On our website and blog we talk about Cocoon protecting you from drive-by malware infections, but what exactly are they? In the not too distant past to get a computer virus, you had to do something, open an email from some you didn’t know, download an executable file from a suspicious website, etc. Viruses didn’t just happen because you didn’t wash your hands or someone forgot to cough into their elbow – it took some action by you to infect your computer. Back in those good old days the annoyed look you got from the IT guy was because you likely had done something stupid. Not so anymore.
Now you can get a virus, malware or spyware from visiting and just viewing a website as innocent as msnbc or facebook (not to defame them – my point is it can happen anywhere).
The malware is not the fault of the website itself, but instead can happen for a number of reasons. One, a web server hosting this content hasn’t been updated with newer software or patches – Google reports 38% of common but older versions were outdated. Or two, the advertising on the website may be delivering malware infections – and these infected ads may be provided via a sales syndication network, so the website doesn’t even know who the ad owner is.
Yes there are still stupid things we can do to get infected – like clicking on a suspicious popup ad or opening every attachment that is emailed to you. But just avoiding the obvious will not keep you safe. So what can you do? Well, Cocoon will protect you once it’s available, but we’ll also talk about other options in our next post.
