Lisa Severens, a clinical trials manager from Worcester, Massachusetts, learned the hard way. A virus took control of
her laptop and started sending pornographic photos to colleagues.

"I was mortified about having to deal with it at work," said Severens, whose employer had to replace her computer
because the malicious software could not be removed.

Ignoring for the moment the hyperbole about replacing computers because of malicious software that "could not be removed", this story, printed in today's Toronto Sun and published a week ago by Reuters, reminds us that there is no "safe haven" on the internet and that up-to-date protection is vital.  URL filtering, static block lists and signature based anti-virus software are, quite simply, inadequate protection against today's threats.  Seventy percent of the web borne threats identified by Google over the last year originated on legitimate sites that have been compromised.  They day when you could protect yourself by avoiding pornographic or illegal "warez" sites has long passed.