October '01 Tools

Spy-ware is any software which employs a user's Internet connection in the background without their knowledge or permission.

How spy-ware works...

Spy-ware is software that works in the background, harvesting information via a user's Internet connection without their knowledge or permission.

Legally, silent background use of an Internet connection must be preceded by a complete and truthful disclosure of proposed back channel usage, followed by the receipt of explicit, informed, consent for such use. Any software communicating across the Internet without these elements is guilty of information theft.

Without knowing it, you can pick up spy-ware programs when you install some downloadable programs. These small, hidden programs are usually part of other programs that surreptitiously send back your surfing activities to the program's company. Usually, this is done for the purpose of reporting information to advertisers.

Spy-ware comes in ads, banners, even web sites, that plant tracking programs in your computer when you visit or click on them.

These little programs can do many different things. They can track every site you visit. They can log entries you make, including personal info and passwords. Web sites can log your IP address, your browser type, screen resolutions and colors, even your operating system and available memory. There is even more information that can be obtained from your computer. Spy-ware logs this information and receives back additional data from the tracking cookies that they plant on your hard drive.

Of particular concern is a program called Comet Cursor. Comet Cursor is a sneaky little program that allows you to change from that boring old arrow to all sorts of cool things. When installed on your computer, this program reports back to CometCursor Company with your surfing habits.

What you can do...

There are programs available to sniff out these spy-ware programs and remove them from your computer. AdAware (from LavaSoftUSA) is a free program that will automatically seek out and remove spy-ware components from your system memory, registry and hard drive. It will also identify and clean Comet Cursor from your computer, including the registry entry.