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You might have a spy in your home, and it's not James Bond. Heck, it's not even human! Your computer might be collecting your personal information and passing it on to companies and people anywhere in the world. That's because there might be spyware on your computer without you even knowing it.

Spyware is software designed to collect information about you for a variety of purposes, including advertising, credit card fraud, and identity theft. The information is gathered in a number of ways, such as by recording the keys that you type, recording your Web browsing history, and even scanning documents you have saved on your hard drive.

Although collecting your information for advertising is generally just annoying, it can be harmful to your computer since it uses up resources. When your computer is infected with spyware, you might notice a significant slowing in performance and your computer will just generally react sluggishly to your commands. And, if too much spyware builds up, your computer might crash or fail to start up.

Spyware used to collect your financial information is a much more serious problem. Some types of spyware attempt to record your password as you log into certain websites, such as your bank's site or your credit card company's site. Or, they might try to capture your credit card number as you enter it during an online shopping checkout.

Spyware doesn't spread like a virus or a worm; your infected computer won't try to spread its disease to others. Spyware gets into your system by tricking you or by working its way through some of the less secure spots on your computer. In most cases, you'll never see it happening. A lot of spyware is transmitted as a Trojan horse, where it masquerades as something useful-sometimes even as security software!

Spyware sometimes comes bundled with software that you can download from the Internet, such as certain shareware programs. When you download the program you want, the unwanted spyware is downloaded as well.

Still other spyware targets holes in your Web browser or in software on your computer. This happens when you visit a website containing spyware code that attacks your browser and installs the spyware. This is often referred to as a "drive-by download."

Unfortunately, once one spyware program gets in, your computer becomes more vulnerable to additional spyware. Many users assume the significant decrease in efficiency is a hardware program, and might go so far as to purchase a new computer. When a computer is

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