In the world of Internet security, there are the bad guys; the malware creators, the spyware makers, the hackers, spammers and so on. Fortunately for legitimate online users, there are also the good guys; the anti-virus makers, the anti-spyware makers and the people that patrol the Internet to keep it safe. Symantec is one such good guy and Sean Carruthers got the chance to see one of three of it's worldwide

Security Operations Centers

, working 24/7, 365 days a year to do the online detective work that keeps the Internet (and your personal information) safe.

With Mother's Day just around the corner, we'll look at how to send free online greeting and e-cards via email. You can also send greeting cards to your friends and family to let them know how much you care or... or to suggest that Aunt Frieda stop wearing so much perfume. In a nice way, of course.

Matt Harris has Andrew M-C back on the On Deck deck, despite the hard pack snow layer and -10 degree (Celsius) weather, for the announcement of a brand new butterscotch.com show. While the title is to be determined, this new show will let viewers know what's coming up for the next week on butterscotch.com. What each show has in store, what tutorials are going to be running on the site and any other exciting news that comes up in the world of butterscotch.

Firefox offers a good balance of security and convenience. When visiting a web site, for example, your banking site, you can view the security certificate and other information associated with that site.
For sites that don't contain quite such personal and personally identifying information, you can opt to have Firefox remember passwords for you. This is convenient but not recommended for things like online banking, sensitive email accounts and so on.

Miss Download finds software to help kids safe online. As the computer administrator, parents can choose what categories of web sites kids are not allowed to access. CyberPatrol 7.7 also allows parents to set access limits on individual accounts so the kids can't go online until after dinner, for example.
It's cruel to be kind.

Andy and Sean take a close look at online safety for kids in episode 146 of Lab Rats. The guys tackle safe searching and parental controls as well as looking at hardware and software solutions designed to keep kids safe online. Meanwhile, Miss Download takes a close look at CyberPatrol, a program designed to give parents an extra degree of control over what kids see and how long kids spend online.

Note to parents and teachers: Some of the humor in this episode is, shall we say, tongue in cheek. Be prepared to either explain or dodge questions.

Avoid crowds at the mall or worse, at your local Wal-Mart, and do all your

holiday shopping online

. Molly McDonald offers a line on

getting shopping deals online

,

finding online coupons

,

saving money on shipping

,

comparison shopping online

and a veritable stocking-load of

practical online shopping tips

. Learn how to

shop safely online

, avoid shipping gotchas and

save money on shipping

and keep the fraudsters at bay.

Michael "Doctor File Finder" Callahan runs through

the do's and don't of spyware

. In short, do

avoid spyware

and

don't get infected with spyware

. Obviously there's a lot more to it than that... Doc gives us some

best practices for avoiding spyware, malware and other junkware

, explains

how to get rid of spyware

and where on the Internet to avoid to not get your

computer infected with spyware

in the first place.