Many people use the term spyware and virus interchangeably,as if it were the same thing? But when you look at the 'who,' the 'why,' the'what,' the 'how' and the legal status of these two things, you see they'requite different.
Let's start with the 'who.' Who writes a virus? Well,usually it's one person, maybe two people, but usually it's one person sittingalone in a basement or an apartment trying to prove something. Who writesspyware? Well, you'd be surprised. It's often a whole team of people becausespyware is often written by companies that operate out in the open and don'tthink they're doing anything wrong.
Which gets to the 'why.' Why do people write viruses?Mostly, they're trying to brag, trying to draw attention to themselves, toboast about their skills, or to show the vulnerabilities of a software programthey don't like. But why do people write spyware? It's for money. They thinkthat there's money in this, for marketing, or to sell things or to getinformation that they can turn into dollars. It's much more driven by thefinancial reward that they're hoping to get.
And 'what' are the questions about a virus. Well, no, peopleusually understand what a virus is. There's this broad consensus, there's nodisagreement. But you know what, when it comes to what constitutes spyware,there's a big disagreement as to the 'what.' People disagree. They'll say, thisis spyware. Other people say, no, it's not, it's just a feature of the browser.So there's a big difference here.
What about the 'how'? How is a virus spread? Well, thepreferred method is e-mail, but how is spyware spread? That usually happensthrough a browser. So, even the way it is spread and promulgated is quitedifferent and then finally the legal status. This is pretty much settled. Therewere disputes about what constitutes a law-breaking and what the jurisdictionswere. But for the most part, people understand that laws are broken when youwrite a virus that invade someone's system and damages their information. Overhere, it's still chaos. In some places, spyware is obviously against the law,their statutes, they forbid its use; in other places, you can actually point toa company or an individual that has written spyware and yet you can't find acrime on the book, the statute that you can prosecute them for.
So, if you look at the legal status, the 'how,' the 'what,'the 'why' and the 'who,' you see that viruses and spyware are quite different.
