by Wes Joyner

Created on: September 13, 2008

Login at your own peril! This amazing tool for deftly simplifying life's tedious tasks causes many to forego their basic human need for security. The risks are grave as the average user places financial, emotional, and even personal security on the line to reap the benefits of being online.

I fancy myself quite the savvy citizen of the digital domain. The Internet helps me manage my finances, earn money, stay informed, and connects me to a global community that offers vast opportunities for social engagement and cultural exchange. For those of us aspiring to wield this wondrous tool wisely, however, the art of defense must be learned quickly, as there are dastardly rogues out to steal those finances, spread disinformation, smear reputations, and destroy dreams.

Hackers, pirates, plagiarists, con artists, and predators of all kinds thrive in the largely unregulated Internet civilization, where a man's identity changes as quickly as his IP address. The power of anonymity affords men a boundless opportunity to indulge every vice at others' expense while alleviating them of the burden of conscience, as an injustice committed against another anonymous electronic persona seems hardly a crime at all.

Several months ago, I cancelled a credit monitoring service. An employee at their payment processing firm then stole my personal information, including my debit card number, sold it to some advertisers, and could have cost me a fortune. Luckily, I noticed an erroneous charge on my account and immediately reported the fraud. Ironically, the credit monitoring service was supposed to protect me from identity theft.

More recently, I rode along with a friend who owns a towing company as he was doing a transport job for an automotive dealer. I was interested to know how he located individuals for repossessions, and he told me that the process of skip tracing, tracking down a person using minimal information via online resources, is simple. He assured me that he could find me anywhere, any time; my mind boggled at the potential criminal applications.

Forums, blogs, and streaming media serve as a wellspring for libel and slander, providing Internet users the means to deal devastating damage. This particular aspect of web negativity is acutely developed among youth whose use of the Internet is not effectively monitored by parents. The rise of social dependency on approval from perfect strangers around the world can lead to various personality disorders and psychiatric troubles, and often plays a disturbing role in the emotional health of generations being raised with a computer as a virtual nanny.

Using the Internet can have serious consequences for those who do not guard themselves from unscrupulous individuals that view them as easy prey. Protect yourself from identity theft, online fraud, viruses and malicious software, and abusive behavior by considering how your online activities may place you at risk and researching common sense steps you can take to avoid trouble. Most importantly, trust no one whose identity cannot be verified; anonymity is a predatory user's greatest asset.

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