17 Ways To Avoid Spyware Forever

This post is day 6 of the A Week Of Staying Safe series.

Spyware is everywhere and I doubt it will be going away anytime soon (if ever). Even if you install all the latest and greatest anti-spyware software to keep your computer safe, it is still ultimately your responsibility for making sure none of that crap gets on there in the first place.

Here are 17 tips for avoiding spyware altogether:

1. Stop downloading porn - seriously porn-addicts, get a life!!!
2. Stop downloading pirated software/music - that stuff is just filled with all sorts of nasty little things that go thump in the night
3. Downloading from a mysterious site? Use SiteAdvisor!
4. Don’t always trust the “from:” field on e-mails
5. Set your browser to always ask you where to save downloaded files (usually found in Preferences), that way you know if some site is doing something naughty
6. Be weary of mysterious e-cards from Greetings.com and Postcard.com
7. Never open links in e-mails by clicking them, instead copy the URL (via right-click) to your browser and check it. A good way to also prevent identity theft
8. Don’t use Outlook or Outlook Express, use an alternative like Thunderbird instead
9. Ditch IE for something like Firefox or Opera
10. Trust our Google overlords
11. Advertisements can link to pages with spyware - you have been warned (I wonder how many webmaster are going to scream at me for saying that?)
12. Never piss off a computer nerd, they might just send you a nice gift-wrapped package
13. Don’t use BitTorrent, Limewire, Kazaa, or anything inbetween
14. When updating any software wait a few days to make sure no users have any problems with the update, then update everything.
15. Be careful with public hotspots, it is incredibly easy for a malicious user to intercept your connection and do whatever the hell they want with it
16. Use a non-Windows OS (seriously, how often does spyware infect Linux or Mac OS X?)
17. Only download software from Nusuni.com - really… everything here is spyware free. If there is something missing that you think would make a nice program just let me know and I may make it real quick.

A Week Of Staying Safe Articles:
Day 1 - The Ultimate Guide To Detecting E-Mail Scams
Day 2 - Huh? Who Sent That? - How To Find Out What Server Really Sent That E-Mail And How To Deal With Spam
Day 3 - Having A Good Host Can Sure Save Your Sanity
Day 4 - Top 3 Ways To Secure MySQL
Day 5 - Avoiding Make Fast Money Affiliate Scams
Day 6 - 17 Ways To Avoid Spyware Forever
Day 7 - Password Rotation

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