The average Web user is a savvy individual who tends to err on the side of caution when surfing, sticking to trustworthy sites and only opening attachments to files they know are safe. But links are a different matter, especially if they are shortened into the random jumble of letters and numbers which populate social networking sites these days. Luckily, the spammers and scammers don’t have it all their own way.

Microsoft Office 2010 Starter Edition will begin shipping on new PCs with an ad-supported revenue model until a user buys a key to the full version. This new strategy offers the limited functionality of Works with the annoyance of ad interruptions.

The New York Times says it has confirmed its initial suspicion that a bogus advertiser put site visitors at risk of malware. Embarrassingly, it appears the “advertiser” dealt directly with the newspaper rather than going through an ad sales network.

Sometimes you can do everything right to protect yourself and still get hit by a virus or nasty piece of malware. As if to prove that’s the case, the New York Times has this weekend found itself the vendor of an unauthorized ad that while promising to keep you safe online actually does the opposite. Is nowhere sacred on the Web any more?

We’re currently living in a celebrity-obsessed age where us ordinary, unknown folk look up to anyone with a little bit of fame. There are also more celebrities than ever before thanks to reality TV and new chances for infamy online. But searching for these celebs on the Web can be a dangerous business. Google ‘Jessica Biel’ at your own risk because there’s a high probability of finding something altogether less pleasant.

Researchers are warning of malicious Adobe PDF documents circulating online. The documents cause Adobe Reader to crash and allow hackers to exploit a hole in Adobe’s Flash player.

Now anonymous sources within the government of South Korea are saying what so many of us have been thinking: the North Korean government was behind last weekend’s cyber attacks on South Korea.

Some observers are worried about privacy issues involved in Einstein 3, the new government program aimed at detecting and preventing cyber-attacks on U.S. government computer systems.

Prior to the official announcement that Michael Jackson was dead, there was a flurry of rumors going across the Web causing much confusion. Many sites were reporting that Michael Jackson was in a state of deep coma while others were reporting of his passing. It has been found that devious hackers have taken advantage of this confusion by leveraging virus and spam attacks disguised as Michael Jackson information.

Microsoft recently announced the official name and details of the anti-malware tool it’s been covertly working on. The best part about the tool is that it’s completely free to consumers. The tool looks to be promising which could put more pressure on existing antivirus tool developers to step it up a notch.

The Federal Trade Commission has closed down an Internet service provider described today as “nefarious” and the “worst ISP in [the] U.S.” And that’s some of the nicer things people have said.

The Conficker Worm may be capable of doing the most damage to the most systems, but the StalkDaily worm that has run through Twitter in the last 36 hours is generating more buzz.

The Conficker worm (also known as Downadup and Kido) has been with us since October 2008. Yet we still don’t know what the ultimate aim of the virus is. However, a new variant is now spreading via peer-to-peer that suggests Conficker is set to evolve and start spamming and stealing sensitive data. In other words, it’s a nasty little thing to have on your computer.

Scams are a large and growing problem on Facebook and other social networking sites. Here are 6 scams you could encounter on Facebook and how to protect yourself against them.

The second rogue application scam to hit Facebook in a week appears designed to capitalize on the row over changes to the site’s terms and conditions. The scam tricks users into following a link to explain a “warning” for violating site rules.

If you were searching the Web via Google at just the wrong time this morning, you probably got a bit of a shock, in the form of warnings that said every site on the World Wide Web was a malware suspect.

Hackers and malware creators are forever on the lookout for new ways of infecting computers. They sniff out a system of spreading their creations and launch it on an unsuspecting public. A particularly nasty one is currently doing the rounds. Known variously as Conficker, Downadup, and Kido, this worm has the capacity to infect any Windows PC and then spread voraciously around a network.