It didn't take long for the spammers, scammers, and scumware makers to try to take advantage of Michael Jackson's sad passing.

SophosLabs brings news that,

"Just after about 8 hours of his demise, SophosLabs witnessed the first wave of spam messages employing the sad news in the subject line and body part to harvest victims’ email addresses."

A Computerworld.com article, which also mentions the SophosLabs blog, quotes Sophos security researcher Graham Cluely as saying,

"I wouldn't be surprised to see hackers claiming that they have top-secret footage from the hospital, perhaps [allegedly] taken by the ambulance people, that then asks you to install a video codec"

Then once you click on the supposed codec update link you're instantly infected with a virus / trojan. Blech.

Sad as it is to see criminals capitalizing on such events, we're not surprised. There's no depth too low for virus writers to stoop when it comes to trying to infect and take over your computer.

If you're unsure when the last time your A/V software was updated, you might want to take a look and see; if you're not yet running antivirus / Internet security software, there's no time like the present. I guarantee the people responsible for attacks like these aren't going to be easing up anytime soon--if ever.

There's been a bit of a discussion lately about Microsoft's upcoming antivirus software, dubbed "Morro" and currently in beta.

Given the time we've spent in and on Internet security-related software and other matters, I'd like to add another voice on the subject. Some things to consider about Morro:

We'll no doubt have more news and commentary on Microsoft's Morro Antivirus as more details become available.

It should come as no surprise that we're big believers in antivirus software and in keeping antivirus software updated; however, as any customer we've gone to bat for with the various vendors will testify, we're also consumer advocates.

Today, we got news that Symantec (makers of Norton Antivirus) and McAfee (makers of McAfee VirusScan Plus), two companies for which we have tremendous respect, have both reached a settlement with New York's Attorney General, Andrew M Cuomo, in a case about autorenewing antivirus subscriptions without the explicit consent of their respective customers.

Here are the details from the article about the antivirus renewal settlement on PCPro.co.uk:

"The investigators found that, 'information about automatic renewal charges was not clearly disclosed, but was instead hidden at the bottom of long web pages or in the fine print of license agreements.'

"The companies have now agreed to provide electronic notification both before and after the renewal of subscriptions.

"Customers will also be allowed to apply for refunds for up to 60 days after being charged."

Autorenewals themselves aren't necessarily a bad thing; in fact they can be quite beneficial to the consumer in that they obviate the need for a consumer to remember to renew antivirus subscriptions, thus keeping their computers safer.

The key thing here is that the consumer is well-aware of the renewals rather than being hit with them after the fact and only finding out about them on their credit card statements.

If you're uncertain what the terms of your antivirus software subscription renewal are, it's a good idea to find out when it is, and if you're due soon, remember to take a look at other antivirus options before yours expires.

After all, because the malware writers are getting smarter every day, the antivirus software has to get smarter, too, so a lot happens from year to the next with antivirus software.

We've gotten a few requests in Ye Olde Mailbag recently asking if we're planning Windows 7 antivirus reviews anytime soon.

That depends on what you consider "soon," frankly. ;-)

With the fairly recent public release of Windows 7 beta (for free, no less!), clearly the initial reviews of the OS are good, and it's clear even though it's officially labeled a "beta" product, it's very, very good.

The general consensus is that's it's everything Vista should have been.

Given the loud backlash against Microsoft for Vista, I'm glad Windows 7 is starting with such good reviews.

Do You Need Antivirus with Windows 7

With Vista's release, Jim Allchin, Microsoft's former President was quoted at betanews.com as saying,

"My son, seven years old, runs Windows Vista, and, honestly, he doesn't have an antivirus system on his machine.

"His machine is locked down with parental controls, he can't download things unless it's to the places that I've said that he could do, and I'm feeling totally confident about that.

"That is quite a statement. I couldn't say that in Windows XP SP2."

That really is quite a statement; however, he also pointed out,

"Please don't misunderstand me: This is an escalating situation.

The hackers are getting smarter, there's more at stake, and so there's just no way for us to say that some perfection has been achieved.

But I can say, knowing what I know now, I feel very confident."

Given that, as company president, it was his job to be tout the features and benefits of his company's products, I'm not surprised by the first statement, per se; however, I do think it was cavalier of him to be dismissive of antivirus software.

Here we are now, a couple of years into Vista, and clearly Vista machines are indeed being infected with viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, and all sorts of other malware (albeit perhaps in different ways that different versions of Windows) so it's pretty clear these things are still a threat to this OS as they are to other OSes.

And, viruses will continue to be a threat to Windows 7, too, no matter how well locked-down a given computer may be.

So What About Windows 7 Antivirus Reviews?!

Ah, yes, back to the original point: when are we going to get antivirus reviews up for Windows 7?

We've got some other things cooking right now with tons of new pages that help our users do a head-to-head antivirus comparison of the different A/V software we've reviewed, but once that's done, Windows 7 antivirus reviews look like they're next on the horizon for us.

The initial expectation is that A/V software that runs well on Vista should also run equally well (and perhaps better) on Windows 7.

If you're technically inclined and are interested, here's where to download Windows 7.