What websites should I stay away from to avoid viruses?

[Jason G.]

A friend of mine at Time Warner Cable told me to stay away from chat rooms and adult sites, and I think also social networking sites. I was on a chat room and on Facebook-someone on one of those sites sent a virus to my computer. He also said they know how to bypass Norton Antivirus. What other sites should I stay away from? Please help me out-I want to comprise a list of sites for my own reference. Please help me out. Thank you.

[Mrs. Q]

Most of the more popular social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace are pretty good about making sure viruses are lurking around. Of course, there are ways around that. Adult sites generate the most traffic on the internet; I believe in the neighborhood of 40%? It makes more sense to have viruses there. A scammer's dream.

Anyway, try and avoid adult sites, like you said. Chat rooms and gambling sites as well.

Any site you have in question, type it in here.

http://www.mywot.com/

My Web of Trust. Gives scorecards and reputations of sites. Read the user comments, though. They tell more about the site than the actual "score".

[mr. wong]

Have you heard of the phrase "nothing is free, there's got to be a catch?"
Well, it's true.
Avoid websites that offer free items, unless you trust that website such as costco.com or sears.com.

Most viruses will piggy-back on something you download, such as free music.
So, if you do download something, you should download it to a folder on your desktop, then after the download, right click on the folder, select your scan option. If okay, continue using the file.

[Xmetalfanx]

Just use common sense ... Don't go to warez or any illegal sites. I have to say that Facebook and Myspace are OK (virus wise) l.. its those "third party Facebook "apps" " that people tend to add that infect them .. I never add any Facebook apps (and there are Apps on Facebook that 100% are totally legit and viruses/malware free)

Norton has been known to be a not-so-good AV ... I would remove it and go for very very good (and just so happens to be free) Anti-viruses such as Avast or Avira (AVG rates alot lower then those two, but still better than Norton) ... as a person who is getting more and more into Linux, I feel odd saying it ... but ... even MS Security Essentials does good ... I do not like it for a few things, but detection wise its the 3rd best (behind Avast and Avira which ... almost have the same detection reviews ... Avast tends to rate higher for the interface, but the detection is very close) ..

Also, like I say in almost every post ..... Malwarebytes is a great freeware that should be used in addition to your anti-virus ... it truly is the best (although if you see people saying SuperAntispyware is good, .. they are correct too .. not as good as MB, but a good second option for malware ... AND FREE TOO )

-Xmetalfanx

[Hot Chick]

Facebook & other social networking sites do have serious security threats, even the FBI issued a warning back in 2009
http://www.ic3.gov/media/2009/091001.aspx
Now Facebook scams continue to "soar"
http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=10340

So yes, in general stay away from social networking, and the other sites the Time Warner Cable guy told you.

Norton, like McAfee, are perhaps the the two most popular antivirus programs that people use; of course scammers know this, that is why they first test their viruses on these popular programs to make sure they can get around them before releasing them, that is why it is better if you use a less popular program
http://www.zdnet.com.au/why-popular-anti...264249.htm

Make sure you are not using any version of Internet Explorer, several governments in the past have warned that you should not use it.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/...795684.htm
And IE is still a serious problem.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/secu...ed_IWK_All
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20027620-245.html

Use an alternate browser (personally, I like Firefox):
https://hdc.tamu.edu/reference/documenta...ion_id=592
Install WOT on Firefox & it will automatically block dangerous sites
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3456/