Home PCs Plagued With Problems

Wired News reports that most adult Americans feel perfectly safe on their home computers . . . but they shouldn't.

The study being released Monday by America Online and the National Cyber Security Alliance found that 77 percent of 326 adults in 12 states assured researchers in a telephone poll they were safe from online threats. Nearly as many people felt confident they were already protected specifically from viruses and hackers.

When experts visited those same homes to examine computers, they found two-thirds of adults using antivirus software that was not updated in at least seven days.

Two-thirds of the computer users also were not using any type of protective firewall program, and spyware was found on the computers of 80 percent of those in the study.

These are truly shocking statistics. Don't let this happen to your home computer! Refer to a webpage I created on security and privacy for another class and follow the directions on how make your compuer more safe from unwanted spyware, virus, hijackers, and other problems.

PC Magazine: Top 101 Web Sites

PC Magazine has listed its Top 101 Web Sites for Fall 2004. This list is a regular feature and always worth a look.

Cybertime Navigator

Cybertimes Navigator is a webpage of extensive links put together by the New York Times as an aide to finding online material. As the page says of itself:

Navigator is the home page used by the newsroom of The New York Times for forays into the Web. Its primary intent is to give reporters and editors new to the Web a solid starting point for a wide range of journalistic functions without forcing all of them to spend time wandering around blindly to find a useful set of links of their own. Its secondary purpose is to show people that there's still a lot of fun and useful stuff going on out there.