how secure is internet security?

You have to trust someone, such as folks who post answers on this site, and whoever is your personal PC guru hardware helper.

http://grc.com/default.htm
Go to that site & click on Shields Up & then run both kinds of tests. This will show settings on your PC that any hacker can see & there is detailed FAQ on what the implications are of that. But in real terms, if you are a home user not connected to a company network, your risk of someone stealing your credit identity or cleaning out yourbank accounts, or using your PC as a launching point to commit treason that will send you to jail ... that is pretty remote. Just make sure you connect to the internet via a direct phone line ... cellular can be tapped.

http://www.itaa.org
Noodle around that site & sign up for Info Sec monthly outlook newsletter (it comes attached to e-mail as a document ... the latest issue was 7 pages & is talking about security risks for businesses, psychology of hackers & makes the point that in the world of digital stone

http://www.itaa.org
Info Sec monthly outlook newsletter - the latest issue was 7 pages & is talking about security risks for businesses, psychology of hackers & makes the point that in the world of digital stone throwing at windows, the problem is that M$ has provided a very vulnerable platform for which there are a growing number of tools to exploit the weaknesses, but what you should be trying to find is the archives, because last month's issue had an article entitled Security 101.

The way hacking works is that they can get into the company's records, which could include your credit card records, but they could get anyone's records & in fact stealling enough information to assume your identity & clean out your money & get you deep into debt to pay off the criminal's purchases ... that is a risk that can happen to any of us irrespective of the internet.

Protection is sold by bad mouthing what you are to be protected against.

Surge Protection is marketed by bad mouthing the electric company, but 25% of the electrical protection on the market are lemons, according to tests by consumer & computer markets ... the electric companies do not rise to that level of user hostility.

Anti-Virus Protection is marketed by scaring the pants off of computer users ... who are those people who create the viruses anyway ... why are none of them ever prosecuted? Anti-Virus Protection is so inexpensive that it generally pays to get it & use it properly.

What most of us need is better e-mail filter systems to block the unwnnted junk advertising that we did not sign up for.

Well, SHoping on-line is somewhat safe. Well atleast on the Amazon.com's of the internet. On your side NO! DO you have passwarods saved on your computer for say like your dial up? uncheck those "SAVE PASSWORDS" box. The cache of passwords that are stored can easily be pulled down from your machine. See what can happen is, Lets say I pull your password cache and get your user name and password for your Internet service provider. Well now I have your User?pass for your ISP. Now I can create a ail account to start reading your e-mail. YUP! I can put in mail.yourisp.com and use your user name and password to collect your e-mail. Well Guess what. You went shopping on line last week while I was pulling your e-mail and I got the conformation from shophere.com I now have your Full Name (as it appears on your credit card) address phone number, Credit card number, Conformation number, Maybe even your password for later on-line shopping with them too! I can then log into your account and change your address t

Sorry about the buffer problem here. But here is the rest, I HOPE!

(as it appears on your credit card) address phone number, Credit card number, Conformation number, Maybe even your password for later on-line shopping with them too! I can then log into your account and change your address to another one and have stuff mailed to it instead of you!

Who you need to be worried about is your Government though. Chout this web out

http://www.codexdatasystems.com/menu.html for the MENU

butread this http://www.codexdatasystems.com/cdsnews.html that will make you wonder.

How do you know when you give your card to the waitress at a local restarant she is not joting down the card number...?

Go to major site to do online purchacing, most that have had this problem are storing this info on there web server which is ano no...

Network Flight Recorder has a very inexpensive tool that you can load on your computer. It watches in the background to see if someone is trying to hack. It's only about $10 to register.
I use it myself and recommend it highly.
http://www.nfr.com/products/bof/

Also get yourself some antiviral software like Norton's. Update it every week, or each day you hear a new virus is out, like the ILOVEYOU virus that showed up yesterday.

Subscribe to few email groups or you'll be spammed unmercifully with junkmail. If you don't want the spam, don't reply because it just tells them your email address is good. Ignore it, later you can learn how to report them. Don't open email from people you don't know that send you attachments. Just delete it
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If you decide you want to purchase something online, make sure it's a reputable company and they guarantee the safety of your information.

Your browser should go into a "secure mode" where you will see a lock that is locked and it willtell you that you're

Your concern seems revolving around the security of eCommerce transaction over Internet.

First of all, Internet was invented when network has very few users and they never imagine it will be used for commercial transactions. Hence, there is no built-in security feature in the basic protocol. However, the add on protocols like http/https added encryption features and provide reasonable protection against your transaction being "peeped" on the Internet if the web site is designed properly.
However, credit card id leakage that you concern is not breached by network sniffing only. The breach of security is due to the design and administration of the credit card database is not handled adequately.

It is analog to the plastic/paper credit card transaction, the process is generally secure enough. But the handling of data (or paper) not secure enough.

The solution: same strategy for both case, use proven or big brand store and cross your fingers hope it will be ok.

It sounds like you have two questions. The first, how safe is your credit card info, depends entirely on who you purchase from. As has been mentioned already, big online stores like Amazon are pretty good about these things. They are not perfect,of course, but they aren't likely to let your credit card info into the open. Be very careful with your SSN, though. Nobody should need that - if anybody asks for it, be suspicious. (Answer to second question in next response)

For you second question, regarding products you can use to help, in terms of purchasing, there isn't much. You could learn about things like making sure any sensitive information (like credit card info) is always being transmitted encrypted. In IEand Netscape you can tell by the little lock icon on the bottom status bar. Other than that, most personal security products tend to be not worth much. DSL and cable modem security is another question entirely...

99% of the times the fail was in the Shopping Site. You don't have much to do in your computer, you must trust in the company, so, trust in big companies, because most times they have a better security scheme. Remember that CNN wasn't literaly hacked, was tried to put the server down with a DDenial of Service.

In your computer the only thing you can do is: don't let your credit card number wrote in any place (this is pretty obvious!)

Check out the replies I gave to Fred's "Best and easiest network virus software" and your "which to chose as a best service and quality" then check out my directory of "Security Resources" on the message forum of http://www.cybercrime.com

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