There is an informative article on Wired News about spyware.  Spyware is considered malicious software ( malware ) that can do numerous things from delivering targeted pop up ads to recording web search and surfing habits of users, including recording keystrokes, passwords and credit card numbers of PC owners. 

The article details the problems that individuals and businesses face when PC’s are infected with spyware; how to detect a spyware intrusion and ways of dealing with the spyware problem. 

Business managers should educate themselves on the security threats that spyware poses for their operations and work to educate their employees on the threat, especially in departments where any significant amount of work is done online.

You can read the entire article at Spyware: What You Need to Know by Kim Zetter @ wired.com.