Every time we get online we risk the security of our computers as well as our personal privacy and financial security.

From “script kiddies” who get their kicks from malicious behavior to highly educated hackers that are well funded by criminals who can afford the best when they steal it… someone is almost always trying to access your computer and your information.

But we don’t enjoy sounding like prophits of doom, and you can spend time online in relative safety with the right information and tools.

We hope you know these already, but if not here are a few rules for safe Internet usage:
1. Never share passwords
2. Never share personal information on insecure sites (look for the security lock icon in your browser to ensure a web site requesting your information has the appropriate security protocols in place)
3. Never download files attached to an eMail message unless you know and trust the sender
4. Never follow links from eMail messages if you don’t know the sender
5. If you do follow a link from an eMail message and the web page asks for a username or password don’t enter it. Even if the web page looks legitimate, it may be fake. This is called Phishing and is commonly used by crooks to get your passwords.
6. Be midful of what information and images you place on social web sites such as MySpace or Facebook, and also watch what information and images your children place on their pages. Think about how much what you’re sharing really tells about you and where you live, and how that information could be used by someone with malicious intent. What may seem like an innocent picture of your daughter’s cheerleading squad could tell a predator exactly what neghborhood you’re from if the school name is on the uniform and your daughter mentions what city you live in on her profile page.

Beyond the information you can control, there is also the task of protecting the information you don’t necessarily control. The biggest step to doing this is having a reliable and updated Internet Security suite installed on your system that will block intruders from gaining access to your computer and files.

There are plenty of options out there and we’re not going to review them all. I’ll say that the old saying of “you get what you pay for” should be kept in mind when selecting one. The types and number of threats that exist online are growing every day, so the companies that can afford to keep up with them are the companies that can provide you with the best security.

We love to promote free and open source software whenever possible, but unfortunately when it comes to threat protection the people behind those or low priced options are understandably behind the pack in every case we’ve looked at. They just can’t afford to stay as current as the larger suites.

We’ve used several different security suites over the years, changing brands whenever we find one that we feel is better than what we’re already using, and for some time now our suite of choice has been Computer Associates Internet Security Suite.

It’s easy to setup and use, and we’ve been completely happy with the protection it provides.

This isn’t meant to be an endorsement of CA’s Internet Security Suite, I’m just sharing our thoughts on it, but you should look at multiple options before picking a suite and decide what’s right for you.

If you do want to try CA’s we’ve found a coupon that gives you 15% off on CA’s Internet Security Suite Plus 2008- Enter coupon code CAISS15 during checkout.

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