Being an IT security expert, one of the most common questions I get asked is “What is spywear?” If you are one of these people, read on. It is very important to be aware of this software and the threat it poses to you and your computer.

Spywear in its most basic form is software you don’t want on your PC. There are more technical terms for the various types of software you don’t want on your computer. For example, viruses. However, spy clothes are not a virus. But both are types of software you don’t want on your computer. As far as a home user is concerned, that’s all you really need to know.

Another important aspect of this unsolicited software that separates it from other types is that it is almost always installed so that you have no idea that you installed it. Sometimes this is done through backdoor access to your PC, other times you are forced to install it before you can install what you originally wanted to install.

You can tell the main purpose of the spy clothes just by looking at the name. It is made to “spy” on you. It is made by people who want to know personal information about you. This could be something like your internet browsing patterns and in some cases even your credit card number!

Another thing these things can do is take over your computer temporarily making it do things you never asked it to do. This gets really bad when the software is designed to install even more bad stuff on your system!

A good way to tell if you have it is to check the list of installed programs in Control Panel. If you see things that you never installed and that aren’t related to any other software, it’s probably bad for your computer.

To fight the war against spyware, there is a large industry that manufactures anti-spyware software packages. Most computer savvy users are aware of this software and feel that it is common practice for computer security to run it regularly.