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Table of Contents
Chapter How to Stop Google from Recording your Search Habits ................................ 1 How to Hide Your Real IP Address While Web Surfing ..................................... 2 How to Erase your Google Search History ............................................................. 3 Using Free Anonymous E-mail Services .................................................................. 4 How to send Encrypted E-mails for free ................................................................. 5 Free Methods to Avoid Spam ...................................................................................... 6 How to Protect Yourself from Identity Theft ...................................................... 7 How to Identify E-mails and Websites that steal your Identity .................... 8 Using Anonymous Credit Cards for Private Online Payments ........................ 9 Prevent your Phone Number from Falling into the wrong hands ................. 10 Shut Out the Hackers and Detect Intrusion Attempts ....................................... 11 An easy way to Prevent Spyware from Infecting your Computer ................. 12 Preventing your ISP from Snooping on your Internet Activity ...................... 13

Chapter 1: How to Stop Google from Recording your Search habits The World Wide Web has grown increasingly more public in recent years with massive amounts of data being transferred daily between businesses, customers, and everyday computer users. In August 2006, AOL apologized for disclosing private information about their users search engine habits. Despite the fact that many are outraged by this disclosure of private information, it is still something that may happen with other search engine providersGoogle included. Google has maintained that they do not and will not release such information, but they have also said that it could happen, perhaps by mistake. Thus, if you want to keep Google from potentially recording and releasing your habits, you should prevent them from getting your private search information in the first place. In this chapter, we will cover how to stop Google from recording your search habits. So How Do I Cover My Web Search Tracks? Luckily, stopping Google from recording your searches is really easy. Its a matter of disabling cookies, downloading protective software, turning off Google history logging, or using alternate search engines. Disabling Cookies Google obviously cannot track what isnt there. Cookies, in case you dont know already, basically keep track of information for specific sites. Thus, if you have a yahoo.com cookie, it may keep track of your Yahoo mail log-in information or other things that will make your browsing experience more personal and easier. What Googles tracking cookies do, for the most part, is keep track of search habits. If you get rid of the cookies or, better yet, prevent them from happening, Google wont be able to keep track of the habits. To block Googles cookies, youll need to go into your web browsers panel (Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox) and manually disable cookies specifically for Google. For Internet Explorer, click the tab that says Tools. Then click Internet Options. From there, go to Privacy and then Sites. Type in google.com and hit block. If you are from another country other than the U.S., youll also want to type in your countrys Google address and block that. After youre done, hit OK. 3

Protective Software There are actually pieces of software which will effectively block sites from tracking your browser (and search engine) habits. Two such pieces of software are Scandoo and Hide My IP. Both Scandoo and Hide My IP can prevent search engines from snooping and recording your browsing habits. Hide My IP does exactly what it says: it hides your Internet protocol address, your unique personal identitificaiton Internet address, which reveals many bits of infromation about you such as where you are located, software running on your computer, which websites you visit, the name of your Internet Service Provider (ISP), and much more. By hiding your IP, you make it difficult for search engines like Google to determine who you are and where youre from. Turning Off Google Account Search History By default, Google will automatically store all your searches if your have a Google account. Do you really trust another company keeping track of what you are searching for? If not, you may want to follow these steps to turn off the Google web search history: 1. Click My Account. 2. Click Web History 3. Click Pause

To erase already-saved searches, click Remove Items as well. Doing this will effectivly prevent Google from recording what you search for. Using Alternative Search Engines While the above methods are usually extremely effective, sometimes even they do not work. Thus, one last method to stop Google from collecting your search engine information is to simply stop using Google. Try using Clusty.com or Ixquick.com instead of Google for your search engine needs. Neither collects your information and both are quick and effective.

Chapter 2: How to Hide Your Real IP Address while Web Surfing You are being tracked every time you are on the Internet. That sounds scary, doesn't it? But it's true. Every web site that you visit is able to tell exactly where you are from. Well, they may not be able to tell the street you are from, but they can tell what city and what state you are in. That's because every web site keeps a log of the Internet protocol address (IP address) of every visitor of their site. Why is this a bad thing? Because it obviously reveals your privacy sites can tell where you are from, and if this information is put into the wrong hands, it can prove to be harmful to you. That's why many people want to hide their IP address in order to protect their privacy. In this chapter, we'll be going over how to hide your IP and thus protect your privacy. So should I disable my IP? Absolutely not! The IP is used to communicate with other devices. If you disable it, you will not be able to connect to web sites. Thus, you will not be able to use the Internet at all. So does this mean that the IP is a necessary evil that must be revealed? Not necessarily. There are ways for you to make sure that your IP is not revealed to most, if not all of the sites which you browse. Using Anonymous Proxy Servers Proxy servers are a wonderful way of shielding one's IP address from the sites which are visited. In essence, a proxy serves as the mediator between you and the Internet. If you browse the Internet through a proxy, the proxy server will request whatever info you need from a particular site without the site knowing your personal IP. The IP that shows up to the site will be the proxy server's IPnot yours. There are three types of proxy servers. The first type is the proxy server you set up for yourself. Below are instructions for this: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Go to Tools in Internet Explorer Click Connections Click on the current connection and select settings Select Use a Proxy Server Input the proxy address and port 5

6. Create a username and password, if necessary 7. Click OK What proxy address and port you connect to will be determined by several factors, including which ISP (Internet service provider) you have. If you choose to use a proxy server other than your own (say a free one on the Internet or a paid one) you will simply put in their proxy address and port. Anonymous IP Tools Theres the manual way of hiding your IP address (mentioned above) and then theres an easier and more effective way of doing it. Currently, many software companies sell tools which allow you to hide your IP address. The tools will automatically search for and setup your browser to use a fake proxy IP address, making your web browsing activity anonymous and impossible to trace back to you. One such tool is Hide My IP from www.hide-my-ip.com. Using this tool, you will be able to search for and automatically adjust your web browser settings to use proxies that Hide My IP finds. This program also works with Instant messengers, E-mail clients, Skype, games, etc

Chapter 3: How to Erase your Google Search History Many people search for things that they would prefer is not disclosed to Google or to other people who may use the PCperhaps to hide searches for a Christmas or Birthday gift or some other surprise. It's a legitimate thing for people to want to do, as it helps to protect their privacy. Google doesn't exactly make the information available as to how to clear Google search toolbar history, but in this chapter, we will teach you exactly how to get it done. We'll also explain the Google Search toolbar history. What is the Toolbar History? The easiest way to explain the history is to simply use an example. Let's say you've made searches for Fantasy Football. Google's search bar will remember these searches and anytime you type in the first letter of the word Fantasy, it'll show the search term Fantasy Football. It does so to make things easier for you. However, this easiness can actually have bad consequences. This is especially true if you search for something that you do not want other people on your PC to know you searched for. Perhaps it's a surprise for someone who may use your PC, or just something you want kept private. If you don't clear this history, anytime anyone on your PC types in the first letter of your search term, they'll see what you've searched for. That's particularly bad if you've been searching for hot girls and don't want you wife or girlfriend to see it. That's why, if you'd like to keep things confidential, you have to get rid of the search terms. Getting rid of the history Getting rid of the Google search bar history is surprisingly easy, though it might be a little bit confusing for those who aren't very knowledgeable when it comes to toolbars and their options. Thus, we will cover the process in some detail for you. We'll also show you how to disable search history. Disable Search History 1 Click the options button on the Google Toolbar. Depending on your browser, the button may be harder to find, but it is there and you must click on it in order to disable the history. 2 Next, un-check the box next to Drop-down search history. 7

Then click OK. Clear Search History Some people find the Google search history feature useful, which is why they will only want to get rid of the history whenever they search for something they don't want other people on the PC to see. Thus, the perfect solution for them is to clear search historynot disable it. 1 Click on the Google drop-down menu to access the features. 2 A menu will then come up. On it, select Clear Search History. This will clear all present history on the search bar. Disabling Google Search History on Other Browsers To disable Google search history on other browsers, you'll simply follow the above directions, although the way to get rid of history/disable it may be a little bit different.

Chapter 4: Using Free Anonymous E-mail Services Employers are getting more cautious about what their employees are doing on the Internet. They arent fond of employees who may have a blog in which they bash the employer, or those who send out emails that may say less than kind things about the employers. While there isnt a lot you can do about the former (except, of course, not creating the blog) there is something you can do about the latter. There are anonymous email services that, essentially, completely remove any personal details about you. In fact, the person who ultimately receives the email will not know who it came from. This is particularly valuable for those who wish to protect their privacy for whatever reason. It's also quite easy and typically effective. What is an Anonymous Email? Anonymous emails are a wonderful tool for people who wish to remain anonymous. How do they work? Well, youll basically type your email message (and subject). Then, youll send the email using a free service. The email is then delivered to the recipient without any hint of who it actually came fromall they'll know is that it came from an anonymous email service. We'll be going over anonymous emails extensively in this chapter. The Anonymous Email With the anonymous you only need to go through a few steps in order to send your emails anonymously. Heres the steps: 1. 2. 3. 4. Pick a free anonymous email service. Sign up for the service. Log in to the service. Type your message and subject, as well as the recipients email address. 5. Hit send. Its really an easy process. Depending on the service you use, you may have to pay some money to send the emails. Generally speaking, the rates for an anonymous email service may range from $2.95 per year to $19.99. Be sure to pick a service that is legitimateif possible, do some research online.

Email Services What good is a chapter on anonymous email services if we don't give you some recommendations? While it is true that there are quite a few email services that aren't legitimate, there are several which are. Here's a list of the top 3 legitimate anonymous email services.

www.anonymousspeech.com - Located in Japan but free to residents worldwide, Anonymous Speech is a completely legal and pure anonymous email service. You can send emails through them and there is no way of tracking where the emails come from. Highly recommended. www.theanonymousemail.com - The Anonymous Email is a free email service which allows its visitors to send out emails to recipients. The recipients will only know that the email is from Anonymous Emailthey won't know who sent it through there. www.hushmail.com Hushmail offers free and paid email accounts that are anonymous and secure. Ideal for those who really want to protect their identity. www.hotpop.com FREE POP3 accessible email addresses with many features you just can't find anywhere else.

You can also signup for any web-based E-mail service such as Yahoo or Hotmail with a fake name or alias. Then use IP masking software such as Hide My IP to hide your IP address in the E-mail headers, making any E-mail that you send using any web-based E-mail service totally anonymous and untraceable back to you.

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Chapter 5: How to send Encrypted E-mails for free You're a small business owner and want to share confidential information with a client or other owner. You don't trust the phone or fax, and definitely not email. It's not possible for the two of you to meet up and discuss it. So what can you do? Well, there's one thing that you've probably overlooked: sending an encrypted email. Encrypted emails are a great tool for those who want to send information that can only be viewed by two people: the sender and the recipient. Using encrypted emails, you can send out information in a form that can only be decrypted by yourself or the recipient. This ensures that the email and its contents do not fall into the wrong hands. How does it work? Basically, you use a program (we'll talk about that later) when sending your email. This program will encrypt (that is, scramble the message so that it is unintelligible to those who cannot decrypt it) the message and then send it to the recipient. The recipient will then have the option of decrypting it (to do so, they'll have to have the same program you have) and reading the message. Why should I encrypt? You should encrypt important emails because it offers you the highest level of security. It is 99% effective and will ensure that only who you want to read the email will read it. Can I encrypt for free? The good news is, yes, you can encrypt for free. While there are several paid encryption services that are effective (PGP being one), there are also several free programs, too. The best one is the GNU Privacy Guard (www.gnupg.org/). It allows you to send documents which are fully encrypted and protected. GNU is open source software, which means that it is completely free for any individual or business. The good thing about GNU besides it being free and effective is that there are many documents on their site that will tell you exactly how to use it. They've also got a dedicated support team. Another good free encryption program is SecExMail Secure Email Encryption. While it isn't quite as effective as GNU, it's still an excellent 11

choice. There are other free encryption programs as well. The best way to determine the best one for you is to research them. An excellent site for this purpose would be Download.com, which offers reviews from people who have actually used the product. Keep in mind that those who you are sending encrypted emails to must also have the same encryption software as you. Otherwise, they will not be able to decrypt your emails. Since these are free programs, this shouldn't be a problem for you as they'll be able to easily get the programs necessary.

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Chapter 6: How to Avoid Spam The Internet is great for many things. People are able to find information they may need, or purchase items they otherwise wouldnt be able to find. Businesses can find employees and can connect with customers. While the Internet is on the whole really good, it is not without its faults. The worst problem with the Internet is spam. Spam is a huge problem for many peopleprobably you as well. How do I prevent Spam? While, in most cases, you wont be able to completely eliminate spam, there are things you can do to greatly decrease the likelihood of receiving spam at your official email address. Tip #1: Use a free address Lets say you are signing up for a forum or something else on the Internet. You are required to put down an email address. Most people would put down their official email address, which could be their school or business address. This is a bad practice, as it leads to lots of spam (the information you put down may be re-sold to spammers). Thus, you should sign up for a throw-away free email address like Yahoo or Hotmail and use that for your sign-ups. Keep in mind, though, that you should not use a free account for online purchases because free email accounts are a lot easier to hack into and many online businesses do not allow users with free email accounts to make purchases by providing their free email address. A new kind of free instant-E-mail service is called Mailinator.com. You don't sign-up, just think of something@mailinator.com and give it out, type it into webforms, post it on billboards. Do not use this for personal information, it is more of a one-time use E-mail account used to signup for websites that require a valid E-mail. Tip #2: If posting your address online, use caution Spammers usually search the Internet for email addresses. Theyll go to forums or any other place in which email addresses are commonly publicly swapped. Thats why if you post your email address, you must take caution to make sure that spammers wont get it. One common technique is to write your email address like this:

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JOHN AT HOTMAIL DOT COM Another technique is to write your email address like this: John() @ yahoo().com(remove parentheses) You basically want to make it so that spammers cannot use automatic programs to easily grab your address. If you put spaces or other things, or simply write the whole address in word form, this trips up their automatic programs and they arent able to get your address. Tip #3: Use an unusual name In a lot of cases, spammers will usually just pick a common name and add on @yahoo.com or another service. They wont actually find the address, but will instead assume that there is a johnrunyan@yahoo.com because its a common name and a common email provider. So how do you keep spammers from doing this to you? The easy way is to simply use a usual name. Use something like michellej889@yahoo.com. Its much harder for spammers to discover. Tip #4: Dont click to be un-subscribed When spammers send emails, theyll usually include a link at the bottom that says un-subscribe. Youd think that this would allow you to be taken off their list, right? Well, thats not the case. You see, spammers use this link to verify which email addresses are active and valid and which arent. By clicking the link, you are telling them that your email address is valid. Theyll then send you even more spam then before. Instead of clicking to be un-subscribed, you should simply block the email address and delete the email. Tip #5: Use free anti-spam services Some people are flooded with literally hundreds of even thousands of spam messages per day. This can make using email a real nightmare. Fortunately there are solutions to this problem. One such free service is called 0Spam.com. Automatically scan and remove spam messages from many types of E-mail accounts including Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, AOL, and POP accounts with 0Spam.

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Chapter 7: How to Protect Yourself from Identity Theft The Internet is really a great thing for many people. It gives people the opportunity to buy and sell things, as well as pay bills and access bank accounts from the comfort of their own home. Just like the real world, though, there are people who are trying to steal personal information for their own gain. On the Internet, there are lots of criminals who are looking to steal your personal information. This sounds scary, doesnt it? Well, it sounds scary because it IS scary. The thought of someone hundreds or thousands of miles away having access to your personal information is scary and enough to keep many away from even using the Internet for business reasons. While it is intimidating, it is also something that can be prevented. There are five steps you can take to prevent yourself from identity theft. Protect Yourself from Identity Theft 1. Never answer unsolicited emails Ever received an email alerting you that youve won $1,000,000 from a lottery in Mexico? Its a big time scam that many, many people have fallen for. Often these scam emails will request information from you (perhaps a credit card or bank account number) so that they can send you the money. In reality, theyre only trying to get your numbers so that they can use them for their own purposes. In other words, you dont stand to gain anything from giving your numbers to them. Theyll only take the information and use it for the wrong reasons. Even by answering them (and not giving info to them) youre encouraging them to continue sending these emails. Thus, whenever you receive such an email, you should block the email address and delete the email. 2. Stay Protected: Use an Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware Program Some identity theft comes in the form of viruses or spyware. These programs, once installed on your PC, can steal any information from you without you even knowing it. The easiest way to prevent this form of identity theft is to simply install and update an anti-virus and antispyware program on your computer. To learn about good anti-virus and anti-spyware programs, please see Chapter 12 of this book.

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3. Only use secure sites when using credit cards or bank accounts online Secure sites are sites which will not allow your information to slip into the wrong hands. Any good merchant online will have a site that is completely secured and displays a button at the bottom of the screen that says they are verified secure. Never, ever use a site that isnt secured, as your information may be easily stolen on these sites. 4. Never disclose passwords or credit card numbers via email One of the biggest mistakes many people make is to share personal information like passwords or credit card numbers via email. While emails are pretty secure in many respects, they can be stolen. Thus, you should never share passwords or credit card numbers via email. Its a huge mistake to do that and can lead to disastrous results. 5. Dont use the same password for every account This suggestion goes hand in hand with another one: change your password often. If you use the same password for every account, once a hacker knows one password for one account, they can easily access all your other accounts. Furthermore, if you use the same password for many years, it can become easy for hackers to discover that password and use it to access your accounts. To prevent this from happening, simply use different combinations of letters and numbers for each account you hold and be sure to change passwords a minimum of once per year.

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Chapter 8: How to Identify E-mails and Websites that steal your Identity Every year, millions of Americans fall for emails or web sites which claim to deliver something (perhaps a brand new iPod or $50,000 cash) to them but, in reality, actually steal identities. Scammers have moved away from stealing purses or wallets and instead are stealing identities online. Unlike having a purse or wallet stolen, identity theft online is preventable. If people only learned how to identify clearly bad emails and web sites, they would save themselves a lot of headache and possible financial ruin in the process. Thats why the number one key to preventing identity theft is to simply recognize the emails and websites which pose the greatest threat to you. Take a look at the image below the author of this eBook received in their E-mail box today. It looks like it is from eBay. When I moved my mouse over the URL in the E-mail it shows a non-ebay URL in the status bar at the bottom of my E-mail program with the URL http://203.124.237.55/images/ebay-isapidll.htm - this IS NOT the eBay website. If you ever see a mail like this, delete it immediately.

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Tip #1: What is the email asking for? Lets say youve received an email from eBay. In the email, you are asked to update your profile. The email asks for your social security number, credit card number and other very personal details. How do you know if this is real or fake? Well, the easiest way is to simply realize that eBay(nor any other legitimate web site or company) will never request your SSN or credit card number. Thats why, if you get an email that asks for the information, you should not give it out. Tip #2: Look at the content Most scammers are located overseas, most likely so that they cannot be prosecuted for their offenses. Thus, most of them do not speak fluent English. It will be very easy to tell the real from the fake. If the grammar is extremely poor, thats a good indication that the email really isnt from the site which it claims to be from. Tip #3: Look at the return address The email may say it is from @ebay.com. But how do you know if it really is? Again, thats easy. Hit the reply button on the message(but dont actually reply!) and youll see the address. If it says something like securityebay@yahoo.com, its not real. Only something with @ebay.com or @amazon.com may be legitimate. Tip #4: Look at the address for the links in the emails Some emails will instruct you to visit a site to update information. If you click the link(or simply right-click and select properties), youll see that the address bar doesnt say ebay.com. Instead, it says something like 88.66.509/ebay. Thats a definite fake, as no legitimate site has an IP address as their web browser address. Tip #5: Buttons that say click here In order to trick you into visiting the site in question, scammers will often put in buttons which say click here. These buttons wont reveal the actual address of the site until youve actually visited it. No legitimate site will send you emails that have buttons in place of actual links. If you mistakenly click on such a button, immediately close the browser window and never, ever give them your information.

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Bonus Tip: Verify or update your account info Many scammers will attempt to steal your identity by sending you an email which may require you to update your account info for a particular site. Once again, practically all legitimate sites will not ask you to update such info. Dont click their link and verify. If you do fall for the trap, be sure to go to the actual site and change your password. By implementing the above tips, you can easily separate the real from the fake and, in the process, keep your identity from being stolen.

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Chapter 9: Using Anonymous Credit Cards for Private Online Payments An increasing number of people are using the Internet to purchase items such as clothes, electronic devices, video games, musical instruments and much more. The incentive of buying things online is that they are typically offered cheaper than at regular retail stores. The possible downside of buying online is that your credit card number can be stolen (even if the site is extremely secure, theres still a chance of hackers getting in) and a big headache can result. Fortunately, there are alternative methods of buying online without using one's permanent credit card number. One such method is that of anonymous credit cards. Anonymous credit cards are basically cards that are funded by your permanent credit card in a safe, secure way. No hacker can get a hold of your permanent credit card number, which is what makes anonymous credit cards so appealing for private online payments. How does an anonymous credit card work? After choosing an anonymous credit card service (see below for information on services) you'll use your permanent credit card to deposit money into your anonymous credit card. This may take 1-4 days to complete. This information is stored in a secure database that cannot be stolen or hacked into. Once you complete the deposit, you can log on to participating merchants and use your anonymous credit card to make the purchase. Why are anonymous credit cards good? They're an excellent choice for people who frequently buy online because they are far more safer than traditional credit cards. For one thing, only the amount you have deposited is carried in the anonymous credit card account, so even if your anonymous account was hacked into (and that's quite unlikely), you'd only be out the amount deposited. For another thing, they're a very secure, private way of doing business. The only thing that will show up on your credit card bill is that you deposited some money to your accountit will not show what the money was used for.

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Who offers anonymous credit cards? It is getting increasingly more difficult to find legitimate companies which offer anonymous credit cards. However, some still exist.

The most well-known company would be PureVanilla (http://www.purevanilla.com/). At PureVanilla, you are able to register an account and deposit funds using credit cards or bank accounts. You can then use PureVanilla to purchase items online from participating merchants. All of this is done in a very secure manner. If you plug the term anonymous credit cards into a search engine, you'll find that there are some hits. You should know, though, that a lot of them are not legitimate. That's why you should exercise caution when picking an anonymous credit card company to use for online purchases. If you cannot find one that you like and is legitimate and do not wish to use PureVanilla, you can always open a PayPal account. While PayPal isn't 100% anonymous, it is a lot more secure than a traditional credit card. Many merchants have begun to accept PayPal as a payment method. e-gold: Another Anonymous Payment Method e-gold is a fairly new kind of online payment system. You must first purchase gold to fund your e-gold account. From there, you can pay any person or merchant who accepts e-gold. All payments are anonymous. E-gold is not located in the United States, making it free from US government oversight and banking regulations. No one but e-gold knows how much money you have in your e-gold account.

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Chapter 10: Prevent your Phone Number from Falling into the wrong hands Scammers aren't just looking for credit card numbers anymore. An increasing number have begun to look for phone numbers online. They'll use these phone numbers for a variety of reasons, none of which are good. While many people would never give up their phone number to someone they met on the street, a lot will freely offer it up to someone on the Internetperhaps by signing up for an offer, registering for a site to buy items or something else. This is a very harmful thing to do, which is why every Internet user should learn how to prevent their phone number from falling into the wrong hands. By following the suggestions below, you can prevent your phone number from being found by a crook online. How to stop scammers from getting your phone number 1. Never Post Your Full Name in Public This is by far one of the most common mistakes. People who are using a public message board will post their full name, city and state. That's a bad thing to do because scammers can find this information and use online white pages to find your phone number. They can then use that phone number for their purposes. Never, ever post your full name in public. If you are making a deal, contact the individual via email or private messaging. 2. Remove Your Phone Number and Listing from White Pages Online Many sites like Yahoo and WhitePages.com offer free online white pages searches. People can find other people by simply typing a last name and state. For scammers, the white pages are a great place to start when it comes to finding phone numbers. Luckily, people are able to get themselves delisted from such places. To de-list, find your listing in the search and click remove my listing. 3. Don't Freely Use Your Phone Number When Registering A lot of sites are now requiring phone numbers when registering. You really should not do this unless it is a completely secure merchant like 22

Amazon. If you are required to put the phone number in, try putting a fake one like 555-6565 instead of your real one. Doing so protects your privacy. 4. Install a Firewall Scammers are regularly hacking into PCs in order to obtain personal information, such as credit card numbers and phone numbers. If you install a firewall, which blocks out attempts to access your PC, you can keep scammers from discovering your phone number. That's why you should install a firewall as a way of preventing your phone number from falling into the wrong hands. 5. Don't Email Your Phone Number Email accounts are routinely and freely hacked into. If you email people your phone number using a free email service like Yahoo or Hotmail, there's a good chance a hacker could hack into the account and grab your phone number plus other information. If you must email your phone number, only do it using a secure email service such as the one through your business or school.

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Chapter 11: Shut Out the Hackers and Detect Intrusion Attempts It's a well known fact that hackers are a huge threat to Internet users. Hackers have perfected their art and are able to easily hack into unprotected PCs without the user of the PC even knowing about the intrusion. A hacker that has hacked into a PC can essentially take control of the PC. They can make it into a zombie machine that does what they tell it to do and is useless for the PC's user. They can also use the intrusion to steal personal information, among many other things. By now you can probably see why there is a need for detecting intrusion attempts. Detecting intrusion attempts lets you know when someone is trying to access your PC. It also allows you to react accordingly. When it comes to detecting intrusion attempts you have two options. The first is to set up an intrusion detection system which is a fairly complicated thingespecially for beginners. The second is to take the easy way out and to install a firewall. In this chapter, we'll be going over what a firewall does and how it detects intrusion attempts. What is a Firewall? A firewall is something that protects your PC. It keeps out programs or people who shouldn't get access to your PC. These include spyware programs and regular hackers. There are two forms of firewall: the hardware firewall and the software firewall. A hardware firewall is a router, which can be purchased from your local tech store. A software firewall is a program which is installed on your PC. Generally speaking, you are most protected if you use both the hardware and software firewall together. What the firewall does is it regulates who can and cannot access your PC. Using a software firewall, you can choose which programs get access to the Internet and which do not. The firewall also tells you when someone or something is attempting to access your PC.

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How Does a Firewall Detect Intrusion Attempts? As previously mentioned, once a software firewall is installed on your PC, it basically becomes the middle man between your PC and the Internet. Everything from the Internet has to go through the firewall in order to access your PC. Whenever a new program tries to access your PC's Internet connection, you will receive a pop-up from the firewall alerting you to this. You can then look at the attempt and determine if it's a hacker or a necessary program on your PC that needs to access the Internet. Additionally, you can also look at a detailed log of intrusion attempts which will include IP addresses and will tell you who is trying to access your PC. What Firewall Should I Install? There are several legitimate firewalls around. The most reliable, in our opinion, is the ZoneAlarm firewall. You can purchase the firewall use the free version (both of which are effective). Norton and Kerio also make excellent firewalls. If you're using high speed Internet, you should also purchase a router to protect your PC even more.

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Chapter 12: An easy way to Prevent Spyware from Infecting your Computer Did you know that it takes the average unprotected computer just 23 minutes of being connected to the Internet before it becomes infected with spyware? That sounds pretty surprising, right? Well, it really isnt, given the large amount of questionable sites all over the Internet. Even innocent browsing can result in spyware secretly being installed on a computer. Spyware can obviously frustrate any computer user who has it installed on their PC. Not only can spyware slow down the computer, but it can also display unwanted ads, as well as steal personal information such as social security numbers, and credit card and bank account information. Thats why it is really in the users best interest to simply prevent spyware from even being installed on the computer. How Do I Prevent Spyware from Being Installed? To prevent spyware from being installed on your computer, youll have to make sure the PC is well protected. One of your first steps will be to install an anti-virus program. While anti-virus programs wont prevent spyware, they will detect viruses that may be packaged in with spyware. A good, free anti-virus program is AVG free edition, which can be found at free.grisoft.com. Next, youll want to get a firewall installed on your computer. Once again, the use of a firewall alone will not prevent spyware, but it will help to keep spyware programs unknowingly installed on the PC from accessing the Internet (and thus sending out your information to whoever created the spyware). Installing a firewall is especially crucial for those on high speed Internet, but is also a great idea for those on DSL or dial-up. A good, free firewall is ZoneAlarm. You can find the free version at www.zonelabs.com. As with the antivirus, you will not want to install more than one firewall on your PC as it can prove harmful if you run two at once. After youve got the anti-virus and firewall installed on your PC, youll want to move on to programs that actually prevent spyware from being installed. One such program is SpywareBlaster. It has a built-in shield which will prevent harmful spyware commonly found on certain bad sites (that people often stumble upon) from even installing on the

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computer. You can find it at www.javacoolsoftware.com. Best of all, its free! But wait, youre not done yet. Youll also want to grab a few programs which actually remove spyware, should it get installed on your PC. Two excellent and free programs available are AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy. You can find the former at www.lavasoftusa.com and the latter at www.safer-networking.org. Spybot has a built-in shield that can also help to prevent spyware. AdAware also has a shield built-in, too. If you download and install all of the above programs, youll be protected very well. Tips to Stay Clean Its not enough to simply download and install the programs on your PC. Since spyware is constantly evolving, the programs that prevent it have to evolve, too. Thus, you must check often for updates to your anti-spyware, anti-virus and firewall programs. Some have built-in updating, while others will need to be updated manually. Try to check once per week for updates for all of these programs. If updates are available, install them immediately. You should also try to run scans with the anti-spyware and anti-virus programs once per week. This will allow you to catch problems as they occur and fix them before they harm your PC. Additionally, since Microsoft is always releasing patches for security holes in their operating systems, you should check Microsoft.com often for any available updates. If any are found, be sure to download and install them ASAP. One final suggestion would be to run an online anti-virus scanner once per month. These scanners may sometimes find things that the regular anti-virus program doesnt find. You can go to http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan.htm and http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ for free online antivirus scans. So, to recap, to stay clean youll want to: Download and install the above programs. Check often for updates for the anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall programs. Install any updates found. Check Microsoft.com for updates to your operating system.

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Scan with the anti-virus/anti-spyware programs once per week. Scan once per month with an online anti-virus program.

By following all the above steps, your PC will stay safe and spywarefree.

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Chapter 13: Preventing your ISP from Snooping on your Internet Activity People use the Internet for many reasons. Some use it to simply research. Others use it to communicate with people worldwide. Occasionally, confidential information may be exchanged between two parties. You'd think this information would remain just that confidential. However, that's not the case. Did you know that your Internet service provider(ISP) monitors your every move? It sounds shocking that this could happen in a country as free as the United States, but it does. That's because the government has or will pass laws that require ISPs to keep accurate records of their users browser habits. Personal information, such as email addresses and conversations, can be easily looked at by the authorities without any kind of warrant. That means that your information can be looked at without your knowledge. Why has this happened? Well, many people attribute it to the surge in terrorism plots in U.S., plus the recent illegal file sharing trend. Increasingly, ISPs are monitoring their users actions online and providing the information to any authority that asks in order to enforce copyright laws or thwart terrorist attempts. This is why people who have shared files illegally online are caught. This is why terrorist plots are discovered before they can actually happen. While ISP snooping can be considered a good way of monitoring and preventing people from using the Internet for unjust reasons, it's also a bad thing for those who use the Internet for legitimate reasons and do not want the government to see their private information. So the question remains, how can you stop your ISP from snooping on your activities? Quite honestly, it's not something that can be easily done. But there are steps you can take to make it impossible or next to impossible for your ISP to snoop on you.

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How do I hide my Internet activity from my ISP? The first step is to install a firewall on your PC (this was covered in previous chapters). The firewall will keep out unwanted intrusions to your PC, plus block information from being sent out. It cannot completely stop ISP snooping, but it can make it harder. The next step, and perhaps a more effective one, is to buy and install an anti-snooping tool. Many companies make such a tool available, and on the whole, they are quite effective. One such reliable and effective tool is MySecureISP (www.mysecureisp.com). MySecureISP blocks ISPs from logging your browsing habits and other personal information. It's probably the best tool around for blocking out snooping ISPs. There are other tools that are effective, too, so be sure to do a little bit of research online if you're looking for an anti-snooping tool that will work for you.

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