USA Today, of all people, has a fine article today explaining the latest ways your PC can be hijacked for diabolical purposes and what you can do about it.

The info contained therein will be common knowledge to the experienced computer geek, but for most people it may be the first they've heard of it.

Allow us to recommend our favorite anti-virus program, spyware shield, and firewall -- all of them free, incidentally. And all to be found, along with many other proven and tested freeware programs, at one of the most useful sites on the Web: Pricelessware.org. (Note: Incidentally, The Gnomon has no stake at all in Pricelessware.org other than that we download the software listed there all the time).

As well, the Department of Homeland Security recommends you start using something other than the ubiquitous Microsoft Internet Explorer (or at least turn off the IE features that open such wide security holes). Geeks in-the-know recommend FireFox, the free, easy-to-use, nice-to-look-at, open-source browser from Mozilla.org -- on which I am writing this post right now!