Antivirus vendor Kaspersky Lab has launched a free removal tool for the Flashback Mac OS X malware and a website where users can check whether their computers are infected with it.

A hard-to-detect piece of malware that doesn't create any files on the affected systems was dropped onto the computers of visitors to popular news sites in Russia in a drive-by download attack, according to security researchers from antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab.

Kaspersky Lab has launched Security for Virtualization, designed to centralize the protection of virtual machines running on VMware, the company said on Tuesday at the Cebit trade show.

Avast Free Antivirus 7 is set to be released on Thursday and will have new features including cloud-based updates, remote assistance and file reputation.

If malware were biological, the world would be in the grip of the worst pandemic in history. In 2009, more than 25 million unique malware programs were identified, more than all the malware programs ever created in all previous years. No one need wonder what all that malware is trying to do: It's trying to steal money -- through data theft, bank transfers, stolen passwords, or swiped identities.

QUESTION: I've been told that I shouldn't have more than one antivirus program running on my PC. Can I use both McAfee and Microsoft Anti-Spyware (or another spyware application), for example? I want to be extra safe online, and I know that security suites are often good in some areas but not in all. Is there a list that will tell me what I can and can't use together?

SUPERAntiSpyware found three Trojans on a reader's PC. He asked the Windows forum how this could happen when his PC is protected.

Most of us don't like paying for antivirus (AV) software, but at least home users can rely on one of the free options, such as Microsoft Security Essentials, avast!, or AVG Free.

Depending on whom you ask, paying for antivirus software is either a good investment or a total ripoff. In reality, neither viewpoint is accurate. You can find plenty of good reasons to choose a paid antivirus product, and plenty of good reasons to go with a freebie.

The security community has grown to depend on some basic technologies in the fight against cyber thieves, such as antivirus software and firewalls. But are practitioners clinging to tools that outlived their usefulness long ago? Were those tools ever really useful to begin with?

It's become an all-too-common scam: A legitimate Web site pops up a window that looks just like a real security warning. It says there's something wrong with the computer, and click here to fix it. A few clicks later, the victim is paying out US$40 for some bogus software, called rogue antivirus.

To the average IT security practitioner, the idea of disabling antivirus on new machines might seem blasphemous. After all, weren't we all told in IT Security 101 that everyone needs AV to keep the malware and data thieves at bay?