KING

SEATTLE – When many people think of a hacker, they picture a college student or teen holed up in a dark basement with a computer.

But hacking is organized crime, and there's a whole underground economy that's trading personal data, according to Craig Spiezle, director of the Authentication and Online Trust Alliance.

The organization works to eliminate online crime, and this week they've brought big-wigs in cyber security to Seattle for a two-day conference on just that. "Reaching the Tipping Point: Future of Online Trust" runs June 4-5. Spiezle said a major theme at the conference will be instilling consumer confidence.

"Having them have the choice and control and confidence of sites they go to – and the confidence of e-mail they receive," he said. "The summit is really focusing on businesses and what they can do to protect consumers and brands from potential threats, and at the end of the day, continue to enhance the long-term vitality of the internet as we know it."

The list of participants is a "who's who" in the world of software security, including Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, Michael Barrett, the Chief Security Officer for PayPal, former White House Cyber Security Officer Howard Schmidt and Rob McKenna, the Washington State Attorney General.

Newmark, who started Craigslist in the 1990s, said he would be speaking about online safety and trust.

"What you do about bad guys. How it's a matter of trying to fight them every day. Some of this has to be done by people, although our technology keeps getting smarter about it, but we have a way to go," he said.

Spiezle also serves as director of internet security and privacy product management at Microsoft. Speaking on behalf of the AOTA, he said spam is a tactic of choice for many criminals working online.

"There's a big proportion of mail today that is spam," he said. "Just by opening up a mail, there's a potential your unprotected user or unprotected PC could have malware loaded on their machine."

Malaware includes software or viruses intended to harm a computer. To protect themselves, users should only open e-mail they trust. Spiezle said they should keep computers updated with the latest anti-virus software.

"There's another whole area of corrupting and comprising ad servers today …You see an ad, you click on a link and you actually are taken to site that tries to get malware on you," he said.

Ideally, consumers shouldn't have to worry about these things, Spiezle said. That's why business leaders are coming together at the AOTA Summit, where they'll be sharing best practices and lessons learned. They'll also recognize companies that have made significant efforts educating consumers about online security.

Data security is becoming a bigger issue for consumers all the time. Spiezle points to incident at TJ Maxx a year ago, when hackers stole debit and credit card information from millions of customers.

"There's an increased concern all around that we need to do something to protect consumers," he said. "Businesses need to collaborate and implement best practices today to protect consumer's confidence tomorrow."