Take steps to prevent hackers from infiltrating your home computer
When I go on the Internet to do my work, check my e-mail or do some personal banking, I have to admit I rarely worry about how secure my connection is. This is not very smart on my part, I know. But I didn’t fully realize how potentially hazardous cyberspace could be until I came across a study by AOL and the National Cyber Security Alliance. After examining computers from more than 350 households, they found that 80 percent lacked core protections like “recently-updated anti-virus software, a properly configured firewall and/or spyware protection.” About one in five of the computers was infected with at least one virus and 23 percent of users received at least one phishing attempt within a two-week period via e-mail.