Think before you click

The Internet is the nation's "soft underbelly," says former national intelligence director Michael McConnell. The Greenville native and Furman graduate further warns that the Net has "introduced a level of vulnerability that is unprecedented."

This is a growing problem for government, and the Department of Homeland Security is increasing its resources to meet it. The agency recently announced plans to hire 1,000 analysts to deter cyber-crime.

Cyber security experts say that individual Americans who use the Internet can do their part. That means learning, marking and inwardly digesting this warning: Think before you click.

The advice applies whether the computer is your individual property or part of a company or government network. Every Internet transaction remains in cyberspace and can be used for nefarious purposes, including invasion of privacy, theft and industrial or foreign espionage.

Internet security software helps by blocking viruses, filtering out spam and setting a firewall against illegal attempts to gain cyber access. Such tools help prevent individual computers from being linked to each other in a "botnet" used to disrupt government and business communications, for blackmail, and for sending out illegal spam messages. It's wise to keep copies of important files on a separate external hard drive.

Above all, computer users should think twice before sending sensitive information over the Internet -- and should be wary of e-mails that entice them to disclose private information, including passwords and account numbers.

Phil Reitinger, director of the National Cybersecurity Center at Homeland Security, recently told The Associated Press that the key to fighting cyber-crime "is to make sure that we're all getting the word out about not only the seriousness of the threat, but the fairly simple steps that people can take to help secure their systems and their lives and families from the threats that are out there."

What is true for individuals is true in spades for corporations and government. The International Spy Museum in Washington recently featured an exhibition on the extreme vulnerability of the nation's water, sewer, telephone, banking, air traffic and government communications systems to a cyber attack on the U.S. electric grid.

On a daily basis, the computer systems of the Pentagon are probed hundreds of millions of times. Power grid systems are probed thousands of times. Some probes come from other nations or terror groups looking for security weaknesses.

Individuals, too, should recognize their heightened vulnerability to increasingly complex cyber-criminal schemes and exercise necessary caution.