I have a lot of apologizing to do.
As a PC World columnist, I often admonish readers for not backing up and keeping their security software up-to-date. And while I do everything possible to keep my PC and data safe, I haven’t been so diligent about my blog. And thus, when I got back from vacation, I discovered it feeding malware to my readers.
I had it cleaned within minutes of discovering the problem, but that’s small comfort if you’ve already been infected. That’s a very real possibility if you have a Windows PC and visited Bayflicks.net between June 13 and June 22, especially if your security software didn’t pop up with a warning. (When I visited the site, Kaspersky Internet Security blocked the infection with much noise and proclamations.) If that’s the situation, I recommend you scan your hard drive with a security tool other than the one you already have. Here are four of them, all free, all excellent, and none requiring heavy installations:
- Ewido’s online scanner (requires Internet Explorer)
- Edwido’s stand-alone program (it’s portable, meaning it doesn’t require installation)
- ClamWin Portable
- Kaspersky Lab’s Web scanner
In the meantime, I’m altering the blog to make it more secure. I’ve updated my WordPress blogging software, forcing the design change you’ve probably noticed. Among the other security changes, I now require you to register before you can add a comment, and have added reCAPTCHA to guarantee that only real human beings can register.
I hope that I’ll regain your trust.
Bayflicks 