Something that’s popped up quite a bit over the last couple of years are the fake virus warnings that say you are infected so click this button, or register and get protected. They look pretty genuine but infact are really malware/viruses waiting to exploit your machine. Here’s what they look like:

They look pretty genuine right? To make matters worse, most PCs are installed with Java, and many versions of Java prior to 5.0 R6 have security holes which can be exploited by some of these programs.

What do I do?

I’ve already written an article about how to get yourself tooled up with some antivirus software – you can read it again here. On top of that I would recommend the following security software:

• Commodo Firewall – has proven to have excellent protection against bad things happening to your registry or trying to execute – get it here.
• PrevX – Small little app to protect you in addition to other software – get it here.
• Microsoft Malicious Removal Tool – If you’re already infected this can help get rid of what ails… Windows 32bit or Windows 64bit (if you don’t know what version you have go to Control Panel > System
• Microsoft Security Essentials – Excellent piece of software from Microsoft – if you don’t have a legit copy of windows, this will catch you out! 🙂 Get it here.