"This time of year, we're cleaning up a lot of students' computers," said Shawn Harvick, an agent with Geek Squad, a tech services firm based in Best Buy stores nationwide. He works out of the Best Buy in Ellisville. "Probably two or three times a week, I'll go to a dormitory or somebody's home to work on a computer because a student's been surfing around and their computer's full of 'spyware' and 'adware.'" After a while, the computer just slows to a crawl." Identity theft is booming. Well over twice as many cases of identity theft appeared in 2004 than just over a year earlier, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Still, most consumers consider themselves fraud-smart. A national survey last year by American Express found that more than 80 percent of all consumers said they were aware of identity theft and how it can happen. --Activate the firewall included with Windows XP. Get another firewall plus antivirus protection from Symantec Corp. (http:// www.symantec.com), McAfee Inc. (http://us.mcafee.com) or Zone Labs (http://www.zonelabs.com), among others. Spyware and adware guards are musts, too, but there are many, so students should shop around. A good place to start is CNET.com or Consumer Reports (...

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Tech Talk column