more wall street journal

We've been getting some great press lately. A reader just emailed me the text of Walter Mossberg's Market Place front page article, "How to Protect Yourself From Vandals, Viruses If You Use Windows." It's an awesome read. Here are the nice bits:

If you use a Windows personal computer to access the Internet, your personal files, your privacy and your security are all in jeopardy. An international criminal class of virus writers, hackers, digital vandals and sleazy businesspeople wakes up every day planning to attack your PC.

And the company that controls the Windows platform, Microsoft, has made this too easy to do by carelessly opening numerous security holes in the operating system and its Web browser. Even if you install the recent Service Pack 2 update to Windows XP, you will still be vulnerable.

...[Microsoft] should take responsibility for shielding users from hackers, spammers, viruses and spyware -- the malicious software that hijacks your browsing and searching, pushes ads into your face, and secretly logs your activities.

But until that happens, you will have to fend for yourself. So here's a quick, rudimentary guide to protecting yourself in the digital world.

....

Browsing safely: I suggest dumping Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser, which has a history of security breaches. I recommend instead Mozilla Firefox, which is free at www.mozilla.org. It's not only more secure but also more modern and advanced, with tabbed browsing, which allows multiple pages to be open on one screen, and a better pop-up ad blocker than the belated one Microsoft recently added to IE.

....

Bottom line: If you use Windows, you're asking for trouble. But you can mitigate the risk by taking precautions.

Such a great recommendation from Walter Mossberg is a huge win for Firefox. You couldn't ask for better press than this.

update: You can read the full thing here.