Advice for Keeping Your PC (or Mac) Safe

We all know the Internet is a dangerous place. In case you might harbor any doubts, take a look at this article in today's New York Times describing how to keep the bad guys away from your PC.

The suggestions/recommendations are:

• Protect your browser. If you run Firefox, get NoScript (personal recommendation).
• Download the Adobe updates as they come in, and the sooner the better. PDFs are an increasingly common vector for malware, so keep things patched.
• Don't click on malicious ads. Duh...How about: Don't click on ANY ads!?! And especially, ESPECIALLY don't click on any pop-up telling you that your computer is infected and you need to upgrade your anti-virus. Check with your IT or security department -- that's what they do for a living, and most neither need nor want our help.
• Watch out for poisoned search results. After every disaster, celebrity dust-up, or major news story hundreds of sits spring up with similar-looking URLs to lure you to a site loaded with malware. The bad guys know how to tweak the search engine results, so steer clear of one-off sites.
• Keep away from social exhibitionism -- er, networking -- sites using any computer that you might remotely want to use for business.

There you have it. Read the article and surf carefully. It's a dangerous place out there!