In a previous post, I told you to be wary if you choose to download free antivirus software. In another post, I said that just because you will buy antivirus software instead of downloading a free one doesn’t mean you’re already safe—you must buy antivirus software only from a reputable antivirus company. But how does that relate to the former president of the Philippines?

If somebody uses a particular search term about the late president in the past few days, they would have been presented with these highly optimized malware sites in the results page: (these sites had been blocked already)

• http://{BLOCKED}-gonzales.redxhost.com/corazon-aquino-death.html
• http://{BLOCKED}sa.20x.cc/corazon-aquino-death.html
• http://{BLOCKED}rank.0adz/corazon-aquino-death.html
• http://{BLOCKED}-1.0adz.com/corazon-aquino-died.html

When the user clicks on any of those links, they’d be redirected to different sites containing malware that would then lead to the download of a fake antivirus software detected as TROJ_FAKEALRT.FK. The fake antivirus software would then possibly download more malicious files and fake antiviruses. While the sites probably would not work anymore, you need to watch out for similar tactics when searching for other terms with breakout popularity.

How would you know, then, if a link would redirect you to malicious sites distributing malware? You probably won’t. That’s why it’s worth repeating that you need anti-spyware, antivirus and firewall software installed as it would only take a few minutes of browsing before you can be infected with viruses, spyware and other malware. Your security software should be able to immediately block the connection or quarantine any questionable downloaded binary or script. And if ever you’d be redirected to a site selling—or offering for free download—antivirus software, don’t buy it; or, at least, check it first. Buy antivirus software only from a trusted company.

If you decide to buy antivirus software instead of using those you can download for free, then you need to buy antivirus software from a reputable antivirus company. Don’t ever think that since you will buy antivirus software and not just download a free antivirus program, then you are safe. There are antivirus companies who are only too eager to lock you in their antivirus software lineup. Don’t buy antivirus software from them.

Research a company if you plan to buy antivirus software from them. If you are not familiar with antivirus software, determining which antivirus company is trustworthy could be hard. I found a list by Microsoft of antivirus software companies. Wikipedia also has its list of antivirus software. Wikipedia’s list is nice because antivirus programs are compared to each other by operating system availability and boot-time, among others. It also includes a list of antivirus programs free to download. Don’t buy antivirus software without checking these lists or that of reputable sites like CNet or PCMag. Your internet security depends on it.

If you are new to antivirus programs, it is safer to buy antivirus software. Don’t get me wrong; there are still risks even if you buy antivirus software as I’ll discuss in my next post. But the risk is greater if you download antivirus for free from some no-name site.

I know that there are good antivirus free to download. I even have a link to a list of free antivirus software which I’ll share with you tomorrow. I’ve used a couple of them, too. The problem is knowing a good free antivirus to download from a bad one. As one reader pointed out in a previous post, (Hi, Holly) some of these free antivirus software contain viruses themselves. I can’t agree more as I’ve encountered them myself. In one site I visited, it said “Your computer is infected. Click here to download our free antivirus”. (Or something along those lines.) Yeah, right. Their free antivirus did not even have a name.

But if you still plan to download free antivirus software, just be aware of the risk and research the antivirus software company. Check if there are any antivirus reviews mentioning them. There are good free antivirus programs out there. However, it is simply safer for newbies to buy antivirus software. It’s worth the cost.

You got that right. One of the best computer games—chess is free to download. Some of them, at least; but definitely not Chessmaster or similar commercial chess programs. However, a lot of those chess games that are free to download are enough to make you scratch your head if your rating is below 1400.

My favorite free chess programs are Fritz, Rybka, Toga, and GNU chess. They are good chess engines that you can download for free. I’m a bit lazy to provide the links here but you can always search for them in the Net if you’re interested. You might also stumble upon new free chess games to download in the process. New stuff come out all the time, you know.

So, if you feel a bit disenchanted about blogging and don’t feel like tweeting, maybe you can have a go at chess. It’s free to download and fun to play. I’m sure you won’t have an easy time but please refrain from hitting the screen.