Governor Mark Warner has proclaimed Feb. 2 – 8, Virginia Consumer Protection Week in the Commonwealth. According to the Virginia Department of Agriulture and Consumer Services’ Office of Consumer Affairs, the theme for the week is &uot;Information Security: Putting the Pieces Together,&uot; with the focus on the wise management of personal and sensitive information online.

The proclamation notes that today’s system of commerce and communication generates an enormous amount of information which is quickly and widely disseminated via information technology. Although the speed and spread offer many advantages in areas such as business, education, finance, research, and recreation, there are also disadvantages. The downsides include the possible loss of privacy, personal economic harm, damages to computer records and even risks to personal security.

In his proclamation Governor Warner states, &uot;Many laws exist to protect an individual’s private information, yet, as consumers we must take responsibility to protect our personal data when utilizing information technology.&uot;

Virginia’s Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs, J. Carlton Courter III, also had words of warning about electronic communications.

&uot;Securing your computer should be as routine as locking your doors when you leave home or looking both ways when you cross the street,&uot; said Courter, who recently helped honor Bobby and Nancy Rountree, the &uot;2003 Farm Family of the Year&uot; at a Chamber of Commerce banquet in Suffolk. &uot;Viruses, hackers and worms can leave personal computers and entire network operations in chaos, so computer security is an absolute necessity.&uot;

Courter offered suggestions to computer users for maintaining security online and minimizing the possible misuse of information.

nChoose a unique password that includes both numbers and letters.

nUse anti-virus software and update it weekly.

nAlways save e-mail attachments to your desktop before opening them; contact the sender to confirm the attachment before you open it.

nBack up important files and store the disk in a safe place.

nIf your computer has been hacked or infected with a virus, disconnect it from the Internet immediately and scan the entire computer with anti-virus software.