SOUTHFIELD – In the 80s, it was viruses spread on floppy disks. In the early 90s, we saw the birth of the ?macro? virus. In the late 90s, ?worms? became the biggest threat to business and to home users. The turn of the millennium saw hackers running amok, ?blended threats? and an exponential growth in spam. Now the latest Internet scourge and potentially the most insidious of all is Spyware; and home users and businesses alike are scrambling to deal with this subtle, yet pervasive threat.

Spyware comes in many shapes and forms, from applications that surrender complete control of a PC to tracking software that monitors your every move. You can get it from browsing the Internet and just minding your own business. But some of the things it can do to your PC, and your identity, are extreme. Spyware manufacturers aren?t the brilliant but misguided virus writers that we have come to know. Spyware manufacturers and writers are organizations and companies that work for profit. They are not guided by some principle or a sense of ?hacktivism.? No, the motivator for them is dollars and lots of them.

Spyware writers seek to create a network of victims, whose computers they abuse and can harvest to gain information about us: the average Internet user. And then they turn around and sell it or abuse it for monetary gain. They will exploit any tools at their disposal, sneaking their malicious and subtle software on to our PCs without our permission or even our knowledge. The adverse effects are many, from PC slow downs and failures (because these applications are often big and slow) to complete PC failure and identity theft in many cases.

There are many statistics thrown on the Internet about how widespread Spyware is. Large companies like Dell and Microsoft have published numbers on how many help desk calls they have received that ultimately turn out to be Spyware-related. Most PCs that are exposed to the Internet for only a few hours of normal browsing and Internet use will come away with over 50 instances of Spyware.

How does this happen? Well, the Spyware manufacturers collaborate and share tools, tips and tricks. More ominously, they have weaved a network of compromised servers and services that are perfectly legitimate, so when we visit them, we get infected. If you visit a legitimate Web site that has been compromised (usually against the Website owner?s will and without the owner?s knowledge), your PC can become infected. From here, the Spyware does its work and begins to monitor your behavior, alter your Internet experience and affect your PC. Behind the scenes, the information might be sold, your PC might become a node for sending out Spam or your identity may be compromised and exploited.

How do you know if you have Spyware? Most PCs are infected, but the only way to be sure is to run a scan of your machine. There is an array of products on the Web, but a good, free scanner can be found on the Computer Associates site at ComputerAssociates.Com

This little application will check your PC and show you what you have. The associated product from Computer Associate, eTrust PestPatrol, will clean your PC and set up protection to keep it clean.

Computer Associates also has an extremely useful Spyware Information Center, or SIC that defines this latest Threat and its subtypes as Pests. If you want to know more, the SIC is a tool for learning about specific Pests, the most important things to know about or to investigate the subtypes of Pest, including Spyware, Trackware, Keyloggers, Browser Hijackers, Adware and more.

The important thing to remember is that Spyware isn?t like viruses or for that matter like anything that has come before. It is more prolific, more infectious and potentially more dangerous than anything to date. The rate at which these profit-minded programmers modify and update the programs to make them hard to remove and to guarantee their illicit incomes is making them not only the latest Internet scourge but also the Internet?s most serious.

Sam Curry is Vice President, Program Management ? eTrust Security Solutions for Computer Associates International.