Elaborate, please. If you think it's wrong, state why
I thought I did that. It is a very broad coverage of a major issue with a few platitudes. Firewall, anti-virus, common sense are all important. But you can not sya "nothing to worry about", as if the danger would be so much less. ANs "safe Surging"? What is "safe Surging"? Is that like "Safe Sex"? Nothing to worry about? Do you tell your children "practice safe sex and you will have nothing to worry about."
Just one majhor example. DNS Spoof.
Many have tried hard to tell people about the DNS danger. The IT poeple would just shrug it off thinking that you will have a warning before it happens. That is like not locking your house at night because your cat will meow as soon as a thief tries the door and you will have time to call 911.
So we start getting reports from people saying that Google was hijacking. But there was nothing wrong with Google. Their PCs got hijacked.{Don't ask me for the sources, it was in all the IT rags and is even in the mass-media.} People don't pay attention because they "had a firewall, and anti-virus and use common sense." It is "common sense" that makes people put there house key under the door mat?
Pardon me for using trivial illustrations. It is much more serious that a thief in you house. This wicked erosion of open communication can undercut the all trust and confidence still left in the world. It can get to the point where you will not ever even know what happened to you.
Yes,this sounds like a rant. And it is. People are just too complacent. Me too. It is hard to believe it could happen to me. But I have already ad to close one back account, drop one credit card and change the account number on another. And this was related to Internet fraud. My banker told me to close the account, but didn't offer any idea of how to get my money back. The credit cards companies did better, they did give me a refund on part of the fake charges. And these were things that had nothing to to with conventional security measure. These crooks had real, legal SSL and all that stuff. Did not stop them form stealing.
There is now a large Black Market for tools to defraud people with on-line business of any kind. The organized crime people will sell you proven kits and tools to crack security, get fake SSL, spoof major companies, mislead, deceive, cheat and steal and stay out of jail.
Take a guess at how much stuff the very best anti-virus software can find?
OK, lets make it like a game.
The is a mine filed the size of a football filed. you have to walk all the way across. you have a mine detector that can detect mines. There are over 400 mines you might step on if you walked a random path across the filed. But your mine detector can warn you and give you an alert. Now then, what level of error would you allow for the mine detector and think that there is "nothing to worry about?" And lest say that you have body armor that will protect most of your body. So one or two hist is allowable. Maybe. OK? Now what do you want the mine detector to do? What does "common sense" now tell you?
Of the 400, or maybe up to 600 mines that you might step on, how many shall the mine detector find? (int, it is not enough for the detector to find mines that you could uncover with just a sharp stick. It has to find the ones you don't know are there.) Pick a number from 100 to 600. Of course, on average, you would only hit 400. But with a lot of blind luck, just 100. But 600 is the max if you went in a mostly straight line across the filed.
On my nest post I will give the answer based on the performance level of best bet possible anti-virus software available to the public. And I will give the reference from an authority source. (If anybody cares..)