1 00:00:00,330 --> 00:00:03,160 Spyware. You've probably heard the term spyware 2 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:05,720 before, but what exactly is it? 3 00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:08,440 Well, spyware is a type of malicious software 4 00:00:08,440 --> 00:00:10,870 that's installed on your system and gathers information 5 00:00:10,870 --> 00:00:13,150 about you without your consent. 6 00:00:13,150 --> 00:00:15,540 Normally, this will be installed from a website 7 00:00:15,540 --> 00:00:17,210 or some third-party software 8 00:00:17,210 --> 00:00:19,110 that you've installed on your system. 9 00:00:19,110 --> 00:00:21,680 What it does is it starts looking through all of your files, 10 00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:24,770 your emails, your instant messages, your calendar invites, 11 00:00:24,770 --> 00:00:27,310 and whatever other information you might have 12 00:00:27,310 --> 00:00:29,300 on your system, and it gathers that all up 13 00:00:29,300 --> 00:00:32,500 and builds a profile on you, that's the best case. 14 00:00:32,500 --> 00:00:35,580 In the worst case, it may include a keylogger, too. 15 00:00:35,580 --> 00:00:38,530 Now, with a keylogger, this is going to allow that program 16 00:00:38,530 --> 00:00:41,800 to capture any keystrokes you make on a victim machine. 17 00:00:41,800 --> 00:00:44,630 So if you're typing in a website name and your username 18 00:00:44,630 --> 00:00:46,780 and your password, it can collect that 19 00:00:46,780 --> 00:00:48,630 and send it back to the attacker. 20 00:00:48,630 --> 00:00:50,820 It even has the ability to take screenshots 21 00:00:50,820 --> 00:00:53,600 of what you're seeing on the screen, and send that back 22 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:57,170 at routine intervals through email or instant message. 23 00:00:57,170 --> 00:00:58,680 Keyloggers are very dangerous 24 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:00,710 to your security, as you can see. 25 00:01:00,710 --> 00:01:03,750 Now, on the best case, spyware may just be trying 26 00:01:03,750 --> 00:01:05,600 to spy on you so it can figure out 27 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:07,740 what advertisements you should be seeing. 28 00:01:07,740 --> 00:01:10,320 And when we see this, it's called adware. 29 00:01:10,320 --> 00:01:12,800 Adware is a specific type of spyware 30 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:14,810 where it's going to display advertisements to you, 31 00:01:14,810 --> 00:01:16,870 based on what it saw when it spied on you. 32 00:01:16,870 --> 00:01:19,280 So if it looked through your emails and your websites 33 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:21,490 and your cookies and your browser history, 34 00:01:21,490 --> 00:01:22,800 it could start figuring out maybe 35 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:24,540 that you're interested in weddings. 36 00:01:24,540 --> 00:01:26,630 Maybe you're getting married this June. 37 00:01:26,630 --> 00:01:27,720 Well, if that's the case, 38 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:30,450 you might start seeing a lot more advertisements based 39 00:01:30,450 --> 00:01:33,190 on wedding dresses or flowers or venues. 40 00:01:33,190 --> 00:01:34,450 Or, maybe it sees that you're 41 00:01:34,450 --> 00:01:36,900 really a big fan of a certain sports team. 42 00:01:36,900 --> 00:01:40,130 And so now, when you go to Facebook or Twitter or Google, 43 00:01:40,130 --> 00:01:42,930 you start seeing things for your favorite sports team. 44 00:01:42,930 --> 00:01:45,330 Again, they're trying to advertise things to you, 45 00:01:45,330 --> 00:01:46,670 because when you click on those things, 46 00:01:46,670 --> 00:01:49,510 they make some money, that's the idea behind adware, 47 00:01:49,510 --> 00:01:52,780 and it is considered a subcategory of spyware. 48 00:01:52,780 --> 00:01:54,680 The last category I want to talk about is 49 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:58,090 what's known as grayware. Grayware isn't really good 50 00:01:58,090 --> 00:02:00,850 and it isn't really bad, it's kind of in the middle. 51 00:02:00,850 --> 00:02:03,290 Grayware is some kind of software that's usually used 52 00:02:03,290 --> 00:02:05,530 to make something behave improperly 53 00:02:05,530 --> 00:02:07,670 without any serious consequences. 54 00:02:07,670 --> 00:02:09,950 For example, there's one called Crazy Mouse, 55 00:02:09,950 --> 00:02:12,340 that if you start this program on your friend's computer, 56 00:02:12,340 --> 00:02:14,540 the mouse will start jumping over the screen. 57 00:02:14,540 --> 00:02:17,440 And so, if you're trying to click on your My Computer icon 58 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:19,500 in the upper left, the mouse will jump down 59 00:02:19,500 --> 00:02:22,440 to the lower right corner and not click on My Computer. 60 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:23,550 There's another one that's based 61 00:02:23,550 --> 00:02:24,940 on the way the screen is shown, 62 00:02:24,940 --> 00:02:26,610 and if you start this program, 63 00:02:26,610 --> 00:02:28,600 your screen will become a mirror image, 64 00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:30,920 making it hard for somebody to do their work. 65 00:02:30,920 --> 00:02:33,570 This is just a joke, and it's something that can be funny, 66 00:02:33,570 --> 00:02:36,080 but again, it's not really good, it's not really bad, 67 00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:39,580 and so we term this jokeware, or grayware.