Think you're safe online? Think again. We had no idea how vulnerable the average PC really is. Ben Feinstein of SecureWorks breaks it down for us and gives some practical tips for keeping your PC safe from the bad guys.

When Christina and I taped episode 5, Ben had way too much good stuff to talk about. Way more than would fit in a single episode. So, we decided to tape a longer interview and release it separately. Ben will scare you to death with all the nasties that are waiting on the intarwebs to hijack your beloved PC. He also offers some good tips for keeping clear of the evil side of the web.

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I was shocked when I first read this article from Matt Hines that spoke of the rising attacks of malware through instant messaging. I knew that there had been a number of articles lately about attacks, but I never realized that there were so many. Apparently there were 41 attacks in December 2006 over instant messaging systems, with over 400 IM initiated threats in the past 12 months. That's an increase in over 150 new threats in 2005. Compare that to 50 discovered threats in 2004, and it seems like IM attacks are on the rise, but only slightly. Interesting new research has also shown that these attacks mainly hit in the last quarter of the year, and are few and far between in the summer months. A security software company called Akonix Systems has been tracking these threats, and believes that there will be more complex and dangerous threats emerging for the 2007 year, that could see identity fraud on the rise. How does Akonix know this? They recently tracked a virus that had been delivered over IM that was aimed at stealing passwords when users logged into banking websites. Scary situation indeed. But if you have the proper up-to-date antivirus, and spyware solutions, you should be able to IM away and sleep tight knowing your information is secure.