Surfing the Internet can can be a frightening experience for computer-using novices, especially when there are almost as many computer programs online designed to hurt, rather than to help. Viruses, worms, trojans, and other nasty pieces of code are lurking where you least expect them to be, waiting for some unsuspecting web browserer (you!) to be infected!

So what is the rookie Interwebber supposed to do to avoid getting infected by an embarrassing piece of social software? Well, just like the "real world", protect themselves of course! You never know when you're going to accidentally download viral software, so you should take preventative action by installing anti-virus software, such as what you can find with free Norton downloads, or some of the encouragingly useful software that you will find with the Google Pack.

This type of virus protection isn't always something they teach you in school, unless you take computer science, so like that other stuff they do teach you, it's better to be safe than sorry.

We can't always predict when an innocent-looking email from our Auntie Dottie is going to contain a nefarious attachment designed to crash our system, so if you want to take a look at some Norton & Google Pack Reviews before you decide to install something on your machine (sage advice indeed), doing your research isn't going to harm you as much as a data-eating worm.