I’ve just spent a good deal of time reading your posts on internet security. As always your advice on the matter has been helpful. I do have quite a few questions touching on many subjects that go beyond the scope of the above post.

Passwords:
1) You mention that you change your online banking passwords every three months. What is your reasoning for doing this? If you have a high security password, is their an increased risk in it being broken the longer you keep using it?

2) Do you recommend having a different password for every different type of account you have? What are the risks in using the same password for multiple things?

3) I see the security threat in forgetting to logout of a email account, bank account, etc. at a public computer; someone could come on the computer after you and breach your privacy. Is there a threat of keeping accounts open for an extended period of time on a private computer?

Internet Browsers:
1) You have mentioned a couple times data about Firefox and IE’s security vulnerabilities and patches. Could you explain what a security vulnerability constitutes in simple to understand terms? What exactly is vulnerable? Are these vulnerabilities constantly changing and being patched? At what rate?

Anti-spyware/Anti-virus:
1) I use Ad-Aware, Spybot, and Avast Anti-virus as you suggest. I was wondering what you recommend to do when problems are caught. There are usually options (though labeled differently) for Doing Nothing, Quarantining, Deleting, and Repairing. Are any of these options better than others, why or why not?

Other:
If I could make a suggestion for future post’s topic, I thought you might comment on social networking sites (Facebook, Myspace, etc.) security risks. I’ve heard in conversation with friends that quite a bit of private data can be gleamed off of what people decide to post on public sites. Is this true? What should people be able to post without compromising their security but still being able to participate in an online community?

I was specifically wondering about photographs and writing that you post in public spaces on the internet. Is their a security threat in these being stolen and used for monetary gains? Is it legal for people to take such information? When you post writing or photos is their any sort of laws that copyright what you post in your name? Does the website hosting you gain any ownership of the data?

Hope your not overwhelmed with my bombardment of questions. It’s just your website got me so riled up in thinking about these things.

EZ