The problems discussed are far too common¹, but are pretty much a fact of life.

The "good trend(?)" is that there seems to have been something of a decrease² in the number of new "viruses" in recent weeks. Hopefully this indicates that the bigest holes in major (esp. Microsoft) programs have patches available, and they're begining to be installed on enough machines to make abusing them less "profitable."

The depressing news is that worms found and patched for more than two years still infect a very large number of users (some say up to a third of all personal machines) simply becaue people don't bother, or don't understand how, to get "patched."

The bad news is that recent malware tends toward "phishing" exploits that try to convince you you can get something for free, and installs nasty programs on your machine when you click just because you can't resist seeing if it's really a deal. If you say it's okay, no "protection program" can prevent you from installing a program, even if it's malware, 'cause "you're da boss."

The really bad news: It's also the conclusion of many experts that the most prevalent sources of malware are no longer "hackers" who just want to prove they're great programmers (or usually - great program cut-n-pasters) but are coming from organized crime groups who just want your money, or to use your machine to get someone else's money.

¹ = I include vague information, especially in "unhelpful" error messages, and "hidden" policies by major program builders in "these problems."

² = Some of the pros believe they've seen a slight increase in attempted exploits against Linux and Mac systems recently; but thus far the "targets" remain too small to interest the majority of hackers.

John