Wireless home networks can be dangerous. If not setup properly, you are exposing the files on your computers to any hackers and potentially setting yourself to be accused of criminal activity. You see, if people are going to do illegal things online, they’d rather use a connection that does not belong to them. It offers them an extra layer of protection against getting busted. However, it’s your IP address that gets recorded with such activity, and ultimately your door the police will be knocking on.

Now if you have an unsecured open connection, people will connect to it, either on purpose or by accident, and surf the web on your dime doing who knows what. This could lead to slow speeds on your broadband connection for you if too many people are on it. That is once side of it. The other side is the hackers that will try to get access to your router administration panel and from there try to gain access to your private files on your PC, or install keyboard loggers that record everything you type, just to name a few.Here are a few layers of protection that will ensure this does not happen to you.

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You have a laptop with wireless internet access. You noticed that there are many free public wireless hotspots you can connect to and browse the web on. Many businesses, such as hotels and restaurants offer it as an extra service to entice you to patron their establishment.

However, with such open access comes serious security issues. Here are a few tips to protect yourself when using public Wi-Fi connections.

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Google has developed a really nice free Firefox extention called Google Safe Browsing which will alert you of any phishing attempts by a website. If you come across a malicious site that is trying to “phish” or “pharm” your personal information, a red icon pops up warning you. This extension is recommended, especially for anyone who is not yet internet savvy and have trouble spotting the scams in all those legit looking e-mail messages from banks, PayPal and so forth.

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On MySpace.com, teenagers can find kindred spirits who share their love of sports, their passion for photography or their crush on a Hollywood star. They can also find out where their online friends live, where they attend school, even what they look like.

And so can adults.

Parents, school administrators and police are increasingly worried that teens are finding trouble online at sites like MySpace, the leader of the social-networking sites that encourage users to build larger and larger circles of friends.

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Google called the Bush administration’s request for data on Web searches as “so uninformed as to be nonsensical” in papers filed in San Jose federal court Friday, arguing that turning over the information would expose its trade secrets and violate the privacy of its users.

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The Internal Revenue Service today confirmed that an e-mail purporting to be from the IRS is part of a scam designed to trick users into revealing their personal information, including Social Security and credit card numbers.The subject line of the e-mail, which was received by a Computerworld reporter, reads “Refund Notice!” and claims to be from “refund@irs.gov.”

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Choosing a good password is as simple as not choosing a word that might appear in a dictionary. Hackers have lists of dictionary terms and can literally run a program for days, even weeks that will try each and every one until it gains access. Another good tip is to choose something with at least 8 characters. The longer the password, the harder it is to crack; especially if it’s a good combination of letters and numbers.

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