What the piece is lacking most is the reason people clicked on it to begin with, Protection, of which there is next to nothing mentioned. Disable scripting? Really, that's your solution? Go tell someone about it? Why, are they going to pay to get it removed? I realize that ZDNet can't suggest and therefore endorse products (without being paid to do so of course), but it's misleading and fails to deliver on what it promised. So here are some real suggestions:
Avast Antivirus: Free to home users, only requires a valid e-mail address for a serial number and is good for a year before you have to send another e-mail for another free serial number. My only suggestion here is to do a custom install, selecting only the virus scanner, the rest just impedes your network. Kept updated, this program even catches JavaScript Malware before your browser has a chance to execute it.
MalwareBytes: This is for the neophyte, a decent little one click hammer that kills and removes a ton of Malware. It does not stay resident so it has to be run manually, but it was built intelligently. The updater re-downloads and reinstalls the entire program so Malware can't just disable all or part of it. I recommend this to anyone who knows little about their machine, or more importantly knows someone who knows little about their machine and is tired of fixing it for them.
SmitFraudFix: SmitFraud is a nasty little Malware program that cannot be removed by popular programs such as SpyBot or Ad-Aware (which is why they do not appear on this list). It usually resides in the taskbar, constantly displaying a popup about infection and running a random fake Virus scan. This fix is specific to the SmitFraud Malware variant.
ComboFix: A new crop of RootKit Malware that will kill known AntiVirus/AntiMalware solutions such as HiJackThis, MalwareBytes and Avast, stopping you from even executing said programs. The link provided is a how-to as well as a download.
I will not take responsibility for anything the above software does, use it at your own risk. Having said that, I have personally used everything mentioned with no serious adverse affects.
