Deep Cover: Spyware

Abstract

In 2002, Pazdan, then a student at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, recalled downloading the popular file-sharing programs Morpheus and Kazaa as well as an addictive video game called Snood. Then her computer started acting strangely. Small ads started popping up on her desktop and hiding themselves under her browser windows. Her new computer took on a life of its own, taking ten minutes to perform basic tasks as the hard drive churned like a jet engine. Software that she didn’t recognize began causing her Internet browser to crash, forcing her to shut down her computer repeatedly.