Just how safe is it to do business over the internet? Are our credit card details secure? Do you trust a waiter to take your credit card away from the table but scared to buy CDs or bank online?

Just how safe are our computors and the vital personal information contained therein whenever we connect to the internet?

A great deal of common sense is needed. First of all, install a decent anti-virus programme and make sure your protection is updated regularly as the people who write virus progammes and other scams will try to stay a step ahead.

The Internet is a great tool for communication, a huge information resource, and a way for organisations to deliver services and do business.

However the Internet also poses security threats to computer systems and data.

Unfortunately there are some people who want to steal your information, cause malicious damage or use your computer for illegal purposes

E-mail is now the most common way of spreading viruses. A virus is usually sent as an attachment to an email. The damage is done when the attachment is opened. Often the message is designed to intrigue you, so that you will open the attachment.

The most famous example of this was the "I Love You" virus which caused worldwide disruption. When its attachment was opened it scanned your contacts and sent all of them an e-mail which looked as though you had sent it.

Many viruses created since then have used similar methods.

The first step is not to open unsolicited emails, and look out for the names of the senders, the subject line or the message in the body of the email. In general, they make little sense and can be rather confusing. Rather delete them, the world won't come to an end.

Similarly, chain mails purporting to provide information on how to find love, money or both, and threatening you with bankrupcy or eternal damnation in Dante's Inferno if you don't pass on the message within 2 minutes to 25 family or friends are bogus.



Just because someone purports that it is indeed true that if you send this email on, you will get a check (sic) for at least $1000 from Microsoft or Nokia or Coca Cola because their sister's uncle's nephew's great-aunt's second cousin twice removed, vet's assistant's ex-boyfriend's boss ... (you get the drift) received a check.

Think about it. One million people receiving a payout of $1000 each is $1 billion. Yeah right, one of these companies is going to pay out that much money to people who are able to hit "forward" on their email?

Come on. All it does is irritate people and waste bandwidth. It slows the internet down when people forward this junk. And yes, it is junk!

419 Nigerian scams beseeching you, dear friend, to go into a financial deal with some West African deceased dictator's son/wife/banker/assistant are scams. Don't fall for the lure of easy money. There is no shortcut to riches. Delete the mail and forget about it.

A trojan is a program with a secret purpose - usually malicious. Trojans enter your computer disguised as an email or free program you have downloaded from the Internet. Once installed a trojan attempts to broadcast information to its author each time you connect to the Internet. The author can then attempt to take over your PC as though they were sitting at your keyboard. The trojan can log keystrokes even when you're not online and then attempt to send them to the author next time you connect. By recording your keystrokes information such as passwords, credit card numbers - anything you've typed can be revealed.

Spyware is any software that gathers information through a user's Internet connection without their knowledge. This is usually for market research purposes, but can be more malicious. Spyware is usually a hidden component of free programs that can be downloaded from the Internet. Once installed, the spyware monitors the user's Internet activity (for example information about websites visited).

This information is then covertly sent to someone else. Spyware can also be used to gather information about e-mail addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers. Spyware is similar to a Trojans in that users unwittingly install the product when they install something else.



Phishing: is a variation on "fishing", the idea being that bait is thrown out with the hopes that while most will ignore the bait, some will be tempted into biting.

It is an act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft.

The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and bank account numbers. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information.

The scumbags behind this are usually so stupid that they send the email 5 times to you. That is the first warning sign. The most obvious sign that it is a scam is the website link.

If you mouse-over the link to the bank, the real URL (website address) will be displayed, and is usually a site in Russia or some other Eastern European country, eg:
www.triple-e-enterprises.com /gasprices/ templates/nedbankupdate.html.

Don't fall for it!

Online transactions

Finally, is it OK to buy somthing over the internet using your credit card?
Modern browsers use a technique called SSL, which stands for Secure Sockets Layer, to encrypt the information that flows between your browser and the web server receiving your order.

When you enter in your credit card details, you should be on a page that has httpS:// at the begining of the website address. This tells you that you are on a secure "line" to the server where your details are verified - there is no human contact. Also look for the digital certificate establishing the security and safety of transactions taking place.

In summary, it is quite safe to use the internet for credit card transaction, but use your common sense and avoid anything that looks dodgy. Use established sites like eBay, Kalahari.net, Amazon.co.uk or any other website of a large, respected company.

Happy surfing!