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I take great efforts to make sure that my communications on-line are secure. I believe that the choice of having secure or non-secure communications is what attracts criminals interested in stealing personal information for financial gain. Criminals are inherently lazy; otherwise, they would earn a living through legal means. So, it's no surprise that they would exploit the laziness of their victims.

I use the following measures when on-line in order to avoid leaking private information:

• Use the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol when accessing computer systems remotely. SSH can employ military-grade encryption ciphers and can tunnel non-secure application protocols over its secure channel.
• Use a Virtual Network Computing (VNC) session tunneled through an SSH connection so that my non-secure network traffic (i.e. web browsing) travels only over my trusted network that's hosting the VNC server. This is a great way to keep prying ISPs and employers from monitoring the network traffic of their users. While they may be legally entitled to this information, I'd rather only give them undecipherable SSH traffic :)
• Don't use free web-mail services for my personal e-mail. While services like GMail are enticing, they offer little privacy to their users. Instead, I use the e-mail services provided by my web-hosting provider. I access their e-mail servers using IMAP and POP tunneled through, yes, and SSH connection. SSH is a god-send. I store all of my e-mail using Thunderbird on my Mac Mini at home.

There are other measures I follow, too, but these are some of the techniques I use most often.

Still, this does not make me safe from identity theft. Since most identity thieves are lazy, employing an attack on my computers or network is probably too time-consuming or difficult for them. They're more likely to take the easy route and just read discarded financial statements in my trash.

Natalie & I have been using a cheap $30 shredder to securely dispose of our sensitive documents. However, the motor recently burned out when I tried to shred a CD. Yes, I know, most $30 shredders are incapable of shredding 3 pages of 20 lb. paper, let alone a CD. But, still, I tried. Oops.

So, we're now in the market for another shredder. I'd like to find one capable of shredding CDs & DVDs so that we don't suffer from a repeat of my last mistake. I'm currently eyeing the Fellowes Powershred PS-77Cs. It's available on Amazon for $105.99 with free shipping. It r0x0rs.

On a related note, I am tired of buying cheap crap. This attitude began last summer when Natalie & I were suffering through a heat-wave that crashed on Northern California. We do not have air conditioning in our apartment, nor did we have a fan at the time. So, I walked to the local ACE Hardware and sought out a portable fan to get move some air. Prior to heading to ACE, I thoroughly researched fans on Amazon and the Internets at large. The Vornado manufacturer of fans received top reviews. So, I dropped $90 on a 3-speed free-standing Vornado fan at ACE. Natalie was not easily convinced that any fan is worth $90. But, here it is November, and the fan is still in the living room and is used several times every week. The quality, durability, and style of the product have made it a good buy. I'd rather spend an extra $40 on a product that is guaranteed for life than on one that is likely to break or be cumbersome to operate.