University of Liverpool

A study of spyware mechanisms and an assessment of the current risk to home computer users from spyware.

As many computer users have discovered to their cost, spyware presents a considerable threat to privacy, as well as adversely affecting computer performance. This project will investigate spyware from a technical perspective; current and potential spyware propagation, concealment, data gathering and communication mechanisms will be examined along with existing and prospective detection and removal techniques. The main emphasis of the project will be on possible future developments in spyware mechanisms and to this end an actual spyware application will be developed in order to test the effectiveness of currently available computer security software in dealing with new forms of spyware.

The vast majority of spyware, along with the other forms of malware such as viruses, worms and trojans are aimed at Microsoft operating systems and so the project will concentrate on this platform and specifically on Windows XP, the operating system run on the majority of home user PCs