I asked this question because according to a NCSA Cyber Security Survey conducted by McAfee, we as consumers seem to have a knowledge gap between what we claim to know and our actual ability to prove we are Internet savvy. For example their telephone survey revealed that 98% of Americans do not know the risk level of a website before they visit it. Additionally, 64% do not know how to determine if a site is safe and another 78% admit when viewing search results, they have no idea how to tell if any of them might lead to a high-risk website.

To Know the Answer is to Know Your Objective
The answer basically depends upon what you are trying to do. Do you want to determine if your purchase transaction is being processed securely? Do you want to know if a site is safe for your child to be on? Or, do you wish to know if a site is simply guilty of uploading spyware, malware, adware or some other unwanted problem onto your PC's operating system. Lets review a couple of proactive measures that can point us in a more positive direction and enhance a safer Internet experience.

Basic Data Encryption Protects Purchase Transactions
When you make a purchase online you ultimately end up sending out confidential information such as a user name, password, credit card number or something you wouldn't normally publish in a newspaper for everyone's viewing and subsequent use. Well, the Internet (www) is a world wide web for the exchange of free information. This is nice but some things need to be private to avoid identity theft. So, when you get to a shopping cart to make your purchase of a product or service, you want to be sure the transaction data is encrypted. Two basic ways to tell this information is being sent securely is to verify that information by looking for a small padlock in the browser window (usually in the lower right hand window). You should also take note it should appear to be in the locked position. You might also see it next to the address bar if for example you are using Internet Explorer 7

A web address (URL) (Sample= https://www. somesite . com ) that begins with this https, is short for Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer. This https is a secure method of accessing information on a web page and/or sending information across the Internet and to a secure website. What this means is the confidential information (data) you type into this browser window, as plaintext will be encrypted before being sent which is designed specifically to safeguard the data and improve/protect your security. These two measures are designed to announce to you that an Internet web page is safe and secure.

What is a High-Risk Website?
A high-risk website is a web page considered dangerous because it introduces threats such as spyware, adware, malware, online scams, spam, intentional redirects to unfavorable sites and a slew of other threats designed for stealing, prying into or eradicating files on your computer.

How Do You Know High-Risk Websites Before You Go?
There are free Web safety tools (utilities) that help keep you safe from adware, spam and online scams as you search and browse the Web and these software enhancements are best known as site advisoriers. These programs review sites and assign safety ratings that display adjacent to or over a web address you are about to click on and subsequently access. They are in fact powerful tools that enforce Internet safety. These utilities assign a site rating of red, yellow or green pretty much like a traffic light. A color of grey is a basic advisory that a site has not yet been analized and rated.

Two of the more popular utilities programs are Site Advisor and WOT. For more information about these utilities and free downloads it is worth your time to visit both their sites at siteadvisor(dot) com and mywot (dot) com. Bear in mind that there are millions upon millions of websites under constant review and although these utilities do a great job enhancing security efforts, the task of evaluation is a daunting task to keep up with their efforts to provide risk-free surfing; they do not provide absolute protection. View these utilities as just one layer of protection. Every computer should also at a minimum employ an anti-virus software, an enabled firewall and have anti-spyware software installed.

Protecting Your Children from Crime
There are a lot of companies that offer free and low cost software designed and employed to protect children from sexual deviants, cyber crime, identity theft and the whole boatload of unfortunate criminal activities on the web. Some great examples are listed at registryfixing (dot) com under their Child Safe Surf, PC Tools, Privacy Controls, ZoneAlarm and other Navagation Buttons. Bear in mind as well there are parental control options available on your home computer as well. For guides on How to Set "Parental Controls" Using Windows , Comcast, Internet Explorer, Fire Fox, Linux and just about everything else do a web search for "setting parental controls"an you are sure to find a step-by-step guide for just about every situation.

I hope, this highly condensed guidance is noteworthy and a good proactive start in your ever-increasing need to be computer savvy and safe on our modern day Internet. Remember, it takes our combined effort to avoid crime and protect ourselves and loved ones in a world so much more condensed and accessible with our abilities to communicate freely. If you think this article is beneficial, do not by shy about sharing it with family and friends.