Anti-virus in Action: Removing Spyware.007

Spyware.007 is not a virus or any other form of what you would consider traditional computer malware. Spyware.007 is rather a full-out spyware suite that is sold and marketed as a legitimate software product. In other words, anyone can pay for and order Spyware.007 online, secretly install it on a computer and monitor that user's computer activity in its entirety.

About Spyware.007

Again, this is not a traditional virus, but rather a legitimate product that may or may not be legal, depending on how a purchaser uses it. Anyone can buy this incredibly powerful spying software to monitor every single thing a given user does on a computer. The software records all websites a user visits and all keystrokes. The recording and saving of keystrokes allows the purchaser of Spyware.007 to retrieve any and all passwords from the targeted user.

Spyware.007 also takes frequent screenshots and simply surveys all computer and internet activity of the targeted user. The software funnels all this data to the purchaser's specified email address or uploads the data to a secure FTP server that only the purchaser can access. The software runs completely hidden in the background; Windows Task Manager will not even reveal its existence, meaning targeted users will have no idea they are being spied on.

As you can probably imagine, the usual purpose of this software is quite devious and not always legal. A spouse going through marital difficulty is one type of person who most often purchases and uses this software. The spouse can secretly use the software to monitor the other spouse's emails, instant messaging conversations and Facebook accounts. This is done usually in an attempt to see if there is some kind of infidelity happening. Spouses can also use the software to monitor the other spouse's online financial activity to see if he or she is hiding or squandering money.

However, in some states, the law requires those using spying software to tell the user being spied upon that they are indeed being watched. A legal use for Spyware.007 would be for employers who wish to monitor their employees' computer activity while on the job, as long as the employer tells employees that their computer activity is monitored while they're at work.

Removing Spyware.007

Spyware.007 is not a virus, so it does not take malicious actions to make it nearly impossible for it to be removed. Purchasers of the software who can access the interface are easily able to uninstall the software. However, users who want to remove it face the challenge of knowing whether the software is even running on their computers. Again, this software is not a virus and cannot be downloaded or spread through emails or phishing websites; rather, the purchaser has to be physically present to install the software on a computer manually. Also, since it's not a virus, anti-virus software cannot remove the application. Most anti-virus software can both rid your computer of pre-existing infections and protect it from future threats.

Users wanting to know if this software is on their computers can search for the following file names: "ssmgr.exe," "svchost.exe," "ansmtp.dll." If all three file names are on the hard drive of the computer, there is a good chance that Spyware.007 is installed and running. However, the manufacturers of Spyware.007 change the file names with each iteration to try to prevent the software from being uncovered.

At TopTenREVIEWS We Do the Research So You Don’t Have To.™