I noticed the performance of a certain Windows XP PC was down again, even though I cleaned it from malware only a few months ago. I installed and ran Super Anti Spyware and it found over 1500 security issues!! The browser was hijacked and a fake anti-virus program called Antivirus 2008 was installed. SuperAntiSpyware cleaned it up and its running fine again.

The particular user of that machine is a young adult who uses a peer to peer file sharing application known as Bearshare. I’m sure she affected her PC again as a result of poor Internet browsing habits. I certainly do not recommend file sharing networks and software such as Bearshare but recommend Bittorrent instead for downloading large files. My favorite Bittorrent client is Deluge. It’s better security, and especially so in Linux, Mac, or a Windows PC when the user is logged in with limited privileges, and not as the Administrator.

Did you know that the German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security? I highly recommend Firefox. It’s much better security, open source, and heavily supported by software developers from around the world, and not just by a single cooperation like Microsoft whose bottom line is always money. I believe they have often put the priority on user convenience, and to do that, they sacrificed the user’s security. Not requiring the user to always log in with limited access (as in Mac / Unix / Linux) is one example of this.

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