Investor Security

As an online investor, one must be highly cautious in regards to where they put their money and who to trust with it, however, this is not the only safety issue they face; there is also the very serious issue of spyware collecting sensitive information about accounts, passwords etc. Such information, once compromised, could potentially lead to significant losses.

Just like there seems to be a restless flow of new spyware threats, there is similarly a copious amount of ways to combat these threats. There is an extremely wide variety of programs to help better protect yourself, from anti-spyware programs, firewalls, anti-virus programs etc. to programs like 'hijackthis' (http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/index.html). This really is a very broad topic and could comprise a never ending article, so I will only suggest a few, more obscure, security measures to take.

One interesting security strategy that you can implement is to use what's known as a live CD. This is essentially an operating system on a CD which you boot from, instead of your hard drive. One such operating system which can be stored and run from a CD is SLAX, which can be found at: http://slax.linux-live.org/
Security is established via the live CD as a result of two key factors. One of these is that no spyware, virus etc. can save itself to the CD which your system is now operating from, unlike your hard drive, as the CD cannot be re-written. The other factor is that you can use an alternative operating system to windows ie. Linux. Over 90% of computers operate on windows and therefore the vast majority of malicious programs designed to invade your privacy are designed for windows. Although spyware can get onto your system while you are connected to the Internet from your live Linux CD, there will be a significant amount less that will target your Linux system, and none of it can save itself. So, each time you restart your sytem, all spyware etc is completely non-existent; you begin with a completely reformatted system every time you start up.

If you are serious about protection of sensitive data, my ultimate suggestion would be to get involved with some kind of hacking or professional computer users forum. This will provide you with a greater depth of knowledge into securing yourself, as opposed to simply running Norton every once in a while. In fact most serious computer minds strongly advise against using mainstream ant-virus software. Get involved and ask experienced hackers/techies questions about securing your system and have a thirst for knowledge.

I understand people usually like clear cut answers, however, this is an impossibility when it comes to securing your privacy on the Internet. Computer security is an ongoing and continually changing process, as the criminals trying to steal your information are almost unbound by any restrictions when it comes to ways of achieving their goal. Again, I strongly suggest you become involved in some kind of serious computer users forum for this very reason; they will be able to provide you with advanced methods for protecting your system.

Links:
Avoid using email accounts from providers such as Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail etc. as they are easily hacked. I suggest you open an email account with either Hushmail or Gawab:

www.hushmail.com

www.gawab.com

I suggest that e-gold users give the e-gold security section a peruse at: http://www.e-gold.com/unsecure/alert.html

You might want to have a look through a thread I started at HYIPDiscussion on security:
http://www.hyipdiscussion.com/general-discussion/19697-security.html