Earlier tonight, I ran across a press release from the FBI. As I read it, I nearly screamed out loud at my computer. In short, the release is warning computer users of the dangers of a malware infection commonly referred to as Zlob. This infection will cause popups on your desktop, warning you that you are infected, and should download such-and-such software to cure this problem. Welcome to our world, FBI folks… a tad late.

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Earlier this evening I was working on a few blog posts for my boss, minding my own business. I was in what I jokingly refer to as my zone. When I’m writing, it’s actually hard to distract me. You have to yell at me, or poke me repeatedly. I’ve gotten quite good at blocking things out when I’m writing. I’ve had to do that being a work-at-home Mom. It’s not easy to get anything done if you hear every sound coming out of your teenager’s bedroom!

As I sat there writing, my zone was shattered by the yells from my daughter. She was screaming for me to “Hurry! Help me!”. Thinking for sure something horrible had happened, I nearly killed myself getting out of my chair and into her room. I crossed the doorway to see her pointing at her laptop with a completely horrified look on her face. I look down, knowing already what I would see, and sighed heavily. You guessed it… popups… of the adult variety. Great. Just lovely!

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I am a moderator in a chat room that has around 250+ active users at all times – day or night. The chat mostly centers around technology, social media, and anything that could be considered to be “Geeky”. Several times a day – EVERY day – the talk turns to computer security. And always, some dolt makes a claim of how smart they are on the Internet… how they don’t need protection… how they couldn’t possibly become infected.

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