A while back I had read several articles in PC Magazine about these risks and that was what made me get a copy of Black Ice. By way it is easy to install and use. I don't know about ZoneAlarm but from my readings it appears it is also fairly simple. One of ezines I subscribe to recently had a short article about a site called "Shields UP!" where you could go to check your computer security for free. If you are interested go to: https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

These tests are for Windows systems. There will be two buttons, "Test My Shields" and Probe My Ports". These tests take a couple of minutes each and they will give you a full report. When I was finished, I felt pretty good for moment since they couldn't get into my machine. In fact they evaluated it as "appearing that my computer didn't even exist".

You can sit there and say that you are only a little guy or gal, who would even try? Well that may be so, but on other hand, do you know exactly what you have saved on your computer - credit card numbers, account numbers, personal information...? You would be amazed at number of files that are saved on your machine by windows and other programs that you aren't even aware of.

I have had to change credit card accounts twice in last year due to some large well known companies who's systems were attacked and credit card files were compromised. So it can happen, even to big guys. The software is out there to help you, it can be free or relatively inexpensive. Why not feel a little more secure?

Joe Reinbold, Publisher of Home Income Quarterly E-dition, a free weekly on line marketing newsletter. To subscribe just mailto:subscribe@homebizlink.com Or visit The Entrepreneur's Home Business Link where you will find the solutions to your home business needs at: http://www.homebizlink.com

1. Delete all your files from your Windows 95/98 recycle bin using standard 'Empty Recycle Bin' command. 2. Open your browser and delete history files and browser cache from your preferences/options menu. 3. Open Windows Explorer and right click on drive letter you use for your main hard drive. Select "Properties" 4. Write down your drive's total Capacity, Used Space and Free Space; you'll need this later. 5. Download Evidence EliminatorT free trial program from http://www.evidence-eliminator.com/go.shtml?A654789 6. Run Evidence Eliminator(TM). 7. Repeat step 3 and compare how much free space is now available on your hard drive.

Here's results of my experiment:

Total hard drive space 30,677,901,312 bytes (28.5GB)

Available space before Evidence Eliminator: 26,893,676,544 bytes Available space AFTER Evidence Eliminator: 26,620,821,504 bytes

Total reclaimed space: 272,855,040 bytes

To translate, Evidence Eliminator(TM) removed over 260MB of files from my computer! This isn't much for those of us who have mega-space on our hard drives, but for those with more limited space, 260MB is a lot!

Here's some astonishing information I discovered about files on my computer:

295 Windows Application logs were found. These logs stored information about what windows programs I've been using each day.

There were almost 90 "components" discovered and removed that had "installed themselves" to my computer without my knowledge!

271 Start Menu Recent Documents logs were removed. This held information about what programs I had selected from my Windows Start Menu.

3601 IE cache files were found AFTER I had cleared my IE cache and history!

1960 IE cookies were removed. I had full control over which cookies I kept and which ones I did not.

5636 Windows .TMP files were found that were NOT removed using browser history delete options. Some of these files are result of extracting .zip files that were downloaded from internet, web pages I viewed off-line, .midi and .wav files which downloaded during visits to web pages with background music, etc.

My experiment proved to me that there IS information about me and my computer usage habits that is stored on my computer which takes up valuable space, not to mention information I might not want to ever be public knowledge. It's always a good idea to keep your computer clean of unwanted files and protect your privacy at same time.

Are you aware of every single file on your computer? You should be! Protect yourself from Cyber-Spys and regain control of what information is stored on your PC. In this world of high technology, you never can tell when this information could be found and used.