Patent ID: 8176551

Claim:
A system for detecting the presence of an observing program on a computer system, the system comprising: a computer system comprising a processor, memory, a user input device and a monitor, wherein the memory comprises: observer data that includes data descriptive of an observer program, the observer program being programmed to observe a user's activities on the computer system by monitoring user input entered through a user input device and also operating to create a log file from the observing of the observer program; accessing instructions that access the observer data; reading instructions that read the memory of the computer system to obtain memory data; comparing instructions that compare the observer data with memory data read in from the memory to determine whether the observer program is present on the computer system; generating instructions that generate results from the comparing, wherein the results generated indicate whether the observer program is present on the computer system; countermeasure instructions that alter the operation of the observer program; and outputting instructions that obtain the results and provide the results for a user and that prompt the user as to whether the countermeasure instructions should be executed.