Harley Hahn's Internet Insecurity [Paperback]

I found this book by accident while looking for another computer book. I flipped through it. It captured me so I decided to buy.

Even though I work on computers for a living, I still found several useful information from the book. Reading the last chapter which touched on the relationship issue, I wished the author had written the book several years ago. If I'd had the book then, I might have saved myself several regrets and become wiser without having to learn what I know now the hard way myself.

Other than a light touch of useful technical info, the author gives a very insightful perspective on the computer technology, esp. the internet world itself. I really, really enjoyed this book as I savored and immersed myself in the author deep thoughts and the extensive background info, which gave me a better understanding of how things've become.

I give this book 2 thumbs up and highly recommend it as a must read for anyone who'd love to broaden their mind and perspective.

Along with the thoughts of previous reviewers, I find it difficult to come up with more adequate adjectives for this fine book. Such a wealth of information, based on extensive research!!
I was hardly prepared for the fascinating history, psychology, education, and thoroughly compelling subjects covered in this humorous, personal approach. It is not a book that you can put down and refer to periodically. It's a page turner from cover to cover.
If all who participate in activities on the web were to seriously consider the observations and suggestions provided within these pages, what a considerate, happy place the net would remain.
Hopefully, all responsible human beings will follow these guidelines.

On the second page of his latest book, "Internet Insecurity," Harley Hahn says, "this is not a normal computer book, not by a long shot." And he keeps the promise.
The computer sections of bookstores are filled with volumes on hacking and computer safety, many of them written for people who run servers, networks and large computer operations or who are charged with tracking the hackers. Some of them seemingly just want to scare us into shutting down out computers and never accessing the Internet.
Hahn's book is neither of these. It's written so even beginners can understand it, and it follows through on another promise made on the first page:
"I do not want you worrying needlessly about things that are not really a problem. For example, regardless of what you might hear, you do not need to worry about computer viruses or about unknown perpetrators breaking into your system -- not if you take a few simple precautions ... There are far more important things I want you to think about: how the Internet affects your privacy, your security, your money, your relationships, your work and your family."
I cringed when I read that, but Hahn is well-respected, and I wanted to see what he had to say, so I bought the book. While I'm not going to give up my anti-virus software or my firewall, I understand where he's coming from and agree that -- if we all followed his advice -- we'd probably be safe. I'm just not sure that most people are willing to follow the advice he offers.
I'll come back to this, but first let's look at some other parts of the book, which covers such topics as business and the Internet, privacy (how much you can really expect and ways to keep as much as you can), Internet communication (e-mail and chatting) and privacy, viruses and protecting yourself against them, money and the Internet and your family and the Internet.
First, Hahn doesn't write about just technology. He discusses, as he puts it, "psychology, history, philosophy, science, money and relationships." And, yes, they really do all tie together and are related to the Internet.
For instance, it's not easy to understand privacy and what we think we know about it without understanding why we think we need it and knowing that, despite what you think, it's not guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. And it's difficult to grasp business practices until, as Hahn points out, we stop thinking of corporations as individuals rather than as ... well, corporations. Businesses do what they do to improve the bottom line. If that includes using personal information they gather about you to sell you more products, they will do so. They're even likely to sell that information to others to make even more money.
Summarizing such ideas in just a few words doesn't do them justice. Hahn builds his cases carefully and logically and gives you the information you need to protect yourself against what he sees as the real dangers.
The chapters on Internet communications and its effects on families are among the most important in the book -- because the subject seems to be considered so seldom. No one questions the value of e-mail, but, Hahn emphasizes that neither e-mail nor a chat room is true personal contact. In chat rooms especially, you don't know for sure that the person you're chatting with is who -- or what -- he or she says, or even if it's truly a he or a she.
It's dangerously easy, he says, to believe you truly know and have connected with someone simply because you've shared personal information via a keyboard and computer screen.
"...The Internet is important because it is capable of bringing great emotional forces into our relationships, forces which we were not designed to bear. These forces are strong and, if we are not careful, they may cause significant damage to the emotional fabric of our lives and to the lives of our loved ones," he writes.
"Does this mean that we should avoid having relationships that depend on the Net? In some cases, yes. Certain activities are nothing more than a breeding ground for unhappiness and only serve to distract us from what is really important in our lives."
Now, as for viruses, Hahn lists the kinds of attachments that can be dangerous to your computer, explains how to show full file names (Windows hides the extensions by default) so you can recognize them and then says not to open them if they arrive by e-mail. Simple? Reasonably so, if you have any experience at all with using Windows Explorer. Advice we all have the will power to follow? I'm not so sure.
Firewalls? Unless you're running a server or a business network, you don't need one, he says. Such programs are more intrusive than anti-virus programs, the false alarms they set off will "scare you silly, and if you really want to scare yourself silly, there are much better ways to do it."
I visited Hahn's Web site, signed up for his newsletter and left a comment that I enjoyed the book but was uncomfortable with his antivirus and firewall advice. I commented that I'd keep them because I'd rather "be a little safer" with my Norton AntiVirus and Zone Alarm.
To my surprise, he replied:
"Are you sure that it's not really that you would rather 'be a little safer' but that, perhaps, you would rather 'feel a little safer'? Remember, most people aren't technically apt, and AV and IF programs can cause them a *lot* of mysterious problems. ..."
Good point on the "feel a little safer." But, because I do need to get e-mail attachments as editor of The Outer Edge, I'll stick with the programs for a comfort zone.
Is the book worth the cost? If you're concerned about what problems you can have on the Internet and how to protect yourself against them, definitely.