An editorial piece in the New York Times caught my eye this past week. Here’s how it begins:

“Internet users used to comfort themselves by thinking that to become victims of the pirates of the Web, they had to frequent the online porn circuit or respond to an e-mail from the widowed wife of the former central bank governor of Nigeria. The idea was that one had to do something naughty to get caught in the wrongdoers’ net, or at least go for a late-night stroll in the rough end of town.”

As the writer eloquently goes on to say, this is no longer the case. While we may be wising up to certain types of known scams like phishing, we can get infected surreptitiously by malware simply by visiting a seemingly legitimate (and often reputable) website. Cyber crooks continue to reap the rewards of their bad online behavior; in fact, hackers were indicted recently in one of the largest data theft scams ever charged. The Internet, in many ways, is a very dark place.

Do we need to fear this big, bad Web? I believe that fear won’t take us very far. And, as the New York Times writer points out, we spend more time than ever online, and it’s far too late to take our lives offline. What will have an effect on our safety? Using caution and common sense whenever we’re online; using reliable security solutions that protect us, without taking away from the quality of our virtual lives.

Here at Lavasoft, through our ten years in this ever-expanding industry, one thing has remained a constant: our commitment to empowering you with the innovative solutions you need to protect your online privacy, and to keep you secure from the threats to come by growing and advancing our products.

At the same time, we don’t want to lose sight of where we have come from. For five years after its introduction, Ad-Aware grew solely by word of mouth via online communities made up of users, like you, all around the world. With the new version of Ad-Aware, coming later this month, we’re eager to reaffirm that grassroots connection with you. One of the ways we’re doing that is through MyLavasoft, a new community that enables Lavasoft.com to shift from being a single-user experience. The planned initiatives will allow you to join conversations on security with other users and our staff, and to have your say on our products and influence their development. It’s all coming soon.

On that note, start getting involved now. Sign-up to MyLavasoft, comment on our blog, and let us know your thoughts. Be sure to watch for the initiatives coming to the MyLavasoft community that will bring even more interaction. We’re listening. And so are thousands of others around the world who are passionate about online security. Together, we can make sure that the Web is not something to be feared.

Jason King
CEO, Lavasoft