How, Oh How, did I get that awful Nastyware that just showed up on my computer??
You may have been a victim of a “drive-by” download (Unintended, often hidden, download and installation). It used to be, you got Drive-Bys mostly from “Shady” sites – Porn sites, Pirated software, and other illicit sites. Not anymore. Many completely legitimate sites have been hacked in order to deliver malware and spyware. Even the Department of the Treasury website was hacked a couple of years ago. A free browser add-on called Web of Trust (WOT) can help. It’s a Crowd – Sourced website checker that can warn you if a site is suspected of harboring malware, privacy problems, or is not safe for children. If you try to visit a bad site, you’ll get a warning asking if you really want to visit the site. You still can if you want to, but you’d better be very sure you need to.
The green circle shows this site is rated good.
It’s not perfect. Sometimes sites get flagged as bad just because of their politics or controversial subjects, so you also get the opportunity to read the ratings, find out why the site has been flagged, and add your own rating (If you want to).
Of course, you still need security software, but there is no “Magic Bullet” in this world, so WOT gives you another layer of protection on the Internet.
The Gizmologist 