It's not the holes in Microsoft security that concerns me lately, it the blackhole that common sense gets sucked into. The rash of viruses that I've been seeing, Bagel, Netsky and MyDoom, play on users inability to recognize obvious attempts to attack their computers.

In addition to this the authors of these viruses are engaged in a war among themselves attempting to outdo each other. The Netsky virus, for example, attempts to deactivate Bagel and MyDoom. What this is causing for us though is increased variants of the viruses. I've definitely noted an increase in the number of times my anti-virus program has been getting new updates.

These viruses, though, should not be able to proliferate the way they're doing. Come on folks, they're attachments, the emails are poorly worded, the grammar usually sucks, and why would your mother-in-law be sending you an email message concerning pornograph? The virus authors are getting smarter though. In order to outdo each other, they're writing more provocative emails. Bagel is sending message appear to be legitimate warnings about email accounts. Unless you're a spammer, you're probably not over utilizing your email account. Ignore them!

Think about it? Why wouldn't then just include all the information in the email? Why in an attachment? And why password protect a zip file? It's all psychological. If it's password protected, it must be legit right?

Here's how to protect yourself from viruses. One, invest in some good antivirus software. Two, do not open ANY attachments. If someone really wants you to see the picture of their dog, then tell them to upload it to their websites (most ISPs provide some webspace). Better yet, ask them to send you the files through and instant messaging program. They work pretty good for this type of stuff and you'd definitely know who the file came from. And finally, get out of email. It ain't working and it's not going to get fixed anytime soon.