Recently, Microsoft released Security Essentials their free antivirus and antimalware software. It’s a simplistic program that will compete with the free offerings from AVG, Antivir and Avast. For those on a tight budget or those who run unprotected systems, this successor to Microsoft Live One...

Traditional antivirus programs block malicious programs. The majority of the crippled systems that we see are running antivirus programs, in some cases very good ones, that didn’t classify the web threat as a “virus.” They can come from legitimate sites too. The best way to deal with...

There has been a lot of media hype lately about the April 1st hatching of the Conficker.C virus. Doomsayers are warning of a Millennium bug-like meltdown. Judging by our site’s traffic, Mac and Linux users are worried as well. 60 Minutes ran a piece on it and that seemed to fuel the panic. Here...

If the Koobface news from last week wasn’t enough to start you updating your antivirus software, news that a new variant on the Conficker worm is rearing its head should. This map from Team Cymru shows its effects on the world’s PCs. There are two things you need to do: make sure that your...

Social networking sites are turning out to be nearly as fertile breeding grounds for virus transmission as P2P downloads. The latest variants of the Koobface virus are causing a bit of alarm for Facebook and MySpace users with poorly protected PCs. Mac users–yes, you Margaret–are safe for...

Antivirus vendors make healthy amounts of money off selling their software and the updates that make it useful. Unfortunately, the false sense of security that comes from these applications means that many are surprised when their system is stricken with the latest spyware. Any program that installs...

My spam filter catches these. Does yours? The latest round of spam is easy to spot. You receive an egregious headline with a blank body and an HTML attachment. Spam filters take a little time to catch up. In the meantime, your inbox is flooded with free ways to get a hard-on (apparently it’s expensive...

The large number of Conficker infections proves one thing: you can’t always trust your antivirus software. Here are some ways to feel safe. And make sure that you tie things up though on your Windows PC too. Here’s a good write-up on how to do this. Scan Online Getting the online scanner...

Although we’ve been seeing a number of infections on individual systems (particularly those with Symantec Corporate AV), the recent Windows worm has not been spreading across networks the way it was intended. This appears to be the case with others as well. Here is the geeks write-up on it from...

The most recent Interner Explorer flaw is causing a stir. All of Microsoft’s IE releases through the most recent Version 8 are due to be patched on Wed, Dec 17th. As always, using another Internet browser is a good idea. You can’t get rid of Internet Explorer because it’s essential...