This blog complements my book, The Essential Guide to Home Computer Security, to help you keep your home computers and smartphones secure.

Monday 23 January 2012

5 URL expanders to help you avoid dodgy links

This report at Mashable lists 5 tools to expand shortened URLs. They range from those that just provide you with the full web address so you can make your own decision whether to visit it or not, to those that actually check out the site for you in advance.

Comodo Cleaning Essentials - clearing a virus infection


Cleaning a PC after a virus infection can be a pain. There is a review of what looks like a versatile tool at: Comodo Cleaning Essentials - clearing a virus infection

Wednesday 18 January 2012

Malware targeting childrens' game sites

An interesting report about malware targeting kids games sites. If malware can get into your childrens computer then it has a chance to get on to yours. Or there may be a computer mostly used by the children and occasionally used by adults. If used for sensitive activities like banking, this use by the kids could leave it vulnerable. Moral - keep the kids computers safe and check up on their security posture from time to time.

Tuesday 3 January 2012

US researchers awarded grants for home computer security research

Researchers at Michigan State University have received grants totaling about $500,000 to seek ways to help people increase the security of their home computers. The researchers will study how to help home users better understand security issues by carrying out surveys of public opinion on computer security and experiments to find out how people learn about security.
There hasn't been a great deal of research into home computer security so this will be an interesting activity, and it is good that they are starting by trying to understand the users. The next step should be to see how to incoporate security tools and help, into applications and web sites in a more novice friendly way.