These pages contain some information about internet security and privacy. The information and links come from my investigations into the subject over several years. As I have learnt, there's a lot you can do to protect your privacy and security, and you don't have to spend any money on software if you are a home user like me, unable to spend £50 a year or more on subscriptions and upgrades.

I've been using computers since floppy disks were really floppy, and a big hard drive held one megabyte of information, but I hadn't had my own computer for a long time. In fact my last one was a CPM machine, back in the days when the internet was a new invention which allowed a professor in one university to write an electronic letter to a professor in another university, and a virus was a strange thing which could turn the words Margaret Thatcher into something rude or made all the letters on you screen fall like snow.

In 2002 I bought a new computer and plugged it into the internet, with only the protection of an anti-virus program. Thanks to information from sources such as BBC's World's excellent Click Online programme, I was aware that a thing called a firewall might be a good idea to protect against bad people called hackers and was lucky enough to be able to obtain one free as part of the computer package I purchased.

Since then I've learnt:

An anti-virus program and a firewall are not enough to protect against new internet threats like spyware.

There are people connecting to the Net completely 'in the nude', with no anti-virus program or firewall, such as my computer engineer friend, employee of a major world computer company.

Anti-virus and firewall programs may come as part of your computer package, but you will still have to pay subscriptions and upgrade charges after six months or a year. these can easily exceed £50 in a year, too much for me to justify.

There are computers in use containing hundreds of items of spyware, downloaded with games and other applications from the internet, such as the computer in an office I visited which contained 160 spyware objects.

These pages have some simple aims:

To give some really simple information about things like viruses, hackers, firewalls and spyware (and to provide links to comprehensive information for those who wish to look further.)

To describe some simple steps you can take to protect yourself effectively without having to spend a lot of money on expensive software.