Fifteen percent of the 2,000 known spyware threats analyzed by Aladdin Knowledge Systems over a two-month span send private information gathered from the infected PC by logging keystrokes, capturing usernames and passwords, and hijacking e-mail address and contact lists.
About one-in-six pieces of spyware -- a category that also includes adware -- is "specifically designed for identity theft," said Aladdin in a statement.
