(Lisa Phifer, TechTarget) Spyware is no longer just a petty nuisance, clogging enterprise desktops and access links - it's also crimeware, driven by the desire for illicit profits. Gartner estimates that these financially motivated attacks will represent 70% of all network security incidents by 2010.

Winning the war against malicious spyware requires a layered defense applied at the desktop, server and network edge. Security professionals are already familiar with desktop antispyware programs, but consider also how unified threat management (UTM) appliances can help you defeat spyware at network and workgroup perimeters.

Here, there, everywhere
From pesky adware like ISTBar to stealthy attacks like Trojan-Backdoor-SecureMulti, spyware is now held responsible for one out of four help desk calls and half of the PC crashes reported to Microsoft. IDC estimates that more than 75% of corporate desktops get infected with spyware. According to antispyware vendor Webroot Software Inc., spyware-related downtime and cleanup costs corporations approximately $250 per user annually. Fighting spyware on the desktop requires new techniques and tools because not only has spyware evolved considerably in recent years, it also still behaves differently than viruses and worms. Many enterprise products (e.g., CA Inc.'s eTrust Pest Patrol, Lavasoft Ad-Aware Enterprise, Webroot Spy Sweeper Enterprise) focus exclusively on host spyware eradication. Antispyware programs are also being rolled into desktop security suites, such as Symantec Corp.'s Client Security, which combines host antivirus, antispyware, firewall and intrusion prevention. Microsoft has embedded basic antispyware defenses into its recently released Windows Vista operating system.

Network antispyware
In most companies, desktop antispyware simply isn't good enough. Employees connect infected laptops to the corporate network; desktop software breaks or becomes out of date; visitors, contractors and home workers don't run your chosen antispyware program. Protecting an entire network against spyware really requires a network-based product that can be easily controlled by IT.

UTM appliances complement desktop antispyware by enforcing spyware policies at the network edge. Most UTM appliances, from companies like Cisco Systems Inc., Crossbeam Systems Inc., Juniper Networks Inc., Fortinet Inc., WatchGuard Technologies Inc., SonicWall Inc., and Secure Computing Corp., among others, consolidate firewall, intrusion prevention and antivirus scanning, and may provide additional security services, including VPN, Web filtering, antispam and antispyware.