Since this blog went live, we have published a few different stories on scareware. Dan McCann started things off and threw down the gauntlet with a great article about scareware. Then, I published some results of research that PandaLabs performed - this research demonstrated that scareware was growing at an incredibly fast pace.

And today came news that the New York Times, that venerable, highly respected publication was hosting a piece of scareware. While details are still scant, according to an article written by Riva Richmond, many viewers to the New York Times' web site were confronted with ads for scareware.

I am going to reserve any comment about the New York Times' story about these scareware attacks. Simply, I know that they have had a very stressful day and that they rushed to get this article out. As well, the (five plus) pages of comments have been quite scathing and I see no need to keep picking on the Times. But, they had a wonderful opportunity to educate the masses about security and, quite frankly, they missed the boat...completely.

Finally, if you have read the New York Times article and feel that you have to go out and spend your hard earned money on anti-virus software, think again. The Times forgot to mention that Avast has a version that is completely free (once you register). The Times also failed to mention another terrific anti-virus program called Avira. Subscribe to automatic updates, run a good quality security package and be safe out there!