Where did spyware come from?

Maybe with all the online music file sharing the music indistry finally had enough and said its time to take down the "internet pirates." My teacher and I were talking about where did the first peice of spyware come from and who is the biggest manfacture of it? We came to the conculsion that in order to combat internet file sharing the music indistry not only puts out spyware on the internet but also on your cds; once you insert the cd on your computer the spyware just loads its self up. If this theory isn't right, it sure would be a good way to combat the internet pirates. I currently have over 8000 songs =). Keep the network alive. Put your files down.

p.s. deny hate

Spyware is a marketing tool. It is often bundled with these P2P file sharing programs. You get your files for free. The P2P people have to make money some how. So they use spyware and sell the information to companies marketing.
There are other sources of getting spyware, but CDs are not one of them. At least I've never seen spyware from a cd.

Using spyware to intercept electronic communications is illegal.

Spyware came from its own obviousness. See, computers encourage others to write programs that affect them. So when humans decide to use technology, they are placing themselves in the position of having to acept whatever software is loaded on their computer. Now if that human connects to a large network of other users, their own ignorance will allow others to remotely install a piece of software.

It's simply really. "ware" of any kind is written or created or written by somebody. "spyware" is a type of ware (software) that... Well.... Spies on you. It predates the internet and is nothing more than a program which captures keystrokes or otherwise takes info you don't want taken.

All the silly AOL users who jumped on the information highway before really educating themselves deserve what they get, frankly. Last time I checked it was not hard to find access to computer manuals or basic information on how computers work. RTFM is an acronym that means "Read the Freaking Manual" in my biz. Folks who use computers before realizing the dangers should have read more.

As for what to do about spyware? You should discipline yourself to reload your PC once every few months. Most people are unaware if they have spyware on their machines, so this is the safest way for a non-expert. Also you should be aware of what ports are open on your computer and what openings they present to virus writers. Also, IM and chat are now major virus channels thanks to the sloppy code and utter lack of security in chat clients.

I also recommend having a designated computer which is not ever connected to the Internet and which contains your personal data. Basically you'd have an internet PC (which you should expect to be 0wned) and a private non-online PC for your pictures and personal data. That's really the best way for techno-newbies to keep their data safe, if such can be done.

Spyware will become a gov't tool, if it is not already so. Do not think that computers are just sugar and honey. They are also excellent ways to wreck yourself and your data.

Originally posted by skippytjc
Spyware is the USA's fault!! George Bush wrote all of it!!!111!! Carl Rove and Condi wrote the code.

USA is responsible for everything bad in the world!!!

Well thank you for that contribution. How does it advance the topic at hand?

Please refrain from baiting.

#13 of the T&C.

13.) You will not post messages that are clearly outside of the stated topic of any forums...

The image we were all meant to have is of 'geeks' being a pain and making these programs for their own twisted amusement.

A little of that goes on.

The vast bulk of it is companies and individuals trying to make money out of us without out knowledge.
Same old same old.

A ton of that goes on.

Most of the first spyware came in the age when modems where the method of connection to the net and before that, BBS systems.

These programs were deviced to either pop up advertisements and work as datamining tools and in alot of cases they were dialer programs that would dial phonenumbers with high rates.

Of Spyware fame there are very little programs that are writen by hackers or geeks, apart from stealing website passwords to do some hacking with, spyware has totaly no uses for a hacker or geek.

i know of one spyware program that affects modems. it changes the #s dialed to a out of state modem (located on an oil rig or something like that) and makes u connect through that port; therefor charing up ur long distance on the bill. pretty sneaky! most people are so confident that nothing can happen to them they don't even check the numbers that are being dialed by their computers.