Making your e-book reader secure

Everyone knows how important it is to protect your computer with antivirus software.� We all have so much personal information stored on our computers, that if it fell into the wrong hands � either physically or through hacker or viral access � then our worlds could easily be turned upside down with issues such as identity theft and criminals gaining access to our bank accounts, etc. At the very least, most people will have used one of the free antivirus downloads to protect their pc.

It�s only recently that people have also started realising the necessity to protect smartphones in a similar way with mobile antivirus software.� Just as the computer, if you use your mobile device to connect online, again you are open to the same threats unless you have a security suite including firewall, anti-spyware and a spam filter � or at the very least you just put antivirus software on your phone.

Another area where we might be open to potential fraud or worse is on our e-reader books. Some Kindle users have already reported how their devices were physically stolen and their accounts taken over. However, so far there have been no reported viruses on e-book readers.� That doesn�t mean to say it won�t happen in the future though.

Essentially, e-book readers are mini-laptops as they connect wirelessly to the internet and have a Web browser through which you can download data. As some e-reader books can also be plugged into computers to upload or download files, it is conceivable that a virus could pass from the computer to the e-reader book.

Hackers have so far concentrated creating viruses to target Windows-operating computers as most people have them.� And with the increase of Mac users there is now a security risk for Macs as well, so it�s easy to see it going the same way for e-reader books as they become more popular.

As with any other device, you should always be careful what you choose to download onto your e-reader � know the source before you go ahead.