Did you ever ask yourself if your firewall is secure enough for your internet activities ? The major concern nowadays is related to pieces of software installed in your computer which may contact and exchange information with the outside World without being authorized and noticed by you.

Its always a good idea to have some web proxies at hand. You can use them to hide your own ip when you navigate to a site that should not have your IP in their logs. You can use them to
bypass web restrictions / censorship from schools, universities and business and also use them if your country is one of those that likes to prevent its people from collection information on their own.

Today google launched their free tracking tool for webmasters. It keeps track of visitor movements and clicks on the webmasters site. There are probably some visitors who don´t like their movements and clicks to be analyzed in detail.

Here is another of those online proxy sites that allow you to surf without revealing your ip at the destination site. Its available at xanproxy.be

And another player joins the rangs of the companies that might install spyware with their Music Cds when you put them into your pc drives. "Fontana Distribution, part of Universal Music Group and distributors for Upstairs Records Inc., are encouraging the independent records labels they distribute to use content protection on their CDs. "Twelve Eighteen", featuring the hit song "Summer Nights", carries the same content protection currently being used by Sony BMG.

John Lopez of Upstairs Records commented: "we are very pleased with the seamless production of the album. The media player on the CD has a good user experience and we intend using the technology on more new releases."

Most banks in Europe offer a new service on their internet pages. When a user has to enter his login data he has the option to enter the password using a keypad that is displayed on the screen using a java applet. The user then clicks on the numbers and they appear in the password field. This is done to prevent the keylogging of the password.

The Anti-Keylogger does the same thing, only difference is, that its a tool that is started like every other windows program. After the tool is started you simply use the displayed keys to enter your passwords or other data on websites or even local programs.

A few minutes ago I read a news article written by Brian Krebs who described how some Sony Music Cds try to install a software on pcs that could be labeled as spyware.

It seems that we have reached a new level in the fight between the record companies and its consumers. If you put a music cd in question into your drive a installer will popup. If you agree to install the software you won´t find a uninstall feature anywhere on your pc.

Apparently all Music Cds labeled "Content enhanced & protected" have the installer on the CD, make sure you check this before you buy a cd you would want to hear using your pc.

The National Security Agency offers Operating System Guides on their websites. These guides are currently being used throughout the government and by numerous entities as a security baseline their systems.