One thing that everyone should consider when thinking about security software is how the Internet and its technologies work. This will provide you with a means to use the Internet in a more secure and responsible manner.

Human nature, being what it is, relies heavily on trust. The Internet was built on trust. Connecting computers in the 1960s was a very simple thing, relying on everyone to follow the rules. Much has changed since those days. The way we use computers has changed, and many more people have access to a computer. The Internet has literally exploded since the days when only a few researchers were trying to connect their very slow PCs.

Let’s do a comparison. When you receive postal mail, most letters contain the return address. Have you ever stopped and wondered if these addresses are really valid? How would you go about finding out if the return address was valid? Most people wouldn’t bother I think.

Here comes the – now so popular – email message, how will you know where it came from? An attacker can easily falsify the sender’s address, which is called spoofing. Not only email messages can be forged, but information packets containing data and sent over the Internet are also susceptible to forgery.

What does this mean to you and why should you care? Think about it. It means you should never staunchly open an email you don’t know the sender of. You should never trust any information from an unknown source. Great destroyer of paranoia, as the Kinks put it in one of their songs. It is better to be safe than sorry when using the Internet.

If you click on a link in an email message that turns out to have a malicious virus or Trojan horse attached to it, you’re not only putting yourself at risk, but everyone in your address book as well. That’s a serious responsibility, and that’s why you should also worry about the security of your computer.

There’s no need for paranoia, but being a little judgmental and cautious surely won’t do any harm when using the internet.