It was not too many years ago that all a person needed was a computer and an Internet service provider to have access to a wealth of information on the Internet. Cyber threats and the counter measures needed to protect their personal information were not an issues.

In the good only days many of the attacks on personal computers were done by hobbyists who got a cheap thrill from displaying banners across your computer screen. But today a growing number of the "bad guys" are professional criminals who are looking to steal your money, and steal your identities. A quick read of Symantec's Internet Security Threat report (see Figure below ) and you will see that there is a lot of "easy" money to be made by stealing and selling credit card numbers and expiration dates, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, PIN for credit or debit cards, Social Security numbers, full names, date of birth and other information. With today's economy it has been estimated that the problem of cyber hacking is going to get worst before it gets better

To safeguard your personal information you must become aware of the different threats that face you every time you connect to the Internet. On this page you will information on many of those threats.

Figure

Breakdown of goods and services available for sale on underground economyservers. Source: SymantecCorporation, Executive Summary Symantec Internet Security Threat Report Trends for July-December 07 Volume XII, Published April 2008, page 13 http://www.symantec.com/business/theme.jsp?themeid=threatreport