I found this report on ZD Net very interesting. It says that employees surfing the internet is more dangerous to their networks than spam. While the study was focused on how this impacts companies, I think it is very important to consider how this can impact your home computer.

This is from a Danish report, but so many internet trends are worldwide that this is worth paying attention to. They found that about 30% of companies that had dealt with a virus got it from the surfing activities of an employee, versus 20-25% of those same companies getting a virus from emails.

This is perhaps a good time to think about your own surfing habits and what you do to protect your computer from infection. How’s your firewall? Antivirus up to date? Do you use antispyware protection too?

There are all kinds of solutions. I still use and recommend ZoneAlarm’s free firewall. It’s been the best by quite a few ratings for a number of years, yet you don’t have to pay for it. There is an upgraded version you can pay for, of course, that does more.

For antivirus and antispyware, I always check out what’s up at download.com. It’s a great way to see which ones are still doing the job well. Alternatively, you can get free products by downloading Google Pack, which I have linked to on the left. When I used it, I got the free version of AdAware and a six month trial of Norton Antivirus.

Of course, you should always pay attention to the sites you and your family tend to visit. If you’re getting virus or antispyware warnings you need to figure out why and avoid that source. That means checking out the sites your kids visit and making sure they understand when to open an email.

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