[Via: Online MBA Programs]

Adobe has released information about a security issue with their Flash and Acrobat and Reader and software, calling it a critical flaw. Attackers can use the flaw to gain control of your computer. As yet there’s no fix available for the versions affected, which include:

• Adobe Flash Player 10.0.45, 9.0.262, and earlier 10.0.x and 9.0.x versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Solaris.
• Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.3.2 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX

According to Adobe: “The Flash Player 10.1 Release Candidate available at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/ does not appear to be vulnerable.  Adobe Reader and Acrobat 8.x are confirmed not vulnerable.”

It’s a fact of life on the Internet today. If your computer isn’t protected with antivirus software or you fail to keep your software up to date, your computer will likely become infected with malware. With more and more aspects of our lives moving online the number of viruses, Trojans, worms, and other dangers has gone up exponentially. One study found that nearly 48% of the computers they inspected were infected with some kind malicious software.

Once restricted to the seedier adult and illegal download sites, malware can now be contracted by visiting almost any kind of site, often through legitimate looking advertising. Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are now prime targets for hackers, and have already had several run-ins with malware spreading through their communities.

Keeping yourself protected is as easy as installing quality antivirus software and keeping the virus definitions up to date. But you don’t have to spend a lot of money for a good antivirus program. Tthere are several excellent options that are free for home users, and available for download. Why bother with subscriptions and licenses when there are better, easier, free alternatives?

Microsoft Security Essentials is the slimmed down descendant of Microsoft Live OneCare. It’s easy to install and use, can install updates automatically, and consumes realatively few system resources. While it lacks some of the bells and whistles of pricier packages, it more than competes in virus detection.

Avast! Free Antivirus has been around for years, and claims to be the most popular free antivirus software, with over 100 million registrations. The latest version sports an updated user interface, and the registration process has been improved over earlier versions. Also included in version 5 is the silent gaming mode, which turns off the visual and audio update alerts (which can occur daily).

AVG Anti-virus Free Edition is another great piece of antivirus software that’s free for home and non-commercial use. The user interface is simple and straight-forward, and though there’s not a lot of added functionality, many of its users see this as a feature rather than a drawback, since the more features you add the more of your system resources are used up. And for a program that will be running every time your computer is turned on, light is good.