Pearl Knowledge Sharing Center - Spyware

Spyware
        Spyware is computer software that collects personal information about users without their informed consent. The term Spyware, which was coined in 1995 but wasn't widely used for another five years, is often used interchangeably with adware and malware (software designed to infiltrate and damage a computer respectively).
         Personal information is secretly recorded with a variety of techniques, including logging keystrokes, recording Internet web browsing history, and scanning documents on the computer's hard disk. Purposes range from overtly criminal (theft of passwords and financial details) to the merely annoying (recording Internet search history for targeted advertising, while consuming computer resources). Spyware may collect different types of information. Some variants attempt to track the websites a user visits and then send this information to an advertising agency. More malicious variants attempt to intercept passwords or credit card numbers as a user enters them into a web form or other applications.
         The spread of spyware has led to the development of an entire anti-spyware industry. Its products remove or disable existing spyware on the computers they are installed on and prevent its installation. However, a number of companies have incorporated forms of spyware into their products. These programs are not considered malware, but are still spyware as they watch and observe for advertising purposes. It is debatable whether such 'legitimate' uses of adware/spyware are malware since the user often has no knowledge of these 'legitimate' programs being installed on his/her computer and is generally unaware that these programs are infringing on his/her privacy. In any case, these programs still use the resources of the host computer without permission.

History and development
The first recorded use of the term spyware occurred on October 16, 1995 in a Usenet post that poked fun at Microsoft's business model. Spyware at first denoted hardware meant for espionage purposes. However, in early 2000 the founder of Zone Labs, Gregor Freund, used the term in a press release for the ZoneAlarm Personal Firewall. Since then, "spyware" has taken on its present sense. In early 2001, Steve Gibson of Gibson Research realized that advertising software had been installed on his system, and suspected it was stealing his personal information. After analysis, he determined that it was adware from the companies Aureate (later Radiate) and Conducent. Gibson developed and released the first anti-spyware program, OptOut. Many more have appeared since then. According to a 2005 study by AOL and the National Cyber-Security Alliance, 61% of surveyed users' computers had some form of spyware. 92% of surveyed users with spyware reported that they did not know of its presence, and 91% reported that they had not given permission for the installation of the spyware. As of 2006, spyware has become one of the preeminent security threats to computer systems running Microsoft Windows operating systems. In an estimate based on customer-sent scan logs, Webroot Software, makers of Spy Sweeper, said that 9 out of 10 computers connected to the Internet are infected. Computers where Internet Explorer (IE) is the primary browser are particularly vulnerable to such attacks not only because IE is the most widely-used, but because its tight integration with Windows allows spyware access to crucial parts of the operating system.

Comparison
Spyware, adware and tracking
         The term adware frequently refers to any software which displays advertisements, whether or not the user has consented. Programs such as the Eudora mail client display advertisements as an alternative to shareware registration fees. These classify as "adware" in the sense of advertising-supported software, but not as spyware. Adware in this form does not operate surreptitiously or mislead the user, and provides the user with a specific service.
        Most spyware is adware in a different sense: it displays advertising. Claria Corporation's Gator Software and Exact Advertising's BargainBuddy are examples. Visited Web sites frequently install Gator on client machines in a surreptitious manner, and it directs revenue to the installing site and to Claria by displaying advertisements to the user. The user receives many pop-up advertisements.
         Other spyware behavior, such as reporting on websites the user visits, occurs in the background. The data is used for "targeted" advertisement impressions. The prevalence of spyware has cast suspicion upon other programs that track Web browsing, even for statistical or research purposes. Some observers describe the Alexa Toolbar, an Internet Explorer plug-in published by Amazon.com, as spyware (and some anti-spyware programs report it as such). Many users, however, choose to install it.
         Similarly, software bundled with free, advertising-supported programs such as P2P act as spyware, (and if removed disable the 'parent' program) yet people are willing to download it. This presents a dilemma for proprietors of anti-spyware products whose removal tools may inadvertently disable wanted programs. These recent test results show how a bundled software (WhenUSave) is ignored by popular anti spyware program AdAware, (but removed as spyware by most scanners) because it is part of the popular (but recently decommissioned) Edonkey client. To address this dilemma, the Anti-Spyware Coalition has been working on building consensus within the anti-spyware industry as to what is and isn't acceptable software behavior. To accomplish their goal, this group of anti-spyware companies, academics, and consumer groups have collectively published a series of documents including a definition of spyware, risk model, and best practices document.

Spyware, virus and worm
        Unlike viruses and worms, spyware does not usually self-replicate. Like many recent viruses, however, spyware � by design � exploits infected computers for commercial gain. Typical tactics furthering this goal include delivery of unsolicited pop-up advertisements; theft of personal information (including financial information such as credit card numbers); monitoring of Web-browsing activity for marketing purposes; or routing of HTTP requests to advertising sites.