difference between spyware and trojans

Hello,

I wanted to ask what exactly is the difference between spyware and trojans.
I have never really saw a detailed descriptions, which shows the difference.
I think they are actually almost the same. Pls someone explain.

 

Spyware is frequently (but not always) a subset of trojans, for example they pretend to be programs that offer you a screensaver or a little game but they actually collect information from your computer and send it to a remote server. Arguably there are exceptions, though: I'm not so sure a commercial keylogger that works completely stealthed but requires to have legitimate access to a computer to be installed can be called a trojan, but it sure can be used as spyware.

Anyway, spyware is usually defined as some program that without the consent of the owner of a computer trasmits information about it to other people. That's why not all trojans are spyware: a trojan could have only destructive behavior (i.e. erasing all disk data) but no spyware behavior.

 

*But are Trojans the most dangerous form of spyware?

*And which Trojan scanner should I use besides NOD32, because of the fact that NOD32 doesn't cover all trojans.

*Why do the Anti-Trojan programs don't include background monitors just like virus scanners that scan every file that get created, opened, or copied, just like NOD32? You can better prevent the Trojans from being installed rather than letting it execute in memory and then remove it. It seems this leaves traces. Furthermore, you can only check if it's a Trojan to run it. Should it not be able to detect it, the Trojan can cause damage to the system.
So why don't have the Anti-Trojan programs proactive protection the way NOD32 has?

 

As I just said, trojans are NOT a form of spyware. While spyware is arguably a particular type of trojans, the opposite is definitely not true.

Nothing covers all trojans. Some of the better ones at detection of known trojans are considered Kaspersky and Ewido, if that's what you're interested in. But there are other ways to protect yourself (HIPS, virtualization, etc).

Again, there are lots of anti-trojan defense programs out there, and many of them have what you're asking for.

 

Tell me what are HIPS, and what is virtualization?

Which AntiTrojan progs do have background monitoring the way NOD32 has?

 

Trojan Hunter and the Paid Ewido offer on access security. And are generally considered the best two.

 

BoClean and A2 Personal also have realtime protection from a Guard.

The A2 Guard is a bit different from the rest though in that it is not signature based, it uses IDS technology to look for 'malware like behaviour', which is a sort of HIPS approach (ie heuristic intrusion prevention security) depending how you define these things.

The point being that HIPS can help protect against previously unknown threats because it is not dependent on signatures.

 

An EULA