Identity theft is a rapidly growing threat, and it thrives on poor security practices. Your best defense is to build good security habits and encourage everyone you know to do the same.

While computers and online services have become a familiar and ordinary part of our work and daily life, the Internet has many perils.

• Information you post on the Internet and records of sites you have visited can be used for targeted advertising and less savory purposes.
• Scam artists attempt to trick you into giving away your money, or giving away information that will let them steal your money.
• If your computer is connected to the Internet, it is under constant attack, not by hackers engaged in sport but by criminal enterprises seeking to exploit computing resources to steal information, send spam emails, distribute illicit material, or attack other computers.

In this section

• Copyright Safety and Avoiding Peer-to-peer (P2P) File Sharing
• Email Scams
• Phishing
• Identity Theft
• Passphrases
• Social Engineering