As Web technology endangers aspects of our privacy, how can we best maintain computer security? Jennings and Fena provide a comprehensive guide to privacy and security in the fast-changing Internet age, identifying winning and losing strategies for users and businesses.
If you use a computer and you surf the Web, the Internet's open architecture has made you visible to the world. So claims
The Hundredth Window, Charles Jennings and Lori Fena's exposé on Internet security--or the lack thereof. Regardless of how you feel about privacy, though, this book can help you understand the risks of Internet use, plus some precautions you can take to minimise them.
The proverbial hundredth window represents the most vulnerable link in a system. It derives from an allegory relating windows in a castle to security--if only one out of a hundred windows is left open, security becomes compromised. Since the Internet maximises information sharing, admittedly largely a beneficial enterprise, would-be avid marketers and the inevitable shadier characters can, without trying all that hard, spy on your Web clicking habits, read your e-mail, and even see files on your hard drive. This means you may receive spam from marketers who think they know what kind of stuff you like to buy--helpful to some and aggravating to others. It also means, ominously, that your name and other identifying information about you can cause you problems. Individuals can even use personal information about you to commit fraud or other crimes, for which you would then be responsible.
Now, it's unlikely you'd undergo the sort of nightmare invasion on your privacy that occurred in Enemy of the State, but the exchange of personal information about Internet users is undeniably a multibillion dollar business. It's the increasingly fervent desire of marketing executives the world over to know intimate details about you so that they can help you shop. Maybe this is no skin off your nose, but you may become frustrated if you happen to have a parent or grandparent with a serious illness, for example, you spend time researching the illness on the Web, and your name falls into the hands of insurers as a potential high risk. There are incalculable extrapolations on this scenario that you may want to protect yourself from, and this book can get you started on that road.
Jennings and Fena, both experts on this topic, have compiled a series of easy steps to help you minimise your visibility in cyberspace. Their approach isn't terribly sophisticated--they suggest you clear out your cookies and use fake information when registering on Web sites, for example--but it's effective. They also offer several quite handy techniques that erase your Web footprints, such as leaving your AOL member profile blank and using blocking software.
The topic of Internet security can sometimes get relegated to the land of the paranoid, but in this case the advice is sensible and the solutions practical. --Teri Kieffer, Amazon.com
