This type of criminal would have a starring role in an old gangster movie, the ones so overplayed they would be in a stark non-color and grainy version. As with their movie persona, these bad guys committed some atrocities. The film portrayals simply scared the viewers, but real street crooks are the ones to be held accountable for almost of the fright and damage to people. These bad people are the ones who make the cities unsafe at night, and are bait for most news reports adding to the hysteria.

These men and women were the most evil of the bad in their era. They were the outcasts of society, the ones that, when friends and families saw them in court, would avert their gaze, as if their gaze had some strange and hypnotic power. These were the reasons that the United States treads lightly with its prison system. It is a strange thing that such an accepting society conjures: you have these boundless rights and freedoms, yet it is just assumed that you will not abuse them. Unfortunately, while most of us take care of these rights, guys like these don’t and it tears at the very foundation of our country.

The criminals of the olden days, the kind that would stop you in a desolate corridor with their weapons and then steal all of your goods, although were at one time the worst of the worst, are child’s play to our bad guys of recent. The criminals of today have a huge advantage: they have assimilated today’s technology into their misdeeds. One might at first consider that this technology is with the boys in blue, making it simpler and more efficient to get these scum, but in fact it helps the crooks to hide themselves. The criminals have become one with the high-tech technology and have become very skilled in its use.

Think of any average crime scene.  A sly criminal who wanted to steal some money would see a rich-looking person, and decide their odds of winning. Weapons brandished and in a brazen attack they would confront their target, wave the gun around, and rob their victim. Once they get all of the money out of the wallet, they would tell the the poor slob not to call the police. They would then sprint all of the way to their hideout and lay low for a little while, until the police were off of them.

It didn’t matter though: with a well staffed and skilled police force, the thief was usually apprehended in a timely manner. There was not any tools of the trade they could use to hide themselves or clean up the scene of the crime. Once they were caught, there was no DNA markings to put them at the crime scene then, there was just a simple line-up and the victim, who tentatively singled out the criminal.

Technology is our hero then, right? Unfortunately, this is often not the case. While our rapid success in producing DNA tracking, fingerprints and other technological advances, these tools can also help in the suspect’s runaway from justice. A running car is the most high-tech equipment a criminal today needs to disappear; it doesn’t matter is they know exactly who did the act. If they can’t go out and get them, all of their information on them is quite useless.

A crime where there is no scene; the perfect crime. These online perpetration’s are quite difficult for law enforcement, as there is no real site of the deed, and a criminal can conceal while online. Another harrowing fact is that these identity thieves and hackers, as was stated before, are not usually caught and carried to justice. So not many reliable ways through to effectively thwart them, we can only hope to preemptively hide ourselves from their attacks. Always be very wary online, and protect yourself with a variety of online safety tools. Steer clear of darkened alleyways!

Take the Internet for example. Kids, every day, converse with each other online. This has become the primary form of communication among the youth of America; rare is the case when a group of friends will actually go out and meet in person when it is so much easier to do so on the computer. With this virtual existence though, one can argue they lose who their friends really are. While this is meant in a sentimental, profound fashion, the literal meaning applies too. Without seeing their faces and hearing their voices, how do you know the person typing is the one actually typing? It would be easy and plausible enough that the friend they are exchanging personal information with is actually a hacker who is trying to lure them into a real life encounter. This is sobering news, but sadly it happens often.

These false identities online can be harmful. A poll was recently posted on the hot new social networking site FaceBook with an insidious title: “Should President Obama be killed?” The poll was open with four options, and almost seven hundred and thirty people navigated to the site to post their response. While this can quickly be written off as a joke due to the ease of posting a poll and the fact that anyone can do so, it is still entirely possible this was the doing of some sociopath looking for support.

The poll was quickly investigated by the Secret Service and was promptly shut down. Consider the implications of this: if the Secret Service pounced on it so quickly, it was obviously no laughing matter. While these people are doing their crimes secretly on the Internet, others are invading your privacy. In a mock contest to give away a certain amount of money, Netflix investigated nearly all of their user’s browsing histories to determine what kind of movies they would like, and market to the customers appropriately.

Anonymity on the Internet isn’t always a bad thing though; only when put into the wrong hands. If everyone on the Internet was anonymous, these privacy issues would not occur. If you plan to protect yourself and ensure anonymous browsing online, you have to utilize an anonymous proxy. By masking your IP address, it hides you from the rest of the hacking and tracking Internet.

Some people use these cache systems to help out with their P2P (peer-to-peer) transfers. This will store part of the data that needs to be transferred and copied, and will allow it to load much more quickly. The cache will also hold other data that will cause the Internet to be a faster place for users and allow more data to be transferred more quickly.

The cache also comes with some risks too. Anytime identifying data or browsing history is stored on your computer, you will have some sort of privacy issue. The less information you keep about yourself and your browsing habits on your computer and on the Internet, the safer and more anonymity you will enjoy. It is possible that a hacker could gain access to your data by using your IP address to hack into your computer. It is also possible to just steal your computer and get into your cache. It is one thing for your system to be physically stolen, but if a hacker could remotely access your computer and get all sorts of sensitive information and other browsing habits, it could be forever before you found out and tried to stop it, but by then the damage could be irreversible.

There is also the practice of ISPs using a cache system for all of its users to enjoy. This seems ideal, because with so many users going on so many different sites, yet sharing the same cache, they could all use the giant cache system to load many sites faster, instead of only the ones they previously went on. This seems great, but if someone were to somehow gain access to the gigantic universal cache, they would have access to so many people’s data that it would be a privacy nightmare. Imagine, so many people’s data compromised so quickly!

Today though, the cache system is archaic. It was a good idea when Internet connection speeds were slow, but with today’s DSL and broadband being the norm for most Internet users, the connections are so fast that the cache became a liability. People worried about the security risks.

Today, proxies don’t use the cache system either. One of the concepts for a proxy was specifically for the caching of sites making your browsing faster.  Companies cached the sites that their employees went to thus speeding up the web browsing. They used to have a system like the ISPs, but they have pretty much abandoned that due to the speed of Internet connections. Although the cache still is in effect on most every computer, it has taken a backseat after the Internet became so streamlined and fast.

Now proxies are used primarily for Internet privacy.  By using an anonymous proxy a user can surf the Internet anonymously.  An anonymous proxy can do two things for the user.  First it can change the IP address of the user thus protecting their location.  And if the proxy uses encryption it can also prevent hackers from intercepting and reading the data sent over the Internet.

Cache, however, remains on your PC.  These are now mostly garbage files and should be deleted regularly.  All browsers have the ability to clear the cache upon exiting.  Some call these files temporary Internet files, some call it cache.  In either case, you don’t need them anymore.

Although out Internet is as free as red, white, and blue can be, freedom can bring about some bad things. Criminals and identity thieves roam the Internet; hackers and trackers prey on innocents. As technology increases, these criminals up their arsenal and still have some tricks up their sleeve. Some people may feel comforted by the security systems and firewalls installed on their computer, but this is just the same as a child hiding under the covers; what are the covers actually going to do?

These preliminary defenses are a piece of cake for a hacker of even the most rudimentary talent. The truth is, even if these defenses worked, they still wouldn’t fix the main problem: the IP address. This virtual nametag your computer wears is shown to every website, and contains your location. If someone got your IP address, all they would have to do is copy it into a Google search, and they would have your location.

Although the IP is completely public, it can be hidden using anonymous proxy software. This will actually mask your IP, and allow you to travel anonymously and securely on the web. The proxy will change your IP address to one it uses, and this way, you will not appear as you, but as the proxy.

There a variety of these services to choose from. Web proxies are the most common, and most widely used, often because they are free. All these entail is going to a website, hitting in the address you wish to visit, and the proxy will act as a middleman, and retrieve the information for you, so it’s like you never even visited the site.

The other type of proxy server is the professional, fee-based server. These will offer the same services as a web proxy, but often add in an additional layer of security. Although people feel safe with a web proxy, the truth is they offer no security and are sometimes run by hacker to steal people’s information. Fee-based proxies offer encryption services, which will encode all of your data so that it will appear as hieroglyphics to any hacker or interloper.

Don’t be disillusioned by total freedom; you are not always safe. The systems that protect you and come stock on your computer are not enough to combat the perils of online life and browsing. There are criminals who, every day, make an illicit living on people who are unprotected. Don’t be one of them! Protect yourself by using an anonymous proxy and ward off any intruder to your Internet space. Most importantly, don’t let anyone locate you through your IP address, use an anonymous proxy and gain the peace of mind that comes with complete safety.