Ultimately, most viruses are installed by the user, whether they knew it or not... Users who don't know any better are more likely to just hit "ok" or "yes" or whatever they can to get rid of a popup or a new window or a potential error message on the screen. The result is a virus, adware, spyware, or other malware gets installed on their PC... then the virus or malware itself attempts to sell them a product to remove it or simply bombards them with pop-up ads or other messages.

There is tons of money to be made by infecting computers with viruses... Someone could easily make $500 per day just deploying viruses on their spare time. As a result, the techniques they use get more and more advanced, and its a constant cat and mouse game between security vendors and malware writers... and sometimes its difficult to decipher between the two.

The following is a list of tools that I use to protect myself while surfing the internet. For starters, I use Firefox 2.0 (www.getfirefox.com) which comes with built in pop-up blocker, anti-phising tool, and allows you to install addons to the browser which I also recommend.

AdBlock Plus is a great tool which automatically blocks advertisements on sites... It can be installed as a firefox extension here: (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1865/)

Another great tool to use in combination with AdBlock Plus is AdBlock Filterset.G Updater. This tool automatically synchronizes the AdBlock list of sites to block every day. It can be downloaded and installed for Firefox here: (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1136/)

One more way I protect myself on the internet is to use OpenDNS.com's DNS servers. The OpenDNS project is being used to protect users at the network level before any data can even be sent to the client machine. They also have auto correct functions so if you put .cmo instead of .com it corrects it... or .og instead of .org it corrects it as well. They also have an anti-phishing function built into their DNS servers as well. Instructions on how to configure your computer or router can be found at www.OpenDNS.com

Next on the list... I have Spybot Search & destroy Installed. Spybot is used to remove spyware, adware, malware, some trojan viruses, but I like to use it as a preventative measure. It has advanced user functions which allow you to import a block list right into your HOSTS file. This will block all advertisement servers, virus servers, etc. Spybot can be downloaded from www.safer-networking.org...

Other than using the above tools to protect yourself while browsing the internet, some malware may still make it through. At this point, it is up to you the end user, to protect yourself. If you notice a pop-up ad that says "You are infected... click here to protect yourself" don't click it. Instead click on the X on the top right of the window to close the ad. If there is no X on the top right of the ad, you can hit ALT + F4 keys to close the window.

By using the tools above, especially the latest version of Firefox, you will notice that you will not even notice any pop-up ads. If you use AdBlock Plus and the Filterset.G Updater, you won't even realize that advertisements, popups, and other annoying content is being blocked. If you woud like any more information on safer surfing tips or techniques, feel free to write me.

I'm always here to help.

Chris