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Spyware and adware are insidious little programs that monitor internet searches, sites visited, what you type on your keyboard and can serve up pop up adverts customised to your habits.

McAfee says that 2004 saw the first rise in virus numbers since the start of the decade, but the species of virus propelling this growth are bots. Issuing in numbers between 150 and 200 a week, these viruses float around the Internet scanning for machines with vulnerabilities they can exploit. Once inside a machine, they sit quietly awaiting instructions from a remote 'controller'. McAfee says that there is worrying trend for these instructions to result in the downloading of adware.

McAfee's Vincent Gullotto, vice president of McAfee AVERT, said that part of the success of spyware so far has been 'a general lack of awareness [on the part of computer users] in regards to adware and

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other such programs.'

Yet this is set to change. McAfee reckons there are at least 13 adware or spyware components on any machine. So pervasive has the phenomenon become that last year US Congressmen found several examples on 80 per cent of their notebooks. Congress is now debating four anti-spyware bills.

Eugene Kaspersky, head of Anti-Virus research at Moscow-based Kaspersky Labs described spyware as 'the major threat in the modern day'. 'But it is very very complicated,' he added. One problem is how to classify what is malicious spyware and what may actually be making people's Internet experience better. For example, some ecommerce sites place a cookie carrying your login and account details so that you don't have to type them in each time you make a purchase - yet this could be classed as spyware.

More problematic is that legislating against spyware would put the community behind it looking for another outlet. Kaspersky claims 'adware is being developed by former spammers'. When antispam legislation came into force at the beginning of last year, many spammers turned to adware as an as-yet legal method of marketing. Legislation will force spammers to work ever more closely with the virus writing community.

One security expert we spoke to said she knew of a spammer hiring hackers to write adware programs, because spamming is no longer legal.

If spyware becomes illegal, 'where will the spammers go next?' asked Kaspersky.