John Locke said that "no one ought to harm another in his

life, health, liberty, or possessions",Yet as I sit here at

my computer this morning, I get the feeling that the

attempts being made to keep the Internet's safe will not

come to fruition soon.

Yes, I can hear you saying, "don't be such a downer,

Doug"

Well, hear me out.

Lets explore John Lockes quote shall we?

Life. Yours, mine, your loved ones. Its yours, to do with

what you will. Well, sometimes your will is to use the

Internet's. But how secure are you? Is your AntiVirus,

AntiSpyware and Firewall working and up to date? Do you know

what is a Spam email is and not to click on the URL they

provide? These decisions can affect your life if you are

online.

Next, Liberty or as I prefer to think of, Freedom. To have

access to particular resources without constraint. If online

threats are making your life hectic, would you consider your

rights violated? I would if I found out that some drive by

download had installed a keylogger on my computer and then

cleaned out my bank account. Or how about while you're

trying to conduct business online and you keep getting these

awful pop=ups telling you about the sale at Harveys Fish

Emporium.

Are your Liberties/ Freedoms being constrained yet?

Now we come to the best part, the pursuit of Spyware. Ok, so

John Locke didn't say anything about Spyware, Write your

own article, this ones mine!

Threats to our online safety are growing in leaps and bounds

by the day. I learned long ago, there is always someone out

there who is better than anyone previously. The attacks on

servers, the Bot networks, the phishing, the URL re-directs,

Keyloggers, Image Spam, it just goes on and on. Your

personal information is at risk every minute you are online.

I know, you have the best AntiVirus, AntiSpyware, Firewall

there is. But is it really? How do you know? When was the

last time you ran "Hijack This" and uploaded the results

to a help Forum like MajorGeeks, Bleeping Computer or

DaniWeb? Its the only way to make sure your computer is

clean. And theres no guarantee it wont become re-infected

two minutes after you leave the Forum.I know it happens

because I frequent these Forums and I see hundreds of

freaked users pleading for help. Many are repeat submitters.

Which brings me to the whole purpose of this article. To

bring into the spotlight those out there who fight everyday

to help keep us safe. They sit at their computers for hours

at a time, examining postings in Forums to help others they

don't even know stay out of the clutches of those who would

benefit from the misfortune of others.

Ever get that feeling of helplessness that comes when your

computer wont work right.

Remember? Not fun huh? These people read your postings and

know your pain. Its hard to do this also, they have to help

you fix your computer thru posting instructions for you to

do. Miscommunication and frustrations can cause it to take

longer and compound the repairs.

Then there are the organizations that go after the meanies

that cause your pain.

They put out alerts and issue fixes. These include The

Alliance of Security Analysis Professionals, The

Anti-Spyware Coalition, The Council of Advocates for Relief

from Malware Assimilation, The Spamhaus Project, just to

name a few. There are plenty more out there that are

fighting the good fight every day. The goal is a

communication arena where all can participate without

concern of malicious intent.

Kind of like the old days when the Internet first existed.

Back then there were "Hackers". They were mostly driven by

ego and competition to see who was the best. Now its mostly

about money. Legions of Bot captured computers sending out

Spam and ads going to millions and millions of unprotected

servers, computers and of course, into your email. Theres

also the Pharming of websites, waiting like a spider in its

lair for you to show up and give you a lil driveby download

of something special. You name the evil that people do and

you can find it online. Thank goodness the goodness of the

Internet's is on the other side of the scale.

So, the solution? Make another one and try again? I don't

have the answer, I do know that there are good people out

there who want safety for all and are making a good show of

it. They deserve our thanks.

I believe there is alway bad that comes with the good. A

balance or whatever. And like the other saying goes,

Retaining Freedom for all requires constant vigilance.

So be vigilant.