The Vault
Your online safety checkup - Part 1
by Graham Barber

Whether you are looking for a recipe, doing some research, conducting your banking, or sending an email, the Internet is a convenient and timesaving resource used everyday by millions of people around the globe. While the benefits of Internet usage are considerable, there are some online safety steps everyone should consider when making transactions or simply surfing.

Canadian banks, for example, have developed leading edge security on their Websites that allow customers to do all their transactions safely and securely. Standards are extremely high and customer protection is a priority. However, customers too, have a responsibility to protect their personal information. To help keep your computing environment secure, ensure that you;

- maintain control over access to your computer - whether at your home or office

- protect your computer with anti-virus software and keep the virus recognition data file up to date

Following these and other safety steps will also help.

Install a personal firewall

This is a software application used to protect a single Internet-connected computer from intruders. Personal firewalls work to protect the integrity of the system form viruses and hacking by controlling Internet connections to and from a user's computer, filtering inbound and outbound traffic, and alerting the user to attempted intrusions.

This will assist in personal computing security by blocking out attempts by hackers to look into your PC and steal data. The measure is especially important for users who have "always-on" connections, such as DSL or cable modem. Many firewall products are now available that are easy to install and provide reasonable protection.

Clear your browser's cache and history

Whenever you surf the web, a record of the Web pages that you visit is kept in "History" and in the browser's "Cache". This is done to speed up the display of the Web page that you may wish to visit again. In this case, the computer will be able to retrieve the Web page from the cache instead of downloading it all over again from the Internet.

This feature however presents a security risk as anyone who may get control of your computer can likewise open the cache and history to look at all the pages you recently visited. Therefore, it is important to clear your browser's cache and history after you have conducted any kinds of transactions online - so that someone is not able to view this information later.

Disable the "AutoComplete" functions in your browser

If you use Internet explorer as your browser, you should disable the "AutoComplete" function for user names and passwords. This function stores your Login ID and password on the PC's hard drive so that your PC will automatically fill it in for you when you next log in. It's a convenient function, but it also means that anyone else who uses your PC can use the same function to easily find out your password.

Part 2 of this article will be printed next week.

The proceeding information was provided by Graham Barber, Branch Manager of Scotiabank, Alcona Branch. The Scotiabank, Alcona Branch, is located at 1161 Innisfil Beach Road, (705) 431- 6116.

The Vault is a weekly series of articles provided by Graham Barber with financial advice and suggestions.