Spyware & internet security

Have a read of this. Spyware infiltrates blogs.

Blogger, who host this site have been targeted particularly the "Next Blog" feature up there in the top right corner. But the piece also states "The problem only affects Web surfers using Microsoft's Internet Explorer who fail to choose the highest IE browser security settings". Using the highest security setting will cause you problems with all sorts of websites which use Java or ActiveX, including ironically enough Windows Update which will not run without some tweaks. Nice one Microsoft!!

I've previously written about my preference for the Opera browser (the Beta 3 version of Opera 8 is now available) but Firefox is another alternative friends of mine use and they are both years ahead of Explorer, so there really is no excuse for allowing your PC to become infected or hijacked.

Make sure you have a firewall, especially if you have broadband. Windows XP now has one as standard. If you choose to use it make sure it’s switched on and that you keep it updated. If like me you don’t trust Microsoft, ZoneAlarm have a superb free firewall, but again keep it updated.

For further security, Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad Aware SE are both available as Freeware and will scan your PC for data-mining, advertising, and tracking components. They are also useless if you don't keep them updated and run scans regularly. Same goes for Norton or whatever anti-virus software you use. Keep it on, keep it updated and run a full system scan a couple of times a week.

If everybody took a few simple precautions we could go a long way to eliminating spyware. Take some responsibility for your own security.