Own Your Space : Keep Yourself and Your Stuff Safe Online

This short, handy guide introduces the basic online threats teens face as well as the tools and behaviors that can mitigate trouble. Topics addressed include nasty code (viruses, worms, trojans), nasty people (hackers, spammers, pretenders), ethical choices (downloading music and game hacks), and privacy (how to shop, understanding cookies, and encrypting email). This book also covers public places like MySpace and private blog.

The book for teens that every parent should read You have been immersed in the technology since preschool. You download music, Google your homework, and constantly IM your friends. You check your email before dinner, tweak your MySpace page, and bypass that hardcopy diary for your own 31337 space in the blogosphere. While you're doing that, you also need to protect yourself. This book is about keeping safe--protecting your data, your identity, and yourself without giving up all the great stuff the Net puts at your fingertips. "Learn how to" Kill viruses, worms, Trojans, and spywareGive Spam the curb and smash web bugsUnderstand just how public your "private" blogs areKeep wireless freeloaders off your networkSafeguard your parents' credit card and financial dataUnderstand what tools you need and how to tweak them Linda McCarthy is a Security Architect in the office of the CTO at Symantec. Linda has been in the security field for over a decade, and has broken into systems around the world to show executives how easy it is to break into their networks. Linda has published seven books on computer security, and is the author of IT Security: Risking the Corporation. Linda also received the Woman of Influence Award in 2004 for computer security, a prestigious award given annually to only four women in the world. A portion of the proceeds from this book have been designated by the author for nonprofit work to educate teens about Internet security. Acknowledgments About the AuthorPrefaceChapter 1: Know Your VillainsChapter 2: Drive-By Malicious CodeChapter 3: Data Grabbers and DumpersChapter 4: Spy vs. SpyChapter 5: Giving Spam the Curb Chapter 6: Pretenders and PiratesChapter 7: Phishing for DollarsChapter 8: Taming the Cookie MonsterChapter 9: Safe Cyber-ShoppingChapter 10: Private Blogs and Public PlacesChapter 11: Any Port in a StormChapter 12: Look Pa, No Strings Chapter 13: Protective Tools Chapter 14: TweaksAppendix A: A Check List for Mom and DadIndex