Retailers are constantly looking for new convenient ways to relieve you of your hard earn cash over the internet. You can now shop remotely on websites, on your mobile, and even on social media networks like Facebook.

Such is the growth of this type of purchasing that while Britain was still fighting itself out of a recession in 2010 the global e-commerce market grew 12.6 per cent. Business analyst Forrester predicts this ascendency will also continue with more than £170 billion worth of transactions expected to take place globally in 2015. Despite this rapid growth, fears over internet security consistently rear their head and the battle to stop scammers never stops.

Strict regulations are laid out by the payment card industry, to prevent fraud, which have to be adhered to by any company taking payments over the internet. This doesn’t necessarily guarantee that all companies operating online are reputable though IT experts have shown.

These days people can however get a good feel for a company’s reputation by visiting review sites. They can even go a step further and look up details on the Companies House website, where all registered UK businesses can be found.

Legislation recently agreed to by Euro MPs should also give online shoppers extra comfort in the future as websites will need to clearly state the identity and address of the seller. The changes are also designed to stop hidden charges, which can be added by pre-ticked boxes, sometimes used in internet sales. In addition to this it is important to remember when paying by credit card, for items over £100, it is the credit card company and the supplier who are responsible for the purchase. Therefore, if the goods are not delivered or are faulty, buyers can claim the money back from either the credit card company or the seller.

Protection over unauthorised transactions on credit cards also exists and if any erroneous payments are extracted then the credit card owner has up to 13 months after the transaction to demand repayment. The onus is then on the bank, building society or credit card company to prove the transaction was made by the purchaser.

Consumers can also add a further layer of protection by employing a payment service such as PayPal to distant themselves further from any financial risk. People do, however, need to be wary of fake websites and so called phishing scams, where con artists attempt to extract payment details over the internet by pretending to be organisations such as banks. Internet browsers such as Mozilla and Internet Explorer do have screen filters to prevent phishing but some scammers also use emails. It is important to remember to never send your payment details over emails, text messages or any chat rooms.

Payment details should only be sent on internet pages where the start of the web address, or URL, has an “s” after http. This indicates that the page is secure and any information sent from it will be encrypted. A padlock icon will also be visible on the address bar to confirm.

These simple tips for paying safely online will do the best part of protecting you online, spread the news!

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• Personal Data Hacking – Online ID Theft

  The recent hacking of Sony’s Playstation Network is the latest in a series of serious security breaches on high profile websites. US marketing service Epsilon, which holds data for about 2,500 firms including Marks & Spencer and Barclaycard, also suffered an attack where millions of email addresses were stolen. Online retailer Play.com has also had [...]

• Protect your computer with software Protection

  The high profile hacking of Sony’s Playstation Network is an unpleasant reminder that cyber criminals continue to be a genuine threat. The audacious attack exposed the personal information, and potentially the credit card details, of more than 3 million UK users. Following this attack the British government reiterated its plans to invest £650m in a [...]

The high profile hacking of Sony’s Playstation Network is an unpleasant reminder that cyber criminals continue to be a genuine threat. The audacious attack exposed the personal information, and potentially the credit card details, of more than 3 million UK users. Following this attack the British government reiterated its plans to invest £650m in a National Cyber Security Programme.

Home users can, however, take their own steps to avoid the opening themselves up to the malicious software (malware) and viruses used by criminals.  You do not require the assistance of an IT support expert to protect your computer with software and common sense.

Malware can come in an array of forms and present themselves in a variety of ways:

The trojan horse is particularly common and may appear innocent but can cause untold problems if released on a home computer.

These may present themselves as pop-ups asking you to scan for viruses – if allowed they can crash computers and redirect people to the payment screen of a fake anti-virus websites, this type of malicious software is often called Scareware.

In 2010 Google found 11,000 such domains hosting fake anti-virus software accounting for 50 per cent of all the malware on the internet.

Other types of malware such as worms, which can reduce security on computer, can transfer themselves from computer to computer using emails.  With that in mind, it is always best not to open any email attachment that seems suspicious or you are uncertain about.

Clicking on suspect links can also allow Spyware, which can steal personal information for criminals, on to your computer.

Firewalls and anti-virus programmes should be installed, and regularly updated, to prevent viruses and malware installing themselves on home computers. Internal firewalls, know as sandbox programmes, can also be installed to create a secure ring around any temporary downloads taking place while surfing the internet.

Self replicating viruses, which maybe more malicious than criminal, can also be a nuisance if your computer becomes infected. They can even have disastrous consequences if you end up losing important documents or even sentimental photographs or videos. It is advisable to back-up anything of value on your computer just in case. Contracting a virus may result in slower running speeds, increased lag when surfing the web or for the internet browser to crash on a regular basis. It may also result in repeated pop-ups or unwelcomed icons appearing on the desktop.

Operating a powerful firewall and anti-virus scanners can, however, cause a similar affect putting too much demand on a PC – slowing internet sessions down. New cloud systems, which sit on remote servers and not on your PC, now promise to reduce demand on your computer and resolve some of these speed issues.

Having high settings on you firewall and anti-viruses programmes can also result in annoying pop-ups constantly asking you to give permission to access to certain websites.  This can also be reduced, if you are happy with the risk you are taking, by reducing the security settings.

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Computers now impact on our lives more than they ever have before. Almost a quarter of the UK’s mobile users now have smartphones and other mobile devices, such as the iPad, have seen a huge surge in sales with future trends due to increase.

The growth of 3G networks and wi-fi hotspots has also opened up access to the internet that didn’t previously exist.

People are now pulling out their mobiles to do a spot of e-shopping while commuting to work and downloading e-books to read while on the train.

Globally over 200 million have taken advantage of these technologies to check out a friend’s status on Facebook, using a mobile app.

Consumers have also been seduced by the iPad’s, and other tablets’, intuitive use and ability to instantly boot-up. Its unobtrusive presence in the boardroom has also made it a useful tool for business.

Accountancy firm Deloitte has even gone as far as to predict sales of these mobile computers will outstrip traditional PCs in 2011.  The benefit of mobile computing has caused some commentators to get carried away and predict the death of the PC.

However, most analysts envisage tablets and smartphones complementing rather than replacing the traditional computer.

Deloitte is actually predicting the sales of desktops, laptops and netbooks will go up 15 per cent this year.

Google may also have a big part to say in the future of computing debate, as it launches the Chromebook in June.

Developed by both Acer and Samsung, the Chromebook is built around the idea of instant connectivity to the web – it will also be able to boot-up in eight seconds.

Unlike traditional laptops which get slower as more applications are uploaded, the Chromebooks is designed to get faster as applications will be constantly updated over the internet.

Key to the future of all these new computing devices however, is access to the worldwide web.

Thankfully connectivity is getting faster.  We have been promised the roll out of 4G mobile networks over the next couple of years which, we are told, will give mobiles superfast broadband speeds.

The increasing availability of wi-fi internet hotspots is however, already filling that role in the short term regardless.

BT and the government have also pledged to deliver all UK’s domestic households superfast broadband by 2015. Homes receiving fibre optic to their premises – roughly a quarter of those in accessible areas – will get download speeds of up to 100mb.

This infrastructure could pave the way for internet TV and even the merger of televisions and computers.

It is now realistic to suggest that could be five or six computers in the typical home within the next few years.

The next step for computing could now be the replacement of the wallet and purse with the smartphone.

Near Field Communication (NFC) has already given mobiles the ability to buy products in a similar way that swipe credit cards currently work. It is yet to be seen if this will be made widely available.

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The recent hacking of Sony’s Playstation Network is the latest in a series of serious security breaches on high profile websites.

US marketing service Epsilon, which holds data for about 2,500 firms including Marks & Spencer and Barclaycard, also suffered an attack where millions of email addresses were stolen.

Online retailer Play.com has also had its data hacked exposing email addresses and personal information to cyber criminals.

In the biggest attack so far more than 77 million Sony PSN users had their personal information accessed and it is unsure whether credit card details were also taken.  In all cases the internet thieves were able to access email addresses.

Although this may seem trivial, email addresses are actually the key to our online world and if someone was able to access our email accounts and change the password they could wreak havoc with our lives.

Also, as people now need to remember their email address and password settings for dozens of different online applications, it is common for users to use the same password for them all.

Hackers do sell on personal information to other criminals and if one was to break through a person’s online security it is possible they could access bank details and social media accounts. They could even place innocent looking links on a Facebook wall or in an email to a friend which could then place spyware on their computers as well.

Breaching your internet password may also be easier than you think.  In early 2011 a Germany security researcher, Thomas Roth, claimed he was able to use Amazon’s cloud elastic computing service to crack a highly complex wi-fi code in 20 minutes, using what has been described as brute force tactics.

He was able to do this as the Amazon system allows users to increase their server power rapidly on demand, hence being called elastic, and he was able to test more than 40,000 passwords a second. It is believed the same method could test up to a million passwords a second.

These recent developments have caused it experts for security to warn consumers to beef up the complexity of their password settings. Some websites will now test the strength of passwords to show you which combinations work better against the software used to crack them.

Others commentators suggest lying about your date of birth, home town and former schools on social networking sites.

Research carried out by credit checker Experian showed that almost a quarter of people were willing to put their high school details on the internet but only 1 per cent would do it over the phone.

Identity theft has been a growing crime for some time and one which can be extremely messy and complicated to resolve if you become a victim. It can take months to clear up damage caused to credit ratings and it is much better to use preventative methods rather than a cure.

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New website May 2011

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