Just a year ago or so, I reported that there were some 150,000 viruses circulating on the Internet, with more added every day. Some people found that exaggerated or even alarmist. However, I was not kidding. We are well on the way to reaching one million viruses this year. Currently, about 25,000 malware examples are being found every day by F-Secure, a security company.

Paradoxically, part of the reason for this explosive growth is improvements in practices and education on the part of individuals and businesses. Better , for example, are keeping a lot of spam out of our inboxes. When something does get through, most people know not to open email from an unknown source, or at least not to open attachments.

Five years ago, about 2% of carried malware. Now it is down to 0.10%, or one in 1,000. The result of all this is that the criminals are writing a great many more viruses, in the hope that some will get to work their evil on you.

These days, a widespread threat is the drive-by download, where your computer gets infected simply by visiting a malicious or compromised Web site. The hackers like this kind of attack because the user (that means you) does not have to take any action other than visiting the site, and usually does not notice anything amiss.

You protect yourself by keeping all your security programs up to date including Windows, and running your anti-malware scans on a regular schedule. just issued a bunch of updates on April 8. Did you update your PC? If not, do it now.

Generally, attacks are getting more sophisticated and harder to identify and stop. Rootkits may be making a comeback. These are very stealthy forms of malware that hide in the kernel or root of Windows, and cannot usually be found by your anti-virus software. Go to your favorite search engine and find a remover. You must also update all your other programs and applications. Want to update them quickly and painlessly? Read my post here:
http://mypcsecurityblog.com/updates/keep-all-your-other-stuff-updated
Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with five layers of protection right here:
= > http://MyPCSecuritySite.com

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