Windows users can mark the second Tuesday each month to be the “patch day” (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patch_Tuesday). With clocklike regularity some severe and critical security holes get fixed. In the accompanying advisories you can read that before these patches were applied, any evil minded person had been able to take control of your computer.

It is a good thing to patch these security holes, but wait: when new security holes get fixed every month, will there be an end to those chain of holes some day? Is your computer secure following any patch day? Following the ten thousandth patch day?

The answer: your computer will never be secure. There will always be security holes that until now almost no one knows - except for some evil minded people somewhere else on this planet, may be.

The bad news about this is that, although most of computer viruses and trojans and other malware are aimed at Windows computers, other systems are vulnerable, too.

Just enter “security patch quicktime” to any Internet search page, or enter “security patch Oracle”, or even “security patch Sun”. You will find that no one is safe.

The good news is that you can take action to secure your computer. The extent of security will never be “100 percent secure”. But you can make your computer more secure than it is without any protection.

It's a little bit like life, where there are real viruses and other threats to your health. Use common sense, but in the best sense. Get good security advice and protection where it is necessary. Avoid unnecessary risks. Live with the fact that total security is not possible, and don't let yourself be scared too much. No risk, no fun. No unnecessary risk, no unnecessary pain.

Visit a page like http://onguardonline.gov/stopthinkclick.html and study the security rules.

By the way, you create backup copies of your documents and store them at a secured place? What if a hurricane or fire destroys your computer and the shelf with all your backup CDs?

Wouldn't it be a nice idea to have copies of your important documents on a secured and trusted web server? With your documents stored on a web server, you can access them from any place in the world, wherever there is a public Internet access point. You trust your bank to store your money, so you - and only you - can use any ATM or cash machine worldwide to retrieve your money. Would you trust a company to store your documents in the same secure way?