Spyware worse

PC security is not getting better. Where spyware's concerned, using the Net is getting *more* dangerous at home or work, the New York Times reports. "Spyware" is a broad term that can mean anything from harmless cookies to Trojan horse software that can take over your PC. One of the riskier kinds is the growing problem: keylogging software, the kind that logs and sends your every keystroke to someone interested in credit card numbers, passwords, and other information only you should know. Make sure your kids know (they probably do) that this kind of code can get installed by worms/viruses in email and IMs and by malicious Web sites people click to from search engines (see my "Risky Web search" last week, which deals with the most-risky-Web-site list). Here's an example in The Register of a "creative" new worm carried by IMs – it loads a "rogue browser" that pretends to be Internet Explorer but replaces its personal home page, sending you to a page that downloads all kinds of spyware to your PC.