"Spyware is computer software that is installed surreptitiously on a personal computer to intercept or take partial control over the user's interaction with the computer, without the user's informed consent" (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware)
The dangers of a Spyware infected computer vary in nature and severity. From slowing down your computer, preventing you from accessing resources and applications you want to spying on you and compromising and stealing a confidential information,
When should you suspect your computer may be infected by Spyware.
It is next to impossible to predict exactly how your computer may behave when it falls a victim to a Spyware infection, but in general there are few very common symptoms that may be a sure giveaway that your computer may be infected by the Spyware.
The following is the list of a five very common symptoms but is far from the list of all symptoms that your computer may exhibit:
1) Slow performance. Your computer may be taking long time to start, legitimate programs installed on your computer will take longer to open, some may crash or refuse to open at all and overall your computer has became very erratic and unpredictable.
2) Your computer crashes (blue screen), freezes or hangs up to almost a stand still. When you check resources available, you find CPU usage constantly running at high (80%, 90% or even 100%). You notice there are many processes running in background. New icons and software had been installed on your computer without you remembering installing it.
3) When you open your Internet browser, your start page (first page you see when you open your browser) has changed without you recalling ever changing it yourself. You may attempt to change it back to start page you wish to have, but next time you start your browser, it goes back to the odd site that you have changed the browser from going to.
4) When you visit the web site, even one you recognize and trust, you are constantly bombarded by pop-up windows. Closing those pop-ups seems to do nothing as new ones are opened as soon as you close the previous ones.
5) The web site you have visited looks odd. Graphics and advertising seems inappropriate for the site, clicking on one particular link takes you to the unrelated site.
The above are five most commonly reported symptoms that with high certainty point out that your computer may be compromised and infected by Spyware but there may be many more.
Spyware today; where do we stand and what should we expect in future?
Spyware is the commercial industry worth billions of dollars a year and the criminal elements being responsible for developing and disseminating the Spyware software are not just a bunch of amateurs sitting and waiting for things to happen.
The IT industry experts se no change for better when it comes to Spyware industry. In fact the leading predictions by those who track Spyware trends are pointing that in future the Spyware is only going to be more stealthy to detect, more complex and resilient to remove and therefore a more dangerous and a nuisance for an average person who does not possess the advanced skills to spot the stealthy disguised Spyware applications or remove them if ever managing to spot or detect it.
How to protect your computer from a Spyware?
The best advice of all would be to not become victim of Spyware in first place. Be conscious where you are going when surfing the Internet, what software you are downloading and installing on your computer, and most important of all, have a good and current Anti Virus and Anti Spyware program installed and running on your computer.
While bad guys eventually find ways to bypass security measures and break inside even a well safeguarded computer systems, by far the majority of infected computers out there are victims not of the super-genius cyber criminal but rather ignorant operator.
Prevention is always a better solution than intervention. The best way to detect Spyware on your computer is not to look for symptoms of infection but rather to ask yourself what have you been recently doing on your computer?
If however you find out that it is to late for prevention because your computer is already infected with the Spyware, the first thing to do is not to ignore the problem but to take an action right away to remove the Spyware from your computer.