Top 5 Security Threats for Active Online Social Networking Users

When you log on any social media website there are potential threats that can damage your system and steal important data. You need to be vigilant against these threats and be aware of the ways by which you can prevent these malicious actions. Let us learn about the top 5 security threats that active online social networking users face.

Virus and malware threats -Viruses that enter your system can wreak havoc. Often the most vicious attack that a user encounters is while surfing social websites. This is where they run the risk of malware entering their system. Once this enters the PC, the user faces a lot of issues ranging from slow PC performance to software issues and error messages. If these go unattended then it can even lead to a system crash.

Phishing attacks - It has always been the trend that the most popular websites are prone to become the target of hackers. The reason is simple. People often divulge their personal information even to strangers who they meet via the web without knowing their real identity. This becomes a threat to their own security when the information shared is misused for the purpose of committing crimes or tampering with financial information. A simple way to avoid this mess is by not answering e-mails or chat messages that come from unknown or suspicious sources. Even if these are coming from a known source you still need to be careful.

Scam emails - Often it happens that a user may get an email that claims to have come from the administrator of a website. This kind of emails, trick the user into believing that the password has been automatically reset due to some technical difficulties. Now you are asked to open the attachment to get the new password. This is a potential threat to your system as this attachment is designed to steal your password. The hacker will get to know the details of your account and tamper with the information. The easiest way to recognize these are the numerous sentence constructions, grammatical errors that are there in the content. In order to prevent your computer from getting infected, avoid responding to these scam emails. One more thing to remember is that a social networking website may send you an email for resetting the password but will never do so without prior intimation.

Selective Sharing of information - While chatting with a friend or a random acquaintance you often share personal information. This information can be misused by anyone. Divulging information to a random stranger is a potential threat to your own security. You should avoid sharing information to people randomly as this is the only way by which you can be secure. What kind of information you are sharing and with whom is extremely important and you need to be very specific about choosing people when it comes to information sharing.

Privacy settings - You need to be aware of security and privacy settings once you access a social network website. Websites like Facebook, Orkut comes powered with various security measures. If you are not aware of them, you need to read their online manual for the required security settings and opt for ways by which you can protect your online privacy. You will find an entire step by step tutorial for setting up these privacy related filters.

Security should have multi-levels and multi-layers so that it provides complete protection. After realizing the potential threats prevailing on social networking website the next step is to secure you data and PC from hackers. To know more about securing your PC and protecting your privacy online you need to get in touch with a premium computer support provider that offers online tech support.

She is a Technology writer who is keen on any new emerging technology updates. She is working with Qresolve as a Technical Support Engineer. Semeli Karen McPherson has been offering online tech support to global customers for issues related to laptops, desktops, Mac and devices including iPods, tablets, iPhones computer support and more.She caters to the segment of core technology and provides viable solutions to any issues related to technology and software. Her expertise and skills in handling key technology issues is immaculate and quick result bearing. Through her articles and postings she aims to provide knowledge and solutions to common technology issues that a user faces.

Home Networking in the Digital Age

When computers first became available to the general public, it was rare for any home to have more than one unit, let alone a network of computers. But as modern technology became cheaper, more accessible and within the reach of everyone, tech-savvy homes are now linking up their laptops and plugging in their PCs into home networks.

What is a home network?

A home network is simply a method of allowing computers to communicate with one another. If you have two or more computers in your home, a network can let them share:

� Files and documents

� An Internet connection

� Printers, print servers and scanners

� Stereos, TVs and game systems

� CD burners

To set up a home network, you'll need a few basic components including more than one computer, hardware such as a router and software, either built in to the operating system or as a separate application, to co-ordinate the exchange of information. You will also need a 'path' for the information to follow from one computer to another. This is usually supplied via a WiFi system. The two most popular home network types are wireless and Ethernet networks. In both of these types, the router does most of the work by directing the traffic between the connected devices. By connecting a router to your dial-up, DSL or cable modem, you can also allow multiple computers to share one connection to the Internet.

Any risks?

With any network, there are always risks. If all of your computers are connected to the same network, a virus uploaded onto one computer will infect all the other computers linked to the same system. This is why it is imperative that you install effective firewalls and anti-virus software into your network to protect your system from outside attacks.

Most routers combine wireless and Ethernet technology and also include a hardware firewall already built into the system, but you can increase your security by adding your own software protection. Software firewalls installed onto your computers block all incoming information by default and prompt you for permission to allow the information to pass. In this way, a software firewall can learn which types of information you want to allow into your network. It is advisable to regularly update your firewalls and anti-virus protection to keep hackers and malicious users at bay.

Ethernet and wireless networks each have advantages and disadvantages. Wired networks provide users with plenty of security and the ability to move lots of data very quickly. They are faster than wireless networks, and very affordable. However, with wired networks, the clue is in the name - you will have cables linking your network so if you're not happy about a house full of cables to connect your system, a wireless WiFi network may be a better and more user friendly option. The system itself may be slower, particularly if a computer is further away from the main router, but you do cut down the amount of hardware and cables needed to create the network in the first place.

Wireless networks are more susceptible to interference in the radio waves due to walls and distance of networked computers from the wireless router, but do allow you the freedom to utilise the system anywhere in the house (or even outside in the garden). Wireless networks are by far the most popular home networking system, despite some drawbacks and as the technology improves and routers become more powerful, are becoming the networking option of choice for the majority of home users.

IT247.com has one of the UK's largest catalogues of IT, consumer electronics and related accessories, at highly competitive prices and best availability. Buy Laptop Computers and Internet Security Products online at http://www.it247.com.

Alison Brundle
Design Co-Ordinator
alison.brundle@scc.com

Wireless Networking and Security

Although Wireless Networking has great benefits, which are undoubtedly, there are also some drawbacks, which should be considered. Drawbacks such as Electromagnetic interferences, a slower transfer speed then wired Networks and diverse security concerns. This paper will focus on Wireless Networks and the security concern that we have or should have when implementing such technology.

As a general note there are two types of wireless computer networks.

1) Ad hoc network is established when wireless communication exist directly from computer to computer.

2) Infrastructure Networks are distinguished by the use of an access point. Every communication in a Infrastructure Network goes over a access point.

The good news is Wireless Access Points have a security feature which is called WEP.

It uses an encryption algorithm named RC4. This is a symmetric stream cipher and it can

use two types of encryption keys. 64 Bit and 128 Bit. The WEP encryption serves two main purposes authentication and data encryption. With out data encryption everything transmitted from a computer and everything received would be transmitted in clear text. This means that while data is traveling from one point to the next over a radio wave frequency, it can easily be intercepted and viewed by an unknown third party. Without WEP there is also no authentication for who logs on to the wireless computer or Network, allowing anyone in near distance who can receive the wireless signal to utilize the wireless network for his/her own purpose.

Most vendors who provide wireless equipment don't set the wireless devices to use WEP by default. If no one specifically takes his/her time to set up the WEP security features they are not activated, and at this point the wireless network has no security at all. Leaving your Home or Business Network open for the rest of the world. To make my point it is really a necessity to set up WEP and to set it up correctly. My recommendation would be to use the 128 Bit key on any wireless network. In a professional Business environment as well as at your private residence. Hot spots are very popular and can be found in Airports, Train stations, Hotels, Coffeehouses, Libraries and many other public places. Some are freely available and others require a membership or a fee to access and utilize. These hotspots provide internet access on very flexible terms and they have become widely available in the United States. When using hotspots specifically the freely available one's I do recommend to research if they provide any means of Data encryption to safeguard your data and privacy.

Although WEP encryption provides some degree of security and privacy it is not flawless

And can be broken with certain tools within only a few hours. These tools are easy to use and available to download on the World Wide Web. Therefore WEP by itself cannot be considered a secure solution for your wireless network, it is well suited for most users At there residence that want some degree of security and privacy but really don't have any information on their computers or network which must be safeguarded. For professional Business environments and anyone else who does not fit into the first category WEP by itself is not sufficient to protect your data. There are several other steps, which should be performed in order to safeguard your data. SSID Broadcast should be disabled, Static ip addresses should be assigned and DHCP disabled. These additional settings will help camouflage your wireless network from prying eyes of neighbors, Business competitors, and malicious Intruders.

We hope this white paper has helped some of you who have wireless networks to better understand some of the steps involved in properly securing your network and systems.

For any further questions, ideas and concerns which you may have

Please feel free to contact me.

Andrew Mapp, President

Three Square Business Solutions

[http://threesquaresolutions.com]

MCSA, Security+, CEH, CCFS

This article may only be redistributed or syndicated in its original format including the authors signature (name, company, website).

Why You Should Delete Your Social Networking Accounts

Everyone has at least one. A Facebook account. A Twitter feed. Maybe a lingering MySpace page. Probably in conjunction with these you are running a LinkedIn page for connecting to work contacts; posting location information through 4Square; or have a personalized iGoogle homepage. Let's face it social networking has become the hottest way to keep in contact with your friends, co-workers, lost acquaintances, even family. Social networking has allowed individuals to maintain vast social networks that span across the globe. Individuals, groups, and organizations are utilizing social network sites to reach out to their communities. They have become the preferred means to spread interest in specific topics and advertise upcoming local events. Staying connected with the people that influence our lives has never been easier. But with all the advantages these sites offer, it comes with a profound price: our privacy.

We hand over most of our personal information to these sites: where we work, our telephone numbers, home addresses, email addresses, personal history, and much more. All of this information is accessible by not only the system administrators for these companies but also the people we accept as our friends; not to mention whatever information left unprotected that can be accessed by individuals or law enforcement surfing social network sites. Through our posts we provide information on our spending habits, where we are, our personal thoughts on popular culture, where we shop most, even the events of our mundane lives. We upload photos, create blogs, post comments, and comment on other people posts. Through all of this, we are creating mass information databases that can teach enterprising parties a lot about the kind of people we are. As we increasingly put more of our private lives into these vast social information databases growing concern is mounting about the amount of privacy a person has online and the possible profits that can be generated from data collected about you and your friends through social media posts.

Revenue is being invested and generated from information gleaned on social network sites. Companies like Gnip are making money as social media aggregators by designing tools that search user posts for information on specific products and events. This information they collect is then being sold to other organizations to use however they wish. Information can be collected on our political views, our distaste for one store over another, what products we bought, what products we are using, how we are using products, our taste in food, the music we like, the places where we live, etc. Companies can learn a lot about the people who are making posts about them (i.e. who that person is, where they live, where they work, who their friends are, a person's age, even what that person looks like). Imagine if a government like China wanted to start aggregating some of this information.

The point is that the information people are posting in private to be shared with friends and acquaintances they have made on the internet is not in fact private. Even though the average Facebook surfer cannot access a private account without friending that person does not mean a company cannot obtain information about what you are posting when doing a mass search of "News Feed" comments. Now not all information a company collects from an individual's posts seems malicious. So what if an internet service provider (ISP) does a search on twitter to see when people are doing most of their online gaming? When coupled with the rising issue of net neutrality ( http://lifehacker.com/5720407/an-introduction-to-net-neutrality-what-it-is-what-it-means-for-you-and-what-you-can-do-about-it ) said ISP could be doing this so they can charge more for internet use at these peak gaming times or determine which areas of the world are doing the most online gaming and then raise internet service rates in these areas. This does not include all of the other information companies can gather to use in expanding their profit margins.

Bug companies aggregating comments for personal gain is not the only issue to be concerned with when posting personal information on the internet. Hackers have always been an issue on the internet. Social networks are huge information databases that can provide a hacker with a vast volume of content to use. Hackers break into these websites with ease and STEAL data on millions of people. They can use information taken from your account to learn where you shop online, stalk you, access your email, or obtain specifics about your friends. Each year dozens of Fortune 500 companies get hacked. Everything from account login information to personal data is stolen in these security breaches. Hackers have been know to use hacked social network accounts to steal personal data for setting up fake shopping accounts, spam user contacts, impersonate users, discover information about online shopping habits of users, and more. Hackers can use information stolen from your account to change login information to sites like Amazon or PayPal by studying your posts and reviewing your user comments.

These websites offer users a false sense of security promising that storing your personal private information is safe from malicious use. The problem is that hackers target these sites for the information they contain. But once your information has been leaked onto the internet, there is no telling where it ends up. Most hacker breaches, as with the recently exposed online payment services and the Gawker media hacks, show private secured networks are breached quite often and sometimes these breaches last for months as the hackers syphon off huge amounts of data about users. Even worse the long term affects of such hacks are hard to quantify and discover. But once the data is exposed on the internet there is no way of securing that information again.

Social media sites provide many beneficial conveniences to interact with the world and friends. But those benefits come with a cost. We expose ourselves and contacts to the chance of having personal information stolen. It can take years, even a lifetime, to counter the ill affects of a possible identity theft caused by a social network hack. The ONLY way to keep your information safe is to stop using these sites. To protect your identity and personal information delete all of your social network accounts and do not sign up for any new social network services. Not providing social networks your personal information is the only 100% safe means from having your personal information stolen.

Your computer's security is always at risk of external invasion. If any of your social network passwords are stored on your computer, it is only a matter of time before they are stolen through an invasion of your personal computer. From there it is only a matter of time before this information is used to obtain your personal information stored in your social network accounts. From there it is only a matter of time before hackers are stealing the information from your social network contacts. Learn how to protect yourself from the invasion of your personal information and how to delete your social network accounts at http://HowToDeleteYourAccount.com/.

Act now before you become the next victim of identity theft.

Creative Networking Flourishes With Mobile Broadband

It seems that the best way to make new friends in contemporary society is by sitting directly where you are, in front of the computer screen. The increasing growth and popularity of social networking services has spawned an entirely new kind of relationship building atmosphere, in which you learn the intimate details of a person's life without ever even knowing what their voice sounds like in real life. When it comes to building a network of substantial proportions, this kind of friend making can be hugely important. In turn, a whole array of individuals have decided that doing so requires much more than a fast hardwire connection, it requires wireless internet.

The tactics for meeting people and growing ones' professional contacts have evolved tremendously over the past decade or so. Whereas rubbing elbows and attending social gatherings was once the standard way of making connections, these outdated options have given way to cyber networking that takes place without stopping with the help of mobile broadband networks. By typing away from your laptop computer or portable electronic device, you can quickly and easily get connected with people halfway across the world. In this way, global marketing and sales have expanded exponentially over the past ten years or so, and will only continue to do so as the World Wide Web hold its ground.

The safer that monetary transactions become online, the more frequent that groups and individuals all the way up the economic ladder will begin to rely on them. From backs to small-time transactions of money, using the web to safely and securely take care of business has become among the leading ways in which people pay bills, get paid, and even make a living in some cases. Thanks to wireless internet services, the time frames in which one is capable of taking part in these matters have quite literally, been eliminated.

Now that everyone in cities and towns all over the country can finally rely on their mobile broadband provider to guaranteed fast and efficient service without interruption, there has been an increasing amount of financial activity taking place for people on the go. While they take care of practical matters, the ability to reach out to new friends and contacts has also grown significantly. The simplicity of 'making friends' has warranted a whole new way of getting to know people and expanding outside of one's realm. For professional purposes, this has never been so valuable.

You don't have to be a creep in order to make new contacts and extend your social network. Websites that are devoted to connecting people have implemented privacy settings that enable you to protect your private information from those who shouldn't be viewing it. In this way, ensuring a safe and healthy line of communication with friends, family, and professional contacts is rightfully secured. When you make the most of high-speed networks such as 4G, your line of communication becomes that much more fluid, accessible, and advantageous to your professional and personal growth.

CLEARWIREWIMAX4G.COM is the healthy way to grow your professional contacts and your global connectivity. Allow clear wimax to help you build your ideas and you won't be regretting it.

Are Predators Waiting , Watching, and Engaging on Your Child's Social Networking Sites?

MySpace and other social networking sites offer thriving communities where young people engage in countless hours of banal chatter and photo sharing. Not coincidentally, these social networking sites also have become hangouts for child predators, child pornographers, and other cybercriminals.

To stay one step ahead of authorities, these cybercriminals use tricks to conceal their identities online. One of the most common is lying about their ages, claiming to be younger than they are. And to hide their IP addresses and locations, predators and other cybercriminals often piggyback on Wi-Fi connections or use proxy servers. They use decentralized peer-to-peer networks to prevent material from being tracked to a specific server. They also use encryption to allow them to keep online chats private from those policing the Web. When law enforcement, ISPs, and others take down the websites of these pedophiles, predators, and cybercriminals, it's not long before they're back up, hosted by a different service.

Skillful with their cell phones, instant messaging accounts, and with access to personal computers at home and school, young people are easy targets for sexual predators. Too many of them are ready and willing to share personal information online without a thought to how it might be misused by others. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that one in five kids online has been solicited or enticed. Reports of child pornography on the center's CyberTipline have increased six of the last seven years.

Business and technology professionals may think of online child safety as a family issue, but it's a workplace issue, too. Social networks aren't just a teen phenomenon. A recent survey by Web filtering company, Websense, found that 8% of respondents visit social networking sites while at work. Companies can use Web filters to limit access to the sites, though Websense says its customers don't seem overly concerned. Whiling away company time on social networks is a productivity issue; luring children for sex is a criminal one.

There's little evidence that sexual predators are trolling from workplace personal computers, but it's been known to happen. In 2003, a Cincinnati-area police chief admitted to soliciting sex from someone he thought was a 15-year-old, using his work computer. And a deputy press secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, arrested in March for attempting to seduce a child, had his workplace computer seized as part of the investigation and gave the number to his government-issued cell phone to a police office posing as a 14-year-old girl.

Child porn stored on company computers and servers has been a bigger problem. Filtering and blocking can help keep the images off networks, though it's not failsafe. Keyword and URL-based filters have spotty coverage. Other software scans images for limbs and skin tones and blocks pictures it identifies as porn, but skin often takes up too little of the photographs, and innocuous material can be inadvertently blocked.

The Internet Crimes Against Children program last year investigated 2,329 cases of enticement and of predators traveling to meet minors, and 252,000 cases of child pornography. Yet those numbers provide just a glimpse of the activity, since many local police forces are too small to investigate child porn. "It's absolutely overwhelming," says Brad Russ, director of Internet Crimes Against Children's training and technical assistance program, which trains 1,000 officers each year. "The scope and the scale of the problem far exceeds our capacity." Intensifying the epidemic is that more than half the world has no laws dealing with child pornography.

Vigilante groups are fighting back. In January, NBC's Dateline featured a report about one such group, Perverted-Justice.org, which set up a sting that resulted in 51 men being busted in three nights. The group hasn't seen one acquittal from those it's helped bring to justice, and nearly all of its work is done with law enforcement. Yet some in law enforcement are wary of such efforts. "We certainly take any information that anyone has regarding an offender," says Randy Newcomb, an investigator with the New York State Police in Canandaigua, N.Y. However, vigilantes expose themselves to liability for entrapment or possession of child porn and might not properly maintain digital evidence, Newcomb says.

Putting filtering and monitoring software on kids' computers provides some protection. SearchHelp's Sentry line, for example, blocks Web sites based on keywords and creates a log of visited sites. It also lets parents and other guardians monitor a child's activity from other computers. Parents can be notified of violations via E-mail or cell phone. Sentry also monitors IM conversations, using expertise culled from law enforcement to flag phrases commonly used by predators. Any IT pro knows of the limitations of such tools. The filters don't work perfectly, and even if kids post and browse safely, social networking sites present a new set of problems. Profiles on the sites often link to other online information sources, providing the type of data a fixated predator might use to locate a child, such as a school name, says Michelle Collins, a unit director at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Investigator Newcomb recently spoke to an auditorium of elementary schoolers in western New York. He asked kids in the audience how many of them had more than 200 friends on their online buddy list--a bunch of hands shot up. Out of those, he asked how many have only friends on that list they can put a face to, and half of the hands remained raised. Finally, he asked if any of the kids had ever gone and met someone they'd got to know online, and a few hands were raised. "That's just totally frightening to me," Newcomb says. "The superintendent looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his head." It may take a village to raise a child, but in a world of online social networking, decentralized networks and servers, and increasingly tech-savvy child predators, it's going to take a united effort among government, industry, and families to keep them safe. To protect your child, you need an Internet security team of experts making sure that you, your family, and your business computer are always safe and secure.

The best protection you can have in today's rapidly changing world of cyber-attacks is to have expert support for all your Internet security needs that will provide technical support without any hassles and without charging you extra fees. It will become even more critical than it is today as time goes on. You need to find your own personal team of experts to rely on. If you ever have a security problem, you will want to have a trusted expert you can call for professional help, without any hassles and extra costs!

Remember: When you say "No!" to hackers and spyware, everyone wins! When you don't, we all lose.

Etienne A. Gibbs, Internet Safety Advocate, recommends to individuals and small business owners the protection (including free lifetime technical support and $25,000 identity theft insurance and recovery) package he uses. For more information, visit http://www.SayNotoHackersandSpyware.com/.

Broadband - Social Networking Safety

Social networking websites have become part and parcel of our daily lives. And with a multitude of different services available to us, the choice is endless.

Combined with an increase in cheap broadband packages now available to us, more of us are now using the internet to keep in keeping in contact with friends and family, finding employment and just generally sharing silly pictures.

For others it can become an obsession - with some worrying about who could possibly be leaving comments on their message boards, becoming conscious about e-mails and updating their status every five minutes or so.

And as broadband connections are becoming more widely available to us, more of us are making use of these sites. But studies have shown that, whilst our attitudes towards social networking may have changed, our awareness of the risks of putting our personal details online still remains one of the grey areas of such services.

A recent study carried out by OFCOM has helped to shed some light on the trends of social networking. The results showed that it was mostly young people who made use of the services available on social networking sites, with an estimated 49% of children aged 8-17 having a profile online.

And with broadband services becoming more widespread, there are calls for greater awareness and promotion of online safety for surfers of all ages.

Coupled with the recent Byron Report, which focused on the influence of internet content and computer games on young people, parents are now being advised to keep an eye on information their children may be posting online.

And with more of us now putting personal details on our profiles, it could be seen as an easy target for cyber criminals and marketing associations.

There is now pressure on the world of social networking to ensure that children are protected, calling for a use of age verification, better profile security for young people and access to 'panic buttons' which can be used to report suspicious activity while surfing the internet.

As levels of cyber crime and identify theft are on the increase, there is a growing call to take steps to protect our personal details online, be it through social networking or spam e-mails.

Looking for better broadband? Perform a broadband speed test and compare broadband providers to find a deal that suits you.

Are Predators Waiting , Watching, and Engaging on Your Child's Social Networking Sites?

MySpace and other social networking sites offer thriving communities where young people engage in countless hours of banal chatter and photo sharing. Not coincidentally, these social networking sites also have become hangouts for child predators, child pornographers, and other cybercriminals.

To stay one step ahead of authorities, these cybercriminals use tricks to conceal their identities online. One of the most common is lying about their ages, claiming to be younger than they are. And to hide their IP addresses and locations, predators and other cybercriminals often piggyback on Wi-Fi connections or use proxy servers. They use decentralized peer-to-peer networks to prevent material from being tracked to a specific server. They also use encryption to allow them to keep online chats private from those policing the Web. When law enforcement, ISPs, and others take down the websites of these pedophiles, predators, and cybercriminals, it's not long before they're back up, hosted by a different service.

Skillful with their cell phones, instant messaging accounts, and with access to personal computers at home and school, young people are easy targets for sexual predators. Too many of them are ready and willing to share personal information online without a thought to how it might be misused by others. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that one in five kids online has been solicited or enticed. Reports of child pornography on the center's CyberTipline have increased six of the last seven years.

Business and technology professionals may think of online child safety as a family issue, but it's a workplace issue, too. Social networks aren't just a teen phenomenon. A recent survey by Web filtering company, Websense, found that 8% of respondents visit social networking sites while at work. Companies can use Web filters to limit access to the sites, though Websense says its customers don't seem overly concerned. Whiling away company time on social networks is a productivity issue; luring children for sex is a criminal one.

There's little evidence that sexual predators are trolling from workplace personal computers, but it's been known to happen. In 2003, a Cincinnati-area police chief admitted to soliciting sex from someone he thought was a 15-year-old, using his work computer. And a deputy press secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, arrested in March for attempting to seduce a child, had his workplace computer seized as part of the investigation and gave the number to his government-issued cell phone to a police office posing as a 14-year-old girl.

Child porn stored on company computers and servers has been a bigger problem. Filtering and blocking can help keep the images off networks, though it's not failsafe. Keyword and URL-based filters have spotty coverage. Other software scans images for limbs and skin tones and blocks pictures it identifies as porn, but skin often takes up too little of the photographs, and innocuous material can be inadvertently blocked.

The Internet Crimes Against Children program last year investigated 2,329 cases of enticement and of predators traveling to meet minors, and 252,000 cases of child pornography. Yet those numbers provide just a glimpse of the activity, since many local police forces are too small to investigate child porn. "It's absolutely overwhelming," says Brad Russ, director of Internet Crimes Against Children's training and technical assistance program, which trains 1,000 officers each year. "The scope and the scale of the problem far exceeds our capacity." Intensifying the epidemic is that more than half the world has no laws dealing with child pornography.

Vigilante groups are fighting back. In January, NBC's Dateline featured a report about one such group, Perverted-Justice.org, which set up a sting that resulted in 51 men being busted in three nights. The group hasn't seen one acquittal from those it's helped bring to justice, and nearly all of its work is done with law enforcement. Yet some in law enforcement are wary of such efforts. "We certainly take any information that anyone has regarding an offender," says Randy Newcomb, an investigator with the New York State Police in Canandaigua, N.Y. However, vigilantes expose themselves to liability for entrapment or possession of child porn and might not properly maintain digital evidence, Newcomb says.

Putting filtering and monitoring software on kids' computers provides some protection. SearchHelp's Sentry line, for example, blocks Web sites based on keywords and creates a log of visited sites. It also lets parents and other guardians monitor a child's activity from other computers. Parents can be notified of violations via E-mail or cell phone. Sentry also monitors IM conversations, using expertise culled from law enforcement to flag phrases commonly used by predators. Any IT pro knows of the limitations of such tools. The filters don't work perfectly, and even if kids post and browse safely, social networking sites present a new set of problems. Profiles on the sites often link to other online information sources, providing the type of data a fixated predator might use to locate a child, such as a school name, says Michelle Collins, a unit director at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Investigator Newcomb recently spoke to an auditorium of elementary schoolers in western New York. He asked kids in the audience how many of them had more than 200 friends on their online buddy list--a bunch of hands shot up. Out of those, he asked how many have only friends on that list they can put a face to, and half of the hands remained raised. Finally, he asked if any of the kids had ever gone and met someone they'd got to know online, and a few hands were raised. "That's just totally frightening to me," Newcomb says. "The superintendent looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his head." It may take a village to raise a child, but in a world of online social networking, decentralized networks and servers, and increasingly tech-savvy child predators, it's going to take a united effort among government, industry, and families to keep them safe. To protect your child, you need an Internet security team of experts making sure that you, your family, and your business computer are always safe and secure.

The best protection you can have in today's rapidly changing world of cyber-attacks is to have expert support for all your Internet security needs that will provide technical support without any hassles and without charging you extra fees. It will become even more critical than it is today as time goes on. You need to find your own personal team of experts to rely on. If you ever have a security problem, you will want to have a trusted expert you can call for professional help, without any hassles and extra costs!

Remember: When you say "No!" to hackers and spyware, everyone wins! When you don't, we all lose.

Etienne A. Gibbs, Internet Safety Advocate, recommends to individuals and small business owners the protection (including free lifetime technical support and $25,000 identity theft insurance and recovery) package he uses. For more information, visit http://www.SayNotoHackersandSpyware.com/.