StopBadWare.org

Ah, the good old days.

Dialing up to intellinet.com with my 14,400 modem, and enjoying the wide, innocent world of the web.

That was 1995. Things have changed for the worse since then. Nowadays, your privacy is in serious jeopardy, with the combination of security-plagued Windows (running as a local admin, as you are practically forced to do with Windows, is simply insane) and broadband internet. The two, frequently, add up to viruses, worms, and malware.

Well, there are those doing battle against the evil forces. One, in particular, is today's FamilyFirst choice: StopBadWare.org. Here's their mission:

StopBadware.org is a "Neighborhood Watch" campaign aimed at fighting badware. We will seek to provide reliable, objective information about downloadable applications in order to help consumers to make better choices about what they download on to their computers. We aim to become a central clearinghouse for research on badware and the bad actors who spread it, and to become a focal point for developing collaborative, community-minded approaches to stopping badware.

Unsurprisingly, many of the bad-listed sites are in the software cracking business. However, there are legitimate looking ones as well, serving up trojans and the like. Many others take advantage of the unfortunately human fascination with porn.

There is a lesson to be learned here: stay away from illegal software cracking and obscene websites, and you are protected to a good extent from malware.

All together now: DUH!

Anyhow, join the fight against badware at today's FamilyFirst site. With enough education and opposition, maybe we can chase a few of these idiots back into the swamp.

http://www.stopbadware.org

Digg It! It's Del.icio.us! Furl It!