Staying safe online: there are steps you can take to cut down on spam, viruses and spyware.

• Author: Greenberg, Pam
• Position: TOOLS OF THE TRADE

If Bill Gates hasn't found a way to get rid of all his junk e-mail yet, chances are you're still receiving unwanted e-mail, too. About 80 percent of all e-mail is estimated to be unsolicited commercial messages called spam. The FTC has estimated that as much as two-thirds of spam is fraudulent. Most computer users now see only a relatively small amount of that spam, because most network administrators and Internet service providers (ISPs) use spam filtering programs that are effective in screening it out. But spammers continually are finding new ways to get their messages past filters and to Internet users.

Spam is more than a nuisance; it often carries more serious threats to computer users--viruses, worms, spyware and other kinds of "malware." Viruses can corrupt your computer's programs and files or even destroy all the information on a computer. Worms spread to other computers, often through a user's e-mail address book, and replicate themselves until they slow or shut down system resources. Spyware is software that is downloaded to a computer, often without a user's knowledge. It can track online activities or collect personal information, change settings on computers, or cause advertising messages to pop up on computer screens.

Your legislative computer is tin doubt well protected, but there are steps you can take that will help you cut down on spam, viruses and spyware on your home PC or your personal laptop.

1

Protect your e-mail address. You can reduce the amount of spam you receive by limiting the release and availability of your e-mail address--on Web sites, on subscriber mailing lists, and when purchasing items or subscribing to services.

Legislators' e-mail addresses often are posted on legislative Web sites, personal and campaign Web sites, and in newspaper articles and directories of public officials. But e-mail addresses on Web sites are automatically "harvested" by Web crawlers or spiders--software that spammers use to collect e-mail addresses. You probably want your official e-mail address to be as accessible as possible to constituents, and many legislatures use Web forms for email or apply other techniques to minimize harvesting, but there are additional steps you can take to protect your e-mail address.

Protect your personal e-mail address by not posting it on Web sites or in discussion groups, or set up one or more e-mail addresses and control how you use them. For example, keep one e-mail address to give to family...