I have read that to protect yourself from the bad guys when transacting business online, you should only use sites that display “https” instead of “http” in the address or that have the padlock symbol on the page. How does it work?
A. Bad guys are blocked because websites that use the https (Hypertext Transport Protocol Secure) technology encrypt data using the rock-solid public key method that cannot be hacked by criminals.
So https protects stuff as it is sent from the customer’s computer over the Web to the online store’s computers. Most websites have unprotected addresses that begin with http (Hypertext Transport Protocol), and it is relatively easy for criminals to monitor that data as it is sent from buyer to seller over the Web.
Stuff really is bulletproof if it is sent using the https method because it is backed by encryption from security giants such as VeriSign Inc., so that padlock icon truly tells you the transmission is secure.
Experts add, however, that while https keeps stuff safe en route, it doesn’t keep hackers from getting into a store’s Web servers using other means, including bribing insiders. In other words, padlock or no padlock, it still boils down to whether you can trust the individual store.
Q. I will purchase a new PC soon, and my questions include: 1. How do I “offload” my stuff from my 8-year-old Windows 98 PC and “on-load” it to my new computer? 2. For personal security concerns, how will I know the old PC is “empty”? 3. Any pitfalls?
A. Let’s take the three parts in reverse order: First, yes there are potential pitfalls, several of them, in fact.
Second, your computer is so old that I think the best way to make sure it is “empty” of data is our old friend the hammer adjustment.
An 8-year-old hard drive is so obsolete that I recommend that you open the case, remove the hard drive and bash it repeatedly with a heavy hammer to destroy the data-holding surface and all mechanisms.
With the case open, you can find the hard drive attached to a wide ribbon of wires that can be removed by pulling. Hard drives are held in place by a couple of screws that are easy to find and remove.
If attacking the problem with a sledgehammer seems too crude, you can go online and download utilities that will write gibberish onto each and every bit space on a hard drive, thereby making recovery impossible. Go to www.summitcn.com, and check out the freeware HDScrub 2, which will do the overwriting for you.
Finally, to move data between an old computer and a new one, the best way is to acquire an external hard drive that connects by way of the USB port to any computer. Or use a CD-RW drive to save your data files on a stack of discs that can be fed into the new machine.