This book covers the very basics of security advice to MS-Windows novice users, and though it does so reasonably it is far from excellence.

The first drawback of the book is that it's very hands-on approach. Every chapter covers a specific subject, but none gives a good overview of potential problems, methods to estimate risk levels, extent of security problems, etc.

Thus many times the risk is presented within the context of the solution, rather than the other way around. E.g., the issue of employers reading on employees' email is presented within the context of protecting your email's confidentiality. I think it would be much clearer if threats were presented first, and the solution afterwards.

Another problem is that threats to suggested solutions is not presented in different chapters from the solutions. E.g. one chapter suggests archiving files with zip and protect the archive with a password, and only in a later chapter is the fact that there are programs that crack zip passwords mentioned.

This is bad presentation, that forces the reader to read the *whole* book before getting a reasonably complete picture.

The level of the chapters varies a lot - the first few chapters give trivial, not to say infantile, advice, e.g. making your computer inaccessible by hiding the power cable, while later chapter mentions TEMPEST, which I doubt anyone outside the government agencies would use.

The chapters that deal with privacy & Internet is good, and I've learnt a few nice tricks from there.

As I dont know any other hands-on book for the subject, I give a lukewarm recommendation on this book to novices *only*.

This is a good book if you are new to computing and the Internet. If you are worried that everytime you turn on your computer someone is watching, this book may scare you more. Either way, this book will give some good advice regarding security.

Unfortunately, the book does not present a balanced view when it comes to whether or not you should implement most of the measures. It seems a little common sense is more valuable than many of these security measures.

I wish they had some statistical backing as to the chances of anyone of us becoming a victim.

But still, this is a good book for the laymen who hears all these buzz words (viruses, cyberthief, etc), and doesn't know what they mean. This will help anyone get a clear understanding of the possible threats to your computer and your information

The Banks book is a typical user guide replacement text, though he makes mention of some items that other books don't -- DM in ROM and what some of the various files do, for example. I keep the book for the file list in the back. The material in the book itself may be useful for someone w/o any DM documentation. If you still use DM or just bought a used machine with DM, this might be a good addition to your library.

As I am a fan of Dummies series, I thought that this book would be such a good starting point to understand Cyberbanking. However, I was highly disappointed due to its poor content. It was written for only "how to use" purpose, rather than giving information about online banking. And the scope of the book is just limited with US.........

The actual title of this book should be "How My Cat Died." This compilation of memoirs almost without exception describes the demise of the beloved cat, and the pain the owner went through in the process, which is not surprizing, as a great number of anecdotes are lifted from a cyberspace pet-loss grief site. If anyone has ever gone through the soul-wrenching agony of losing a loved pet, this book will do nothing but reawaken the grief and pain of that experience. As none of this is noted on the book's jacket, I felt this book was highly misleading and the publishers should be ashamed of themselves.