Firewalls are frequently used to prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to the Internet, especially intranets. All messages entering or leaving the intranet pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria.

Let’s be honest, passwords are annoying. These days, we need a password or PIN everywhere. We have so many that we can’t keep track of them all. We forget to update them; and when we do, it’s difficult to come up with effective ones that we can still remember, so we procrastinate changing them for months, even years.

While we may find them annoying, and even take them for granted, it is important to remember why passwords are important: passwords are often the first (and possibly only) defense against intrusion (MacGregor). They protect personal information – information we don’t want anyone and everyone to know.

Passwords are simpler and cheaper than other, more secure forms of authentication like special key cards, fingerprint ID machines, and retinal scanners. They provide a simple, direct means of protecting a system or account.

One of the most amazing benefits of being a Mac user is that you simply aren’t as prone to malicious virtual attackers.

Many Mac users believe that their computers are safe from viruses, spyware and other kinds of malware, however this is a dangerous assumption.

The prevailing opinion is that there aren't enough viruses or malware in the wild to merit having an antivirus.

organizations need to invest in the right security tools such as anti-spam and antivirus technologies.

The most prevalent form of email-based threats to any network is malicious software such as exploits and Trojans transmitted through executable files as email attachments.

Nearly all antivirus software comes as a suite of many programs, like firewalls, virus and malware scanners, parental controls, among others.

Really advanced and powerful malware using zero day exploits, however, will always elude it because that’s the nature of the arms race between virus writers and antivirus makers.

When Edwin Perkins was a lad, living in Hastings, Nebraska, he conducted chemical experiments in his mom's kitchen. Among his early products were various flavoring extracts and perfumes.

In 1927, he figured out how to remove the liquid from the concentrate, leaving the familiar powder we know today as Kool-Aid®.

The product was named Kool-Ade at first and later Perkins changed it to Kool-Aid®. Selling for 10 cents an envelope, until the Great Depression hit, Perkins dropped the price to a more affordable 5 cents per package

KOOL-AID was invented in Hastings, Nebraska by an enterprising young chemist named Edwin Perkins. As a child, Perkins developed many flavoring extracts and perfumes.

Later, this led to his own mail-order company, which eventually resulted in modern-day KOOL-AID.

KOOL-AID was Fruit Smack

Well, Kool-Aid got its start right here in Hastings, Nebraska.

This internationally known soft drink mix, now owned by Kraft Foods, actually started out as a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack, invented by Edwin Perkins.

This internationally known soft drink mix, now owned by Kraft Foods, actually started out as a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack, invented by Edwin Perkins.

SodaStream International Ltd (SODA.O) is adding Kool-Aid powdered beverages to its lineup of drinks in an expanded deal with Kraft Foods Inc KFT.O, sending its shares up 5 percent.

Kool-Aid for SodaStream will be available in stores during the fourth quarter,

Kool-Aid itself was born in Hastings and reached maturity in Chicago.

Born in Lewis, Iowa, on January 8, 1889, Edwin was the oldest son of David and Kizandra Perkins, whose families had migrated from eastern states in an earlier day.

Kizzie’s father had once been a station agent at the Julesburg stage station on the Oregon Trail, and in 1893, the Perkins family sold their general store in Iowa and moved to a farm in Furnas County,

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown tragedy and 2008 marks the year when "drink the Kool-Aid" fully flowered as an attack cliche.

Close to 1,000 followers of People's Temple founder Jim Jones were so deeply in his thrall that, upon his command, they drank a non-carbonated grape-flavored liquid lethally laced with cyanide.

Ever since -- and particularly this year when applied to fervent supporters of Barack Obama -- to "drink the Kool-Aid" has come to mean being deeply in thrall of someone or something.

"drink the Kool-Aid," corporate-speak for immersing oneself in a cultlike culture.

Time Warner executives: "The AOL guys have got to stop drinking the Kool-Aid and get on the team."

The Kool-Aid-cult connection was concocted, of course, after the 1978 tragedy in Guyana, where more than 900 followers of Jim Jones consumed a grape-flavored cocktail containing cyanide. It remains the largest modern-day mass suicide on record.