A close friend of mine walked into his minority SMB office, cup of coffee in hand and was blown away by this question no owner wants to hear coming from his sales manager - 'Hey boss, is a keylogger, spyware? Of course the cup of coffee hit the floor as my friend’s blood pressure hit the roof. Like most SMBs or solo entrepreneurs they have no IT guy, so he/she wasn't there to get fired on the spot. No, I got the brunt of the frustration - being his IT guy on the side and now we get to the global definition of spyware.

Spyware loosely defined is unwanted, obtrusive (read system intensive - memory hogging) and always potentially dangerous software unintentionally installed on a pc. Most anti-spyware software makers lump adware (that stuff which gets installed because it's free or cheap), BHOs (browser helper objects - stuff that suddenly appears on your browser), distributed attack tools, keystroke loggers, pcp software, tracking cookies, and unauthorized remote admin tools in the same global spyware box.

That list should scare even a pro at surfing on the Internet, but some of us have to be online 365/24/7. This is the audience that should be paying attention, everyone else don't stop reading.

Still reading? Good, because spyware is getting worse - those insanely smart people who keep finding ways to hack into your company's operating system are getting better at what they do...

The list I just gave you earlier is getting longer and longer and longer. As the spyware fighters get better, the hackers try harder and harder. Making new software to attack different parts of any system made on earth. Just when we thought that XP was locked down, they restarted their attack on Win2k. And they haven't exactly given up on the other versions of Windows that older computers are using still today. Now no computer is safe any more as people got lulled into thinking that older computers were forgotten.

Quick fix for 'some' spyware problems - stop everyone using a computer from installing anything not approved by IT guys that know about the ever growing list of spyware. Remove all admin rights to install software today, some of these programs can even get the installer to load their spyware and then open up holes in your firewall or otherwise disable the protection setup on your computers. Stop others from installing bogus software today and you will thank yourself tomorrow.

If you can't do that without your employees spiking your coffee with diet sugar until you 'fix' their computer back, then the only other option is anti-spyware software.

Minority SMBs and entrepreneurs that don't have an IT department or somebody's son/ daughter is your IT department then they will have some form of anti-spyware to keep computers free of spyware and running at the speed/reliability it was intended. Spyware can eventually or sometimes immediately bring any computer to the point where you cannot even logon to your account or computer.

Your web browser will look like a neon sign for toolbars and other 'browser helpers' that only help to send hackers info you don't want them to have in the first place.

As spyware gets more deadly and sophisticated it soon will begin to infect other programs used in your OS and bloat your registry to the point of freezing the screens of XP.

Your anti-spyware options are far too numerous to list here and we should stick to the ones where it is run and monitored by one person and that person alone. It prevents anyone from uninstalling the anti-spyware accidentally or disabling the software on purpose. I have known friends complain that their software keeps notifying them when it eliminates spyware and malware (close cousins), so they disabled it. Not an especially good idea these days.

Reporting and alerts are a must, that way you can pinpoint the culprits and then have a talk with Bill about the reason his computer is always so slow - the spyware he keeps downloading. Alerts are critical so that if someone else uses Bill's computer and loads spyware/malware, you find out immediately.

Scheduling and real-time scanning are the leather seats/steering wheel on this piece of software, to prevent new infestations from re-clogging your computer network again and again. Anti-spyware that is bundled or integrated will be the favored choice for an entrepreneur or SMB, you won't have several licenses to deal with and the software will update the whole rather than parts. The way spyware/ malware are gaining in strength an updated anti-virus/anti-spyware/anti-spam module is better than wondering whether each piece is updated.

Spyware is not something that can be ignored, as it becomes more sophisticated and dangerous it may cost your business more than it can afford.