Cyber spying, or
cyber espionage, is the act or practice of obtaining secrets without the permission of the holder of the information (personal, sensitive, proprietary or of classified nature), from individuals, competitors, rivals, groups, governments and enemies for personal, economic, political or military advantage using methods on the Internet, networks or individual computers through the use of
cracking techniques and
malicious software including
Trojan horses and
spyware. It may wholly be perpetrated online from computer desks of professionals on bases in far away countries or may involve infiltration at home by computer trained conventional
spies and
moles or in other cases may be the
criminal handiwork of
amateur malicious hackers and
software programmers.