"Psst!" whispers the trench-coated Microsoft employee hiding behind the lamp-post. "Join SpyNet(TM), and help in the covert fight against spyware."Espionage jokes aside, the latest tool in the fight against privacy, Microsoft SpyNet is just the thing that takes the advantage away from the corporations behind spyware, and puts it in the hands of the end-user.

Despite slating reviews around the internet, I for one believe SpyNet is a wonderful idea. Half the fight against spyware (and viruses for that matter) is giving anti-spyware tools a method of recognizing the applications it is tasked with destroying. To draw a military analogy, one can have all the missile hardware in the world: if your guidance system is pants, the enemies will slip through the net.

Currently, this is the situation with spyware. Each application has its' own unique signature. The publishers of anti-spyware products release these signatures and when run, your spyware program wonders through the ether-net of your computer looking for programs that match these signatures: it is like security guards carrying the photos of known suspects.

However, new spyware is released every day. Until a machine owned by an anti-spyware publisher is infected, there is no picture: without a copy, anti-spyware authors can not decode and distribute those unique signatures. Spyware applications can freely wonder undetected around the internet. It may only be a few days before the signatures are released, but by then, the damage is done.

With Microsoft SpyNet however, every machine becomes a anti-spyware author. Once spyware is detected, it is automatically reported to every other machine running SpyNet capable anti-spyware tools, such as Windows Anti-Spyware BETA, reviewed elsewhere in this release. The first SpyNet machine to become infected with Spyware could, theoretically, be the last.

Of course, the benefits are only available to those running SpyNet capable tools. The system is only as effective as the amount of machines choosing to participate. Just like communism, the more people using the system, the easier it is for everyone: except those not using the system. I hope that, in order to encourage more people to use SpyNet, Microsoft chooses to co-operate with other spyware vendors, in order that SpyNet is not a one-product resource. Everything works better when you pool your resources.

Does SpyNet spell the death knell for spyware? Only time will tell. But with a well educated user-base and the corporate muscle of a giant like Microsoft behind the project, I hope it does.

Resources:

Microsoft Anti Spyware (Beta) Help File

http://octopusdropkick.net/?p=761