lowering your risk is important.

avoid visiting porno/using p2p/irc.

and yes for the record, mac/nix are still safe as most bugs are designed for windows based system.

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Computer security is important, but it's also important to allocate blame appropriately.

There's nothing inherently insecure in porn, p2p or irc (though irc has some inherent safety issues). The reason why people pick on porn or p2p is that they're often the subject of unrelated legal, cultural or moral arguments. Just because you never visit porn sites and never share files you can't expect to be safe from malicious software - the real culprit.

Sites (including porn, but not limited to those) may encourage you to download a 'helper' utility or screensaver, or toolbar, or some other means of getting around your browser's security model. It's not just people with criminal intent who want to do this: read about the SONY rootkit.

My tips - never install anything that you didn't get from the originator's own website. If it's a widget/plugin/extension for a larger piece of software, check for explicit approval from the larger piece of software's website first. If all else fails, check search engines for the name of a piece of software before you install it. If it's malware, you'll usually find a result that says so in the top 10 results.

Don't run any executables that come for free with something you want. Downloaded Warez is usually full of malware freebies, whether P2P or warez websites. Even Ah Sol's games CDs have this problem. My nephews and nieces have new viruses, keyloggers and mail relays every time I visit, and their 'cheap' CDs are the source.

Keep your software as up to date as possible. A great source of exploits for the tossers that write malware is the list of fixed bugs in software updates. Anybody who doesn't immediately update has just had their door unlocked!

Most malicious software requires some help from the user to install. As long as you 'surf safe', you can look at all the porn*, share all the movies*, and chat as much as you like. There's plenty of pleasure to be had on the Internet, there's no reason to make it a miserable experience.

*check your local laws

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Sean says:
Read my blog

try pakai ubuntu linux, tak lah terlalu pening kepala fikir pasal virus..

Scan every pendrive attach to your computer before you start to open it.

stay away from IE.
stay away from instant msges links.

Anti virus is not enough. You really need a good firewall. Free Antivirus does not comes with firewall.

my 2 cens...