More importantly, always use different computers (or at least different accounts) for different purpose. This will isolate the possibility of malware compromising mission critical tasks. For example, you might want to use different account for your banking activity.

General advice: if you browse a site that is important for you (such as banking), close all other sites, before you login, to avoid the possibility of cross site scripting vulnerability.

Spot On Replied on May 6, 2012

or use a different browser to that on the same account if (an)other browser(s) is / are open ... none of these measures are truly a guarantee one won't be hacked though as most 'professional' hackers also read pages like these and find out what other people do to block them, so they'll find more ways to hack again ...

Christopher Ryan

Business Consultant, Project Manager, Prime Logic Consulting

Posted on Jan. 1, 2012

Luke makes good points, anti-virus (Panda Cloud) and anti-spyware (ThreatFire) are good starting points. A secure workstation for critical data is a good idea and clearing out your data and closing your browser between visits to important sites will serve the purpose but its a lot of work.

Assuming that you seek anonymity online, an encrypted VPN tunnel is the solution - it creates a direct connection between your computer and a remote server. There are too many technical specifications to mention here, but suffice to say that it keeps your trail hidden from prying eyes by making your data unreadable and sending your requests through a remote location; for example, if you live in California you can use a VPN server in Russia, making the sites that you visit think you are physically located in Russia. I use and recommend WiTopia.com for encrypted VPN services, the cost is very affordable at less than $60 per year and their features are robust.

The next step is to use private browsing and disable your cookies, there are other methods of tracking (JavaScript, images, any sort of request to/from a web server) but cookies are the primary method of creating digital dossiers of consumer behavior. Firefox and Chrome both have these features, I don't use the other major browsers (IE, Safari, Opera) but I would presume they all offer similar functionality.

Pairing an encrypted VPN with private browsing helps alleviate the most gaping of security holes. Keep in mind that these are only adequate for the "average" user - high net worth individuals, company's with high-risk intellectual property and governmental agencies that deal with personal data absolutely need more protection than just a VPN and a web browser. : )

Further steps for above average protection include computer virtualization to eliminate spyware and virii, file and OS-level encryption to prevent data leakage and keyfiles paired with plausible deniability to eliminate offline threats to your privacy. I develop high-end custom encryption systems like this, so if you would like more technical data (or just more non-technical information) do not hesitate to contact me. @PrimeLogicWeb

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Spot On Replied on May 6, 2012

Christopher, with all due respect, as i already mentioned it in a reply to Luke Tan, although there are all great ways of staying safe and secure online, let's not forget that hackers are professionals just like yourself (no offense meant!) and if 'you' take certain measures to protect your privacy online and then also tell everybody how to do so, then those hackers will find new ways to hack no matter what as now they know what your ways of blocking them are! :) - from an IT technician

Christopher Ryan Replied on May 7, 2012

My mistake - thanks for pointing that out, Spot On, WiTopia.NET (not .COM) is the correct address.

Be assured that no offense is taken from your response. : ) I appreciate the banter, although I would be remiss to not counter. It is imperative that we all keep in mind that hackers are innovators and will find exploits without waiting for them to be reported - a true hacker does not need me to "tell" them what measures I have taken in order to find weaknesses in my system... Not sharing preventative information with the community our of fear of some abstract reprisal certainly will not protect anyone from being "hacked," tracked or otherwise exploited. Furthermore, the simple act of using an Internet connected computer (regardless of OS-choice) opens us to a multitude of hazards no matter how well we think we are guarded. Turning our backs on preventive measures certainly would not be prudent. The closest one can come to true security is through multiple layers of encryption (hard-, soft- and keybased- in unison), restrictive connectivity to the outside world (hardware-based firewalls paired with solid sandboxing technologies, encryption of data transmissions and daisy-chained, private, non-logging proxy connections located in geographically diverse areas) and restorative-state virtualization technologies.

All in all, I agree that it is all insufficient on some level; I concede that even the exhaustive measures just mentioned still leave proximity as a potential risk. But I disagree with the allusion that we should keep our "secrets" to ourselves out of fear of exploitation - isolation is non-existent in a wired world. Best. : )

Lemo None

Posted on Jan. 11, 2012

There are at leas 12 tracking methods besides cookies, you need to know about them to be able to find such software. Visit http://www.stayinvisible.com to test which of those methods your browser supports and follow links there to read more.