On October 22, 2002, an attack on the thirteen servers that act as the backbone of the Internet was carried out, briefly disabling nine of them. This drew attention to the often criticized organization that operates these servers, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). This news article argues that bad practices and insufficient safety precautions of ICANN may soon lead...

No one wants to get a bit of pesky computer malware around the holidays, and this latest version of Ad-Aware's Internet Security program is a good bit of preventive measure to safeguard against such an injurious attack. The major change in this version is the addition of the "Dedicated Detection" software. This element can look inside files, analyze their code, and look for related malware....

The CERT Coordination Center is part of the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Its primary function is to work with industry to identify and eliminate Internet security vulnerabilities. Additionally, the center analyzes business and personal software to find potentially dangerous flaws that could compromise the system, meaning that both corporate and home users can...

One common method for tracking users online is to include tracking parameters in a URL, which allow server operators to easily follow a user across and within sites. Tracking parameters are commonly added in by bulk email senders, social media sites, search engines, and shopping sites, but they are not necessary for a site to work correctly and can be safely stripped away. The ClearURLs browser...

Internet security is serious business, and the Comodo application will allow users to feel a bit more at ease. First-time users can use their help files to learn a bit more about the various uses of the application, and others will note that the different sections (which include "Firewall" and "Defense") are fairly intuitive. This latest version includes DNS protection and it also checks the...

Internet worms and other malicious code often scan firewalls to determine which ports are unprotected. While firewall users have access to their port scanning data in the form of log files, most do not make use of it. The Distributed Intrusion Detection System remotely monitors trends in worldwide port scanning, and the data it has collected is available at this site. The data can be used by...

When the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) was started in 1994, there were already substantial privacy issues surrounding the collection and use of electronic data at play. Since that time, such issues have grown exponentially in their scope, and EPIC continues to perform valuable research in the area. A good place to start exploring their site is right on the homepage, namely their...

The FBI maintains a Web site (1) that explains the purposes and ramifications of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). In addition to discussing the telecommunication industry's role in supporting the act, the site defines electronic surveillance and offers several documents regarding associated legal issues. An excellent source for government surveillance information...

The US Federal Trade Commission provides its Privacy Online: A Report to Congress. This 43 page monograph "provides an assessment of the effectiveness of self-regulation as a means of protecting consumer privacy on the World Wide Web,... based on a comprehensive online survey of the information practices of commercial Web sites, including sites directed to children, conducted in March 1998; an...

The US Federal Trade Commission provides this site, highlighted by the availability of its Privacy Online: A Report to Congress. In addition, the site offers tips on how to protect personal information, transcripts of relevant congressional testimony, useful information about protecting your privacy while you "travel" the Net, and FTC pamphlets on consumer protection and privacy information, among...