a new service from Authentium called SafeCentral. It marries a secure desktop with a secure Web browser, and adds secure portals to banking, e-commerce and other popular online destinations

SafeCentral's approach begins by securing desktops with proprietary technology that "sits as a traffic cop in between all Windows calls," O'Donnell said. It allows "only the stuff that we know, that we trust, to be part of a session, and nothing else." So suspicious behavior -- a command to capture keystrokes, for example -- will be blocked.

The next element is the SafeCentral browser, which performs transactions and visits sites only where security is paramount; it is not a replacement for an existing Web browser. The browser works on the assumption that the desktop is already infected with spyware, and runs in a virtual environment where all data, from URLs to passwords, are hidden.

SafeCentral will be free for the first year for consumers, and after that the price is estimated at $9.95 per month. Institutions can sponsor their customers, absorbing the cost while ensuring their customers interact safely.

»www.safecentral.com/how.html