Updated Friday, September 22, 2006

Please Note!!!! This page is under constant construction! If you have any comments or helpful tips regarding computer secuity, please don't hesitate to send your ideas for inclusion on this page....

Housekeeping Rituals "House Cleaning" Software Bookmarking E-mail Other Security Concerns

Being involved in an extramarital relationship today quite often involves the use of your personal or work computer and communication via the internet. Yes, it's fast and relatively safe but only if one takes the time to cover their tracks Each of the links on the left deal with a particular aspect of intertnet / computer security. It may well be worth your while to spend some time here to educate yourself.

Housekeeping Rituals
If you are not the only one to use your computer, then it's possible that the information you leave behind can be discovered. This can be disastrous! Writing letters using MS Word or Lotus or similar can be password protected. Make sure you add a passcode when saving these types of documents.

Browsers - All Types

History - To make it easier for users to remember where they were, and to easily go back to that place, browsers will maintain a "sequenced history" of the user's activities. Unfortunately, if you are surfing somehwere that your spouse may find suspicious, they too can see where you've been. To avoid trhis problem, make sure you clear out your browser history after each session online. Consult your browser's help file to find ou thow to do this.

Disc Caching
Disk caching uses conventional main memory. The most recently accessed data from the disk (as well as adjacent sectors) is stored in a memory buffer. When a program needs to access data from the disk, it first checks the disk cache to see if the data is there. Disk caching can dramatically improve the performance of applications, because accessing a byte of data in RAM can be thousands of times faster than accessing a byte on a hard disk.
When data is found in the cache, it is called a cache hit, and the effectiveness of a cache is judged by its hit rate. Many cache systems use a technique known as smart caching, in which the system can recognize certain types of frequently used data. The strategies for determining which information should be kept in the cache constitute some of the more interesting problems in computer science. Unfortunately, a savvy PC user can view the cached information which will expose the previous users activities. The cache therefore should be cleared after each session online. Consult your browser's help file to find ou thow to do this.

Software for "Cleaning House"
Many products are currently available for deleting the traces of your EMR related activities

It is advisable that you download a browser clean-up program Why? Because even if you use an "off site" mail service, your browser keeps temporary "snapshots" of the mail message on your machine - not good - someone with a little knowledge can open these snapshots and read the entire message. Yes, you can go to DOS & do the command line deletes as recomended by others - I think this is a bad idea - one wrong keystroke and you're in deep trouble! This particular program (and there are others too) allows you to delete all history, cookies, file bar URL's, tempoary files, etc - and they are gone forever! It's just too easy not to use... And remember to run it each & every time before you shut your computer down!
All of the above applies equally to laptops or desktops - all work the same.

Here's a list of products to checkout

Product Name	URL	Cost
Complete Cleanup	www.softdd.com	$29.95
Spy Sweeper	www.webroot.com	$29.95

Bookmarking
First of all..... DON"T. A bookmark to this website or other EMR related websites is not a good idea. You will constantly be just a couple of clicks away from being discovered. Yes, you can disguise the bookmark by renaming it as something other than what it is but that's not enough.

Several online bookmark websites are available for storing your sensitive bookmarks. But for heaven's sake, don't bookmark your bookmark site!!! This would defeat the purpose.
Here are two good places to start:

1. http://www.sitejot.com/
   
2. http://www.mybookmarks.com

E-mail
E-mail.... probably the most damning evidence that could ever be found on your computer.

The first concern has to do with your mailbox & email software. To keep security tight, you MUST use an "off site" email service such as Hotmail, Yahoo, or any of the countless others out there. With these services, you must access your mail through your browser (Netscape or IE) and your messages are not actually downloaded to your computer (well, not exactly... see caching above). It goes without saying to choose a password that is difficult to hack - your dogs name is not good enough! And as I've previously mentioned, do not "bookmark" or add the site address to your "favorites" - I know it's a pain to type the full address each time, but hey...
Now, if any of you are using an "on site" mail program (such as Outlook, Eudora, Pegases, etc) STOP USING IT!!! These programs actually download the mail to your computer - sure, you can delete the individual messages (you think!), but just a little effort can retrieve most of what you've deleted - you'd be surprised!

Other Security Concerns
If your significant other suspects your involvement in an EMR, they may take steps to covertly find out what you have been up to on your computer. Yes, there are software programs that can be installed, without your knowledge, that record computer activities. Your job is to find out if these reside on your machine....

This is the type of PC Snooping program that can be used to bust you... Spectorsoft..

All is not hopeless however...
Here are links to Spy Program Detectors... Check them out. Installing one of these programs just may save you!