The Green Bag

This is for everyone who thinks that "the evil hackers out there" don't really want my computer, or if they want it they're gonna get it.

From Invasion of the Computer Snatchers:

Hackers are hijacking thousands of PCs to spy on users, shake down online businesses, steal identities and send millions of pieces of spam. If you think your computer is safe, think again

This article is not without some journalistic flair, but that only serves to drive home the point. Yes, it's rather difficult to protect oneself from this sort of attack, but there are good reasons to do so, no matter how unimportant you might think yourself to be.

Keep your antivirus up to date. Home users no longer need to waste money on big brand antivirus when reliable solutions such as Avast! and AVG provide free versions for home users, so the subscription fees are no longer any excuse. Downloading Microsoft updates once a month over dialup (for those still using it) may be slow, but it's a lot faster than what happens once you're infected with all the badware that's out there waiting for you.

Yep, this has turned into a full-on rant. The end user should not have to be the responsible party here, but the reality of the situation is that - at least for now - they're the only ones in the chain who can be. So we need articles like this one, just so we can all be reminded why it's important.

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