No net-savvy user can underestimate the danger posed by Spyware. These malicious programs cause losses worth millions of dollars to corporates and individuals alike and huge amounts of money are spent in fighting these fast breeding threats. Spyware programs can lurk in your data, stealing crucial information like credit card numbers and personal browsing history. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. So here's a list of the most dangerous spyware doing the rounds, brought to you through FaceTime Security Labs.

Gator, one of the earliest spywares, memorizes the password of a site so that it can be popped up for gaining entry the next time you visit that website. Irritating popups keep opening up when you try to access your site due to Gator's activity. The creator of this program, Claria, has attempted to smoothen out this retrieval software, but the popup nuisance persists.

2. CoolWebSearch ? This is a spyware which when it gets installed, will be highly notorious as it will simply hijack your browser. CoolWebSearch is the generic name given to the variants of the spyware which redirects the user to coolwebsearch.com or datanotary.com. Any attempt to uninstall the programme will prove to be a highly complex exercise. Hence you should not attempt to remove this programme manually from your disc.

180SearchAssistant is another one of those pranksters that is bent on offering you pop ups of sites resembling your search keyword. Emoticons and wallpaper come as addition gift wraps along with this software. Newer version, however, offer some respite with their add/remove program and uninstall features.

4. Huntbar ? Another piece of annoying software, Hunthar, manages to install a toolbar in both your internet explorer and windows explorer windows. It will also change your home page and settings for search to redirect you to their own search engine. This can be highly annoying and also consume an exorbitant memory space of over 15%.

Cydoor uses peer to peer (P2P) setup to spy on your browser history and harass you with nonstop advertisement popups. So if you exchange information between two computers often, this pesky spyware might just trip you up.

ISTbar latches on to your data through ActiveX and javascript installations. It transmits your personal browsing history to sites like my-internet.info and Blazefind.com, thus compromising your computer security.

7. WhenU-DesktopBar ?This software keeps displaying advertising contents. It will also monitor your internet traffic and spy on your search profiles. It can also execute remote codes from an outside server through its update feature that can cause harm to your computer.

8. New.Net ? Non-Standard top level domains are sold by the company called New.Net. As this is a highly annoying software, it should be removed instantaneously.

IEplugin uses the same tactics as Huntbar in that it sets up its own toolbar on your browser. It monitors all your activity on the Net and uses that information maliciously.

BargainBuddy was once an infamous and ubiquitous program. Distributed by BullzEye Network, it would set up browser Helper Object to keep an eye on the system. It would study the keywords being used and would send advertisement your way based on that.