However, not all Internet traffic is unimportant. With the rise of broadband technology, more daily business takes place online, which makes the risk of data theft greater than ever. Luckily, there are ways to protect yourself and your data from the unsavory characters who call the Internet home.
What is encryption?
The industry standard for secure Internet transmissions is 128-bit encryption. It encodes messages by using a linked key method. On one end, the message is encoded with a private key. The recipient uses the sender's public key to decode the message after it arrives. If the message was tampered with in any way, the public key doesn't decode the message correctly -- alerting the recipient that the information shouldn't be trusted.
Verifying that messages are intact when they arrive is all well and good, but what about confidential messages that shouldn't be read by anyone but the intended recipient? Say you need to send confidential plans for your newest product line to your marketing manager. You would encode the documents by using the recipient's public key, ensuring that only his or her private key could decode the information. Anyone else who tried would get a mess of random characters.
Does your Web browser support 128-bit encryption?
To check your Web browser's level of encryption, open the About dialog
box. In Microsoft® Windows® Internet Explorer, select Help > About Internet Explorer. The Cipher Strength field indicates your encryption level.
Use Antivirus and Antispyware Software
Installing a firewall on your PC is vitally important to security, but unfortunately, just blocking the entrance to your system isn't enough to keep it secure. You also need to have virus-scanning and spyware-detection software installed and running.
Antivirus Methods
These packages need to be updated regularly to remain effective because malicious hackers don't write one virus and then go home. They write one, and then watch to see what virus-scanning software vendors do to detect it. Hackers learn how to make their viruses less detectable and more virulent -- and every time new viruses are released, virus software gets smarter about detecting them. It's a cat-and-mouse game that catches computer users in the middle. The best steps to take to avoid infection are:
What is encryption?
The industry standard for secure Internet transmissions is 128-bit encryption. It encodes messages by using a linked key method. On one end, the message is encoded with a private key. The recipient uses the sender's public key to decode the message after it arrives. If the message was tampered with in any way, the public key doesn't decode the message correctly -- alerting the recipient that the information shouldn't be trusted.
Verifying that messages are intact when they arrive is all well and good, but what about confidential messages that shouldn't be read by anyone but the intended recipient? Say you need to send confidential plans for your newest product line to your marketing manager. You would encode the documents by using the recipient's public key, ensuring that only his or her private key could decode the information. Anyone else who tried would get a mess of random characters.
Does your Web browser support 128-bit encryption?
To check your Web browser's level of encryption, open the About dialog
box. In Microsoft® Windows® Internet Explorer, select Help > About Internet Explorer. The Cipher Strength field indicates your encryption level.
Use Antivirus and Antispyware Software
Installing a firewall on your PC is vitally important to security, but unfortunately, just blocking the entrance to your system isn't enough to keep it secure. You also need to have virus-scanning and spyware-detection software installed and running.
Antivirus Methods
These packages need to be updated regularly to remain effective because malicious hackers don't write one virus and then go home. They write one, and then watch to see what virus-scanning software vendors do to detect it. Hackers learn how to make their viruses less detectable and more virulent -- and every time new viruses are released, virus software gets smarter about detecting them. It's a cat-and-mouse game that catches computer users in the middle. The best steps to take to avoid infection are:
- Practice caution when using the Internet -- don't visit questionable Web sites, don't click on pop-up ads, and don't click links haphazardly.
- Update your virus protection software daily.












