Thursday, November 16, 2006

History and development of spyware

The first recorded use of the term spyware occurred on October 16, 1995 in a Usenet post that poked fun at Microsoft's business model. Spyware later came to refer to espionage equipment such as tiny cameras. However, in early 2000 the founder of Zone Labs, Gregor Freund, used the term in a press release for the ZoneAlarm Personal Firewall.[1] Since then, computer-users have used the term in its current sense.

In early 2001, Steve Gibson of Gibson Research realized that advertising software had been installed on his system, and he suspected that the software was stealing his personal information. After analyzing the software he determined that they were adware components from the companies Aureate (later Radiate) and Conducent. As a result of his analysis, Gibson released the first anti-spyware program, OptOut, and many more software-based antidotes have appeared since then.[1]

According to a November 2004 study by AOL and the National Cyber-Security Alliance, 80% of surveyed users' computers had some form of spyware, with an average of 93 spyware components per computer (such counts usually include 'cookies' which report back to a website, but are not software as such). 89% of surveyed users with spyware reported that they did not know of its presence, and 95% reported that they had not given permission for the installation of the spyware.[2]

As of 2006, spyware has become one of the preeminent security threats to computer systems running Microsoft Windows operating systems. In an estimate based on customer sent scan logs, Webroot Software, makers of Spy Sweeper, said that 9 out of 10 computers connected to the internet are infected.[3] Users of Internet Explorer are particularly targeted for attacks because Internet Explorer is the most popular browser[4] and because of its tight integration with Windows.[5]