Raw Data Saver

To a householder, fires deliver a genuine menace and to provide a reliable and capable defense against fires in our households, we need to utilise Gas Suppression. Gas Suppression is of further value to homeowners in that they do not wreck prized possessions while quenching your fire, as water-supported extinguishers do.

Gas Suppression In Process

FM200 extinguisher tools are laden with liquid and a colorless and inodorous gas Halon. When the substances are used to a fire, the gas spreads out and cools down the fire. These fire extinguishers combat flames by stifling the oxygen that is feeding the fire and by chilling down the flames themselves.

First, check the pressure of the substances within gas fire extinguishers and make sure their settings are precise so they will operate properly. If the pressure of the contents are either too high or excessively low, they should be replaced with new ones immediately. The safety pin of your extinguisher should be withdrawn out first before they can be used. Otherwise, it will not run at all and you will wind up viewing the fire as it storms on.

In order for you to learn how to utilize fire extingushers safely and effectively, request for a demo from vendors and your local fire authority. The time to know how to apply a FM200 extinguisher is before a fire ever occurs, as opposed to in the heat of severe flames. Engaging the correct utilization of FM200 beforehand can spare your places and family.

Obtaining Your Personal Gas Suppression Device

Gas Suppression tools are traded by many retailers. Purchasers can look to find positive service from these vendors. It is suggested that you buy these extinguishers from reliable and verified suppliers who have valued reputation of selling dependable quality products.

There are vendors that have physical stores and others have online shops. Online retail merchants have the capacity to deal these wares in lower prices because they have negligible overhead expenses. When buying Gas Suppression instruments from online shops, be sure to have your purchase insured with product warranty. This will aid to assure you that the company stands behind their merchandise and verify you of its workability in the face of a real emergency.

When making use of telephone bugs, it can be very frustrating to be constantly checking, only to find that you missed a call. You have a busy life. Other things to do, other clients to work for, a life to live. You can’t just be sitting there trying to play hit and miss with telephone bugs. This is where the new generation of bugs comes in. It is possible to use a bug that will actually call you when a phone call is made. That way you need not miss a conversation that you cannot afford to miss.

Traditional bugs require that you listen to the transmissions or call in to see if a call is being placed. Additionally, some telephone bugs only allowed you to hear one end of the conversation. Neither of these things is very savory, nor do the provide help to you as you frantically try to listen in at just the right time. Additionally, many transmitters run the risk of being found as they transmit the signal out. With telephone bugs that call you, you can listen to both ends of the conversation, and receive notification when a call is placed or received by your subject.

The first telephone bugs that work in this manner are bugs that look like cell phones. You plug them in to share the same line as the regular phone, and they look like they were forgotten or like they are charging. These phones can be programmed to silently ring your preferred number whenever the home phone goes off. And it is set up so that when you pick up to listen in, you are listening as if you were on another phone in the house (just like mom and dad did when you called home from college). You hear both ends, and neither party is the wiser.

Other telephone bugs that can be programmed to call you are more high tech cell phones. You give the phone to the subject (or have your client do so) and then you wait. These phones work like regular cell phones. The person talks normally and receives calls normally. But every time he or she uses the phone (place or receive) the phone dials you and lets you know.

No matter which product you choose, you don’t have to miss a call when you are called by your telephone bugs.

(c) 2005 Copyright www.spyassociates.com. This article is about: Telephone Bugs.

To learn more about Spy and Surveillance Products visit www.spyassociates.com Read other related articles at spyassociates.blogspot.com/

Gas Fire Suppression is truly a captivating technical advancement. For me, it the most relevant kind of fire inhibition engineering for households, offices and funds. How they run to end fires is what makes them actually singular and special.

Fires require 2 things for them to take place. Stuffs that ignite would be 1st and then oxygen would be second. A logical and effective method to prevent fires from propagating would be to take away one or the other. This concept is the basis of Gas Suppression. When fires occur, what it does is limiting the measure of oxygen in the stricken region. The fire’s ability to consume is greatly diminished when oxygen is missing, even if burnable materials are around. This would result to fires not spreading out and consuming as much as they usually can.

Equated to water and foam fire extinguishers, Fire Suppression is not mussy. When water or foam fire extinguishers are applied, they leave the area really filthy. You would have to strip and clean the residue left behind. Apart from that, water and foam extinguishers can ruin electronic devices, electrical facilities, pieces of furniture and papers. Just imagine how irritating and discouraging it would be to discover that what the fire did not demolish, foam and water did. To comment, it seems inappropriate that what you preserved from the fire are destroyed by the same thing you used to put out the fire with.

Dependent on the area you like to set up the fire suppression system in, you can apply wall mounted gas cylinders for conservative regions. For sizeable areas, the full-pipe installation is applied. In general, Gas Suppression doesn’t take huge measure of space for its installation. However, it is required to determine first the size of the area you require to set up the fire suppression system in. For greatest consequences, refer fire officials and professionals affecting the issue.

With these benefits and characteristics, I believe that Gas Suppression is the better fire suppression system.

Fire in a home or office can be devastating if safety precautions are not well designed and implemented. In addition to the fire alarm system, it is needed to also plan a really specified path of escape if fire comes about. Another fundamental subject to add is the education of occupants synonymous to fire practices in schools. It is important to make positive children know where they should meet once they have eluded the fire.

Smoke detectors are ordinarily put in place in most houses. By discovering high levels of smoke, smoke sensors supply a degree of security. In an electrical fire where smoke is slowly developed, it may require some time before smoke detectors are set off. In this certain case, it may not render residents adequate time to properly react since time is already lost so fire alarms become our first line of safety.

To every building occupant, FM200 is very fundamental. Sometimes, building residents may be in a part of the building where alarms are not heard well. With a fire alarm and a good plan of exit, injury or death is significantly decreased. In the home, a fire alarm with a heat detector will notice uncommon points of heat that would be considered extreme in normal household environments. In addition, a fire alarm can be equipped to sound on the outside of a home so that additional assistance is readily accessible from neighbors. With this characteristic, neighbouring houses are likewise protected from fires. Aside from preserving the lives of occupants, fire alarms can also prevent a home from being completely damaged.

Fire suppression equipments that feature heat sensors demand minimal upkeep. The alarm detector is tripped when the temperature inside a room is beyond the set specifications. To avoid the alarms from being unnecessarily triggered, they should be placed away from areas in the home which are subjected to heat like kitchens, furnaces, ovens and fireplaces.

By setting a fire suppression system, you are adding value to your houses. Having fire suppression in a home contributes peace of mind especially when there are older people and children around.

There is no saying that goes, “What you do know can kill you.”
There is, however, a proverb that says, “What you DON”T know can
kill you.” When considering whether or not use spy listening
devices, take the previous bit of advice to heart. Spy listening
devices are excellent for surveillance, and there are so many
different types of these items that you are sure to find
something that works for your situation and that falls within
your price range.

Spy listening devices, which are more commonly known as bugs,
are used by many different people for a variety of people. The
police, military, private investigators, and government agencies
all make use of these listening devices. There are even
corporations and some consumers (including amateur spies) who
use devices to discover important information. You may not need
a spy listening device to tell you classified secrets or find
something of importance to national security, but you may hear a
piece of information that impacts you more immediately in your
life.

One of the best reasons to use spy listening devices is that
when cameras may not be able to get in, a listening device often
can. With the right kind of device, you can even record what you
hear and play it back or use it as evidence. Many people make
use of listening devices to record phone conversations with
their exes or to listen in on behavior that may be construed as
betrayal. This can give you an edge should legal proceedings be
in order at some point.

Some of the more common spy listening devices that consumers
make use of are things like lapel mics and pens. They are small
and work well for up-close conversations. Additionally, they are
innocuous and can be left in a room where, even after you leave,
you can hear what is being said. Other common devices are
listening devices that one can attach to a phone. You can record
your own conversations to protect yourself, or you can record
others’ conversations.

No matter how you go about it or what you do with them, using
spy listening devices can provide valuable tools to help you
stay “in the loop.” You can learn information that you need to
know with the help of spy listening devices.

(c) 2005 Copyright www.spyassociates.com. This article is about:
Spy Listening Devices To learn more about Spy and Surveillance
Products visit http://www.spyassociates.com<
/a> Read other related articles at http://spyassociates.bl
ogspot.com/

To protect our homes and edifices, our first course of protection is the presence of Fire Suppression Systems. They run in a complex web devoted to noticing risk in the form of smoke and flame. It is also essential to regard that fire tools must also be set up properly. In order to verify the full efficiency, it is urgent that a professionally licensed engineer accomplish a extensive plan of how the Fire Suppression System is presented.

In the instance of a building, the Fire Suppression System likewise considers the exits, number of stories, layout and electrical facility. It also interprets the degree of complexity necessary for each particular building. As an example, a big sporting arena will be Braced with a system more refined than that of a plain home. In a large common building, supplemental flame Refuge features will be needed such as ceiling shower systems and elaborate communications tools that are not involved on private places.

While designing the plan, the engineer and fire technicians will study the layout of the property and see where flame extinguishers should be appropriately placed in order to maximise the Well-being execution measures. A completed drawing of the property will show exits, proposed locations of flame and fume equipments, as well as any wiring or electric needs that may result from this facility.

fire technicians and electrical engineers operate together to set up and establish the Fire Prevention System in huge public buildings and make positive they pass construction codes and guidelines. For numerous examples for both personal and common buildings, their flame Suppression Systems will be instantly linked to the flame officials office. Through this strategy, Assistance can be sent out instantly before any major devastation comes about.

A thoroughly crafted and executed fire Suppression System executes a serious part in the conservation of life and property, constituting it critical in our society.

I’ve often wondered when in human history the concept of the scam originated. At what point in civilization did the first man or woman decide to broker an exchange of currency and goods on a deceptive premise? Was it a corrupt Egyptian chariot dealer who sold poorly refurbished vehicles at top market value? Or perhaps an unscrupulous Babylonian alchemist who sold colored water in the guise of powerful love potions? There is no clear historical indication of when the act of cheating an individual out of their money, wares, or other assets was pioneered.

The American Heritage Dictionary cites the origin of the word “scam” as unknown. Some scholars have suggested the word derives from”scamp”, which is the 19th century British slang for cheater or swindler. Other sources indicate the word first enjoyed common usage in the 1960s. I have yet to find a study that actually pins down the coining of the term.

Despite the ambiguous background of both the word and the practice, one thing is certain. Scamming, swindling, hoodwinking, and duping of all kinds does not by any stretch appear to be a short lived phenomenon.

We are warned on a regular basis about some kind of shady operation that has cheated victims out of x amount of dollars. For confirmation of this, just tune in to the evening news or click on over to your favorite news site.

Regrettably, it is common knowledge that cyberspace is brimming with identity thieves, con artists, ponzi schemes, email phishing, and an endless array of unethical “business opportunities”. Millions of dollars each year are lost by victims of such scams.

If you’re like me, you probably get angry when you hear about a life insurance scam that targets senior citizens and disappears into the night with thousands of dollars, or a false charity that solicits massive donations from middle to lower class households before vanishing without a trace. I mean, it’s appalling to think of these crooks who, for whatever reason, feel they don’t have to work an honest job like the rest of us. How can these people call themselves human when they go to such despicable lengths to steal from people who probably need every dollar they have just to pay the light bill and feed their households?

On the other hand…

Life is a two way street. We can’t push all the responsibility for the outcome of an interaction onto only one party.

Clearly, I’m not justifying the actions of those who operate scams at the expense of the innocent. I am saying, however, that “it takes two to tango”.

In many cases, a little common sense, or some time spent on careful investigation of the circumstances, would dispel the efforts of a would be scammer before any money changed hands. All too often when people are conned, they are hoping against hope, and buying into an idea that is obvioualy too good to be true.

I’m sure you’ve received at least a couple of emails that fit into the “Nigerian Scam” category. These messages usually run along the lines of:

DEAR SIR,

CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL

HAVING CONSULTED WITH MY COLLEAGUES AND BASED ON THE INFORMATION GATHERED FROM THE NIGERIAN CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY, I HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO REQUEST FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE TO TRANSFER THE SUM OF $47,500,000.00 (FORTY SEVEN MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS) INTO YOUR ACCOUNTS. THE ABOVE SUM RESULTED FROM AN OVER-INVOICED CONTRACT, EXECUTED COMMISSIONED AND PAID FOR ABOUT FIVE YEARS (5) AGO BY A FOREIGN CONTRACTOR. THIS ACTION WAS HOWEVER INTENTIONAL AND SINCE THEN THE FUND HAS BEEN IN A SUSPENSE ACCOUNT AT THE CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA APEX BANK.

These emails then go on to explain how the recipient can receive this enormous transfer of funds within a few business days. All that is required is a routing number so the money can be easily wired into the correct account, and an advance fee of between $1,000 and $10,000 for “adminitrative purposes”.

Let’s see. An email from someone you have never met, who claims you are entitled to 47.5 million dollars, if you’ll just shoot them your bank account info, complete with wire access number, and an administrative fee of up to $10k.

Could this be a scam of some sort?

Would you believe the “Nigerian Scam” model had resulted in losses exceeding 6 billion dollars by 2002? Absolutely incredible that anyone could be duped by such a transparent ruse.

Another point of interest is that, according to an FTC study conducted last year, nearly 20% of all consumer fraud victims were scammed on at least two occasions, and almost 10% were duped a third time. Impressive learning curve for a twelve month period, eh?

If so many people weren’t allowing themselves to be robbed blind by anyone with a trick up their sleeves, maybe there would be less scams to worry about. Without victims who are (apparantly) willing to buy into even the most absurd pitches, I imagine many con artists would be forced to get day jobs.

I’ve been a little coarse in an effort to make a point, but now I’ll be honest. I’ve been scammed myself on multiple occasions.

Granted, I’ve never fallen for anything quite as ridiculous as the “Nigerian Scam”, but I have done my share to fund the scam industry by taking risks despite my better judgement. During the first eight months I spent in the net marketing arena, I blew more money than I care to admit on stuff that I knew deep down would never pay off.

Why did I do it? Because I wanted to believe that I was in the right place at the right time, or that I was somehow entitled to a lucky break.

I’m not ashamed to tell you this, because I know I’m not alone. I know quite a few intelligent, successful people who have allowed themselves to be fleeced on at least one occasion.

The important thing is that we learn from our bad decisions, and accept at least part of the responsibility for our loss. It seems personal accountability is not a popular ideal in our society, but pointing fingers and laying blame has historically done very little toward creating a real solution to any problem.

As the saying goes…

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

****************************

Tim Whiston is a full-time entrepreneur and internet marketer. He publishes a monthly ezine, and is the author of Net Marketing Exposed.

****************************

A USA Today article that ran in July 2005 cited findings from a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation. They found that during the school year, kids between the ages of 8 and 10 years old spent an average of 6 hours per day watching television, playing video games and/or using computers.

Since more than half of America’s 100 million households have Internet access, I can only assume that some of their computer time is spent in online activities. My question is how safe are these kids? Do they know what to look out for? Do they know how to handle themselves online?

Here are some topics to discuss with your children. Keep in mind that each family has their own rules for Internet use. Some parents don’t allow their children to be on the Internet at all, others will monitor their child’s Internet use, and still others have no concern and let their kids surf wherever and whenever they want.

Strangers.

The Internet is a wonderful place to meet people from all around the world. I remember having a pen pal when I was young and would check the mail every day to see if I got a letter. Now all one has to do is turn on the computer and check their Inbox! Friends who are separated by a move can still talk every day through email, chat rooms and Instant Messaging (IM).

The drawback to this is that no one knows who you really are on the Internet. Even in so-called “safe” chat rooms someone can be posing as a teenager and they are really a predator. Just as you wouldn’t want your kids to tell a stranger on the street where they live, you don’t want them to do so online either. Teach your children to never tell anyone online their names, addresses or other pertinent information.

If you decide to allow your children to use IM or chat rooms, monitor their activity. Set up their profile yourself and give as little information as possible. It may be helpful for you and your child to watch the short movie “Tracking Teresa” on the Kidsmartz.org website (http://www.netsmartz.org/resources/reallife.htm#realTeresa).

Commercialism.

Just like TV, there are lots of ads on the Internet. Unlike TV, we don’t get a break from them! They are everywhere! They show up as pop-up ads, banners, hover boxes, games and they are even disguised as articles or information items. They warn you that your computer is infected, you have new mail, you are the umpteenth-million visitor to this site or they may look like a survey or poll. And ads on sites geared for kids are often very inviting and intriguing.

Along with ads we also have adware. Microsoft defines adware as “Advertising that is integrated into software. Adware is often combined with a host application that is provided at no charge as long as the user agrees to accept the adware.” So a child could download a “free” game or screensaver that has adware attached to it. This adware will install itself on your computer, track all of your Internet activity and show you advertising in the form of annoying pop-ups or banner ads. If your kids are like mine, they don’t always read the fine print and just click on the “I accept” button to get their freebies!

Talk to your kids about Internet advertising and Adware. Let them know that they are the same as ads on TV. Someone just wants you to buy their new product. Take your kids to PBS’ Don’t Buy It! website (http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/ ) for great information on Internet and other media advertising.

Inappropriate Content.

The Internet is a great place to find information for any school science project or report. Just type in a phrase or topic in any search engine and you will get loads of links with useful information. But there are also many sites that contain inappropriate content under presumably innocent searches.

My friend was looking up information for her daughter’s animal report and typed in “horse lovers” in a search engine, figuring that she may get horse enthusiast sites dedicated to providing information on their favorite animal. She got sites with horses on them, but they were horse lovers of a COMPLETELY different kind… And not too long ago, there was a site at www.whitehouse.com that was of an adult nature. (The real White House site is at www.whitehouse.gov.)

The only way to be sure that your child does not inadvertently find themselves on the wrong site is to be with them and guide them in their searches. It is also helpful to use a search engine specifically designed for children such as www.yahooligans.com or www.askjeeveskids.com.

Regardless of how much or how little your kids are on the Internet, take a minute to talk with them about the benefits and dangers involved in being online. Let them explore some sites that will help them learn about Internet safety. Here are a few that are extremely helpful when teaching Internet Safety to kids:

Netsmartz.org - Teens - www.netsmartz.org/netteens.htm
Netsmartzkids.org - Kids - www.netsmartzkids.org/indexfl.htm
IKeepSafe.com (this site is specialized for each state) - www.IKeepSafe.com
Disney’s CyberNetiquette — http://disney.go.com/cybersafety/

And remember - be involved in your children’s Internet activity. Teach them to use this powerful tool responsibly. It will save them time and you headaches as you travel the World Wide Web.

Lisa Workman is the author of Tokens for TV: A Sensible Approach to Balancing Television, Video Game and Computer Activities. How much time does your child spend “plugged in” to some sort of electronic device? Get your FREE worksheet at http://www.tvtokens.com

Internet scams and frauds are on the rise! The quantity of scam
emails with various fraud schemes any email account receives
today is simply overwhelming! There is this infamous Nigerian
419 scam, which is by far the most widely circulated one. I wrote
about it in one of our ezine articles not long ago. You can read
about it here! And there are many other scams like Lottery, Letter
of Credit, money transfer, black money conversion, real estate,
fraudulent order and the list goes on and on.

Looking at my daily doze of scam letters, looks like, the lottery
scam seams to be gaining popularity among the con artists. This
scam is similar to other forward fee schemes, where the goal of
the con artist is to persuade an unsuspected victim to send an
advance payment for some dubious offers that the swindlers never
plan to fulfill.

Email Lottery Scam

The subject of the emails from an unknown source to you will,
probably show, something similar to, “Congratulation! You have
own a lottery”. With minor variations the text in most of these
letters is virtually identical.

The letter, usually, claims to be issued by a Lottery Company
based in some countries like The Netherlands, Switzerland, England,
Canada or the USA.

And then it says that you are one of many people randomly chosen
from all over the world to participate in a lottery of a very large
sum. You along with some others have won this lottery. You will
be asked to contact them immediately to claim your prize money.
Most certainly, the letter will also warn you to keep this as a
secret and will specify that the offer has a time limit.

If you contact them after receiving this letter; there are number
of variation how the thugs will try to swindle you. They are quite
imaginative and sometimes very innovative in their endeavors.

In general the idea is - you have to pay a fee before the lottery
company can release the amount to you. The pretexts are, usually,
an investigation company has to make sure that you are the right
person who won the lottery, as a foreigner you have to pay a tax
before you can get your prize and there is a processing and
handling fee that has to be paid before hand, etc.

Don’t think that these dubious offers are only sent by emails.
People received them by regular mails, by direct phone calls and
even by SMS.

Phone Call Lottery Scam

One fine morning you may receive a call from a person, claiming
to be a lawyer from a prestigious law farm, and will tell you
that you have won a foreign lottery; that a processing fee is
due before the prize money can be released to you. The seniors
are most likely to be the victims of these telemarketers. If you
are located in the USA, most likely, the person will introduce
himself as a Canadian lawyer and will inform you as if you have
won a Canadian Provincial Lottery.

Lottery Scam by SMS

You may even receive a SMS message advising that you have won
a foreign lottery. You will be instructed to log onto a website
and enter a login and password, which would be provided to you
in the message. The site will have the same look and feel of a
legitimate lottery site, but in fact, it is a copy site created
by the scammers. The URL address will have a very minor,
virtually, unnoticeable difference. Once you log in and see
for yourself that you have really own the lottery, you will
be asked to forward a gaming tax of US $100 to US $500 before
you claim your prize.

How to identify these scams and avoid being conned?

The number one motto that you should follow is - if it is too
good to be true, then probably, it is indeed too good to be true!
There is no way you can win a lottery, in what you have never
participated!

The followings are the signs of probable scam offers, you will
be better off if you avoid them scrupulously:

Any offer, where you have to send cash upfront to redeem you
prize.

Any offer of a substantial percentage of a large sum of money
to be transferred into your account, in return for your
“discretion” or “confidentiality”;

Requests for signed and stamped, blank letterhead or invoices,
or for bank account information;

Requests for payment in advance of transfer taxes or other fees;
Statements that your name was provided to the soliciting party
either by someone you do not know or by “a very reliable
contact;”

Unsolicited calls asking if you would like to be in a “Lottery
pool”;

Mail notifying you that you have already won a substantial sum
of money.

Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present
CEO of Rusbiz.com - a Global B2B Exchange with solutions to
create e-catalog, Web store, business process management and
other features to run a business online. You can read various
articles written by Nowshade Kabir at http://ezine.rusbiz.com.

Yes, I’m wearing my encryption hat again. Why you may ask? Well I just finished reading about the newest security hole in Microsoft’s latest server product. Then couple that with all the recent hacker activity, new reports from the GAO (that’s the Government Accounting Office) that the government can’t protect it’s own computers and data much less the data WE send them, reports that computer theft is on the rise and news that the FBI is now developing a new computer “worm” (read virus) to spy on citizens, I decided to sing the encryption song again. This time I’ll sing a verse about personal data encryption.

So what do I mean by personal data encryption? I mean ANY data on ANY storage medium that relates to you, your family or your business. Encryption is the process of scrambling electronic data in such a way that it’s unreadable to all but the owner.

For the purposes of this article I’ll cover two different ways to encrypt data and the pros and cons of each.

The first way is file/folder encryption. This is the process by which someone identifies what data they want to protect on a file by file or folder basis and then encodes each file or folder using some kind of software encryption tool.

What are the pros of this style of encryption? First, each file or folder can be assigned its own “encryption key”. Then, even if one key gets “cracked” open, all the other files or folders will still be safe. Next, only those files and folders you identify and select will be encrypted. This allows for a “gnat’s behind” level of detail that some folks need to feel secure.

What are the cons of file or folder level encryption? Well, at this level of detail, tracking of all the different encryption keys and file locations would be an administrative nightmare! So, unless you have days to spend identifying files and folders and encrypting them or if you are really, really into details, file level encryption just isn’t practical for most people.

The second way to protect personal data is drive encryption. Unlike file encryption, drive level encryption allows a user to create a reserved area on the hard drive called a container. Once created, this container can be “mounted” or set to act like another fully functional hard drive on a computer. It will appear in the file manager just like any other drive.

What are the pros for drive encryption? This space can be “mounted” using a single encryption key and the key only needs to be entered once. After it’s mounted, this virtual drive can contain any data and / or program, just like any regular drive. But when it’s dismounted, the virtual drive is no longer visible and the container looks like any other file, the contents of which are completely inaccessible without the encryption key.

What’s the down side to drive encryption? If you forget your key, all the data and / or program information in the container is lost. Also, all the information is only protected by a single key. So if your key is compromised, all your information is available to prying eyes.

What’s my recommendation? Drive encryption. Drive encryption is far more efficient than file encryption especially if you need to access your data frequently. Drive encryption also allows for the complete encryption of programs, something virtually impossible to do with file level encryption. (Well not impossible but certainly problematic and time consuming!) And by creating an encryption key of sufficient size and complexity, the single key issue becomes almost moot.

One site I visited recently stated that it would take one million computers performing one million operations per second approximately 11 trillion years to crack a 128 bit encryption key! So, by using an encryption key of about 64 random characters, a hacker would need multiple life times to crack open your files.

There are several programs available online for both file and drive encryption. All these programs differ in functionality, price, encryption algorithms and interfaces. The best way to proceed is to do a search from your favorite search engine on encryption tools and read about the options available.

Don’t wait! The day will come when your system gets compromised by some hacker or thief or FBI agent and then you’ll wish you had protected your data.

Privacy is your right! Exercise it!

Michael Ameye has been developing web sites since 1995. He started writing about online privacy issues to answer questions from family, friends and co-workers. Visit http://www.canyourspam.com to see his latest work.

He is also the chief editor of PSS Online, A Privacy, Safety and Security eZine dedicated to bringing important information to people in order to foster a safer more secure environment - online and off. Visit http://www.pssonline.info to subscribe.