Watch out! Globetechnology reports that it takes 12 minutes for your PC to become infected.

If your Windows computer is not properly protected, chances are it will take all of 12 minutes before it becomes infected, a major security company says.

The speed with which machines can become infected has shortened, virus-watchers at Sophos, based in England, say, because they have detected 7,944 new viruses in the first half of 2005, a 59-per-cent increase over the same time span last year.

As a result, the time before a machine is infected is rapidly decreasing, with a 50 per cent chance of being infected by an Internet worm within just 12 minutes of being on-line using an unprotected PC.

The figures were in agreement with those released late last week by IBM, which reported that phishing attacks had increased 226 per cent, while viruses and worms, such as Sober and Mytob, also continued to spread rapidly through e-mail and Web applications.

IBM added that in May, more than 30 per cent of e-mail contained some form of virus — a 33 per cent increase over the previous month.

And this is for a brand new PC just connected to the internet for the first time! How long has your computer been exposed?

How can you protect yourself? It’s pretty easy, actually. First, make sure you have an antivirus program running. Second, never open an email attachment from someone you don’t know, and only open those from people you know if you’re expecting the attachment. Thirdly, use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. It’s much less vulnerable to popups and ad/spyware. Fourthly, make sure you’re behind a firewall, either a hardware firewall such as a router or a software firewall like Zone Alarm. Lastly, simply be smart. Don’t give out your passwords or account information to anyone, especially if asked via email. Use common sense with downloading things from the internet. If it looks suspicious, it probably is.

Good luck in the digital wilderness that is the web!