Have you checked for Spyware today?

This past year seems to have been a banner year for Spyware and other web browser hijacking schemes. I've seen a couple of friend's computers completely taken over by these little nasties.

Anti-Spyware Test Guide is a very comprehensive list of both good and bad anti-spyware software packages that are out there.

Another thing that I've thought was suspicious, is that most of the anti-spyware sites advertised on Google are themselves suspect. It just goes to show that you can't always trust what you see on the 'Net.

Upgrade...or else

This article is actually dated before the discovery of the iFrame exploit, which makes it rather ironic. Microsoft's position has been that if you want the latest security patches, you have to upgrade to WinXP. So, all those WinME, Win2k (any Win98 and NNT users out there?) are out of luck.

The other side of the coin is you have to have fairly new hardware to run WinXP, which is my main problem. I don't have the extra cash to buy a new laptop. I'm guessing a lot of other folks don't either.
Want secure IE? Then upgrade to XP... - ZDNet UK News

Scary stuff
Once again, it's not safe to browse the web using Internet Explorer (was it ever?). As they state in this article, vulnerabilities in IE 6 allows a malicious web page to install and run code:
Secunia - Advisories - Internet Explorer HTML Elements Buffer Overflow Vulnerability