Protecting your identity online in Internet Explorer

[Chillam]

I generally use Mozilla Firefox browser on my Windows 7 machine and have never used an Internet Explorer. Recently I have installed the IE 8 on this machine and it quite easy to use but I would like to know that how can I hide my identity on an internet while browsing through Internet Explorer. Sometime it feels like nobody should be able to catch me when such features are very much useful.

[sergioKomic]

You can use a personal certificate to protect your identity on the Internet. A certificate is a statement guaranteeing the identity of a person or the security of a website. You can control the use of your identity being the only person to hold the private key of your system. Used in conjunction with messaging software, security certificates are also called "digital IDs." Internet Explorer uses two different types of certificates.

• A "personal certificate" ensures that you are who you claim to be one. This information is used when sending personal information via the Internet to a website that requires a certificate guaranteeing your identity.
• A "Web site certificate" indicates that a particular Web site is secure and genuine. It ensures that no other website can not impersonate the original secure site.

[!const]

A security certificate, whether of a personal certificate or a Web site certificate, associates an identity to a "public key." Only the owner knows the "private key" corresponding to it can "decrypt" or send a "digital signature." When you send your certificate to a third party, you send them your public key, so as to enable them to send you information that only you will be able to decrypt and read with your private key. The digital signature component of your security certificate is your electronic identity card. The digital signature tells the recipient that the information provided comes from you and they do not, in any way been tampered with. Before being able to send information encrypted or digitally signed, you must obtain a certificate and configure Internet Explorer so that it can use. When you access a secure website (using the secure protocol "https"), this site automatically sends you its certificate.

[Gunilla]

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes on the Internet. The most prominent means nowadays is coined phishing. As a new sort of online fraud these attacks to lure unsophisticated users counterfeited web sites and trick them into divulging personal information, searchable as credit card numbers and passwords. The attacker misuses these credentials to impersonate the user and to illegitimately gain access to his account. For this reason, financial services and online merchants are lucrative targets and primary victim of these attacks. Federal and state law enforcement organized crime link to phishing attacks that are increasing in both volume and sophistication. Indeed, recent studies point out that phishing is the fastest growing crime on the Internet: The Anti-Phishing Working Group reported over 4.600 unique phishing sites in November 2005, more than three times the number reported a year ago. Roughly, total financial losses amounted to nearly $ 1 billion in 2005. As a consequence, online consumers are Increasingly frightened by the increasing security threats. Online banking activities are Particularly affected: 28% have modified their online banking behavior, and among them, 75% log into their accounts less frequently, 14% have stopped paying bills via online banking and about 4% have completely given up on online banking. Therefore, victims of identity theft are not Solely online consumers, therefore service providers but. In particular, the Latter are Economically disadvantaged from loss of users' confidence.