Panda Security, the company that distributes the highly-rated Panda Anti-Virus software package has released the results of a study that shows that the number of malware infections increased 15% during the month of September. With all the attention the current epidemic of spam, viruses, trojans and the like is garnering these days you would think the problem should be getting better instead of worse, but apparently that is not the case.
I personally have noticed an almost daily increase in the amount of spam and phishing attempts that hit my inbox throughout the day, even with a great many filters and message rules in place. I have also noticed that I have to be very careful when using a search engine lately because of a proliferation of fake, malware-laden sites that are now showing up in the search results. Much of this troublesome malware originates overseas which makes it difficult for our legal system to do anything about it, but some say that the majority of it originates right here in the good ole USA.
Instead of wasting massive amounts of time and trillions of taxpayer dollars tilting against windmills, our elected Don Quixotes (ie. our Congressmen and Senators) should get busy finding ways to effectively stop the purveyors of this garbage in their tracks. And as tough as it might be to accomplish on a political level, there are also a number of technological steps that can be taken to at least minimize the amount of garbage that makes its way into our country from other nations. But we send those folks to Washington to do exactly that – make the tough decisions and do the right thing to make life better for the American people. Ok, enough talk from the soapbox…
The bottom line is malware threats are becoming both more pervasive and more sinister, and each of us must take the steps necessary to guard our computers, our personal privacy and our identities. Be careful when opening your emails, performing Internet searches and clicking links. One bad click can ruin your whole day – or worse.