In 2003, fraud and identity theft cost consumers at least $437 million dollars. In 2004, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission received 247,000 consumer complaints in 2004 (up 15% from 2003), from individuals whose identity was stolen, and according to Reuters.com (2/2005), Americans lost $548 million dollars to identity theft and consumer fraud in 2004. Don't allow yourself to become a part of the statistics!

How Personal and Internet Security Works illustrates in vivid detail the many dangers faced by those who use the Internet to send or receive email, surf the Web, conduct personal business, use a credit card, or even travel to airports and how those dangers can be solved. You'll also get detailed explanations of Internet privacy issues such as spyware, phishing, identity theft, data mining, biometrics, and security cameras, as well as Homeland Security issues such as airport scanning and terrorist screening.

 

About The Author
Preston Gralla is the award-winning author of more than 30 books, including How the Internet Works, Complete Idiot's Guide to Internet Privacy and Security, Complete Idiot's Guide to Protecting Your Child Online, and How Wireless Works. He has written frequently about security issues, computer technology, the Internet, and has been a columnist for many magazines, Web sites and newspapers, including USA Today, PC Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, Boston Magazine, PC/Computing, CNet/ZDNet, and FamilyPC.

Customer Reviews & Comments
I purchased this book online without getting a chance to look inside (the option was not available for this title...I believe I know why). In many cases buying a book by its title works out, but in this case it did not. Had I realized that this "award winning author of more than 30 books" also wrote a book called "Complete Idiot's Guide to Internet Privacy and Security", I certainly would have passed on the purchase. For a book of 280 pages, it contains very very little real content. Each chapter begins with a one page description of the topic (probably the most useful part of the book), followed by a series of two page spreads on each subtopic. Each two page spread is completely covered by a computer generated graphic, and 4 - 8 small paragraphs, enough to fill up at most 1/2 of one of the two pages. The graphics usually attempt to depict the subtopic, but most of the time there are a few items in the graphic that relate to the topic, but the graphics alone add no value to the topics, and often are a distraction from the few small paragraphs on the two pages. Had the graphics been absent, and the text condensed into normally spaced pages, no content or meaning would have been lost, and this would have amounted to about a 70 page book full of commonly known buzzwords and surface information many already know. As an example of how Gralla treats each subtopic, consider this analogy. If I were to read a book on how an automobile engines work, I would expect it to say something about the carburator, spark plugs, timing, camshaft, crankshaft, pistons, etc. The "Gralla" equivalent of this description would be something like "The gas goes in the engine, the spark plugs fire, and the wheels go round". For some, maybe that is enough. But for me, a book called "How <something