The Work At Home Guide

If projections by the U.S. Department of Commerce are correct, Americans will spend more than $26 billion shopping online this year. A significant portion of those shopping dollars will be spent during the upcoming holiday gift-giving season. Have some tips for making your Internet shopping a little easier: (continue…)

In the past year, more than 88 million Americans have had their identity endangered as the result of data breaches according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Topping the list: a case at the Veterans Administration, where an unidentified analyst took the employee information of 26 million veterans home in a laptop computer that was then burglarized from his home. (continue…)

Bob squinted at the email and began to read:

“Dear eBay User, as part of our security measures, eBay Inc. has developed a security program against fraudulent attempts and account thefts. Therefore, our system requires further account verification…”

Security Measures. A threat to suspend his account to prevent “fraudulent activity”. The email went on to say that there were “procedural safeguards with federal regulations to protect the information you provide for us.”

Bob clicked the link and was confronted with an authentic looking logon page, just waiting for him to input his user name and password and confirm what ebay supposedly didn’t know.

He almost did it. The page looked absolutely authentic, and he had already been “set up” by the email message. His fingers were poised over the keyboard when he happened to (continue…)

In the past few years Hormel Foods Corporation has been doing the legal rounds in preventing software companies from using the word “spam” in the branding of their junk email fighting products. An Associated Press (AP) article recently said Hormel was afraid this practice of software companies may dilute its brand name. (continue…)

Netscape began using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) in 1994 as a means of sending sensitive data over the web. The newer edition of the service is called Transport Layer Security (TLS), although even this is routinely known by the SSL designation.

Before the introduction of SSL it was difficult to ensure privacy over the web in online transactions. There was a general distrust of the ability to conduct online transactions and a fear that an individual’s credit card information could be picked up by a third party and used for unauthorized purchases. (continue…)

It is important to make sure the computer you use to access your online ecommerce site is secure. Too often a site owner takes great care to ensure the security of the site itself and may fail to take precautions to protect his or her own computer.

If your website is not secure you may have difficulty accessing information, processing orders and securely accessing your own website.

Most netrepreneurs will place password protections on their ecommerce site to deter hackers, but interestingly a hacker might gain access to your information by (continue…)

Perhaps it was only a matter of time before hackers began shifting their focus away from noisy attacks on businesses and towards quiet, stealthy advances on unsuspecting home users. After all, end-user systems are often more vulnerable than their owners know, and by simply (continue…)

Do you usually leave your house without bothering to lock the front door? Probably not.

Connecting your computer to the Internet without taking appropriate security precautions can be just as risky as leaving your front door unlocked. Hackers and other cyber criminals may try to control your computer, steal private information, crash your system or even hijack bank accounts.

To help raise awareness of cyber security, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) is promoting the month of October as National Cyber Security Awareness Month. This year’s theme-Cyber Security. Make It a Habit- is the organization’s third annual nationwide campaign to educate Internet users of all ages about practices that can increase their online safety and security. NCSA will work with industry partners to (continue…)

Online shopping is a gigantic industry, and with good reason, too. Few shopping methods offer more convenience, better prices, or better information access than shopping via the internet. However, it pays to follow a few precautions when shopping on the internet.

Secure Shopping

When ordering from an online site, one of the first things you should check is to see that their order page is secure. The page you enter your address and contact details on doesn’t need to be secure, but the page you enter your credit card on should be. (continue…)

Protecting your computer is just as important as protecting your home. In order to do what’s necessary to prevent hackers from getting personal and private information, a firewall is a must for internet users. (continue…)