Spyware in 90 percent of all PCs – report
Spyware in 90 percent of all PCs – report
Apr 08, 2005: Nine out of every ten computers has spyware installed, equating to 90 percent of computers globally that are affected by this type of malware.
What's more, according to the report compiled by Internet service provider Earthlink and anti-spyware software vendor Webroot that uncovered this worrying statistic, an average of 25 spyware programs were installed on the computers studied.
Spyware is one of the most common security risks and directly affects user privacy. It has also become one of the main reasons why employees call their company's internal technical support centre.
Spyware refers to IT programs that collect personal information about users without their consent, such as the software stored on an individual’s computer, Internet browsing habits, pages visited, etc. This information is transmitted to third parties for advertising purposes.
Luis Corrons, head of anti-virus software provider Panda Software's PandaLabs research facility, commented: "Spyware is not usually detected by traditional anti-virus solutions, unless they have been programmed specifically to do so. What’s more, it is important to bear in mind that there are thousands of spyware programs in circulation and due to the way in which they are installed on computers, it is extremely easy for computers to be infected by one of them.”
Companies could be hit the hardest by this type of malware, not only because of the risk to user privacy, but also due to the high internal support costs spyware generates by causing instability and performance problems in computers, as well as the extra resources they use, and as such are advised to make use of one of the numerous free spyware detection and elimination applications available online.
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