Austin Lane

In one of John C. Dvorak’s latest columns, he was talking about how easy it is to sabotage Google’s search results. As a result, there are a few things that you need to make sure of when you are searching Google for information that you need to ensure that you keep your PC safe.

Some of you may be familiar with the search results that appear when you search for “failure” or “miserable failure”, which links to the biography page on the White House website for George W. Bush. Now there is a more insidious method that website owners are utilizing to make more money.

According to Dvorak’s column, the more specific your search keywords are, the more likely you are to get results that are pages of nothing but advertisements. Hopefully this is all that appears on the page, as these types of pages can often lead to pages full of malware and viruses. Although Google can help find these dangerous pages, there are many times where you are following a link that is not off of Google’s search results. You should keep the following in mind to keep your system safe and your data secure:

• Always run an antivirus solution that has real-time protection, and ensure that it is active.
• Run Ad-ware and Spy-ware detection and removal software monthly.
• Run Antivirus scans monthly.
• Keep the software on your PCs up-to-date with the manufacturer’s updates.

If you need help securing your systems, please contact Austin Lane Technologies, Inc.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 8:49 am and is filed under Browsers, Internet, Jeff's Tech Tip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.