I don't think there is anything more dangerous to the security of a computer than complacency. It can range from not bothering to have any security software installed to clicking links or installing software without thinking because there it is present.

The risk of being complacent because there is software providing protection on the computer may be higher than was previously thought. According to Newsweek International, Professor George Ledin and his students are regularly breaking through this protection.

The security companies are, unsurprisingly, not pleased with all of this but it's probably fair to say that if a group of students can do it, then so can the bad guys.

The solution? It seems ever harder to give one but the usual advice of having a comprehensive selection of security software (anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall) is still good so long as it is kept up to date. I've also started using behavioural based software like Threatfire. It checks for suspicious actions from software and warns or blocks. Linkscanner Lite is also a good way to avoiding hacked websites.

But don't rely on the software without thinking carefully about what you are doing.

While I was writing this post, there was a post on the Computeractive forum about a root kit for Linux that had been released. Not everybody is sure that publishing was a good move, but I think it is. Now that we know about it someone can do something about it.