http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_spying
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 illegal exploitation 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.
Cyber spying typically involves the use of such illegally gained access to secrets and classified information or illegally gained control of individual computers or whole networks for an unethical and illegal strategic advantage and for psychological, political and physical subversion activities and sabotage. More recently, cyber spying invovles analysis of public activity on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
