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Awhile back I wrote an article titled "The West's Wild Internet" in which I basically compared the internet to the way the wild west was in the early days of the U.S. Everyone knows that almost anything could happen in the wild west of those days because lawmen were scarce and stationed very far apart. Enforcing the law was usually left up to the people of the area. When I wrote that article, things were pretty bad on the internet, but now they are already much worse.

The scope of crime on the internet is unbelievable. I love the internet, but it has become a place equivalent to the dock areas of a couple of hundred years ago. When you went to a pub down by the docks you expected crime to be rampant, that is usually why people went down there, to prey on other people who were foolish enough to stray to this place. Now don't misunderstand me, I am not saying that anyone that goes on the internet is foolish, after all, I have a site on there, don't I? I am only trying to illustrate the extent of the lawlessness on the internet at the moment. So why is there so much crime on it? As far as I can see, many countries just don't care to enforce laws or punish criminals that are trying to defraud in any way they can. It is such a pity that we have to be so careful when browsing or opening email or even when we are on blogs and such. Microsoft has announced a new addition to their browser, Internet Explorer, that will become operative next year (2007). There will be a green indicator when the browser considers a site safe. This sounds good on the face of it, but it has a lot of small website owners upset. They are upset because the only sites that will give a green indicator are the big corporate sites. The little sites like About Facts Net, this site, won't because the certificate required will not be sold to small sites for anywhere between 3-6 months. Even when it goes up for sale, sites like this one can not afford to buy it. It is almost like we are being forced out of business. This site will continue to operate, however and I hope that the good will that we have generated for the last several years will keep us going.

Some countries seem to harbor way more internet criminals than others, but every country has it's crew of no good doers. As people get older, they become easier marks for these creeps. Just look at the email that is sent out every day. I know that I am always getting email telling me that some guy in Africa wants me to help him move money or that I had a relative that died and left me money or that I have even won some lottery. It just never stops and seems to always increase. Let me give you some advice, NEVER, NEVER open an email attachment, even if it is from a friend, because even your friend might have an infected computer or the mail might have been sent from his computer by a trojan program without his knowledge and contain a virus. Another tip is to always have your computer well protected. I run the AVG Professional anti virus program and I have it update automatically and scan at night when I am asleep. I also run Spy Sweeper by Webroot and that also does a sweep very early in the morning. As if all this wasn't enough, I subscribe to Panda Active Scan Pro an online virus and trojan scanner program and I run it once a week. It seems to pick up trojans that the other programs miss even though they are very good. I also have my computers set up thought a router with a firewall and I run the Microsoft firewall built into Windows XP. As far as protection there is not much more I can do.

Another thing that you have to be ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT YOU DON'T DO, is click on any link in an email. You may think that you just got an email from your bank, for example. These crooks can copy the format so well that the email looks like the genuine item, but it may not be. Beware, people are dying to get all your personal information so it is quite common to get an email telling you that your bank needs you to update your information and a link is provided. Here is the scary part, if someone clicks the link they are taken to a site that looks exactly like the true bank site. At this point you will be presented with info fields for you to enter in such things as your Social Security number, bank accounts, credit card information and personal information. When you fill this stuff in, you are a dead man or dead woman. You many never get out of this mess as your data gets sold all over the world and your credit is ruined. I heard a story one time about an identity theft where someone had taken a trip and came back to find a huge mortgage on their home. Talk about gaul.

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Going on the internet in today's climate presents many dangers and we should all be prepared to protect ourselves as best as we can. We should use the tools available to us. For somewhere between $60 and $70 per year you can get protected to the level that I am. It is not foolproof, but it is about as good as it can get. Using this protection with some common sense can make all the difference to getting your computer hijacked or not. In case you don't know what I am talking about, I will explain this. There are programs out there that are called trojans. Some types of trojans can sit inside your software and record everything you do and then send the info over the internet to the creators of the program. There are other trojan programs that allow people to use your computer for their own nefarious purposes without you even knowing it. It used to be that you could tell because the light on your computer would indicate much activity, but today with automatic updates and other dynamic programs, the computer shows activity much of the time unless you have very few pieces of software on it.

Much has been written on the subject of computer security and protecting home computers, but unless the world gets together and punishes these fraudsters, things will remain the same or even get worse. You have to remember that most of the countries of the world are thinking about using the internet as an attack vehicle during a conflict. They are not going to enact laws that will hinder their efforts at spying and such. The internet is just too juicy a target. There are probably more crooks on the internet than in any other criminal enterprise. The internet allows even crooks in third world countries new rich vistas that never would have been available to them otherwise. Look at the opportunity for these people. If a criminal only gets one or two foolish people to give up info in a month and can get a couple of hundred U.S. dollars for this data and lives in a country where a dollars is very valuable, he might become rich. This is a great temptation to someone that might only earn 50 cents a day or less.

Right now we have to be our own lawmen and make our computers secure, because no one else will do this for us. Be smart, be careful and be well protected. Think of it this way, SCAP = Smart, Careful,And Protected. Just SCAP and things will be a lot better for you and your internet journey.