At its most benign level, spyware is used by Web sites to track your browsing and purchasing habits. Taken a step further, spyware might even capture personally identifiable data and credit card information.

* SPYWARE IS NOT THE SAME AS A VIRUS

A misconception for many is that anti-virus software protects from these unwanted intrusions. But that's not case. Just as a "virus" in real world is different from a "bacteria" or "parasite," same can be said of a virus in cyber- world. It's NOT same as spyware.

Anti-virus software protects against KNOWN computer virus attacks. A virus is best described as malicious programming code intended to replicate itself and in so doing render a user's computer system or network inoperable.

Spyware is something different. It's meant to stealthily co-exist with your computer's system and program files, tracking and reporting information through your Internet Explorer browser--usually without your knowledge. Like a parasite, spyware infects host with hooks into your computer's registry and system files--hooks that you most likely don't know about.

* TOUGH STUFF

At it's most insidious, spyware parasites can actually hijack or take over your Web browser--making it non-responsive to your commands, and forcing you to sites against your will.

Well what if your computer could be running software that benefited humanity in its ample spare time? That is precisely task World Community Grid offers your computer when you aren't using it.

Currently, World Community Grid is looking to dramatically shorten Human Proteome Folding Project. This is a project that could take years even on most powerful supercomputer. The answer is to take advantage of parallelization (using many computers at once) to dramatically shorten this computational time.