Month: October 2009

by Erik Larkin When the Web was young and blink tags abounded, it wasn’t hard to avoid the bad stuff online. You could generally tell by looking at a site if it was unsavoury or even dangerous, and if you were careful with your surfing and your e-mail, you could generally have gone without antivirus. Not anymore. These days crooks like nothing more than to find a security flaw in a benign but vulnerable site and use the flaw to insert hidden attack code. Once in place, that hidden snippet will scan for security flaws on your PC any...

by Erik Larkin Sure, the Web is today’s Wild West, with digital guns blazing and no sheriff in sight. But as long as you use a good antivirus program, you’re completely safe, right? Wrong. A good security program will help a good deal, but no program can catch everything. Antivirus companies are locked into a constant battle with the bad guys, who put all their effort into staying one step ahead of antivirus detection with a flood of new techniques and programs. Security software can often deflect those threats. But sometimes, the bad guys get the upper hand. Antivirus...

by Erik Larkin Note: This is the first of five parts. For the next part, click on the link at the bottom. Still think that today’s computer viruses and other malware come from some maladjusted teen out to vandalize your PC to make a name for himself? Think again. The persistent myth is a holdover from days long gone, and it’s important to dispel it if you want to know what you’re up against – and how to protect yourself. The splashy worms and malicious viruses that clogged entire networks and indiscriminately wiped hard drives are essentially gone. Today,...