One would define "Spyware" as a program that tracks you on the internet. The so called 'Spyware' of today is totally different. My 6 y/o cousin has been surfing the net before and bam! Hundreds upon hundreds of "Make your penis bigger in three weeks!" and "Free Hardcore Porn, Click Here!" popups. Obviously she was oblivious to what these things were, but I was there to see what it was. As soon as I got on the machine, I spent a painstaking 28 hours non-stop trying to remove all of the so called "Spyware" from the machine. This has to stop, yet no-one does anything about it!

I mean, yeah, there are spyware removers, but most of them are easily tricked into thinking that these programs are legit and they are ignored. As it says in the title of this post, it must be reclassified. All forms of download that you have NOT asked for must be classed as viurses or worms.

Some of today's "Spyware" even deletes some of the key components of Windoze (It is spelled correctly, in my opinion) and replacing them with their modified counterpart, making them near impossible to get rid of, without formatting the hard disk.

In my futile effors, I have attempted to create counters to the many different "Spyware" threats, but they are insufficient, and most nowadays are blended threats, meaning that they are under 2 or more classifications... To combat the amount of "Spyware" on the Internet, someone on the inside of these so called companies must give information to the Anti-Virus companies to combat the threats.

We need to get this problem sorted, before it gets too much out of hand, and personally, I don't think that the problem can be sorted. There are too many companies out there that produce "Spyware" to count...

All that can be done is to make an exploit free version of an Internet browser, but even a n00b script kiddie can find an exploit in the most secure of software

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Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/250/27011#27011