The Internet may either be a useful tool or a very hostile environment, depending on the sites you visit and the actions you take.  Many people do not realize that sending and receiving e-mail occur over the Internet.  There are no guidelines or applications that can provide absolute security for Internet connected computers.  Hackers are very active and spend much time and plenty of resources developing ways to infiltrate computers.

     Most sources dealing with safe-surfing on the Internet state that you should only visit trusted sites.  Trusted sites being those that you are relatively certain will not inject any nasty applications, like viruses, Trojans, worms, spyware, ransom-ware, rootkits, ...  into your computer or otherwise place you at risk while you visit the site.  This risk could be the compromise of personal information, identity theft, or joining your computer to a botnet.

     Many of these sources are aimed toward corporate audiences who work for companies with defined security policies and these safe-surfing guidelines may not be practical for home users who interface with the Internet for entertainment as well as business and education purposes.

     Although there is no substitute for caution and common sense, the following guidelines are tailored to aid families in safe web surfing:

Internet Posts are Forever

     When sending snail-mail (the term used by the cyber-generation to describe mail delivered by the Postal Service) you can assume that the parcel will be delivered or get lost.  In either case the message will probably be discarded and forgotten about in a short period.  The same assumption can generally be made regarding phone conversations.

     You cannot make this assumption regarding e-mail messages and posts to Internet web sites.  The mail-servers and web-servers that make up the world wide web are normally backed up on a regular basis so even if you delete a message or post there is likely a copy of the content stored somewhere in cyber-space.

     There have been recent cases of students being suspended and employees being terminated as a result of posts made to social networking sites so use good common sense when composing e-mail or posts to social networking sites.  A good rule of thumb is that you should not post anything you would not want your grand mother to see.

Secure Websites

     Secure web sites encrypt login credentials and and the data that traverses the links to and from the user.  These sites normally contain "https" (notice the "s" at the end of https) at the beginning of the address bar or URL.  These sites use certificates to guarantee their authenticity and the site's identity may be verified through the agency that granted the certificate.  Certificate management is way beyond the scope of this article so let us just say that these sites may be trusted.

     You should only post personal information to site forms originating from secure websites.  The information is safe in transit and the site should have a valid purpose for the information.  Do not post personal information to non-secure web sites; the information may be intercepted and you risk the threat of identity theft.

Check the Privacy Policy

     Before posting personal information to any web site, check the site's privacy policy to see haw the site operators will use the information.  If the site does not publish a privacy policy or you disagree with the terms of use then do not release the requested information to them.  If all you need to release is an e-mail address then you may consider a disposable e-mail address (see below).

Disposable E-mail Address

     Most web sites require an e-mail address in order to complete the registration process.  One reason for the requirement is that the site will send a verification e-mail to registrants.  Normally a link is provided in the e-mail and clicking the link completes the registration process.  However, many sites also sell lists of the e-mail addresses of registered users to marketing companies.  Some of these marketing companies generate endless flows of SPAM.

     Using disposable e-mail addresses permits you to create an address for the purpose of registering with a web site  and avoiding any SPAM coming back to your main inbox as a result of the registration.  These addresses typically last for 15 minutes to an hour, which is plenty of time to complete the registration process.  "You can read and reply to e-mails that are sent to the temporary e-mail address within the given time frame" (GuerrillaMail.com, 2009).  You can view e-mail going to the address for as long as the address remains active so if you see a flood of e-mail to a disposable address then you have a good indication that the site you just registered for generates SPAM.