What are the most common areas that you can pick up spyware hosts? Are music downloads, YouTube areas of concern?

Not YouTube. Music downloads can be a source if they are not in mp3 format. Usually the malware is "injected" into a computer in a variety of ways, the two most common being visiting a website that has malware injection code in the HTML or the recipient has downloaded a program from a dubious source and the malware is included in there. Most good antivirus programs can block malware as email atachments so that has become seen lower number of incidents.

Good info. I recently had a virus called Malware. Tried to fix it myself using something called Malware Cleaner. Big surprise the cleaner was just another virus. $175 later Staples returned my computer running like new.

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Originally Posted by ballengerb1

Good info. I recently had a virus called Malware. Tried to fix it myself using something called Malware Cleaner. Big surprise the cleaner was just another virus. $175 later Staples returned my computer running like new.

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Would Firefox recommend a Malware cleaner that is a virus?

The browser wouldn't recommend something. A website may have something that looks like an ad but tricks you into believing it's an alert. Firefox does have alerts to protect users:
Visiting my site may harm my computer? What the heck? :: Free Tech Support :: Ask Dave Taylor!
http://services.exeter.ac.uk/cmit/mo...on_firefox.png

But it will never ask to download something to "fix" it.

Yikes!
I think I may have downloaded a virus then.

Clean up time! Update your AV and scan. Get this and run it: Malwarebytes.org

Whew! OK, that's the same thing that was recommended.
Now I am not sure which page on Mozilla it was mentioned, but it had to do with Firefox crashing when I open some sites.

Viruses get into a computer in a variety of ways:

1. Windows lets it. No software should be allowed to install without the admiistrative password. (fixed in Windows 7?)
2. You get tricked into installing software. (Don't ever answer a question: Are you over 18)
3. A browser plug-in is downloaded from an untrusted source.
4. Trickery: Always look at the link displayed at the bottom of the page. The link could say "Bank of America", but the URL points to virus code
5. Viruses also probagate by using say an outlook address book and sending mail through your mail server to your contacts.
6. They probagate when filesharing is open without a password.
7. Holes in Windows programs and the operating system.

I once set up a Windows NT OS and it was infected within 10 minutes of being connected to the network.

The corporate world can use Internet appliances as mail servers.
The corporate word can force use of VPN to access the internal network and do MAC address filtering.

Brute force password crackig is still an option. Way back in the early 80's I saw a Unix machine use brute force and a dictionary to crack a password. It was all part of "fun" and it was done in a friendly kind of way.

Back in high scool (a long time ago) before personal computers I lived on both sides. Hacking and implementing security measures. It requires very specific knowledge. I also had the knowledge that I could crash the entire timesharing compuer in about 30 seconds. Crash dumps were able to locate the user, so I had to fess up.

A grad student said I've installed a networking terminal handler that I just wrote for his thesis, see if you can find any bugs. The first 3 characters I typed caused it to crash. Those characters were carefully selected by me. I knew I was a special case and may have been overlooked. It was It was also done on a logged out terminal.