Steps Forward In Fighting Spyware
By Mitch Johnson, Fri Dec 9th
During 2004 there were significant strides in the battle againstspyware which will change the future of the invasive threats.The Federal Trade Commission and the United States Congressaddressed several issues involving spyware in an effort tominimize the threats coming from the quickly growing industry.Before these spyware issues were brought to government attentionspyware was known to be nearly anything that was an internetrelated threat.
There is now a formal definition telling that spyware is"software that aids in gathering information about a person ororganization without their knowledge and which may send suchinformation to another entity without the consumer's consent, orasserts control over a computer without the consumer'sknowledge." Also working against spyware, the congress passedseveral bills to stop spyware from installing and running itselfon someone's computer without their knowledge.
Most spyware distributors were able to sneak around the newslaws set into place by the legislation passed by making theirspy software more difficult to remove. Spyware will installunwanted toolbars, show pop ups, alter security settings, changeyour browser home page and change or delete system files. Otherforms of spyware can log each key stroke you make and then sendor sell it to unknown parties.
Spybot Search and Destroy and Lavasoft's AdAware programs areavailable to personal computer users for free to combat spywarethreats. On the other side, spyware companies approached theirinvasive methods in a different way by coaxing users into buyingtheir products which would then install spyware. To stop theseefforts by spyware the FTC filed suits against SeismicEntertainment Productions and SmartBot.net
