I have been trying to post a warning here about the “Storm” Trojan Horse that effects Bulletin Boards like this one, only I keep getting an “Unacceptable” “A valid representation Blah blah blah…php” So be careful about following links here and see THIS for the full story.
Thanks for the heads up! 
-GQ
Storm is a nifty little trojan with a cool hierarchy. Very damaging, but from a programmers point of view, clever and thorough in it’s design.
Here’s what I know about it, (and BTW thanks Mtnjim because I have not heard about attacking through links): It normally comes as attached to an email with a current news story as the header. The worm has many NEW variations and was updated sometime in mid January from mild to medium. In threat scale 1 (mild) to 5 (Severe) it still holds as a three.
I know most anti-virus programs have had a definition for it since January so as long as you have a good UPDATED virus protection running you SHOULD be OK. Lately I’ve noticed that it’s being manipulated to hide as a rootkit technique.
In essence: If you’ve ever get one of those emails about Stocks, Failure to deliver (when you know you didn’t send) and the sorts? It basically uses your computer as a spam bot to send out spam. It’s all fun and games until that SPAM burns your house down.
You also need to be careful of some of the websites mentioned here by various posters. Some are obvious spammers, but others may or may not be aware of the problems some sites can cause.
I was checking out one such site that was mentioned here in a posting and my spybot blocker and popup blocker went crazy. I mentioned this to a friend who replied that he had tried the same site recently and he claimed it tried it’s best to load spyware onto his system and eventually caused his OS to crash and burn (requiring a full “hard reset” ie power down), and he was running a Mac.
One basic rule I have when surfing new sites on the net is if they try to do pop-ups on me. When I find one that hits me with more than two that’s it. I stop/close/shut down/whatever and put that site on my “never again” list. When first researching pheromones (pre-Androtics days) love-scent became a winner because they were one of the only sites I tried logging on to that didn’t try to swamp me with pop-ups. Androtics, in their wisdom, doesn’t either.
Keep that Spybot/AdAware/etc current! And your pop-up blocker on. You’re going to want them!
Oh yea Spybot R and D, Adaware and I have Bitdefender as my defenses for adaware, malware, worms, etc. Spybot and Adaware are staples I think for every computer.
One thing that a lot of people don’t do is to run as a “Limited Account”. Windows sets users up, by default as an “Administrator”. Bad practice, and something users should do something about. The first thing you should do is set up an “Administrator” account that you rarely log in to. Then set the account you do use as a “Limited Account”. I know it feels good to have all of that “Power”, but, how often do you need to install programs or add a printer? When you do need to do something administrative, you can log in to the “Administrator” account, or do a “RunAs”. Think about it, if you can’t install programs (spyware etc.) neither can a virus or a malicious Web site that would be running with the same rights you have.
Good advice.