by Cj Luddeni

Created on: May 14, 2009   Last Updated: January 26, 2010

Computer hacking is as commonplace as the sun rising every day.

Most people do some form of banking or purchasing on-line.  Every precaution should be taken to protect yourself and your identity from hackers. If you are making a purchase on-line, the first line of personal defense should be to make sure that you start the transaction. Never start a transaction from a link from an email. Some emails, no matter how authentic looking, are phishers.

A phishing email is just what it sounds like, someone fishing for a sucker.

A phishing email looks very much like it came from your bank, credit card company, or any financial institution. Usually the email states somewhere that an error has occurred at the institution and they need you to click on the handy link that is embedded in the email to update your personal information.

Don't do it. If you ever receive an email similar to what I just described, always go to the institutions web site from your browser, never the link in the email. From the institutions website, check the reliability of the information in the email. Or better yet, call the institution from your own source, phone book, or current bill. Then ask if they are emailing what you received. Chances are good that they did not.

Second thing is a firewall. Some people are afraid of firewalls because you usually have to set them up after installing them. This can be a little scary for some, because if you are not sure, you may stop some access from your end. I have installed a few and the best way to set one up is trial and error.

But a firewall is paramount to keeping the bad stuff and those evil pop-up ads out. After the firewall is in, it may take days or weeks to work out all the tweaks as it depends on how often you visit certain sites, but after the first few attempts is becomes second nature on how to configure the software.

Third is a virus scanner. There are a lot of viruses out there and for some reason, they want to get on your computer. If they get through your firewall, your next line of defense is a good virus scanner that is updated regularly.

Mine updates daily, usually at night. Run your virus scanner at the very least, weekly.

The more you traverse the Internet, the more often you should run it. The virus scanner I use has saved me from the dreaded format on more than one occasion. Some viruses are what they call miners. A miner looks through your system for things, important things, not grandma's apple pie recipe important, more like financial information and social security numbers and any Identifying information.

The next line of defense against hacking is an ad scanner. Ads are harmless, but sometimes, someone, somewhere thinks it is a terrific idea to hide things in ads. Bad things. If an ad can get on your machine, a virus or hacker can get in. We don't want that. I don't and neither do you. It seems like a lot to go through just to check your email. But believe me. All of these steps are important to keep you who you are, and not some king who is trying to smuggle money out of Nigeria. Trust me, the only thing he is trying to smuggle is your identity.

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