Page II: Malware is a malicious and destructive form of Web browser hijacking. Combating such an attack requires patience and a set of specific tools, references, and resources. Prepare yourself with this guide.
The prevalence of malware is a problem that we must address.
And by "we," I mean IT professionals. The current situation, where a
user's system can be compromised simply by visiting a Web site, is intolerable.
Network administrators, Webmasters, system designers, application developers,
and the numerous other IT professionals responsible for Internet security and
infrastructure should tackle this malware problem head on and now.
Perhaps it is time to make Spybot and Ad-aware, or similar applications, an integral part of normal network security. Of course, that would mean that we would have to pay for these tools, which are now generally free to use. But I think that small bit of investment is well worth the cost, especially when you consider the time spent trying to remove malware.
Malware is more than a nuisance; it is an epidemic that costs us all time and resources. While criminalising the hijacking of PCs and browsers will prevent some of this activity, we cannot count on that legislation to actually become law. Instead, it will ultimately be technology itself that will find a way to prevent this insidious behaviour. But until the technology of prevention catches up to the technology of infliction, we will have to pay a price for access to the World Wide Web. It's a shame that that price is constantly being raised by the darker side of human nature and the scourge of malware.
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