Online shopping offers many benefits that you won’t find shopping in a brick and mortar store or by mail. The Internet is always open seven days a week and 24 hours a day. Internet-only deals and bargains can be numerous online. Shopping on the Internet is no less safe than shopping in a store or by mail. Keep the following tips in mind to help ensure that your online shopping experience is a safe one.

1. While Online Order Only On A Secure Server.

Use a secure browser and shop only at websites that offer encryption protection. A protected website will have one or more of these three features:

a) The small lock or key symbol at the bottom of your browser window;

b) An address that starts with https ("s" for "secure") instead of just http; and

c) A security warning box that pops up at the point of purchase.

Your browser should comply with industry security standards, such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). These standards scramble the purchase information you send over the Internet, helping to secure your transaction.

2. Pay The Safest Way.

Use a credit card or Debit Card with a safe online shopping guarantee. Look for a card with specific guarantees, like 100% coverage for any losses due to fraud when shopping on the Internet. Many companies offer an online shopping guarantee that ensures you will not be held responsible for any unauthorized charges made online, and some cards may provide additional warranty, return and/or purchase protection benefits.

3. Protect Your Privacy.

Look for and read a website’s privacy and security policy. Stay clear of a website that either doesn’t have one or does not guarantee your personal information will not be sold. This policy should disclose what information is being collected on the Web site and how that information is being used.

4. Know Who You’re Dealing With.

Research your merchant. Look at the ratings consumers give them and stay clear of websites that either aren’t listed or receive poor marks. Shop with companies you know. Anyone can set up shop online under almost any name. If you’re not familiar with a merchant, ask for a paper catalogue or brochure to get a better idea of their merchandise and services. Also, determine the company’s refund and return policies before you place your order. These should be posted on the company’s Web site.

5. Keep A Record.

Print out a copy of your order and confirmation number for your records. Reputable merchants will usually send you an email confirming your order. However a hard copy is always good to have in case your order is lost, deleted or not delivered as promised.

6. Guard Your Online Password.

Keep your password(s) private. Be creative when you establish a password, and never share your website passwords with anyone. Write them down and store them in a safe place. Avoid using a telephone number, birth date or a portion of your Social Security number. Instead, use a combination of numbers, letters and symbols. Do not use the same username and password at every website. Should your personal information be compromised, a thief won’t get very far if you use different passwords and usernames on different websites.

7. Track Your Purchases.

Use only one credit card to shop with online. This helps keep track of your online purchases during the holidays, and will make it easier to spot purchases that are fraudulent. Look for a card that allows you to review transactions online as well — you’ll be more likely to notice a problem early on.

8. Keep Personal Information Private.

Don’t enter more information at a merchant website than is absolutely necessary. There is usually no reason why you should have to supply information such as birth dates or Social Security numbers when making a purchase. Fill in only the bare essentials necessary to make your purchase. If you have children, teach them to check with you before giving out personal – or family – information online.

Clive Chansa writes for the Home Shopping Catalogues website at http://www.home-shopping-catalogues.org.uk/ and he’s also a regular contributor to the Gift Ideas websites at: http://www.gift-ideas-uk.org.uk/

When geeks gave us the Internet and the means to use it, they also gave us a new segment of vocabulary …

I’ve often thought it a shame that a few of them didn’t make their way to a campus literature or marketing department and see if a student of poetry or sizzle could assist them in assigning names to their innovations. For example, did the manual cursor operator have to be called a ‘mouse?’

Geeks have overtaken sports-speakers when it comes to coining bad phrases. I’ve never understood why basketball types say a player ‘kicks out’ a ball to a teammate on the perimeter when his feet never touch it. Worse yet, I’ve always wondered if a gridiron football player would really want to dive on the ball if the carrier truly ‘coughed it up!’ That bit of literal imagery is more revulsive than handling a mouse. Do these guys really think about what they’re saying?

There is one instance, though, where the geeks thought it through and got it right. ‘Phishing’ is a perfect connotation for cyber-cons who troll for prey.

The word’s spelling distinguishes this nefarious activity from a sporting endeavor, but it’s still a game. The definition that’s been developed for it is "a technique used to gain personal information for purposes of identity theft, using fraudulent e-mail messages that appear to come from legitimate businesses. These authentic-looking messages are designed to fool recipients into divulging personal data such as account numbers and passwords, credit card numbers and Social Security numbers."

Another term that alludes to the emotive consequences of cyberobbery is the perjorative sense of ‘hacker.’ That bit of etymology seems to be a work in progress. The accepted definition refers to "individuals who gain unauthorized access to computer systems for the purpose of stealing and corrupting data." However, the added qualifier is, "Hackers, themselves, maintain that the proper term for such individuals is cracker."

Being hacked or being cracked makes little difference to those on the receiving end. They just know they’ve been had. Understandably, their first impulses are to get mad and want to vent. My contention is that, most of the time, they’re lashing out in the wrong direction. After all, crooks are crooks; that’s their job and they’re out there in numbers. That’s not going to change anytime soon.

These victims need to take a hard look at themselves.

The economics of law enforcement — in cyberspace or elsewhere — limits what can be investigated and prosecuted. Thus, smart spoofers often keep their ‘take’ per scam campaign at levels sufficiently low that the cost of prosecuting them is not viable. Then, they change their coordinates, plus their identities, and do it again.

So, obviously, the most important factor in cyber-diligence is self-precaution. Most steps are basic, as evidenced by the checklist on the USA government’s Federal Trade Commission website:

"If you get an email or pop-up message that asks for personal or financial information, do not reply. And don’t click on the link in the message, either. Legitimate companies don’t ask for this information via email. If you are concerned about your account, contact the organization mentioned in the email using a telephone number you know to be genuine, or open a new Internet browser session and type in the company’s correct Web address yourself. In any case, don’t cut and paste the link from the message into your Internet browser — phishers can make links look like they go to one place, but that actually send you to a different site.

"Use anti-virus software and a firewall, and keep them up to date. Some phishing emails contain software that can harm your computer or track your activities on the Internet without your knowledge.

"Anti-virus software and a firewall can protect you from inadvertently accepting such unwanted files. Anti-virus software scans incoming communications for troublesome files. Look for anti-virus software that recognizes current viruses as well as older ones; that can effectively reverse the damage; and that updates automatically.

"A firewall helps make you invisible on the Internet and blocks all communications from unauthorized sources. It’s especially important to run a firewall if you have a broadband connection. Operating systems (like Windows or Linux) or browsers (like Internet Explorer or Netscape) also may offer free software ‘patches’ to close holes in the system that hackers or phishers could exploit.

"Don’t email personal or financial information. Email is not a secure method of transmitting personal information. If you initiate a transaction and want to provide your personal or financial information through an organization’s website, look for indicators that the site is secure, like a lock icon on the browser’s status bar or a URL for a website that begins ‘https:’ (the ’s’ stands for ’secure’). Unfortunately, no indicator is foolproof; some phishers have forged security icons.

"Review credit card and bank account statements as soon as you receive them to check for unauthorized charges. If your statement is late by more than a couple of days, call your credit card company or bank to confirm your billing address and account balances.

"Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files from emails you receive, regardless of who sent them. These files can contain viruses or other software that can weaken your computer’s security.

"Forward spam that is phishing for information to spam@uce.gov and to the company, bank, or organization impersonated in the phishing email. Most organizations have information on their websites about where to report problems.

"If you believe you’ve been scammed, file your complaint at ftc.gov, and then visit the FTC’s Identity Theft website at www.consumer.gov/idtheft. Victims of phishing can become victims of identity theft. While you can’t entirely control whether you will become a victim of identity theft, you can take some steps to minimize your risk. If an identity thief is opening credit accounts in your name, these new accounts are likely to show up on your credit report. You may catch an incident early if you order a free copy of your credit report periodically from any of the three major credit bureaus."

If you use e-currency or e-payment services, be aware that they are usually not liable for any of your losses if you’ve been hacked or cracked due to identity-theft issues. All reputable services have support divisions that investigate any complaints of spoofing — for example, Paypal asks you to mail them at spoof@paypal.com if you receive a suspicious message using their name — and if anyone is going to pursue, or at least keep on file, complaints of any amount, it will be them.

Virtually all e-currency services offer options of ‘virtual’ keyboards for logging in to accounts. They may be a bother, but they are very effective at adding a formidable obstacle for cyber-invasion. Then, whether or not you took this step to access your account, make sure you take the time to actually log out of your account, as opposed to merely clicking away to your next site.

I note that the Longer Life site has two very good preventive products as sponsors, Kaspersky Labs and Identity Guard. They are first-class products and well worth your while to consider.

This stuff doesn’t take long to research or to implement and you don’t have to be a geek to do it. You don’t even have to know their their terminology. Instead, when you’re done, you can confidently refer to a familiar term in both sports and banking:

Safe.

J Square Humboldt is the featured columnist at the Longer Life website, which is dedicated to providing information, strategies, analysis and commentary designed to improve the quality of living. His page can be found at http://longerlifegroup.com/cyberiter.html and his observations are published three times per week.

Go into to any office and look under the computer keyboards and you’ll eventually find a little piece of paper with that users logon ID and passwords. Probably every password that person has.

This illustrates a serious problem with the use of networked computers in business. User apathy and IT security arrogance often combine to defeat the purpose of established security policies.

What happens is that IT security policies clash with usability. Most customers will not follow policies they see as too difficult. One place IT policies and user compliance clash is at the point of entry for any secure computer system. The logon screen.

First, let’s agree on a definition for a strong password.

From Webopedia, A password that is difficult to detect by both humans and computer programs, effectively protecting data from unauthorized. A strong password consists of at least six characters (and the more characters, the stronger the password) that are a combination of letters, numbers and symbols (@, #, $, %, etc.) if allowed. Passwords are typically case-sensitive, so a strong password contains letters in both uppercase and lowercase. Strong passwords also do not contain words that can be found in a dictionary or parts of the user’s own name.

Customers will not use difficult passwords. Sorry, they just won’t! For instance, you have two passwords: 1Xc%&27m3 and parrott5. Which is the strongest? Which do you think your customers will use?

The key here is education. End-users must be educated on the seriousness of computer security and IT security professionals need to be aware of the needs of their user base.

You should avoid sequential passwords: parrott1, parrott2, parrott3… You should use a password that is easy to remember, but not in any dictionary. Maybe combine parts of two words, adding capital letters and numbers.

IT security professionals may not like this compromise, but it is better than passwords that are easily broken.

Strong passwords are critical to the security of any computer security, but are they the best way to control access? In part two, we’ll look at alternatives to passwords.

Parrott Writing Services, a San Antonio Texas company specializing in web content, ghostwriting, website optimization, online/offline ad copy and technical writing to small businesses.

http://www.rickparrott.com

Send an email to: EBOOK@sasecure.net for a FREE electronic copy of my eBook on Computer Security!

Ah, don’t you love those Nigerian scammers? I’m the brother of Finance Minister… Well, they are finally being prosecuted and going to jail.

Banco Noroeste – Brazil

In the biggest scam of its sort, three Nigerian scammers managed to steal $242 million dollars from Banco Noroesto, a bank in Brazil. The Nigerians came up with a fake contract to build an airport in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. They promised a bank official a healthy commission in exchange for funding the contract. Sound familiar? Of course, there was no airport and the scammers headed off with the money. The bank, in turn, collapsed and customers lost everything.

In a joint investigation by Nigerian and Brazilian officials, the three fraudsters were identified as Emmanuel Nwude, Nzeribe Okoli and Amaka Anajemba. In prosecution efforts, Nwude and Okoli plead guilty to numerous crimes and forfeited $121.5 million dollars in assets. Anajemba rolled on the other two and received a two and half year sentence after agreeing to give back $48.5 million. Nobody has explained what happened to the other $70 million.

Nigeria Corruption

Nigeria is currently considered the sixth most corrupt country in the world. To deal with these problems, an independent Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has been set up in Nigeria to go after all the fraudulent activity. The “EFCC” has the stated goal of:

“The EFCC will curb the menace of corruption that constitutes the cog in the wheel of progress; protect national and foreign investments in the country; imbue the spirit of hard work in the citizenry and discourage ill gotten wealth; identify illegally acquired wealth and confiscate it; build an upright workforce in both public and private sectors of the economy and; contribute to the global war against financial crimes.”

While a bit utopian, the Commission has a lot of power and is making a beeline for the people sending you the fraudulent emails. At this time, the Commission claims to have arrested over 200 email scammers and seized assets in excess of $200 million dollars.

Warning

While this is all very nice, there is a certain amount of common sense involved in this issue. Do you really believe someone will contact you out of the blue with a desire to give you a few million dollars?

Just because you are on the Internet, it doesn’t mean you should abandon your common sense when you start reading email. Trust me, such offers aren’t legitimate.

Richard A. Chapo is a San Diego business lawyer with http://www.sandiegobusinesslawfirm.com - a San Diego business law firm in San Diego, California.

Good passwords are hard to come by. If you suddenly and without much warning had to pick a password to access your computer, or your favourite website, or your internet banking facility, what would you do? Most people would make their password their name, their partner’s name, their birthday, their partner’s birthday, their favourite colour or book or movie or character. You can probably already see a pattern forming here, can’t you? Ok, now for the scary part: these are all easily guessed and your personal information is like a bank who holds all your money.. on the foot path where everyone can see it and grab it!

So how do we fix this? We think up a better password. Does that mean something long, awful and cryptic that you wont remember and will probably have to write down in case you forget it? Please no! That’s the sort of password that snooping people want! So we need to strike a balance somewhere One that is much more than some simple detail, yet cryptic enough that it couldn’t be guessed too easily.

Let’s begin with a name, say Andrew. Now, say Andrew wants something simple, yet based on his name which will act as a “keyword” to help him easily recall his password. We’ll mix in some UPPER and lower case characters and some numbers to replace letters, also known as elite speak, or 1337 speak. He might come up with up AnDr3w. That’s decent. Let’s say Andrew is a keen internet surfer, he might try and combine his hobby with his password. We’ll abbreviate “internet” as simply “net”. Ok, we’ll try the substitution technique again to get “n3T”. Excellent! Now to combine them as two words. Now most people separate words with a space “ “, but on the internet, that is best represented as an underscore “_”. So, we’ll combine them both using our new tricks to get “AnDr3w_n3T”. Excellent!

Andrew now has a password that he can use comfortably, simple enough that he shouldn’t need to write it down ever and practically uncrackable. I say “practically” because given enough time, any password in the world can be cracked. But this one should keep the password crackers busy and by the time they’re even remotely close to it, he’s changed it and they will have to begin again.

Another trick is to think of a song or nursery rhyme, take the first letter of every word and do the same substitution technique plus add a number, e.g.: “baa baa black sheep have you any wool” turns into “bbbshyaw” and “humpty dumpty sat on the wall” turns into “hdsotw2005”. Let your imagination run wild with the sorts of passwords you can create using this technique.

So the next time you hear of someone’s account being broken into, or see someone trying to find a sticky note with their password on it, just remember, with a password created using the above techniques you wont really have to worry as much about either of those problems.

Martin Coleman is a freelance writer and computer programmer. More information about his services and other articles can be found at http://www.martincoleman.com.

When one thinks about home security, they ususally think of taking measures like installing alarms, deadbolts, and window locking devices. But if you have a wireless computer network like many American homes, your personal data (credit card numbers and banking information) could be open to hackers.

When you first purchase and turn on your wireless router, the router manufacturer makes it dead simple to connect your wireless devices. Out of the box, your wireless router is unsecured. Given that most wireless routers have a range of around 100 feet, if your neighbours have wireless devices, they can connect just as easy as you can. Even worse, hackers can drive past your house with a $29 wireless network detector and discover and connect to your unsecured network!

The good news is that you can perform 4 very basic steps to secure your wireless network and prevent hackers from gaining access to your data. You will need to consult the manual for your wireless router to perform the actual tasks described here.

1. Reset the router’s password There are only a handful of wireless router manufacturers and each one uses a common default password. Linksys uses ‘1234′ and Netgear uses ‘password’. Any hacker will try these passwords first to gain access to your network. So change the password to prevent hackers from accessing your data.

2. Turn off SSID Broadcasting Your wireless network needs to have a unique name to distinguish it from other wireless networks. The Service Set IDentifier is always set to broadcast by default. Once again this is done to make it easy to connect to your wireless network for the first time. By broadcasting the SSID, you are making it easy for hackers to connect to your network. So consult your users manual and find out how to change your SSID to a unique name, and turn off the SSID Broadcast feature.

3. Enable WEP Encryption Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP) is a technology that will encrypt all traffic that goes over your wireless network. By default, your router will have WEP turned off, meaning that all of your personal data is transfered across you wireless network in plain text. Once again, this is an easy target for even the most inexperienced hacker. Enabling WEP is very easy, and should be enabled as soon as you possibly can.

4. Setup a MAC Address Filter Finally the most advanced tip offered here is to setup MAC address filtering. Every computer wireless adapter has a unique id called a MAC Address. You can tell your router to only allow access to devices with a particular MAC address. This is probably the most effective step you can take to secure you wireless network.

Jim Rutherford is the webmaster for http://www.familyandhome.info and a popular web development blog http://www.digitalmediaminute.com

Phishing, pronounced fishing, is now becoming an epidemic throughout the Internet. Most people who use the internet and receive emails have probably received a phishing email or two.

But what is phishing and who are the phishers?

You receive an email from your bank like this below….

“Dear bank customer, your bank details need to be verified by clicking on this link……” and so it goes on.

The link that they give you to click on, however, does not open up where you think it should. Although, to all intents and purposes it looks like your banks page, but what is really happening is that your bank details are going straight into a phishers’ computer to be used later by them to fleece you of all your money.

There are many of these scams about. The more common ones are for eBay, Paypal and your bank. All of these look very real and to a casual observer or someone new on the Internet, these could be from who they say they are from.

Other scams being used that slightly differ from the above are the emails from a certain son, daughter, or wife. These follow the same pattern more or less. It starts with a terrible accident where their father / husband have been tragically killed with a huge fortune in an offshore bank. They need your help and bank details so that they can transfer millions of US Dollars into your bank so that they can get hold of it.

A variation and one that I have only just started to receive is from a solicitor saying that a long lost relative has left a legacy and the solicitor wants my bank details to be able to transfer this legacy into it.

Some of the worst phishing that has hit the Internet, and the ones that are more likely to succeed are the “Charity” ones.

A web site set up to collect money for well known disasters like Hurricane Katrina or the earthquake that hit India / Pakistan . Of course the money does not go to the good causes that it is meant to go to but goes straight into the Phisher’s pocket.

So that is what phishing is and you can now see that the people doing the phishing are none other than criminals.

How can you tell a phishing email or scam?

For the first group, eBay Paypal and Banks it is relatively easy and a little detective work reveals all.

First of all remember that eBay, Paypal or any bank will NEVER ask you for your bank details in an email. By the way, they will not ask you for your log in detail either. Your user name and password are your own private affair and these establishments will not ask you for them.

Secondly, look at how the email addresses you. It will say “Dear eBay user Paypal user or Bank Customer”. This is a dead giveaway. Neither eBay nor Paypal (which is owned by eBay) will ever address you such. Their emails will always address you by your user name.

Banks are the same, if you are a customer of a bank, they will address you by your known name. Additionally, banks will not normally email you unless you first give the bank permission.

Finally, for this section, a good way of finding out whether it is a scam is by running your mouse over the link. When you do so you will see a strange web address that bares no relationship with the supposed sender of the email.

For example, you would expect an email from eBay to have a web address that starts http://www.ebay.com/ not something like https://signin.ebay.com/blah blah blah.

For the second group of scams, the sob sob story type. These are pretty obvious. No one is going to give you money for nothing and ask yourself why would a African Princess or whatever ask for your help in the first place.

If it looks like a scam it usually is a scam.

Someone better than I once said " If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, the chances are it IS a duck."

Finally, for the third group, the charity email that is calling on your good nature to give to a worthy cause. Basically if you feel that you want to support a worthy cause then send money directly to the registered address of that charity. You can look that up on the internet. Or you can go to the charity shops and give money there. You could also buy something and get something back in return.

There are many ways of giving to charity, replying to bogus emails is NOT one of them.

How do you protect yourself?

Be vigilant with all the emails you receive. Delete all the scam ones, or set up a block on them so you don’t receive them. If you get the phishing one from eBay, Paypal or the bank, do not on any account click on the link. Forward these direct to the relevant authorities. For eBay and Paypal it is spoof@ and then either eBay.com or Paypal.com Most Internet banks have an email address where you can forward phishing emails and a quick look on their official site will give you their address.

On no account should you reply to these emails. Remember these are Phishing emails and the sender usually does not know whether the email address they sent it to is real or not. They have programs that generate thousands of email addresses and send bulk emails out regularly. If you reply to one they have caught you.

There are other ways to get hold of your details and one of these is by installing a Trojan onto your computer. A Trojan is a small malicious program that will record your key strokes and send them off to the person who installed the Trojan.

In days past, Trojans were installed onto computers by opening of emails or opening attachments on emails. These days that need not be the case. Especially with the amount of programs and music that is downloaded from sites. Any one of these could carry a Trojan.

Be sure that you have an anti spyware program and that you keep it up to date. A good quality anti virus program is also a must these days as well. Top of the list though is to have a Fire Wall on your computer.

Windows XP service pack 2 comes with a good firewall and Microsoft have a free anti spyware program that you can download from their site.

There is a tendency for young, and not so young to exchange music files with each other. They do this by allowing others to access their computer directly over the internet.

DON’T DO IT! That is an open invitation to phishers and all unscrupulous people to take control of your computer.

Be on your guard at all times.

Martin Wood

Martin Wood is one of a growing number of people who have found working at home on the Internet a rewarding experience.

Securities:

There are several areas of security that are in extreme need of attention. Any company that obtains and retains personal information is liable for that information. This being said, there are certain protocols to follow to ensure that the information provided is kept safe.

Personal Information Collection.

Let’s look at an E-commerce Store environment. Whether you are a multi-million dollar operation, or simply a small specialty E-commerce store, you are responsible for the information that is collected from your various shoppers. Anytime information is collected, security becomes a significant factor.

The Internet is not a safe place. Data is sent back and forth through various servers through which personal and non-personal information is housed. The problem with data transfer is the ability to intercept and record that data that is moving from server a to server b. Hackers have the ability to intercept and use that information, such as credit card numbers and expiry dates, to falsely do transactions. Now that being said, there is technology out there that can eliminate this serious threat.

SSL - The encryption of data passed through server’s means that anyone illegally intercepting data transfers will not have the ability to read whatever data is contained there within.

This is an especially important tool for any E-commerce operations. You must use SSL technologies to ensure that your consumer data is protected from fraudulent activity.

Shopping Cart Technologies

The shopping cart built with ASP technology is secure enough that the average user will feel safe using the systems. One of the features for keeping the site secure is identifying users through credentials typed into a login form. This system will automatically display a login from an unauthenticated user accessing a protected portion of the site.

OPT-in/out Procedures

Having both opt-in and opt-out measures will allow customers choose whether they want to receive various sales and advertising emails throughout the year. Some customers want the option of not receiving emails because they view them as spam. But others want to be kept up-to-date about sales and different advertisements so they can shop during those times.

Another technique that can be used is a double opt-in method. Customers will get an email verifying that they have signed up to receive emails from the organization.

At the end of every email will be an opt-out/unsubscribe link if the customer does not wish to receive anymore emails. This will automatically remove them from the emailing system but keep the email on file for future reference.

Maintaining Privacy

Your Implied Consent

In some cases, your consent is implied if we ask you to provide personal information with a stated purpose. For example, we can only deliver the product you have purchased if you provide us with your address and phone number.

Your Express Consent

In other cases, we will ask you to give your express consent to use your personal information to advise you of products or services that may be of interest. You always have the opportunity to "opt out" of having your information used for this purpose. For example, when you subscribe to the Future Flash newsletter, we will also ask for your express consent to send you promotional information.

Withdrawing Your Consent

If you have "opted in" or subscribed to one of our newsletters or mailing lists, we will always provide you the opportunity to "opt out" or unsubscribe. For example, each e-mail we send you will tell you how to decline further e-mail.”

Transaction Security

This is one of the most important aspects for businesses operating online. There are always stories in the news about credit card numbers being collected by individuals online. To combat this, all transactions will go through a secure transaction line, provided through the company’s financial institution. All processes are handled by the bank, ensuring a highly secure line that will instill customers with trust.

Transaction Cancellations

Customers will have the options for canceling transactions within a predetermined amount of time. This enables the customer to have a grace period, or ‘cooling-off’ period, the equivalent to a retail stores grace period for returns. This will also ensure that the actual customers are making the purchases, and not a customer using pirated information. Information Divulgence

What staff have the ability to view what information and for what purpose.

Disclosure of Information

To full-fill orders and ship orders, information collected from users may be needed by service providers to complete transactions. In this event, only information needed to complete the sale and or delivery of the purchased products will be disclosed to any service provider.

Alex Simms is a content writer for Avalon Studios, a Web Design & Development firm working with small businesses.

Working on the Internet provides Internet marketers with the opportunity to make a living in the comfort of their own home. However, as your business is completely reliant upon your computer, you must take the necessary steps to ensure your computer is safe.

Over the years, I have received many questions in regard to computer security. Below, are some of the most frequently asked questions:

Question: I’m new to the Internet and have been hearing a lot about viruses. I’m not exactly sure what they are. Can you help?

Answer: A virus is a small piece of software that attaches itself to ‘real’ software programs (executable code). Each time you launch the real program, the virus is also launched. The virus may then spread and attach itself to other programs and wreak havoc on your system.

The most widespread virus is an email virus. An email virus spreads through email attachments. It usually spreads by mailing itself to everyone within the email program’s address book. It tricks the email recipient into believing the message was sent from someone they know.

Although this type of virus rapidly spreads, you can’t get it simply by reading a plain text email. However, you can execute the virus by clicking on an encoded message that contains embedded executable code such as JavaScript within an HTML email message, or an executable file attachment.

Another type of program that is often thought of as a virus is a ‘Trojan horse’ program. However, it is not a virus. It is simply a computer program that acts like it’s something it’s not. For example, you may download a program that you think is a computer game. However, when you run the program, it may delete files on your hard drive. Trojan horses cannot automatically replicate themselves.

Another widespread program is known as a worm. A worm is actually a small piece of software that travels through vulnerable computer networks with security holes. The worm scans the network in search of other computers with security holes. It copies itself to each system it finds.

Although viruses can infect any type of executable code such as EXE files or DOC files, most media files such as GIF, JPG, BMP, MP3, WAV, AVI, MOV and TXT files are generally safe.

Although viruses can wreak havoc, computer virus hoaxes can also be damaging. Virus hoaxes may cause Internet users to begin to ignore all virus warnings. This can be harmful, as they are then left vulnerable to ‘real’ virus warnings.

In addition, many virus hoaxes also include a ‘fix’ that instructs the user to delete a certain file from their system. However, the file the hoax says is a virus is actually an important file needed by your computer.

Never follow the advice within an email ‘virus alert’ instructing you to remove a virus from your system without first verifying its validity.

Visit Symantec to search their virus encyclopedia:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/vinfodb.html/

You can also search McAfee’s virus database here:
http://www.mcafee.com/anti-virus/default.asp

You can protect your computer by taking a few precautionary steps:

1) Purchase a quality virus protection software and keep it updated.

McAfee http://www.mcafee.com

Norton http://www.symantec.com

Please note, the above programs (especially Norton) have been known to cause problems with some operating systems. Although there isn’t any particular pattern, caution should be exercised. I use McAfee online virus scan and haven’t had any problems.

2) If you’re using Microsoft programs, make sure that the "Macro Virus Protection" is enabled. Never run a macro within a document unless you know exactly what it does.

3) Never open an email attachment unless you’re absolutely sure where it came from and what it is.

4) Avoid downloading software programs from sources you’re not familiar with. If you do download a program, make sure you scan the file with your anti-virus software prior to installing.

Question: I’ve been hearing a lot about firewalls, but I’m not sure what it is or if I need it. Can you help?

Answer: A firewall is basically a software program that allows you full access to the Internet and/or your network, while restricting access to your computer system from outside intrusions.

Internet users are extremely vulnerable to hackers, especially if you have cable or ADSL access to the Internet. You definitely need to protect your computer system. I recommend using a great program called Zone Alarm Pro http://www.zonealarm.com

Once you install a firewall, you’ll be amazed at how many attempts to access your computer are blocked by your firewall.

Hackers can directly access your computer system by installing programs such as a key logger that can read every keystroke you make. This information is recorded and sent back to the hacker. Private information such as passwords and credit card numbers can easily be stolen.

A key logger is a small software program that quietly runs in the background. As these programs quite often run in DOS, you will most-likely never realize it’s running. However, you can see if a key logger is running by pressing ‘control’ - ‘alt’ - ‘delete’ on your keyboard. This will launch a window that contains a list of all the programs currently running on your system. Review the list and watch for programs you don’t recognize.

As there are many small programs such as adware (pop-windows) and spyware cookies that can bypass your anti-virus and firewall software, I recommend using a program called Pest Patrol http://www.pestpatrol.com/ This program will detect and remove non-viral malicious software.

Although you can purchase Pest Patrol at the above site, you can receive a discount if you purchase it with Zone Alarm Pro http://www.zonealarm.com . I can’t guarantee how long this special offer will be available, so if you want it, now is a good time to get it.

If you really want to keep your computer safe, I recommend the following:

1) Purchase a good virus program and keep it updated
2) Purchase a good firewall program and keep it updated
3) Purchase a program like Pest Patrol and keep it updated

Taking the time to protect your computer is one of the best business decisions you’ll ever make. If you don’t protect it now, you’ll definitely regret it later. It’s just a matter of time.

Copyright © Shelley Lowery

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, "Web Design Mastery" (www.webdesignmastery.com) and "eBook Starter - Give Your eBooks the look and feel of a REAL book" (www.ebookstarter.com)

Visit www.Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to eTips and receive a copy of Shelley’s acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies."

You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook, or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included.

Laptops are quite expensive, hence the risk of being stolen. Laptops are smaller, easy to travel with, because of these, its patronage is on the increase. Laptops because of their new processing power is a delight of most companies today.

How Do I Secure My Laptop

Laptops these days contain vital data and are greatly used for remote data access. Its security should be top priority to all users. There are three aspects to consider in securing your laptop.

• Physical Security.

Physical Security

Physical security involves physical barriers put in place to inhibit access to where your laptop is kept.

Such barriers, hinder the following circumstances;

• Theft of your laptop.

The physical barriers should have the following features;

• The ability to properly lock the entrance to where your laptop is kept.

Security Software

Access to your laptop can also be prevented using security software.

This security software prevents access to your desktop. It ensures that only the owner of the laptop has access to using the applications on the laptop.

Features of a Security Software

• It must prompt the user, to enter a user name and a password.

Security Consciousness

After all said and done, without security consciousness on the part of the user or laptop owner, every control put in place to deter access to the laptop would be futile.

Security Consciousness Tips

• Always lock the door to your office.

Advice

Laptop security is an ongoing process. The need for regular information on laptop security is vital. The more informed you are on laptop security, the less vulnerable is your laptop to theft or damage.

To Secure Your Laptop visit http://www.compsana.com/itsecuritytools.html Now!

Christopher Okoh
CEO
Computer Security & Network Associates.
Website: http://www.compsana.com
He has written over 100 computer security articles. He also writes for computer security magazines and newspapers. I’m always happy to take on a writing job on security.