Whether you spend 10 hours a month online or 10 hours a day, you're curious about buying online and how safe and secure the experience is. After all, you could go into a local office supply store, grab the items you want, go to the cash register and pay for your items knowing that no one is going to rip your checkbook or wallet from your hand, dart off into the great beyond, and blow your hard earned wages down the drain (at least we hope). But there's something about typing in your credit card information on a web page that makes you hesitate and pause, wondering if some enterprising college student will peer into the phone lines, swipe your most preciously guarded data, and proceed to make plans for that spring break vacation in Bermuda next year.

    It goes without saying that the media has hyped the issues of security concerning the Internet. Most recently the "I Love You" virus caused enough panic amongst the Internet populus to skyrocket sales of anti-virus and security software. This combined with the weekly "Hacker breaks Pentagon database" story and the hi-tech espionage exposé increases the general paranoia about the safety of surfing the Internet

    All horror stories aside, the Internet is a much safer journey than what the media would lead you to believe. We must remember, that for every warning flag the media will post, there are thousands of transactions being completed on a daily basis in the U.S. alone through Internet channels. How, then, can you safely and securely purchase goods and maintain peace of mind?

    Most online stores leave a myriad of purchase choices for the customer. 800 numbers, US mail, online secure transactions, even "Internet check writing", is available to the online consumer. Which is the best? It entirely depends on your level of confidence in the carrier. While a phone call may be the most comfortable, how sure can you be of the operator correctly taking your information? US mail may be a traditional, familiar route, but can you be certain your payment will arrive in a timely manner?

    How many times have you had a conversation over the phone where the line was so bad you had to repeat yourself numerous times to convey a single thought? It's not uncommon to have bad communications because of the quality of transmission. A big advantage of online secure shopping is that you supply the information in written form. Unless you make an error, the chances are very good that your correct address, name, and purchase information is conveyed to the seller.

    When time is crucial to the success of a purchase, online ordering aids in expediting the product to your doorstep. Unless you can purchase the same item at your local store, no other method can provide speedy turnover from completing the sale to actual delivery. The information you supply via a web-based form page is sent in the blink of an eye to the supplier, eliminating the delay that is typically observed in snail mailing a payment. Additionally, the business can be assured of speedy receipt of your purchasing funds through credit card submission or online checking, instead of placing an order "on hold" while a written bank draft clears.

   Normally when you surf the Internet or send a e-mail, the information is passed from your computer to another computer in cyberspace through an electronic pipeline which can be monitored by almost anyone with the know-how. It's a little scary knowing that everywhere you go and everyone you chat with or e-mail could be stored in a file somewhere. While this may be the case with non secure channels, this is not true with a secure server.

   Secure servers operate a little differently from a conventional web server with respect to transmitting and storing data. When you shop online through a secure server, every bit of information that you receive and send is encrypted, or scrambled, in such a way that only your computer and the secure server you interact with can understand it. Even if someone had the knowledge and desire to monitor the exact channel that you're using to communicate at the exact time you're making a transaction, they would still need to decode the information using the proper decoding key in order to make any sense of what's going on. That's what I call pretty tight security.

   I hope this has clarified a few fuzzy issues for you and encourages you to make use of secure shopping environments online unless you already do. If you already do use secure shopping, I hope it has helped you understand the process a little more clearly and rested any concerns you might have. Just remember that secure online shopping is the most accurate, fastest, and safest way to buy on the Internet and that knowledge will take you where you want to go today. :-)