Internet Carefulness

[Shin]

It's common sense folks, but don't click on websites that pop up and claim to be anti-virus solutions.

Only go to websites for anti-virus help, through a reliable source, a familiar search engine, looking it up yourself.

I read in the news that there's yet another virus going around, claiming to be an anti-virus solution in pop up web advertisements.

So be careful out there.

Avoid email advertisements, and avoid popup advertisements. Hopefully your web and email filtering screens most of these out.

If you have any doubts about an advertisement's reliability but still wish to go to use the service advertised, go to the website indirectly -- that is, type it in to a search engine, or type in the web address, if you know assuredly the proper one, rather than clicking through a link.

[Cat Herder]

If you have Windows 7 then Microsoft Security Essentials, which is free, is all you need for antivirus and basic antispyware protection. You could also install Malwarebytes (lite version is free) for additional anti-spyware scanning, as the two programs will happily coexist. Also install the Secunia PSI (Personal Software Inspector, also free) which scans all programs on your computer to make sure they're up to date.

If you want more security than that, then set up a limited user account. Windows 7 and Vista automatically prompt you when you try to do something that requires administrator privileges; if you have a limited account, then there is the extra step of putting in the administrator password, and thus it works like Mac OS X's security system.