is spyware a virus????

how does it differ to it>?

what are worms??? is it a virus too??

A virus is a computer program that self replicates. In other words it'll copy itself & spread.

A worm gathers information & will move from one network to another, transmitting data.

Spyware simply gets onto a personal computer & data-mines, or in another words gathers relevant data & uses it for marketing purposes.

Because Spyware only jumps to the target machine & stays there gathering information, it isn't a virus. If it copies itself to another computer, or other networks, then it is a virus.

There are connotations here as well:

Spyware -- generally is installed in some "valid" way (meaning that you often agreed to some eula or the like that said that you "agree" to help them gather this data). This is not always the case but you will often find that spyware got onto your computer though something you installed thinking it was cool. This is reason #1 to avoid all the neat "apps" that websites want to install for you.

Some Spyware are actually viruses, but usually they are just irritations that piggy back on some application you wanted to install.

Some legit programs are actually spyware -- though since this is still moderately controversial they often give you a chance to opt-out of those features (Windows media player and iTunes are both "legit" spyware).

Note that the use of data-mining applications is becoming more and more popular and cooperate decision makers are actually using words like "desensitized" to suggest that users just don't care (this is from a comment made by a CTO in a recent discussion of where the market is heading). Unless laws change most software will probably be spyware within the next few years.

Scary!

This makes me glad for 2 reasons :

1.) I run an OS where I can control & monitor traffic, as well as what ports are open & used
2.) I'll continue to get paid to fix people's screwed up machines

Another point I would like to make (as long as I am on my soapbox) is that "spyware" is also a point of perception.

To me win media player is spyware. It keep track of what you do and periodically reports this back to the man. However, the makers of this software would hardly call this spyware.

When I was asking that CTO about his ideas I used the term "spyware" and was shut right down -- Aparently the connotation is that "spyware" does some dark and dirty "spying" on users. While these "legit" programs "enhance user experience by providing inteligent features that conform to the needs of the user" generally they forget here to mention the part they gloss over later about selling this data they collected to enhance user experience.

For example I was party to a discussion that talked about sharing a user profile between Google and Amazon. While the hype was about enhanced user experience we are essentially talking about monitoring users behaviors and selling the data (which is done all the time today, but generally not to the personal unique identifying level that they were talking about).

than you soo much for you help and time


but do you guys know about What is Univax 1108 ????? it too old and i cant find any

I believe you are revering to a "Univac 1108" which is a mainframe computer. It ran the operating system EXEC 8 which you will often see referenced in older academic books about concurrent programming.

It is my understanding that you will still find Univac 1108/EXEC 8 systems out there forming what we whipper-snappers refer to as "legacy systems" in enterprise programming.

Somewhere along the lines I think Univac morphed into Unisys.

This post has been edited by NickDMax: 24 Jul, 2008 - 06:09 AM

ok thanmks for your help i'll try to search omething for more detail
thanks again!!!