Benefits of the Internet include such delights as convenient shopping, access to a wealth of information with a click of a mouse, and unique new ways of communicating with one another. But these luxuries also come with their own problems. 

Most of the problems revolve around an invasion of your privacy. Perpetrated by malicious programmers, nosy marketers, identity thieves, and clods that have no concern for your privacy or qualms about invading it, these rodents have come up with a variety of sneaky ways to snooping on you and your computer use.

The Internet provides a means for these low-life people to:

• remotely damage your computer by infecting it with viruses,
• use your computer to launch a denial of service attacks without your knowledge or permission,
• use spyware or Trojan Horse programs to snoop around your hard drive gathering personal information such as credit card and bank account numbers,
• send Spam or viruses to friends in your contact list and make it appear to be from you,
• report your purchases and web sites visited to a remote computer gathering marketing intelligence,
• send your family and friend’s addresses and phone numbers to marketers who resell that information to others who use it to pester them with Spam, telemarketing calls, and phone scams.
   

THE ATTACKERS
Viruses

Millions of e-greeting cards, jokes and animation files are passed over the Internet by friends and associates every day in the form of executables (.exe files). While the vast majority of these programs are harmless, the widely publicized ILOVEYOU worm, ExploreZip worm, SouthPark and MiniZip worm attacks are examples of malicious code that caused tens of millions of dollars in damage. Malicious code (VIRUSES) attached to harmless-looking executables can delete computer files, steal personal data from unsuspecting victims or even hijack a computer and use it to launch a distributed denial of service attack.

Hacker Intrusions

So you thought that free screen saver you downloaded was harmless. What you didn’t know was it contained an embedded worm program that allows a hacker located in a different state or country to snoop around your hard disk or take control of your computer remotely.

Spyware, Worms, and Trojan Horses

Another form of computer security breakdown occurs when a malicious program is loaded on to your computer’s hard drive that is able to report back to its creators using your internet connection. Information about you, your friends, your credit card and bank account numbers, your passwords, web sites you’ve visited are sent back over the internet without your knowledge or permission. This is called spyware. It often comes in the form of a free program, media viewer, screensaver, or email attachment. Other versions of this intrusive software, known as worms or Trojan Horses, can take over your computer and use it to send out SPAM, host porn sites, or launch denial of service attacks against other computewrs without your knowing what’s going on except that your internet connection seems very slow.

Cookies

So you want people keeping lists of the Internet sites you visit regularly? That's exactly what happens when commercial Web sites upload "cookies" to your computer's hard drive.

Cookies are small data packets that contain information about your Web-surfing habits, which are then made available to cookie-savvy sites on the Internet. The main use of cookies is to track demographics for advertising agencies that want to see just what kinds of consumers a certain site is attracting. Some web sites also use cookies to keep your account information  up-to-date. That way, when you enter a site where you have an account,  Amazon.com for instance, the site knows immediately who you are and loads your  personal preferences. This also how sites like Yahoo! offer "myYahoo!" personalization features. Companies like Double-Click and NetGravity use cookies to compile information  about Web surfers, which in turn is used by advertising clients to deliver targeted ads. You can see a prime example of this strategy at the popular search  engine Yahoo!, which displays a seemingly random banner ad when you first contact the site. After you've entered a word search, for example "books for sale," the banner ad suddenly starts touting Amazon.com

With Microsoft Internet Explorer ( IE) version 6.0 or later, go the Tools menu and select Internet Options. Choose the  Privacy tab and ove the Cookie settings slider bar up. There are six levels of cookie protection and each notch you go up with the slider bar increases the restrictions IE will place on cookies before accepting them. Moving the slider all the way up will block all cookies. You may need to access this slider bar on some sites that require setting cookies to place an order. We suggest you do this only when needed and keep your IE set to block cookies most of the time.  You can also specify individual sites that you will allow to set cookies from this same page. If you use Netscape, you can follow the same steps, only select Preferences  under the Edit Menu, then select Advanced in the dialogue box that appears

When IE alerts you that a cookie is being downloaded, simply click the No button when it asks whether you want to accept it. Or, you can choose the Disable all cookie use and your browser will not accept any cookies...ever. The same is true in Netscape. It's amazing how often IE will alert you to a potential cookie once you turn  on the cookies alert option. In fact, the frequent alerts can be quite annoying,  but at least you know when a site is hitting you up for information rather than having it all take place in the background

Besides turning on the cookies alert option, you can surf on over to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) page, join up, and sign petitions to try and stop advertising agencies from using cookies. But for now, your best bet is to turn on the cookie alert option, set your browser for stun, and marvel at how many Internet Web sites are shills  for Madison Avenue.

You can also delete pre-existing cookie files from your computer using IE as well. Again select Tools, Internet options. The General tab will appear and you will see the Delete Cookies button.  Click on it and all cookies stored on your PC will be erased. You can drag those files into your Recycle Bin or Trash can. However, if you  delete your cookie files, you may lose some settings, such as the passwords to sites you visit. In this case, IE will ask you to re-enter your password when you visit these sites. To prevent companies from placing new cookie files on your hardware, choose the option in your browser that asks for permission every  time a cookie-planting attempt is made. A more convenient approach is to install software that protects your cookie files. Windows users can download Ad Aware from Lavasoft to protect against both cookies and spyware. This is the software program we use and we like it. Macintosh users can download Cookie Cutter from Macdownload.com.
 

THE DEFENDERS Each defensive strategy below is independent of the others and can be used alone. But we at Web Fin strongly recommend that you implement them all. There are also other manufacturers and developers of protection hardware and software that we haven’t listed whose products also provide successful defenses. The ones we have listed are used by us and we can vouch for their effectiveness first hand.

DEFENSE WE RECOMMEND PROTECTION FROM WHAT? HOW IT WORKS COST Router   Linksys 4 Port Router/Hub Combo External computers accessing or gaining control of your computer through your internet connection Serves as an intermediary between the internet and your PC. Assigns a special number to your PC that only it and your PC know. Your PC is invisible to the rest of the internet.  Allows other PCs to access the internet through the same connection. $60 - $90 Antivirus Software   Norton Antivirus 2003 McAfee VirusScan Malicious programs that can erase your hard disk, corrupt running programs, send your personal information to marketers and identity thieves, or cause malfunctions on you PC Antivirus software checks  each program your computer runs, downloads, or loads for telltale virus signatures - bits of code that uniquely identifies each virus. It then quarantines or deletes each one it finds. It also inspects each incoming message for viruses as well. $30 - $50 SoftwareFirewall l   Zone Alarm Pro Programs downloaded from web sites or attached to email that then send data from your computer back to their originators. It also protects your PC from being accessed by internet computers. Blocks all programs from sending data out from your computer to the internet without your expressed permission. Free - $60 Anti-Spyware Software   Ad Aware Plus Trojan Horse programs that send data about your web surfing habits to marketing companies that use and sell that data to Spammers Removes spyware from your computer. With the Plus option, it scans incoming internet traffic and alerts you whenever spyware or cookies are being set on your computer. Can also prevent the programs from being installed or cookies being set. Free - $15 Automated  Windows Update Setting Automatic Update Option on Windows   Older versions of Windows that still contain security holes that can be exploited Keeps your computer’s operating system software current and less likely to be invaded by those trying to exploit holes in older versions on Windows Free Automated  Security Updates Setting Automatic Update Option on Norton Mcafee Zone Alarm Ad Aware Setting your defense programs to automatically update themselves and their definition files every few days to keep them current and able to identify newer viruses, spyware programs, or trojan horse programs Keeps your computer’s invasion defense software current and less likely to be invaded by those trying to exploit holes in older versions.  Newer viruses and spyware are identified before they can do any damage. Free - $20/yr Safe Web Use Habits   Caution and a touch of paranoia Spyware, viruses, Trojan horse software that invade your privacy, control or damage your computer in spite precautions because you give them permission, believing them to be benign or something else Refraining from downloading or opening what appears to be free programs, media players, video viewers, screen savers, or email attachments will prevent malicious programs from ever getting on to your PC in the first place. They can’t come in if you don’t open the door. Make sure you know the source of the programs you open. Check the legitimacy of a downloaded program by conducting a Gggole search and entering its name.  Look for any problems others have listed before downloading is yourself. Remember, nothing’s free.  The price of a “free” download may be your privacy instead of your money. $0