Doing this will involve doing things on your end “online private transactions” (I’m using transactions as a general term not just buying things online) things are pretty secure on the server end “MOST OF THE TIME”
The first thing you need to make sure of is you know how to set up a HARDWARE firewall, in this case I’ll say your router. Make sure if its a NON-WiFi router to only have ports in “FILTERED” mode that you want to use, meaning not open, and not close. EVERY OTHER UNUSED PORT should be CLOSED!!,
Basic Ports most people use.
AIM - 5590(range)
Web - 80
FTP - 21
Mail - depends on your client
Now if you have a WiFi Router Make sure you set a User ID that isn’t the default, set a password that has both random letters and numbers at least 8 characters long, Set up WEP its a security feature within 802.11x IF THIS IS NOT ON PEOPLE CAN SNIFF YOUR DATA IN PLAIN TEXT!!!! Please set up WEP.
Its also very worthy to note that WEP is cracked/hacked very easily. So if your data is extra sensitive to you don’t even use WiFi because it takes all of 15 mins to crack and unless you know a little bit about setting up packet sniffers and data monitoring on your network you’ll never know it happened.
I personally HATE SOFTWARE firewalls such as Norton and other AV style firewalls, they eat up resources, VERY EASY TO CIRCUMVENT (from the perspective of a cracker) and are ONLY GOOD FOR WARNING YOU IF YOU’VE DOWNLOADED OR OPENED SOMETHING THAT’S IN A DEFINITION meaning if you haven’t updated or they don’t know abut it yet, you’re sh1t out of luck. It takes me all of 5 - 10 mins to write a small server/trojan file that would give me remote access to your computer that they wouldn’t know about or could even start to think about blocking….. They’re totally worthless.
After this what you want to do is make sure you have your Operating system updated at least once per week. If you have Windows XP or Vista set automatic updates to every Sunday night.
BE AWARE OF WHAT YOU DOWNLOAD if you don’t NEED IT don’t Download it, Learn what file exemption are and be aware of any file that ends in .exe from a non reputable source. Stay away from search tool bars and “add on programs.”
Follow these general rules and you’ll be fine, any major transactions that happen between you and a server will be encrypted and your data should be secured at least during the transfer of the data, once it gets to where its going and they don’t keep up on security protocol at the other end your data IS at risk
Understand that most “Security failures” happen due to a browser that hasn’t been updated, or some software that has been downloaded that you don’t fully understand what it is when you’re downloading it.
I’ve been hearing a lot recently about “Hackers attack your computer every 20 seconds.” Personally thats a lot of hype I log attacks on my PC and I see about 1 a week if that. The last thing you have to worry about is a some 30 year old nerd istting in his mom’s basement singling you out instead of one of the other 2 billion IP addresses he could attack.
Steps to NEVER being Cracked/Hacked
1.) Set up your Router to ONLY LET THROUGH DATA YOU WANT THROUGH.
2.) Update your computer as often as possible (Nothing wrong with putting auto updates on every night while you sleep)
3.) Know what you’re downloading, research everything you download. It’ll be worth it in the long run.
If you follow these 3 rules YOU WILL NEVER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT A SECURITY ISSUE!