The best and widely accepted way to keep your PC secure is to install anti-virus software and update it timely. Some of the anti-virus software updates on their own whereas there are other which needs to be updated manually. Therefore such antivirus softwares must be checked regularly for validity and re-install them as soon as they expire.

It is also important to install security patches. Every software is susceptible to unwanted vulnerabilities; it is therefore required to keep windows updated and also apply updates to all the softwares in your system. Another important area where safety is necessary is if you have internet access on your system. Being connected to the internet always poses risks, therefore firewalls form an important part of your PC security. Also, while opening email attachments or certain files, which are already infected, without scanning them makes your PC liable to be infected by viruses. In fact most of the PC infections are caused by email. 

To ensure your PC secure, it is also required to secure your browser as some legal sites are implanted with malicious JavaScript which can install Malware on your system. Be wary of any site that tries to install scripts on your system.  Instant messaging also exposes your system to be infected by worms and Trojans. These are just like emails and have equal threat to the system.

Another thing that is reported in large numbers is the emails in your inbox telling of sad stories, job offers or lotto wins and many offers from ecommerce websites. These are nothing but clever ways to fool you. Another thing to note so as to keep your PC safe is to avoid P2P and distributed file sharing. There are many file sharing networks, eg: Morpheus, Kazaa etc, and many files here are loaded with viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware and many other things that are dangerous for your system. Such things should be strictly avoided.

You should have a frequent PC scan to ensure your system is free of malware like worms, Trojans, viruses etc. The system should have good antivirus software, which is the best way to keep your system safe. You can also keep the backup of your important files and data. Enhance the security of your browser. It is also essential to install software or a hardware firewall. You should set a strong password for your PC to avoid unwanted access to your data. 

Follow the tips above and you can stay safe.

Firefox has achieved this rank due to the large number of patched vulnerabilities that have occured over recent months. While this doesn’t necessarily mean that it is risky to use or has poor security, it just represents total number of patches that have been applied to various vulnerabilities including: javascript problems, buffer overflow, malformed links etc.

Due to the high number of vulnerabilities that have been patched, it could also be possible that Firefox has many other undiscovered vulnerabilities.

The list of the other top 10 vulnerable Windows applications are listed below:

1. Mozilla Firefox
2. Adobe Flash & Acrobat
3. VMware Player, Workstation
4. Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
5. Apple QuickTime, Safari and iTunes
6. Symantec
7. Trend Micro
8. Citrix Products
9. Aurigma, Lycos
10. Skype

If the exploit is successful it can redirect the browser to various different URLs. After the redirection, a piece of code is executed, which can then steal user information.

The critical Microsoft patches released earlier this week do not fix this problem. We recommend that you keep up-to-date with all the latest patches and be aware if using Internet Explorer 7

Scan and Protect Your PC Now 

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, which Microsoft has slated for release sometime in August, will include two new security tools, said Austin Wilson , the director of Windows client product management.

Internet Explorer 7 introduced a phishing filter, and IE8 Beta 2 goes beyond this with features designed to warn surfers about sites that harbour malware, as well as those designed to trick users into handing over ebanking login credentials and such to crooks. Users who stray onto sites infected with Trojans will be confronted by a full-screen warning. The combined anti-phishing and malware defence will be branded as Microsoft SmartScreen filter.

The new security feature will place a red exclamation mark next to search links McAfee believes are involved with spam, phishing or the spread of malicious software. The new software is called SearchScan.

The most dangerous websites are simply being removed from search results. Yahoo is also flagging less dangerous offending sites to warn users of specific problems that have been reported from those sites. Example warning messages include “Warning: Unsolicited E-mails” and “Warning: Dangerous Downloads.”

The new search protection features will be available in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Spain.

Although PayPal didn’t officially say that it would be banning transactions on Apple’s Safari browser, many assumed that the online payment service provider included Safari on its list of unsafe browsers since it offered no anti-phishing protection and didn’t support the use of SSL certificates.

PayPal was reacting to reports of a research paper released the week before by Michael Barrett, the firm’s chief information security officer, that said the payment service would ban browsers that lacked a way to block known or suspected phishing sites and didn’t support Extended Validation (EV) certificates.

PayPal might also block other web browsers. At the Usability, Psyschology, and Security Conference 2008 in San Francisco, researchers from the University of California gave a presentation in which they pointed out potential security holes in web browsers on such mobile devices and games consoles as Apple’s iPhone, Nintendo’s Wii and DS.