A Layman’s Guide To Answering The Question: What Is Spyware?

Help! There’s An Intruder On My PC!
A Layman’s Guide To Answering The Question: What Is Spyware?

So, what is spyware?

I’ll tell you this much… it’s not something from a James Bond movie. It’s far more sinister than Goldtooth, and far trickier than 007’s projectile pen.

What is spyware? Experts define it as a software that clandestinely penetrates and installs itself to your system to partially override the user’s control over the same.

What is spyware, in simpler terms? It is a program that you never knew was installed on your PC, which makes it do things that you never intended it to do.

What Is Spyware And Why Should People Be Interested?

Most spyware programs are more irritating than destructive. Constant pop-ups that hinder your browsing pleasure or interrupts your work, changes in the home URL of your browser, occasional redirections to a particular homepage, spam messages from outside sources you’re sure you never contacted before: these are just some of the inconveniences that spyware victims have to endure.

But the main reason why many people want an answer to the question “what is spyware” is because some of these programs are destructive. They can cause your system to crash, or worse, they can send personal and financial details – the ones you type and store on your PC – to remote users who can use the same for their wicked purposes… at your expense!

What Is Spyware And What Are The Signs That A PC Is Infected By One Or More Of These Malwares?

Determining what is spyware, of course, is the more technical part of the solution. Determining whether or not your system is infected with spy software is often the dirtier part of the job.

Be wary if your PC suffers any or all of the following symptoms:

* Terrible slowdown even if only a few programs are running;
* The homepage you have set has changed, or if it keeps changing even if you manually restore the original URL;
* You receive many emails that have bounced back, meaning, your PC is sending emails without your knowledge;
* Some programs are suddenly crashing (this can be an auto-preventive measure because such programs have detected a keylogger);
* Noisier hard drive, more than usual;
* CD tray suddenly ejecting;
* Other similar occurrences

One or two of these symptoms may mean nothing, slowdown can be caused also by corrupted registry. In that case you should use a registry cleaner to repair it.

Or they can indicate that you need to learn how to block spyware since it has started to infest your system.

In which case, you should stop asking the question “what is spyware” and shift to the query “what is the best form of spyware removal?”

What Is Spyware Detection And Removal? How Can They Be Implemented?

Thankfully, with the ever-ballooning problem of spyware infection and the ever-growing threat that this form of malware brings, hundreds of anti-spyware programs have been invented and are being offered on the internet. Some of these anti-spyware programs are free, like Search & Destroy, while others are commercially distributed.

Spyware detection and removal is a two-phase process employed by most anti-spyware programs. Most of them have comprehensive scan engines that sweep the entire system and report any case of spyware inhabitation. Thereafter, the detection phase shifts to the removal/curing phase, where the pinpointed digital anomalies are either deleted or quarantined.