So I just now tried to download and install Firefox for my sister-in-law's computer. I did this by Googling "firefox windows download" and clicking on the first hit. The first hit was a sponsored link to "usfirefoxbrowser.com"; seemed a little strange, but what the heck. The page it took me to looked official enough at a half a glance, so I clicked on the prominent button…
Fortunately, the anti-virus software on the computer told me that there was malware in the image I was trying to run, and refused. I went to the official site at mozilla.org, installed the official Firefox after carefully checking its certificate, and was on my way. Horrible accident narrowly averted.
So what went wrong? Well, I was obviously way under-cautious. But my incaution was fueled by the fact that Google had accepted the link as a sponsored one! I can't believe they're taking money for "usfirefoxbrowser.com"; somebody has screwed up big time IMHO. It would also be nice for the Mozilla Corp. to more actively defend their trademark against this kind of thing. I hope this situation will be fixed as soon as possible, although I'm not sure exactly how to report it / who to complain to.
Once Firefox is up, it provides excellent resistance to web-borne viruses. Getting it up securely appears to be more of a bootstrap problem than I'd realized. Caveat Liberior, I guess. (B)