t Service Providers, the backing of huge companies like AOL and Prodigy fell away to cheap local connections. With the widespread growth of mom and pop ISP's comes an increased security risk. People became responsible for their own Internet security. Companies like Microsoft and Netscape, who were the original creators of the Internet "browser", had to take matters into their own hands.
             The creation of high-encryption Internet surfing had begun. As soon as the late 1990's rolled around, these two companies had come up with ways to prevent unauthorized use of personal data such as credit card and social security numbers. This new technology was called SSL, or secured socket layer, technology. This technology made it possible for a pc to transmit encrypted data from one point to another. If it was intercepted mainstream, the information would be useless to those who grabbed it. When this new technology was made public, a great sense of securit
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