ng the lines of "user habits and reckless behavior". To reinforce this, a noted German network security expert said this past week in an IT conference held in Australia that it would take twenty to thirty years to educate people about computer security. It may sound exaggerated but it certainly reflects the frustration of an expert towaIn the past few years Hormel Foods Corporation has been doing the legal rounds in preventing software companies from using the word "spam" in the branding of their junk email fighting products. An Associated Press (AP) article recently said Hormel was afraid this practice of software companies may dilute its brand name.

It is totally understandable that Hormel is merely protecting one of its most treasured brand names. They are afraid that the day may come when people will start wondering why they named their product after junk email. Maybe Hormel is just not giving people more credit. Or maybe they know something that experts in the information technology (IT) arena have known for a long time.

The topic of junk email prevention has fallen under the broader category of computer security these days. In fact some will say that email security is one of the IT manager's worst nightmares. Emails are a common venue of computer virus infection. Virus makers are coming up with newer and more sophisticated means of exploiting email as a way to defraud users. One of the causes of today's rash of identity thefts comes by way of email, more popularly known as phishing email scams.

Ask any IT manager what their take is as to why so many users become victims of computer viruses or online fraud. Their answer will invariably be along the lines of "user habits and reckless behavior". To reinforce this, a noted German network security expert said this past week in an IT conference held in Australia that it would take twenty to thirty years to educate people about computer security. It may sound exaggerated but it certainly reflects the frustration of an expert towar

lly understandable that Hormel is merely protecting one of its most treasured brand names. They are afraid that the day may come when people will start wondering why they named their product after junk email. Maybe Hormel is just not giving people more credit. Or maybe they know something that experts in the information technology (IT) arena have known for a long time.

The topic of junk email prevention has fallen under the broader category of computer security these days. In fact some will say that email security is one of the IT manager's worst nightmares. Emails are a common venue of computer virus infection. Virus makers are coming up with newer and more sophisticated means of exploiting email as a way to defraud users. One of the causes of today's rash of identity thefts comes by way of email, more popularly known as phishing email scams.

Ask any IT manager what their take is as to why so many users become victims of computer viruses or online fraud. Their answer will invariably be along the lines of "user habits and reckless behavior". To reinforce this, a noted German network security expert said this past week in an IT conference held in Australia that it would take twenty to thirty years to educate people about computer security. It may sound exaggerated but it certainly reflects the frustration of an expert towa

rena have known for a long time.

The topic of junk email prevention has fallen under the broader category of computer security these days. In fact some will say that email security is one of the IT manager's worst nightmares. Emails are a common venue of computer virus infection. Virus makers are coming up with newer and more sophisticated means of exploiting email as a way to defraud users. One of the causes of today's rash of identity thefts comes by way of email, more popularly known as phishing email scams.

Ask any IT manager what their take is as to why so many users become victims of computer viruses or online fraud. Their answer will invariably be along the lines of "user habits and reckless behavior". To reinforce this, a noted German network security expert said this past week in an IT conference held in Australia that it would take twenty to thirty years to educate people about computer security. It may sound exaggerated but it certainly reflects the frustration of an expert towa

sticated means of exploiting email as a way to defraud users. One of the causes of today's rash of identity thefts comes by way of email, more popularly known as phishing email scams.

Ask any IT manager what their take is as to why so many users become victims of computer viruses or online fraud. Their answer will invariably be along the lines of "user habits and reckless behavior". To reinforce this, a noted German network security expert said this past week in an IT conference held in Australia that it would take twenty to thirty years to educate people about computer security. It may sound exaggerated but it certainly reflects the frustration of an expert towa

ng the lines of "user habits and reckless behavior". To reinforce this, a noted German network security expert said this past week in an IT conference held in Australia that it would take twenty to thirty years to educate people about computer security. It may sound exaggerated but it certainly reflects the frustration of an expert towards why users make it easy for attackers to compromise their computer systems. Actually it need not take so many years for people to learn but their very habits and behavior impede the learning process.

Consider why there is so much junk email floating around, many of which have probably found their way into your inbox. It is because of the user's habit of forwarding email to everyone in their address book just because a line in the body of the email tells them to do so. Consider why there are so many victims of email scams nowadays. Because when an official looking email arrives, say from their bank, telling them to update their account information and password, the user's impulsive behavior takes over and they go do as they are instructed. There is also this prevailing "it couldn't happen to me" mentality and that is precisely the kind of behavior that cyber criminals pounce on. The common denominator here is that the user has this habit of not going the extra mile in doing some sort of checking first.

Securing your personal computer will take only twenty to thirty minutes. There is no dearth of products around that will help in securing your computer. Notwithstanding some IT experts' criticism that some of today's security products are inadequate, they are still your best bet in preventing your computer being compromise