One of the biggest rules about maintaining the security and integrity of your computer is not to access unfamiliar and questionable websites - yes, including those websites that a certain broadway production song proclaims that the Internet is for. While you may have the latest in computer security programs, malicious entities such as Trojan Horses can still slip past our defenses and wreak damage - and it only takes a case of mistaken identity, as the guys over at Intego have found out, having discovered a malicious piece of code that victimizes Mac OS X users.

So just what is this little bundle of bad news all about? A new Trojan Horse was found lurking in several naughty websites, one that tricks you into giving it full access to your Mac by pretending to be a video codec installer and asking for your unit's administrator password.

Should the user be tricked into doing so, the Trojan Horse will then successfully infiltrate the system and mess around with things inside quite a bit. Before we go too much into the technobabble, let's just say that this is a very bad thing, and would have you giving out your private details to people you would not even give your calling card to.

What's to be done, then? Well, to protect yourself from this potential threat, Intego suggests running Intego VirusBarrierX4 with its virus definitions kept up to date. Of course, there's also the deal about never clicking any website link that deems suspicious, even if you've got a hankering for the adult stuff.

Intego, a company that creates backup, anti-virus, anti-spam, and firewall software for Mac OS X, recently launched ChatBarrier X4. This one works in conjunction with Apple's iChat instant messaging software to provide two-way, real-time encryption of text and audio chats, as well as file transfers sent via iChat. The ChatBarrier X4 is capable of doing the following:

• Encrypts text and audio chats, as well as file transfers sent via iChat
• Encrypts outgoing iChat messages using industry-standard encryption algorithms.
• Decrypts incoming messages sent to you by another ChatBarrier X4 user.
• Encrypts and decrypts messages on the fly and instantaneously.
• Only decrypts messages if the intended user receives them.
• Encrypted messages are indicated by a padlock background in the message window and a padlock icon at the bottom of the window.
• ChatBarrierX4 encrypts and decrypts messages without any user intervention.

These features ensure that malicious users or unintended recipients will not be able to take a peek at private messages. If you think that this software will interfere your chat sessions every once in a while, well don't worry about that thought.

The people over at Intego promises the the ChatBarrier X4 is transparent, which basically means that it won't interfere your chatting activities and you may still chat with someone who doesn't have the program installed. ChatBarrier X4 is priced at $40, includes a free second license, runs natively on Intel-based Macs, and requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.