While grossly underutilized, encryption is nevertheless a very mature technology with defined standards but — and here's big drawback — it has always been difficult and complex to implement for people with little technical aptitude or training. Fortunately, that is no longer a good reason not to implement encryption on your PC, if only so it's at least there and readily available if/when you need it.

When I decided that my computer and Internet security Bible "The Hacker's Nightmare" would not be complete without coverage of encryption, I was acutely aware of obstacles. The implementation difficulties concerned me greatly because this was a book aimed squarely at educating and protecting non-experts, thus solutions that were complex to implement and/or maintain and/or use were not acceptable.

However it did not make any sense at all to settle for anything less than a global standard that could be readily implemented by anyone. Proprietary implementations were out. To cut a long story short (the long version can be found in "The Hacker's Nightmare") I searched and tested and trialed and eventually discovered an excellent yet inexpensive product that enforced a very high degree of security, conformed to globally accepted standards, yet was easy to install and use.

The encryption chapter in The "The Hacker's Nightmare" was so well accepted by people who suddenly became aware of value of encryption that I decided to hive that chapter off into a separate book for people who for some reason didn't want full security Bible. I called it "Code Rings & Secret Handshakes: The Email Encryption Guide". That title is a bit of a misnomer because Guide tackles both eMail and File/folder encryption as well, but initial focus is on eMail protection.

Don't worry — I'm not going to compel you to buy one of my books to find out what encryption software I eventually settled on, use myself and highly recommend to everyone. Just jump to link below, provide your name and eMail address, select product you are interested in (you should choose FileAssurity OpenPGP) and shortly thereafter you'll receive an eMail with download instructions. Here's link: http://HackersNightmare.com?res=ArticsoftTrial

Please Note that I do not recommend trialing Lite version of software. Lite is missing several features that I think you'll find very useful, and small price difference is just not worth sacrifice of those features. The detailed tutorials in my books deal with features NOT found in Lite version.

I should emphasize that you do not need either of my books to use this software, but less expert you are with "computer stuff" more valuable you will find detailed tutorials. Also, owners of either "The Hacker's Nightmare" or "Code Rings & Secret Handshakes" are eligible for a $15 discount on registered version of encryption software package.

Well that's last of this eight-part series "How Safe Is Your Success". I hope you have found articles informative and useful. I welcome contact from you on related matters, suggestions for future articles, or your thoughts on how this series might be improved. Please don't hesitate to contact me through form at: http://HackersNightmare.com?res=Contact

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Computer and Internet security are very wide-ranging and complex topics – so much so that even experienced experts specialize in just a subset of whole. This may be part of reason that a perception has developed among general online populace that anything related to "computer security" is too difficult to be tackled by anyone other than an expert.

So consider enigma we are presented with if that's all true.

On one hand, you'd have to be bereft of all five senses and living on Mars not to know there is a sub-culture of Internet denizens who get their jollies by interfering with, stealing from and generally harming other people. We all know this. Logically we must then understand that if we connect to Internet, we become potential victims of these cyber-grubs. But, on other hand, we just know that we are powerless to do anything about it because it's "all too hard".

The big corporates are OK – they can afford to hire those experts and specialists I just spoke of. But what about non-IT-expert, average computer user and/or small business operator – what do they do for protection?

Well, I am going to let you in on a little secret. A secret that, if you take it seriously, just may save your business in not too distant future.

A lot of what you have been led to believe is complete garbage.

Many experts treat average PC users as if they are imbeciles; many others know better but they want you to think you are an imbecile anyway. It's in their vested interests to have you thinking like that. As long as you "know" that security is just "too hard" there'll be an inflated demand for their services.

Don't get me wrong. There are some security issues that really are very complex and well beyond ken of mere mortals. Such situations do demand services of highly skilled specialists. Even basic security relating to mid- to big-business networks requires extensive technical knowledge.

But as a small business operator, there is an awful lot you can do to safeguard against ever getting into a compromised situation, and to safeguard privacy and integrity of your data.

That is, to safeguard success you have already attained as well as that still to come.

In Part 2 well look at one of biggest weaknesses in your Internet interactions – web browser. And no, it's not going to be a knock-Internet-Explorer-fest. Throughout this series we are going to stick to practicalities and realities.

In meantime I'd like to leave you with some homework. Here's a link to a detailed article I wrote concerning some urban myths about browsers: http://hackersnightmare.com/FreeContent/Browser_Wars.pdf

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