Although spyware has been called the plague of the Internet, many people still regard the invasive software as a kind of digital Avian flu. “Yes, it’s bad and potentially very threatening, but it’s the kind of thing that only happens to other people,not me.”

Unfortunately, that way of thinking could be a big mistake.

The prevalence of spyware, which usually slithers onto a system undetected during a download of other content, is formidable and poses a very real danger to every Internet user.

“You name it, spyware can do it,” says Craig Schmugar, virus research manager at McAfee Avert Labs, which monitors Internet threats. “Everything from stealing your identity to turning your machine into a spam relay machine to popping up ads on your system. It can degrade your system performance to the point that using your machine is unbearable

Tags: Spyware, Virus Research, Identity Theft