Announcing a new feature for the Electronics Blog

As our annual State of the Net survey has shown for the past several years, the insecurity of online consumers is a severe national problem that affects nearly everyone and costs American consumers billions of dollars annually.

Coverage of this important subject has become an integral part of our electronics content, both in print and online. While we will continue reporting on Internet threats of all types, and testing the key products and services that help you protect yourself online, this year we will begin to do even more.

Specifically, we will increase our online efforts to inform consumers and policymakers about Internet threats and how to fight them. As part of this effort, we're today launching Online Security, a category within the Electronics Blog, devoted specifically to consumers' online security.

Subject areas we'll be covering in blog entries to the category include:

• Viruses, spyware, spam, and phishing scams
• Hackers and bots
• Protection products (software, hardware) and services
• Online scams, privacy, and ID theft
• Protecting children online, including social networks

We'll be reporting news of importance to the security of online consumers, plus news from related conferences and events we attend, such as RSA, CFP 2008, consumer-protection events organized by the Federal Trade Commission, and others.

To provide this breadth of coverage, we'll be reaching beyond the editors whose primary work focuses on computers and Internet security, computer writer Donna Tapellini and myself, to include postings by an all-star team of staffers from other areas of Consumer Reports and Consumers Union (our parent organization), including:

• Beau Brendler, Director, Consumer Reports WebWatch, the Consumers Union web site whose mission is to investigate, inform, and improve the quality of information published on the Web. The site provides unbiased and practical research on Web site publishing and business practices and exposes practices that are a cause for consumer concern.

• Dean Gallea, the Senior Program Leader in Electronics who directs our security software testing program.

• Andrea Rock, a Consumer Reports finance writer who covers privacy and identity theft.

• Jørgen Wouters, Senior Web Producer, Consumer Reports WebWatch, is an editor, researcher, and investigative reporter for that site.

There are two ways you can access this important content:

From ConsumerReports.org, go to our free Cyber-security section and you'll find a link to the "Online Security Blog." Or, search the Electronics Blog itself for postings in the category, "Online Security." To discuss online security with other consumers, visit our online security forum. (Free registration is required to post messages.)

—€”Jeff Fox, Technology Editor