Privacy, Please

I get scores of junk email every day, try as I might to turn off the flow. And at least once a day -- no exaggeration -- someone tries to break into my computer. I've also been the victim of credit-card fraud not once but twice. Am I jinxed? No. It's just that I use the Internet -- a lot.

Just because you don't think about something very much doesn't mean that it's not a problem. You probably think about privacy less than I do, but if you don't take a few basic steps to protect yourself, all kinds of bad things could happen to you too. Confidential contracts and memos could be intercepted, personal medical information could fall into the wrong hands, or you could be the victim of identity theft, which might prevent you from getting a mortgage or a car loan.

Fortunately, a growing collection of easy-to-use hardware tools and software programs is available to protect your privacy -- whether that means preventing hackers from gaining access to your hard drive via your cable modem or keeping marketers from monitoring your Web travels. You can even stop your own company, which probably monitors your email, from reading personal missives. So read on -- but read (and act) quickly. Somebody may be watching.

Who's out There?

You probably think that your computer and your email are secure. If you want to make sure, check out these two Web sites, which are designed to provide wake-up calls for people who overestimate their online privacy. Steve Gibson designed ShieldsUp! (www.grc.com) to show Windows users just how vulnerable they may be to hackers. The site performs a free security check to see how easy (or difficult) it would be for teenage keyboard jockeys to break into your computer and steal your financial records and passwords, or to plant a virus on your hard drive. Gibson also offers free advice and tips on how to shut your digital doors.

Another site worth visiting is Privacy.net (www.privacy.net) . Your personal information is worth real money, so it's no surprise that marketers try every trick in the book to pry such information out of you online. This site shows you how easy it is to find such information as your Web address, the last site that you visited, and, in some cases, even your home address and phone number. It also tells you how to prevent people from doing just that.

Spend 15 minutes on each of these sites, and you'll think differently about privacy.

The Downside of Fast Access

Those of us who work from home at least part of the time would find it unthinkable to go through life without using a cable modem or a DSL (digital subscriber line) connection for high-speed Internet access. That's just the kind of thinking that hackers love. High-speed hookups make you more vulnerable to incursions that can turn your desktop computer into an unwitting participant in the next Web-site denial-of-service attack. That's because cable and DSL connections are usually on all the time (so-called persistent connections) , making your system an easy target for hackers who are searching for such unbroken connections. To prevent intruders from looking at the contents of your hard drive, consider using at least one of the following three programs.

BlackICE Defender (downloadable for $40) , from Network ICE Corp., acts as a personal firewall, looking for potential attacks, preventing outside entry into your system, and tracking would-be thieves. It also alerts you when hackers are performing scans or attempting to plant or activate viruses on your computer. BlackICE Defender runs only on Windows.

Norton Internet Security 2000 ($60) , from Symantec Corp., also for Windows only, provides similar protection. For an additional fee, you get such features as a virus scanner and parental controls that keep children away from objectionable Web sites. Norton gives you a lot of control over your Web browsing and privacy, but some Net neophytes may find the program's multiple settings a bit overwhelming.

Another Windows-only package that can protect you from hackers is ZoneAlarm ($20; free for nonprofits and for personal use) , from Zone Labs Inc. This program takes a slightly different approach to online security: Not only does it block outside attacks; it also screens for any tracking software that may have already entered your system. Many programs that surreptitiously access the Internet -- such as "adbots" -- go undetected by users. ZoneAlarm warns you about tracking software and lets you grant or deny permission to those programs.

Coordinates: BlackICE Defender, Network ICE Corp., www.networkice.com; Norton Internet Security 2000, Symantec Corp., www.symantec.com; ZoneAlarm, Zone Labs Inc., www.zonelabs.com