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Unsuspecting computer users have been surfing the web for years, and as they are surfing cyber crooks are secretly stealing their passwords and personal information. Computer crooks are getting smarter and have found many new ways to get your personal information to use to their advantage . They are several steps ahead of the anti-spyware developers, so computer users need to be aware.

Many computer users feel confident once they install an anti-virus or anti-spyware program on their computer that they will be safe, but they have no idea how vulnerable they are. They may have already been exposed to these newest ways of stealing their data and it may just be a matter of time before they have important information or money stolen from them.

Until recently computer users only needed to worry about worms, viruses or opening attachments on unsolicited emails. Now you might go to a website someone told you to visit and as you are surfing this site, a keylogger could have infected your computer. These programs abuse security flaws, and may be hidden inside of neat looking downloads, e-mail attachments or files shared over peer-to-peer networks. Sometimes, these programs are even embedded in web pages. They may not start keylogging until certain web sites are visited, such as game sites, emails or certain keywords require entry, like a 'password'.

Keylogging programs are secretive invaders of computers that are often undetected until something goes terribly wrong. To make this worse techie teenagers are collecting your data and either using it themselves or selling the information to others for some extra profit. Many people are infected because they are tricked into visiting a website that looks (or is) real, and then they click on a link and are re-directed to an infected site. Some send FAKE emails from suggesting that the consumer has a problem and then giving them a link to fix the problem. Once the person logs on to try to fix the problem, they have given the crook access to their account.

Unfortunately, viruses, such as the Trojan Horse, are being developed just as solutions are being created for the older ones. The newest invaders have figured out how to track mouse clicks. The people doing this may have enough information stored to keep them busy for quite a while and since most of the people , who have had their information stolen, don't know about it yet, crooks can take their time exploiting the information.

These cyber crooks have used a problem in Microsoft's Internet Explorer program to gain access to mostly PC computers. Microsoft is in the process of developing a repair to this flaw, but many people are having their information stolen in the months between the identification of the problem and the solution. An alterative to IE would be Firefox or another safer browser. You can get Firefox by clicking here .

How can you protect yourself when someone else may have made you vulnerable? Find out next time in Part II of my Protect Yourself! safety series.