Malawareness

Malware, an old favorite, is the security awareness topic for this month's security awareness module. One of the issues noted in the awareness materials is that of user PCs picking up infections simply by visiting infectious websites ... like for example a 'bargain shopping' site in Australia that had evidently been exploited by hackers. According to the news report, certain browsers warned users when they visited the site and hopefully, if the users were aware enough to take note of the warnings and not override the technical controls, that would have significantly reduced the risk of being infected. On top of that, the malware was probably recognized by normal antivirus software, further reducing the risk. However, unaware users without these controls may well have drawn the short straw, and to make matters worse they may still be blissfully ignorant of the infection.