Don't get mad; get glad!

I know some of you are probably upset about some of the web sites I said to avoid.

I, personally, am disappointed that several are sites I used to love to frequent are deemed to be "dangerous."

• A fellow named Brian Krebs seems to agree with me and wrote a quite informative article about the topic, pointing out Google's plans to help.
  

I was an extremely loyal fan of gamerival, even during their change of ownership. Now, I do not go there anymore at all. Others, such as myspace, grab, facebook, youtube, and metacafe, I refuse to give up on.

• (I lied - I have Myspace set up in my "restricted" zones and refuse to go there for any reason, even though my kid, using her own PC, lives and breathes for MySpace - go figure!)
  

I'm just super careful - I say don't click anything and definitely don't download anything, especially if it's free! Not to mention, I double check that my security is functioning correctly.

(Another thing I like to do before visiting questionable sites (which I've accidentally done in order to write this blog) is I create a system restore point, just in case!)

• As long as you are careful, and have good security measures in place, you ought to be okay. If you can handle the extreme slowdowns or other weird things happening, you're a better person than I am!
  

But, there are people, like my teenager, who think they are invincible or that I'm being unnecessarily and overly cautious. Wait till you've had to spend hundreds of dollars on professional cleaning and/or complete reformatting of your system! Or wait until you've had to spend hours looking for the best way to scan and remove a "varmint" or had to wait for someone at a HiJack This-related forum to answer you and help you.

Better safe than sorry!
No truer words were ever spoken!

Installment #2 - Category: Random

Avoid these when possible, or at least have an excellent security system in place!

Note: The first 8 are all related to the same company, which is currently involved in a lawsuit against it for its invasive advertising practices.

1. broadcaster.com
2. movieland.com
3. flicksplus.com
4. mcaster.com
5. medialoader.net
6. mymedianetwork.com
7. popcorn.net
8. voddirect.com
9. *facebook.com (subject of phishing attacks lately)
10. googlemark.org
11. zedo.com
12. digg.com (several bad links)
13. aptimus.com
14. *metacafe.com (subject to several attacks lately)
15. activevirusshield.com
16. rollyo.com
17. supercracks.net
18. squidoo.com
19. tickme.com
20. *youtube.com (subject to attacks on users' downloads, phishing)
    

*When I tell you that they have been subject to various attacks lately, this is just to suggest extra caution at those sites, especially when downloading or clicking the links presented on their site. Get into the habit of checking with siteadvisor.