Although our concerns regarding spyware are certainly not light, a lot of people tend to take spyware very lightly. This happens partly due to a certain lack of knowledge regarding how spyware works, but also due to the fact that most of the damage done by spyware is indirect. Most people don't realize, for instance, that spyware is part of the reason why spam is so efficient.

However, what we will talk about today are those major security issues that can have a direct impact over your work, productivity and finances.

The common denominator of all spyware is information acquiring. This is what spyware is built for: to obtain information and send it "home", without your authorization. But this is really only the first part, because spyware can be much more complex than that.

Part of the harm caused by spyware is inherent from the way this information can be exploited. While most of it essentially harmless, spyware programs are usually interested in usage statistics, search strings and so on, some of it may be a lot more serious. There are spyware programs which record keystrokes and thus, can obtain passwords, financial data, your IM conversations and so on.

Obviously, this has direct implications on security. If an attacker knows your passwords, your computer, your e-mail and e-banking accounts are at his discretion. This is even more dangerous in a corporate environment, where access to resources is shared.

However, the security risks of having spyware on your computer do not stop here. Spyware does not just send security-sensitive information, but it can also facilitate the job of other spyware programs. This is where anti-spyware programs like XoftSpySE come in most handy: in many cases, having spyware on your computer attracts extra spyware through the additional vulnerabilities it creates. Some spyware programs use vulnerabilities in Windows services to spread, much like viruses do. If these vulnerabilities do not exist, some spyware programs can alter security settings to open them. This opens your computer not only to spyware, but also to worms and other similar malware programs. Needless to say, this is a serious problem and it poses a handful of security threats by itself.

Furthermore, some spyware programs are designed so as to impair the functions of anti-virus or anti-spyware programs. Although this is somewhat more common to viruses than spyware, reports of spyware programs that have been able to perform like this are known. These are probably the most dangerous, because a disabled anti-spyware program will obviously not detect such programs. Quality anti-spyware programs are designed so that they can detect these programs and act as if they had been disabled, as far as the malicious program is concerned.

By this point, it is probably fairly obvious that spyware poses a lot of security threats. On one hand, we have the problem of spyware retrieving passwords and personal messages or conversations. It is especially problematic when the passwords you have are used to access shared, sensitive corporate data. On the other hand, we have the potential vulnerabilities, which may open your computer to even more spyware or worms. The latter is what makes advanced anti-spyware programs like XoftSpySE so efficient: they not only purge your computer from existing infection, but also immunize it, excluding the potential spreading of infection.

Drew specialises in computer security and optimisation. To read his reviews on the top five Anti-Spyware programs visit http://www.top5-anti-spyware.com