Spyware

Spyware is a type of program which is secretly installed on a computer,

which collects information about the users without their knowledge. At
first, “Spyware” was called “Software used for espionage purposes”.
Unlike worms and viruses, spyware does not replicate.

Spyware does not directly spread in the manner of a computer virus or

worm: generally, an infected system does not attempt to transmit the
infection to other computers. Instead, spyware gets on a system through
deception of the user or through exploitation of software vulnerabilities.

A spyware program is rarely alone on a computer: an affected machine

usually has multiple infections. Users frequently notice unwanted
behaviour and degradation of system performance. A spyware infestation
can create significant unwanted CPU activity, disk usage, and network
traffic. Stability issues, such as applications freezing, failures to boot, and
system-wide crashes, are also common. Spyware, which interferes with
networking software, commonly causes difficulty connecting to the
Internet.

Overall, a Spyware is a privacy-invasive software, which is found in

some downloaded programs that can steal personal information from the
user’s computers. In response to all the trouble that Spyware has caused,
industries and companies have started dealing with “Anti-spyware
programs” which detects these spywares and delete them through virus
scans and full computer scans.

Programs
containing
viruses that
entice you to
download them.