That obviously is not practical in today's interconnected world. SecureAgent Software, however, provides maximum security with its patented SecureAgent? feature.

SecureAgent products provide:

- The highest level of data encryption and compression

- Data travels among TCP/IP, eliminating the vulnerability of FTP

- Passwords are not sent between SecureAgent and the remote machine, which prevents hackers from gaining access

- Hackers are unable to bombard the SecureAgent serve with login requests because the program renders multiple attempts invalid

- The aggressive user-authentication challenge and response system renders illegal remote recording of user logon data useless

For more information, visit www.secureagent.com

Pew found 56 percent of Americans now own a smartphone, against 35 percent just two years ago.

And Google says most smartphone owners use them for shopping, even in stores.

Pew reported that younger Americans of all age groups led the way in smartphone ownership, about 80 percent of those between 18 and 34. That stayed at 69 percent up to age 44, then dropped to 39 percent for those 55-64 and only 18 percent for those over 65.

Income plays a role. Wealthier people of all age groups own more smartphones, but younger Americans of all ages tend to have the devices.

Androids and iPhones were the preferred types among all categories, each about a quarter of the market.

Google said its research shows 80 percent of smartphone owners use the devices to research products and prices while shopping in stores. It urged retailers to embrace this trend and improve their websites to adapt or risk losing customers. Many stores see the smartphone as an enemy, with customers searching for lower prices or better deals online.

Google said about a third of users say they use phones to get information rather than track down a store employee.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon are leading the coalition, called Secure Our Smartphones. It includes representatives from more than a dozen states.

Schneiderman said a third of all robberies nationwide involve smartphones and "All too often, these robberies turn violent."

They hosted a "smartphone summit" involving Apple, Samsung, Google and Microsoft. Apple has already said a kill feature would be included in its new iOS7 phone program coming this fall, but Schneiderman said it is his understanding this is not actually a "kill switch."

The prosecutors want manufacturers to build in, at no extra cost, a feature that would automatically disable any lost or stolen phone and render it useless to a thief.

The other patches were for the Windows operating system and Office productivity suite. The Office repair covered both Windows and Mac versions, while three bulletins applied to Windows.

The IE patches fixed flaws that could have allowed an intruder to execute code on an affected system. Microsoft said all the IE issues had been discovered and reported privately and it knew of no exploits for them.

The security updates did not include a patch for a flaw affecting user privileges in all versions of Windows from 2000, XP and above. That vulnerability was found and made public by a Google researcher who said he did not report it to Microsoft first because the company is "often very difficult to work with." Microsoft said it was not aware of any attacks exploiting the flaw.

A survey commissioned by the dating website eHarmony says more than a third of all new marriages between 2005 and 2012 involved couples who met online. Furthermore, the report says those marriages "were slightly less likely to result in a marital breakup (separation or divorce) and were associated with slightly higher marital satisfaction among those respondents who remained married."

In its annual "Cost of a Data Breach" report, Symantec said the average number of records in a breach was 23,647 with a cost of $130 to $136 per record. Costs were much higher in the United States and Germany, $188 and $199. It said focus on attacks results in overlooking problems with employee negligence or error.

Symantec said Brazil companies were most likely to suffer breaches from human error, while Germany was most likely to experience problems from malicious attacks.

Four of the individuals are in custody while four are still being sought.

The FBI said hackers began gaining access to institutional accounts in 2011 and sending money to prepaid debit cards which they controlled. The FBI said in the ADP case, about $4 million was sent from 130 compromised accounts to cards held by Oleksiy Sharapka, one of the defendants. "Cashers" converted those into cash through ATMs or purchases, then transferred the money to a series of overseas accounts.

Authorities said payments were kept below the $10,000 threshold which triggers money-laundering scrutiny. They said they had identified about $15 million in stolen funds.

InfoTrends forecasts that paperless documents will increase from 23.7 billion in 2012 to 24.5 billion by 2017. But that will still leave 15.9 billion documents distributed on paper. That's almost 85 percent of bills and statements delivered on paper.

One problem in going paperless, writes Stephen Shankland in C/Net, is the time required to download a heavy volume of document files, compared to the ease of just opening an envelope and removing the papers. And most people will print out any document they need for a permanent record.

It's a parent-free place where web-savvy teens can create profiles that anyone can contact, without the accountability of a Facebook. It's gaining about 200,000 members a day and has racked up 57 million worldwide. Its founders, Latvian brothers Mark and Ilja Terebin, say it has a presence in 150 countries but is especially big in Brazil, the U.S., Italy, Russia, the U.K., Germany, Turkey, Argentina, Poland, and France.

Much of its content is the sort of adolescent banter once communicated in the pre-Internet era with slips of paper passed secretly from person to person, things like "Are you going out with Alex?" or "Why is Sarah mad at Holly?" But it also can be serious -- and risky, with comments like "Do you like sex?" or "Have you struggled with an eating disorder/ depression/ self harm/ suicidal thoughts before?"

Members can chose which questions or comments they respond to, but can post pictures and videos, all hidden from outsiders but open to all subscribers. Most users are 13 to 25 and at least half are under 18.

That's because they tack on an "administrative fee" or some similar charge that is typically listed at the bottom, along with local and state taxes. AT&T is the latest to impose such a charge, 61 cents a month starting with May bills.

It says it covers "certain expenses, such as interconnection and cell site rents and maintenance."

That's not a big amount for a monthly bill, but it will bring in about $350 million in new revenue for AT&T this year and $518 million next year. And there's not much you can do about it.

Lawyers and experts say you probably cannot use that charge as an excuse to get out of your AT&T contract. And every other wireless carrier imposes some similar charge. In fact, AT&T's fee is the lowest of the four major carriers.

Verizon began an "administrative" fee in 2005 and it's now 90 cents. Sprint started a 99-cent fee in 2008 and it's now $1.50. T-Mobile imposes a "regulatory programs fee" of $1.61 a month.

So pay up -- but do complain to your carrier and any governmental agencies or officials about these secretive increases.