My nightly ritual at home includes checking the deadbolt locks, making certain the fence gate is locked and making certain my wallet is out of sight. soon after I take Lucy the Beagle for a walk so she can complete her own nightly routine.

Forgetting any of those steps means I don’t sleep as well.

One night I left my wallet on the kitchen counter. Around 5 a.m., a prowler crashed through the glass door to get it.

You probably use some of the same home protection steps I do. The good news is you can use similar tactics to protect yourself online.

There are plenty of smash-and-grab artists in cyberspace. And too many humans keep their possessions in plain sight, just like I did with my wallet.

To see what I mean, Google that phrase complete with quotation marks: “for internal distribution only”.

Most of what you find will be harmless. But whether you browse through the

list you’ll find documents that were designed to be only shared internally. I don’t feel poor about using that example, which is already widely known.

It helps show that files you’ve stored on your own Web site are fair game, even whether they are not linked from any page. Many society with free Web space use it for online storage of family photos and even financial documents or contact lists.

So start your protection routine by examining your online storage areas and locking the fence gate.

In the online world that’s called a firewall. Windows XP and Vista come with firewall software. Just like my locked fence gate, a firewall does not offer perfect protection. But it’s dumb not to use one. whether you’re not certain you’ve turned the firewall on, type “firewall” into the Windows help section and follow the steps needed to check its status.

Commercial software makers such as Norton,…

Original post by dhiram