Spyware: Who Is Really Paying the Price? What Is Spyware and Why Is It a Problem? Mike Houghton
What is Spyware?
We've all heard about spyware, but what is it exactly? Spyware defined, according to Dictionary.com, is "any software that covertly gathers information about a user while he/she navigates the Internet and transmits the information to an individual or company that uses it for marketing or other purposes; also called adware."
Many software programs today are available for free because of adware, or advertising-supported software, as it is also known. This is a way for software creators to make money from a product that they otherwise would have to sell to users outright. Now this sounds like a great idea in theory and might lead the user to think, "I'm getting this great software and it costs me nothing!" But the old adage holds true: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Why is Spyware a problem?
There are software programs that install legitimate advertisements to the PC when a user chooses to install the software. These are not always malicious or harmful. The program may contain a bar at the top of the window that displays ads based on answers to survey questions that users may have been given.
The ads are then tailored for the specific user. So far so good, right? Here is where the problems begin — much of this advertising software also installs some form of tracking software.
Tracking software will transmit data about the user's web surfing habits back to the software company, and the only thing it requires to do this is an IP address. Most of these companies have privacy policies stating that they will not transmit "sensitive" or "personal" data back to the tracking server, but the fact remains that the PC is constantly being monitored and is continually sending your info across the network.
While the amount of information sent is very small, it is continual. In terms of bandwidth, one user doing this wouldn't result in a problem, but in an enterprise setting with thousands of PCs all running spyware, this could result in a significant network bandwidth usage, or better put, stolen bandwidth.
Spyware can also be malicious in some cases, "hijacking" or "taking over" a user's browser and resetting the default homepage to another page. This type of software is usually installed without the user ever even knowing about it. Sometimes this can effectively keep the user from accessing anything except for the page the spyware software directs the browser to open.
