How intelligent is spyware getting??

The modern intelligence of spyware
Spyware is a malicious form of Adware and has many of the same common characteristics. Spyware is among the more unethical forms of Adware and tends to combine itself with Spyware in many occasions. Malware for example, uses Spyware for explicitly illegal purposes. An as exception, many web browser toolbars may count as Spyware but on the other hand - Adware may simply load general adverts from a server and display them while a user runs certain programs, with the user's permission; the software developer gets ad revenue, and the user gets to use the program free of charge.

Examples of Spyware ran with the users permission is the bottom bars of MSN Messenger(tm) and general peer-to-peer applications. In these cases, Adware may function quite ethically, if not fully. Should the software collect personal information without the user's permission however (a list of websites visited, for example, or a log of keystrokes), it then becomes classified as Spyware.

Data collecting programs installed with the user's knowledge do not technically speaking, constitute as Spyware. This is provided that the user fully understands what data they collect and with whom they share the collected data. Furthermore, a growing number of legitimate software titles install secondary programs (commonly named 'third party applications') to collect data or distribute advertisement content without properly informing the user about the real nature of those programs.

These programs can drastically impair system performance and frequently abuse network resources. In addition to slowing down throughput, they often have design features incorporated that make them difficult or impossible to remove from the system.

History
The beginning of the Spyware threat took place in 1999, when the first free programs with built-in Spyware appeared. Much like today's Spyware, the earlier variants were used to collect personal data from people such as the websites they visited and sometimes installing key logging programs also to record all the keystrokes that are made while the computer was in use.

Companies would pay to get that information and sent you advertisements related to products they assumed you would be fond of. These programs made computers sluggish and the only way to remove the Spyware was to know that they existed (since many people today still didn't consider Spyware as a threat, there were no popular or well-known anti-spyware applications) and to search for them in the computer's files.

During the year 2000 the first anti-spyware program was created. Ever since then Spyware has evolved (just as virii do) in an attempt to avoid anti-spyware applications while a lot of new Spyware variants have appeared. Recently, Microsoft itself has released an anti-spyware program as detailed in the article 'Microsoft Vs.Spyware' - available in this release).

Sadly, the Spyware threat has also been used by virus creators. Beforehand, they used trojans to be read keystrokes and monitor your activities, but now since Spyware is newer than viruses more intelligent Spyware is created, now more than ever by the virus creators themselves that use the Spyware infiltration technology in order to break their own viruses into a users system.

Lately a new strain of Spyware has been born. The new strains of Spyware install themselves into a file, most of time buried in places you never visit or that you don't even know about, such as 'C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data' for example. The application data directory is hidden as default in Windows but it also installs another executable application that is not considered as Spyware.

Each time your anti-spyware program deletes the program in the application data, it is reinstalled when you restart Windows again because the programs not considered as Spyware are set to automatically run when Windows startup. One of the ways to find them is to go to: Start > Run > msconfig > startup. There you will see a list of the programs that run on startup.

Recently, I have seen new Spyware strains that do not appear neither in msconfig nor in Task Manager making them extremely difficult to remove. I have also seen others that automatically reinstall themselves, apparently without running any program at all. The only thing we can do at the moment in this case is to try all the Spyware cleaners you can find on the net or just contact a specialist that has the time to do it since he is paid for it and knows all the places to look, which will save you time in the long run.

In summary, Spyware has evolved from adding files to the 'My Programs' directory that were easy to delete in two clicks to a whole generation of hidden Malware data. They also use virus 'technology' in order to stay unseen, to reinstall themselves and to make it impossible for you to delete them. All this can be avoided by a computer user who has learnt the basics about Spyware. Do not visit hacking, cracking, serial websites, do not accept any downloads from suspicious websites, be careful with the .exe and .scr files you open and finally, do not install programs you don't know about or that you don't need. The best anti-spyware that exists is knowledge about Spyware itself.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware
http://www.sharewarepromotions.com/blog/200505.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware