Businesses should look for centralized policy definition, including the ability to customize scan depth, permitted exclusions, prohibited NonBizWare, quarantine/delete actions, signature updates and audit schedules. Larger enterprises may prefer group-based policies that can apply different lists and schedules to regular users, administrators and high-value systems.

Enforce centrally-managed policies with configuration locks, preventing users from adding their own exceptions or disabling spyware protection. However, some exceptions may be necessary for employees to do their jobs. For best results, choose a policy engine that lets you selectively permit end user changes, but disable end user prompting except where required to meet business needs.

Businesses may also need real-time monitoring and historical reporting features that let administrators identify where and when spyware has been encountered, and steps that were taken to automatically remediate it. Look for threat assessment aids, like the ability to single out un-remediated hosts and filter by spyware type/severity.

Larger enterprises should also consider scalability, including server/database platform requirements, hierarchical/group views, update distribution, integration with enterprise desktop and network management systems and cost per desktop.

Enterprise anti-spyware solutions available today include Computer Associates eTrust Pest Patrol, eSoft Desktop Anti-Spyware, Futuresoft DynaComm i:scan, Lavasoft Ad-Aware Enterprise. McAfee Anti-Spyware Enterprise, Shavlik NetChk Spyware, Sunbelt CounlerSpy Enterprise, SurfControl Enterprise Threat Shield, Tenebril Spy Catcher Enterprise, Trend Micro Anti-Spyware Enterprise and Webroot Spy Sweeper Enterprise.Continued