Trojan's and spyware

:o
Hello everybody,my name is Masud,and I've been around here now for a few days,however
I'm just now getting around to introducing myself primarily because I've been so much in awe
of all of this information on this site,that I just got caught up and went off on my own.

But after checking out a few of these suggested tutorials,I'm finding that I'm very much in need of some assistance;namely(what dose a trojan look like after I find it or for that matter,what dose spy ware look like) once I run in to it on my system? I'm just getting into
programing,so what particular strings of program should I be looking for? I hope I'm not sounding too stupid,but I'm just being truthful.

I'm intrested in web development and Internet security,and just all around Intrusion detection. I've already made the obvious beginners mistake by posting in the wrong fourm once before,I'm sure hoping that I've not done the samething this time.

I'd certainly appreciate any and all suggestions regarding this post.

Thanks.

Masud.