But wait, if you have your antivirus program running won't it catch and stop any viruses that you happen to open? Yes it will, but you could still copy it to someone else, or another person could grab it over network (if you are in a company, for example). Or perhaps for some reason you turn off your antivirus program, then you could accidentally open it up and destroy your system.

Scanning for viruses in scripts on web pages

Believe it or not, you can catch a virus from a web page. All you have to do is view page and bang, you are infected. There are not many of these yet, but you can bet there will be in near future. These are particularly nasty because, well, you don't have a choice about executing virus.

These are not like email viruses, which require you to actually open an attachment. They are not like other viruses, which require you to execute a file. These simply require you to view them. Pretty scary, if you ask me.

Thus, as you can see, it's very important to keep this feature enabled at all times. That way you will catch and destroy these things before you get hurt.

Regular updates

Be sure to subscribe to and use regular virus updates. You see, new viruses are found all of time, and if you don't update your definitions you will be vulnerable. In fact, after a few months of no updates your antivirus software becomes virtually worthless.

Conclusions

The features of your antivirus software are put there for a reason. My advice is to enable everything. Turn it all on. These days you cannot be too careful - or, if you prefer, you can disable something and perhaps lose your data. It's your choice.

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4. Make every password AT LEAST 6 characters long.

5. Use a mix of upper- and lowercase letters, and numbers -- and, if allowed, include symbols, i.e., "Hammer*shreW" or "booKbuicK-720". The more variety your password contains, less likely that it will be guessed.

6. Do not use a single word as your entire password. At several hundred guesses per second, my software could (and often did) go through entire unabridged dictionary files, many megabytes in size, and in several languages in no time. Combine two unrelated words, such as bookbuick or hammershrew.

7. Change your password frequently if site gives you that option.

8. Do not use same username/password combination at multiple sites.

I've grown out of "PassBandit", and it no longer holds a thrill for me. Instead, I've hopped fence and teach loss prevention topics. But there are thousands of "PassBandit"s out there looking to get your into your website stash. Don't make it easy for them.