While our new site is being finished, here are a few items to keep you awake at night:

Yes, people are still getting fooled by this scam. Woman out $400K to 'Nigerian scam' con artists Without an "in-brain" filter installed, some people will fall for this again and again since technology can only do so much to keep you from doing dumb things. If you think this is an isolated incident, see 419legal.org Nigerian Scams.

Here is a place to learn about the Top 10 Internet Frauds and Scams. If you have been the victim of an online scam, please report it to The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

Here are a few more examples of those spam emails offering you a job processing payments. It usually ends up with you losing many thousands of dollars unless you are smart enough to call the police right away.

Here is a little advice from the US Secret Service on protecting yourself from telemarketing fraud.

Here is a little advice from US-Cert on Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams.

Internet thieves make big money stealing corporate info - They infected 300 workstations from a link on the Company's Intranet and copied all of the My Documents files to Turkey. And how about Cyberthieves find workplace networks are easy pickings.

What happens to all your personal data after the thieves steal it, they sell it on the black market for $$$ of course. The prices for all your secrets are actually going down because there is so much personal info available now to sell.

Oh yea, they are even selling your Facebook logins in bundles of 1,000 accounts. Hope you didn't put too much personal info on there.

In a down economy, you would think the thieves would take a break however Data scams have kicked into high gear as markets tumble.

Well now that phishing doesn't work as well as it used to the thieves are going directly to your bank account.

How about 8 Out Of 10 People Revealing Sensitive Personal Data Online Despite Concerns Of Data Misuse And Identity Fraud from ISC².

Notes from a Securing Laptops Seminar - A few notes to help keep your laptop safe. Gee, 10,278 laptops are lost per week in US Airports. Do you know where your laptop is now?

Be careful about using "found" USB drives since many times they are infected drives that have been "lost" on purpose just to get you to infect your computer. See Cyber Security Tip ST08-001 for more details. If you do use USB drives then safeguard your valuable data with secure USB drives. After all, how much would it cost you if that data was lost or fell into the wrong hands. The secure USB drives that we recommend are made by Ironkey. You DO need one of these for your valuable data!!!

You can find some of the common attacks here and while you are at it, check out the Top 20 2007 Security Risks and the Top Ten Security Menaces for 2008 from Sans.

For the latest report in Cybercrime, see the 2009 Data Breach Investigations Report by Verizon. In their report for 2008, they estimated that an astounding 285 million records were compromised and 91 percent of all compromised records were linked to organized criminal groups.

US-Cert also gives a running tally of Technical Cyber Security Alerts which you may find interesting. Check it often since new vulnerabilities are discovered daily and you should keep your computer patches up to date.

After you see all the security advisories for Adobe Acrobat Reader then you will understand why the security experts say that you should just delete Acrobat Reader off your computer. Use Foxit instead to open pdf files and your computer will thank you.

Not convinced that it can happen to you? How about Air Traffic Control System Repeatedly Hacked or Computer virus strikes US Marshals, FBI affected.

Here are some FREE software programs to help keep your computer safe:

Free Antispyware Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.6.2 or Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware or Microsoft Security Essentials - Don't leave home without one!

Free Personal Firewalls Comodo or Checkpoint Zone Alarm.

Free Anti-Virus Software BitDefender, AVG or Avast! (BitDefender seems to work better on XP but now doesn't work very well on Vista)

If your computer is really infected and you need help deleting the rootkits, then you will need McAfee Rootkit Detective on the case. (Use it carefully!) Also, the standalone McAfee Stinger deserves honorable mention in cleaning out your demons.

If you really want to pay for Anti-Virus Software, checkout the Top Ten Anti-Virus Software for some tips on which ones work the best.

If you really want to pay for Firewall Software, checkout the Top Ten Firewall Software for some tips on which ones work the best.

Mac users:

For you Mac users that think it won't happen to me, even Apple even says to use anti-virus software. Apple may have taken the page down and changed their minds again but you can check out the Mac Anti-virus FAQ for more info.

Latest info:

For the latest info on Internet Security, check out CNET.

These tips brought to you by

Chris Papas CISSP CCNP CCSP CCDP