ComputerWorld: Underrated computing threats you need to know about

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Your PC may be protected from all the well-known dangers, but there are some you may not have thought of.

By Serdar Yegulalp
March 4, 2010

There's the danger you know, and then there's the danger you don't know.

Most of us are rightfully wary of downloading and running programs that have no pedigree, or of performing day-to-day operations as an administrative user. But with each passing year, new security threats march in to eclipse the old — many of them not getting their share of attention until it's too late.

Threats go unappreciated for various reasons. Some seem too obscure or unlikely to be valid until they actually materialize in the wild (such as the .PDF exploits I document later on). Others are overshadowed by more widely publicized problems (e.g., the way Firefox's issues take a backseat to Internet Explorer's).

Here I'll be giving a tour of a number of lesser-advertised security issues that can bite you when you least expect it, and offering some advice on how to defend yourself.

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