for example) to provide surprisingly detailed profiles of you and your browsing habits.

5. Squash bugs. Web bugs are spies that are activated when you open contaminated HTML e-mail. Get rid of unsolicited e-mail without reading it when you can; turn off the preview pane to delete messages without opening them.

6. Don't install anything without knowing exactly what it is. This means reading the end-user license agreement (EULA) carefully, as some EULAs will actually tell you that if you install the app in question, you've also decided to install some spyware with the software. Check independent sources as well, as some EULAs won't tell you about spyware.

7. Protect yourself against drive-by downloads. Make sure your browser settings are stringent enough to protect you. In IE, this means your security settings for the Internet Zone should be at least medium. Deny the browser permission to install any ActiveX control you haven't requested.

8. Keep up to date on the ever-changing world of spyware. Knowing the threat will help you defeat it. There are several great sites you can visit to keep abreast of this issue. PestPatrol's Research Center has one of the most comprehensive lists of spyware and related threats we've seen. SpywareInfo is another good online source of information.