We all wish worms and viruses came from outer space as Earth has yet to be invaded by aliens. Unfortunately, they're here and they keep us busy. Maybe understanding them better would help us arm ourselves for the future. So, read the feature to find out why Viruses are from Venus and Worms are from Mars.

Our readers are an amazing team of security experts. There were so many excellent responses to Last Issue's Security Dilemma, it was a challenge to select the ones to share with you. Check out the great advice given by our readers on whether or not an ISP should get involved in virus and worm protection. Then help us out by offering your best advice to This Issue's Security Dilemma posed by a reader - Clean Up on Aisle 3. How would you make an electronic 'shopping cart' safe?

Let us know if our ship is passing with flying colors or needs a lifesaver regarding how much benefit you get from this newsletter by taking a quickie reader survey and you could win a PAIR of Garmin Rino 110 GPS.

Best wishes,
Meryl K. Evans
Editor

InfraGard

"In this environment, I would like to better understand how my ISP can help me to prevent damage from worms and viruses. My team is divided on how much we want the ISP to help.  Some say to ask them to close down the susceptible ports (I.E. ports 35 and 25) at their routers.  The other side of the debate is for us to control what traffic should be allowed through."

"Where do your readers stand on this debate and how much control should we give up?"  

- Mike Price, Senior Security Administrator

Click on the following links for the best advice from ...

"We are adding shopping cart functionality to our web site and want to protect our customers' credit card information. We will be sure to use SSL (https) to encrypt the data, however, I don't know if that is enough."

"What are your readers' thoughts on using a third-party verification service? What else can we do to protect our customers?"