Taken from PC World Magazine, November 2010 Edition

The sacriest sites on the Net?  They’re not the ones you might suspect.  Here’s what to watch for and how to stay safe.

The Place: Websites That Use Flash
The Threat: Malicious Flash files that can infect your PC
If You Have To Go There: Make sure you keep your Flash plug-ins up-to-date, and you can configure the Flash plug-in to ask you before it downloads any Flash cookies.

The Place: Twitter
The Threat: Shortened links that lead you to potentially harmful places
If You Have To Go There: Simply don’t click links.

The Place: Your E-Mail Inbox
The Threat: E-mail scams/attachments that get you to install malware or give up personal info
If You Have To Go There: Don’t trust anything in your inbox.  Instead of clicking on links in a retailer’s e-mail, go directly to the retailer’s site.

The Place: Torrent Sites
The Threat: Malware hiding in video, music, or software downloads
If You Have To Go There: Use a secondary PC to protect your main system.  Use antivirus software, and keep it updated.  Scan downloaded files and wait a couple of days before opening them.  Brand new malware can be tricky to catch.

The Place: Legitimate Porn Sites
The Threat: Malware in photos or videos of scantily clad women
If You Have To Go There: Be suspicious of video downloads, or sites that require you to install video codecs to view videos.

The Place: Video Download Sites & Peer-to-Peer Networks
The Threat: Trojan horses disguised as video codecs, infecting your PC with malware.
If You Have To Go There: Your sefest option is to stick with well-known video sites such as YouTube, but even they can be infected.

The Place: Your Smartphone
The Threat: Geolocation – your smartphone and perhaps other parties know where you are
If You Have To Go There:  Be particular about the location-based sites, apps and services you use. 

The Place: Search Engines
The Threat: “Poisoned” search engine results that go to malware-carrying Websites
If You Have To Go There: Pick and choose which sites to go to.  Don’t just blindly click search results; check each URL first to make sure that it really leads to the site you want.

The Place: Hacked Websites, Plus Your Inbox
The Threat: Malicious PDFs that try to fool you into installing walware
If You Have To Go There: First, always make sure that you’re running the latest version of Adobe Reader.  You can turn off Adobe Reader’s ability to open non-PDF attachments by going to Preferences.

The Place: Video Download Sites
The Threat: Malicious video files using flaws in player software to hijack PCs
If You Have To Go There: Keep your player software up-to-date.  Apple and Microsoft periodically release patches for Quicktime and Media Player.

The Place: Hacked Legitimate Sites
The Threat: Drive-by downloads that install malware when you visit a site
If You Have To Go There: The first thing to do is to keep your security software up-to-date, and to run regular malware scans.

The Place: Your Inbox, Hacked Legitimate Sites
The Threat: Fake antivirus software that extorts money – and your credit card information
If You Have To Go There: If you can an alert saying you’re infected with malware, but it didn’t come from the antivirus software you knowingly installed, stop what you’re doing.  Try booting into Safe Mode and running a scan using your legitimate antivirus software.

The Place: Just About Any Ad-Supported Website
The Threat: Fraudulent ads on sites that lead you to scams or malware
If You Have To Go There: Most large sites have an ad sales department that work frequently with a core group of large advertisers, so it’s probably safe to click an ad… but nothing is entirely safe.

The Place: Facebook
The Threat: Questionable Facebook Apps
If You Have To Go There: Be selective about the apps you add to your profile – don’t take every quiz, for example.  Check your privacy settings for Facebook apps as well.

The Place: Social Networks
The Threat: Oversharing – exposing too much personal information on your social network profiles
If You Have To Go There: This particular threat is easy to avoid, in that a little common sense can go a long way: Just be mindful of what you post.

Tips From The Pros: 5 Top Ways To Stay Safe Online
1 – Keep up on the patches, for Windows as well as other software
2 – Be password smart, use longer passwords, add in capitals and numbers
3 – Use security software, and keep it updated and do regular scans
4 – If it sounds too good to be true… well, you know the rest
5 – Assume that everyone is out to get you