A Spyware Survival Toolkit

Living in a house with three teenagers and a wireless network will teach you a lot about spyware. Most parents have realized that there a lot of things they can't control and, if they are to keep their sanity, they learn to live with stuff like teenage fashions, music, the language of IM, driving experiences, and the spyware that ends up on the PCs of a home network. From first-hand experience, I will attempt to provide a toolkit to help avoid and/or survive the spyware that I've had to deal with. This paper will discuss the sources of spyware, the types of spyware, and methods of prevention, detection, and removal of spyware. In the end, however, there are still those pesky teenagers whose effortless downloading will teach you to be like Dr. Strangelove who learned to stop worrying and, if not love the spyware, at least learn to live with it. The intention of this paper is to be a lifeline to help home computer users survive the spy wars.