The answer is yes. At Energy One we use the highest level of encryption available, firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention methodology, and physical security measures. However, while we have a relatively high level of control at our end, we cannot control what happens at the home user end. There is no way for us to prevent a home user from downloading a virus or spyware that could compromise his or her computer and personal data. The best we can do is to enlighten our members about the potential risks and to offer suggestions on how to minimize your exposure to them. The products mentioned herein are not endorsed by Energy One but are merely used to describe the type of products available to you. In addition you must remember that Internet security is and will be an ongoing task for us and for you, the home users. The following is an overview of some of the risks and ways that you can protect yourself.

Protection against Phishing Scams

Phishing scams are a relatively new form of information or identity theft. Some of these thieves are getting very convincing with their work. This is where a e-mail is sent to you advising that your "charge card" or "online shopping" or "online banking" privilege is going to be revoked if you do not confirm certain account information such as account number, social security number, address, mother's maiden name, and password. It all looks very legitimate but it is indeed a scam. No quality organization will ask you to provide all of this information in an e-mail, nor will they ever request that you give them your password. If anyone ever asks you for a password via e-mail, in person, or over the phone, don't give it out. There is no legitimate reason for anyone to ever ask for your password, period. These scams are also perpetrated over the phone by people who a very convincing while representing themselves to be a representative of your financial institution or credit card issuer. Don't fall for it. Ask for a call back number and when they won't give it to you hang up.

Protection against Hackers

Hackers are talented individuals who attempt to gain access to other people's computers and servers for a number of reasons. Some do it for sport, to see how many computers they can get into. Others are more malicious and gain access in order to steal information from the owner of the computer, or to download code that attacks other computers, or to disrupt or disable the computer altogether. There are a number of ways to protect yourself from hackers. The use of hardware, software and common sense are all important in this effort. The following is a list of some measures you might want to explore:

- Most important is to keep your computer operating system up to date with all of the security updates and patches issued by Microsoft. Windows XP allows you to select from a number of settings for loading and installing updates automatically. We strongly suggest that you take advantage of this feature, it is the first step in securing your computer.

- If you have a DSL or Cable connection to the Internet, you are more likely to be attacked than a dial up user. Why? Because just like us, hackers don't like slow connections. To protect yourself you should always have a firewall installed on your computer. Some prefer software firewalls, others prefer hardware firewalls.

- Hardware firewalls and firewall routers are installed between your Cable / DSL router and your PC. These can be configured to filter out unwelcome traffic, to make your PC virtually invisible to potential hackers, and even to control access to certain types of Internet sites in the event that you have small children. Several companies make these such as D-Link, NetGear, Linksys, and Belkin to name a few. Prices typically range between $40 and $140 depending on the number of additional ports and features.

- Software firewalls and similar software is available from Microsoft, McAfee, Symantec and others. An example of the features of these programs is contained in this script taken from the McAfee web site: "McAfee Internet Security destroys viruses, outwits hackers, secures your personal information, privatizes your Web browsing, blocks ads and pop ups, manages your cookies and passwords, locks down your files, folders and drives, filters objectionable content, and puts you in control of the communications in and out of your PC." These programs range in the neighborhood of $50.00 and cover a wide range of protection as you can see.

- Wireless home networking has become very popular recently. Many homeowners are setting up wireless networks inside their homes using wireless routers or wireless access points. These are great tools for expanding access to your DSL or Cable Internet connections, and for sharing printers and files within your household, but these connections must be set up properly to prevent access from outside of your home. If not set up properly, your network can be accessed by others who may use the access to use your Internet connection or to access files on your home computers. You should make sure that your wireless connections are set up with encryption and you should use MAC address filtering to make sure that only the computers you designate can gain access to the network.

- Finally, a very good way to protect yourself is that whenever a component is not in use, turn it off. This applies to your computer, your DSL and Cable modems, and your wireless feature on any PCs that have a wireless connection or network card. If you turn them off, no one can access them or use them.

Protection against Computer Viruses

Computer Viruses are typically programs written and attached to or hidden within e-mails or web pages. These programs are written with many different purposes. They spread by downloading themselves to a computer when an attachment is opened or code is executed on a server, then gathering e-mail addresses from the address book on the computer, and sending an e-mail to all of those addresses with a copy of the virus attached. Some are relatively harmless and are intended to infect as many computers as possible and to spread themselves quickly and on as many computers as possible. This is similar to the hacker that breaks into computers or servers for sport. Other than running up the score, no real damage is intended and the code is harmless to the infected computer with the exception of it's continuous task to reproduce. These viruses are very costly for us to combat and tie up a lot of computer time bouncing around the Internet from PC to PC and server to server. Other viruses are much more harmful. They attack the host computer and destroy files, disrupt key processes, transmit key information or files, or create back doors for the author(s) to use to enter your computer and steal information or to spread other malicious code. The following is a list of some measures you might want to explore to protect against this threat:

- REPEATED: Most important is to keep your computer operating system up to date with all of the security updates and patches issued by Microsoft. Windows XP allows you to select from a number of settings for loading and installing updates automatically. We strongly suggest that you take advantage of this feature, it is the first step in securing your computer.

- Once again software is available from McAfee, Symantec and others to block and remove computer viruses. We recommend that you install a product that automatically updates itself. The sad truth is that if you buy a computer today with virus protection software installed on it, the virus protection is already obsolete unless you update it immediately. Once updated, it will be obsolete again within a period of hours or days depending upon when the next virus or variant is released.I cannot stress how critical it is to have this type of protection on your computer. Computer viruses are rampant and continue to get worse unless we do something to stop the spread.

- One of the most popular viruses was the "I Love You" virus. It spread quickly because people were getting e-mails from people they know with I Love You in the subject line. Once opened they were compelled to click on the attachment which was the virus code. It then sent itself out to everyone in that person's address book and the spread was on. The point of this section is that you can trust no e-mail regardless of who it is from. Beware of any attachments. Take the extra time to verify with the sender that they intended to send the attachment if you are at all suspicious. Many e-mails containing viruses have numerous spelling or grammatical errors. The text might not even make any sense at all. These are usually hints that something is not right. When in doubt, check with the sender to be absolutely sure.