Not sure if you caught the March 29, 2009, segment of 60 Minutes about a new virus that may wreak havoc on April 1, 2009 (maybe the biggest April Fool’s joke is that 60 Minutes has us freaking out about it) –but it was a good segment that had me turning to my husband and asking: Did I turn my Norton 360 Firewall back on?


Alas, it was back on — and this 60 Minutes virus report sent me checking for the best-selling Internet security software out there at the moment that people are buying to try and protect themselves.


Watch the 60 Minutes segment about Symantec and the Conflicker Virus ready to detonate April 1 2009:

To dismiss the 60 Minutes virus jitters…

I see people are buying this McAfee Internet Security 2009 3-User more than Norton right now, which is kind of surprising to me.


I guess it can’t hurt to have both — I know people try to double up on software virus protection programs in order to try and double cover their bases.


They see images of 60 Minutes’ Leslie Stahl getting mock-hacked right before their eyes, with a mysterious Russian 14-year-old type of hacker like they showed on 60 Minutes fooling folks with false Facebook friend emails and getting access remotely to everything she types in her PC — including credit card numbers, her bank account login and password and the like.


The customer reviews of the McAfee Internet Security 2009 3-User are across the board, with one user saying “pick your poison” whilst another says it’s better than the last one, not exactly the rosy, glowing review you’d hope for.

More battling against the 60 Minutes “Internet is Infected” doom…

Includes the trust standbys of Norton Antivirus 2009 and the one below for more PCs, if you need that many.


Personally, I poppped for the $89.99 it cost to get the Norton 360 virus protection downloaded directly from their Symantec website.


And I run other stuff, too.

Other ways to protect yourself in light of the 60 Minutes virus scary show…

…include shutting down not only your PC and laptop for the night, but also turning off the WiFi button, if you’ve got a newer pc that has one.


And don’t click on email links even if you think they are from your Facebook friend, or someone else you know.


Check Snopes.com to verify stuff, or valid sites like Symantec.com before clicking on unknown links.


Also, if you see a strange URL, domain name, that is, go to Who.Is like I just did to verify that the dot com name someone sent me in an email looked legit. Who.Is gives you info like when the domain name was created and such, one more step towards determining if it’s real.


If you think something sounds too good to be true — like the scam AllDigitalPro.com — it probably is. Don’t go wiring any money via Western Union to them.


And also, instead of clicking on links, hover over them first to see where they go — if you use the Mozilla Firefox browser, you can hover over a link and then glance in the left-land lower corner to see where it’s really taking you.


And type in the website you want to go to in the URL bar — for example, AmericanExpress.com — then BOOKMARK that correctly-spelled link in your bookmarks toolbar, because that helps prevent you accidently typing in the wrong address other times and going to a possibly malicious website.

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