DEVELOPMENT. • The first recorded use of the term spyware

occurred on 16 October 1995 in a Usenet post that poked fun at Microsoft's business model.[1] Spyware at first denoted software meant for espionage purposes. However, in early 2000 the founder of Zone Labs, Greg or Freund, used the term in a press release for the Zone Alarm Personal Firewall. Since then, "spyware" has taken on its present sense.

SPYWARE, VIRUSES & WORMS

Unlike viruses and worms, spy ware does not usually self-replicate. Like many recent viruses, however, spy ware—by design—exploits infected computers for commercial gain. Typical tactics 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, and routing of HTTP requests to advertising sites.

ROUTES OF INFECTION

COMPUTER BEHAVIOUR A spy ware program is rarely alone on a computer: an

affected machine usually has multiple infections. Users frequently notice unwanted behavior and degradation of system performance such as;

EFFECTS OF INFECTIONI. Damage to Computer

II. Advertisements

Many spyware programs display advertisements. Some programs simply display pop-up ads on a regular basis; for instance, one every several minutes, or one when the user opens a new browser window. Others display ads in response to the user visiting specific sites. Spyware operators present this feature as desirable to advertisers, who may buy ad placement in pop-ups displayed when the user visits a particular site. It is also one of the purposes for which spyware programs gather information on user behavior.

III.Steal ware Steal ware diverts the payment of affiliate

marketing revenues from the legitimate affiliate to the spyware vendor. Spyware which attacks affiliate networks places the spyware operator's affiliate tag on the user's activity — replacing any other tag, if there is one. The spyware operator is the only party that gains from this. The user has their choices thwarted, a legitimate affiliate loses revenue, networks' reputations are injured, and vendors are harmed by having to pay out affiliate revenues to an "affiliate" who is not party to a contract.

•Personal Relationships Spyware has been used to surreptitiously monitor

electronic activities of partners in intimate relationships, generally to uncover evidence of infidelity. At least one software package, Lover spy, was specifically marketed for this purpose. Depending on local laws regarding communal/marital property, observing a partner's online activity without their consent may be illegal; the author of Loverspy and several users of the product were indicted in California in 2005 on charges of wiretapping and various computer crimes.

Preventions And Remedies

• As the spy ware threat has worsened, a number of techniques have emerged to counteract it. These include programs designed to remove or to block spy ware, as well as various user practices which reduce the chance of getting spy ware on a system.

Ways to prevent Spy wares

Anti-spy ware programs

• Many programmers and some commercial firms have released products dedicated to remove or block spy ware Major anti-virus firms such as Symantec, PC Tools, McAfee and Sophos have come later to the table, adding anti-spy ware features to their existing anti-virus products. Early on, anti-virus firms expressed reluctance to add anti-spy ware functions, citing lawsuits brought by spy ware authors against the authors of web sites and programs which described their products as "spy ware".

Anti-spyware programs can combat spyware in two ways:

• They can provide real time protection against the installation of spyware software on the computer. This type of spyware protection works the same way as that of anti-virus protection in that the anti-spyware software scans all incoming network data for spyware software and blocks any threats it comes across.

• Anti-spyware software programs can be used solely for detection and removal of spyware software that has already been installed onto the computer. This type of spyware protection is normally much easier to use and more popular. With this spy ware protection software the user can schedule weekly, daily, or monthly scans of the computer to detect and remove any spyware software that have been installed on the computer. This type of anti-spyware software scans the contents of the windows registry, operating system files, and installed programs on the computer and will provide a list of any threats found, allowing the user to choose what to delete and what to keep

Security practices

• To detect spyware, computer users have found several practices useful in addition to installing anti-spyware programs.

• Some users install a large hosts file which prevents the user's computer from

connecting to known spyware-related web addresses. However, by connecting to the numeric IP address, rather than the domain name, spyware may bypass this sort of protection

• Many system operators install a web browser other than IE, such as Opera, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. Though no browser is completely safe, Internet Explorer is at a greater risk for spyware infection due to its large user base as well as vulnerabilities such as ActiveX.

• The first step to removing spyware is to put a computer on "lockdown". This can be done in various ways, such as using anti-virus software or simply disconnecting the computer from the internet. Disconnecting the internet prevents controllers of the spyware from being able to remotely control or access the computer. The second step to removing the spyware is to locate it and remove it, manually or through use of credible anti-spyware software. During and after lockdown, potentially threatening websites should be avoided.

Rogue anti-spyware programs

• Malicious programmers have released a large number of rogue (fake) anti-spyware programs, and widely distributed Web banner ads now spuriously warn users that their computers have been infected with spyware, directing them to purchase programs which do not actually remove spyware—or else, may add more spyware of their own.

• The recent proliferation of fake or spoofed antivirus products has occasioned some concern. Such products often bill themselves as anti spyware, antivirus, or registry cleaners, and sometimes feature popups prompting users to install them. This software is called rogue software.

• It is recommended that users do not install any freeware claiming to be anti-spyware unless it is verified to be legitimate.

The end