I've seen this dozens of times: "scamware" that tricks unsuspecting users into installing a bogus security product.  Some of the best ones look like they’re alerts from your operating system and appear as a tray icon with a balloon warning that your machine is infected and that you need to download "this product" in order to eliminate the threat. Sadly, when you see that bogus alert it means you've already been infected.

Recently my wife used a credit card (which she hadn’t used for many months prior) to make a small (less than $20) purchase via her cell phone - not at a retail store or via the internet. Just a few days later she received a telephone call at home from the credit card issuer seeking clarification about what they considered unusual activity. When she called them back, using what she knew to be a veritable phone number for the company, they told her that they’d flagged the card because they’d detected an unusual charge attempt.

I stumbled upon an interesting piece at the Wake Forest University site.  In Eric Frazier’s piece, Ants vs. worms (you can read it here) he describes how new security programs are being designed to thwart computer security threats by taking a page out of mother nature’s book. These “digital ants” are made to seek out threats in computer networks and pretty soon after a threat is detected, the “ants” gather conspicuously enough to get the attention of their human supervisors.

Two weeks ago I wrote a blog about a friend’s computer that was running bare because she didn’t want to spend the money for steep renewal fees. While the economy is improving, it will be some time before it's back in full swing again. Many people are holding on to their computers longer and are using them to help their job searches, too. If you’re in a situation where you can't or don't want to spend the money to renew your security software there are free alternatives - but there is a minor catch.

Ever see all the software that vendors load up on new PCs? Right after Vista goes through setup and registration you can watch the system tray fill up with icons as program after program loads. While most of that stuff can be removed to help speed up the operating system, some of it is useful security software that needs to be up and running at all times.

The wildfires in California are nothing new. They do however serve as a stark reminder that life is unpredictable and that data could be wiped out in an instant. Offsite storage of backup data is best and with today's high-speed Internet connections, they are relatively fast, too.

I wasn’t overly surprised when I read Jordan Robertson’s Associated Press piece, “Phishing' drops; are scammers switching tactics?” at Physorg.com simply because lately I’ve heard less complaints from PC users about phishing encounters.

Cell phones sometimes give us more security at the risk of less privacy. Does that mean we should or shouldn't let our children have them?

It was nice to hear that IE8 has made marked improvements in detecting malware -- by 17% since March. I read in Gregg Keizer’s Computerworld piece, “IE8 whips rivals in blocking malware sites,” that IE8 was able to spot a whopping 81% of sites infected with attack code. That all sounds well and good, but it’s not available for the Mac -- my computer of preference.  Add to that the fact that Microsoft’s security team sponsored the testing and I feel a little uncomfortable.

The other day I was heading home from work thinking about the vacation week ahead. I was traveling on a two-lane parkway and it was the middle of the day yet inexplicably, there was a build up of traffic. All the northbound drivers were making their way around one SUV, which was in the right lane but only traveling at about 35 mph in a 55 mph zone. In effect, it was as if one lane had been shut down. As I got up to the slow moving vehicle, I could see a middle-aged woman texting and laughing.

The other day I was getting breakfast at a local deli near where I work. There were three young guys there with thick accents talking to the deli clerk. I'm usually dead on with accents but was having a hard time distinguishing where these young men were from. So I asked. I was tempted to guess Russia, but one who spoke English perfectly answered, “We're from Belarus”. I asked if they were on vacation or visiting here and the same guy said they were each here on a work visa. Now I was curious and asked what kind of work they did.

For a couple of weeks now cybercriminals have been quietly up to no good. Specifically, they’ve been “e-mailing PDF files with corrupted Flash video clips and hacking into websites to implant them. These clips, when activated, enable attackers to quickly install malicious programs on the user's computer.”

I’ve heard that the economy is on the upswing, but I know most of us are still holding our breath. With many Americans trying to make ends meet in the face of unemployment, ballooning mortgage costs and credit card debt, lots of them are turning to debt-relief services. If you or someone you know is in this position, remember that if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is.

I remember the Internet when it was in its nascent stages. Slow, limited and unpredictable. Today's Net is a far cry from those early days and it's become an integral part of our lives. One of the favorite pastimes of the Net savvy is online shopping. You can get literally anything on the Net these days. Passwords are usually required somewhere when Internet shopping, which brings up the issue of security.

I was having a discussion recently about what a different experience it is to be entering the workforce nowadays compared to just twenty or so years ago. It used to be that employees starting a new job would meet with some sort of state of the art new technology. They’d be trained to use that equipment on the job and then go home every night to more tech-deprived surroundings. (In fact, I remember asking one of my first bosses if it would be OK to use the office photocopier to make a couple of photocopies for a non-work, personal project.)