According
to this same study one in six PCs tested at testmysecurity.com were
totally unprotected. This is like leaving your keys in your car
with the engine running while you shop in the mall. You are asking for trouble.
This problem is so severe that in the United States,
President Bush recently signed a new federal law called Identity Theft
Penalty Enhancement Act which increases the penalties for identity
theft. Even so, computer security analysts warn that this new law probably
will not stop these crimes any
more then the CAN SPAM Act stopped SPAM.
The major concern is that the FBI and the Secret Service,
along with the Federal trade Commission do not have the financial and
human resources
to enforce this new law. The FTC alone received 460,000 ID-theft complaints
in 2003 which represents only a fraction of the over 10 million people who have
fallen victim to identity theft in the U.S.A.
Fortunately, the price of vigilance is small compared
to the potential losses involved. You don't have to me an IT Manager
to button up your
home PC. In fact, we've published a series of articles right here on this web
site that will show you exactly what threats exist and what you
can do about them.
We've made every effort to show you simple things that you can do yourself as well as software protection tools that are either free or
low cost.
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