"Spyware" is software or hardware installed onto your computer without your knowledge. It secretly gathers information about your computer which is retrieved by the perpetrator when you next go online to the internet. Unlike a virus which attacks your software programs, with spyware the user is totally unaware what is happening.

Spyware is a relatively new kind of threat that common anti-virus applications may not yet cover. This surveillance can send information back to the party that secretly installed the software on your computer. It can send details on all kinds of activity ranging from the keys you press on the keyboard, (such as your Internet banking password), snapshots & photos, email entries, (even external accounts like hotmail and yahoo mail), web chat logs, and just about everything else. Anti-spy tools protect your privacy by detecting PC monitoring tools and mechanisms that may track your activities.

A computer virus is a computer program, or segment of computer code, that has been created by someone to perform some malicious task on a computer when the instructions it contains are activated. Some viruses will activate as soon as the infected file is opened, while others will lie dormant in your computer until activated by a trigger, such as a specific date, or the user performing a specific action like reading one of their emails.

Viruses can be spread in a variety of ways:

• via email attachments
• hidden inside files on floppy disks, copied CDs or DVDs
• downloaded from infected files on websites on the Internet, even when simply browsing.

It should be noted, that as you view a website, your computer is downloading the text, and images as well as code used to display each web page. So, you're not just viewing, you are downloading data that if tampered with may contain malicious code containing viruses.

The best protection against computer viruses is to use anti-virus software that should be installed on your office and home computers, including laptops and notebooks. The anti-virus software should be updated regularly. Most anti-virus software includes free updates for licensed users that are available as automatic updates from the vendor website. As new and powerful viruses are created almost daily, regular updating of your anti-virus software is essential to ensure your systems are protected from possible damage or infection.