Cyber-criminals love to target small businesses because they usually have strong cash flow but no IT departments. That makes their financial accounts vulnerable to hacking. Today Clark wants to share an easy and cost-effective way to safeguard your online transactions.

USA TODAY suggests simply buying a dedicated computer that's only used for financial transactions. No surfing the web on your dedicated computer. No e-mailing. No visiting Facebook, MySpace or Twitter.

This will reduce, but not eliminate, the risk of a security breach. High net worth individuals may also want to consider using a dedicated computer for all financial transactions.

Computers have become so affordable that it's very possible to get a fully functional one for under $300. Owning more than one computer is no longer cost-prohibitive. Think of it like an ultra inexpensive insurance policy for small business owners and wealthy individuals.

Peer-to-peer lending is re-emerging in the marketplace after a rough patch. This is a great way for people to lend to each other online without bank interference.

Prosper.com was one of the earliest P2P lenders to gain traction. But they didn't initially screen their borrowers well enough and a lot of loans went bust as a result. Then the government stymied them briefly over a misunderstanding about securities.

But now Prosper is back in action with a relatively low default rate of 5% among borrowers, according to Barron's. This service and its competitors are now putting people through their paces to weed out the baddies. The company claims 850,000 members and just a little under $200 million in loans underwriting at this date.

Lending Club has a 3% default rate, meanwhile, and turns down 90% of potential borrowers in an effort to cull the herd and find the most credit worthy.

That, of course, begs the question: Who would anyone go the P2P route if you're credit worthy? Generally, you can get a better deal with a P2P lender vs. a bank. Yet it's roughly equivalent to the kind of deal you'd get at a credit union.

For you as a lender, P2P lending allows you to slice up your money to limit risk. So if you want to put $1,000 in the game, you lend $100 here, $200 there and on and on.

The returns you might get as a lender can be enticing. Prosper claims the average lender earns 7% on their money, net after expenses and charge-offs. But those who are really into this virtual underwriting boast that they can make a 12% return.

Do you give any companies the right to draft your checking account for a monthly bill? It could be a utility company, a health club, a mortgage lender, your cable service, a cell provider or any other business.

Once your contract with them ends, that business may continue to make monthly debits via Automated Clearing House (ACH) from your account. Giving authorization to regularly draft an account is an open-ended arrangement, regardless of your contract.

Getting that money back can be a grueling process. The problem with ACH payments is that there are no consumer protection statutes governing what happens if you're cheated on purpose or in error.

The New York Times reports one consumer had a real nightmare with a car loan. The note was paid in full, yet the loan servicer continued to take monthly payments! The customer's own bank was no help and it was a fight every month to get the money back.

So what's the solution? Use electronic bill pay that you set up so you can shut it down anytime you want. That's the distinction between e-bill pay and traditional ACH payments. The former you control, the latter is out of your control.

And never allow a health club to draft your checking account. We've had more complaints about this industry than any other on the show.

The recent release of The Orange Code -- a new book about ING Direct -- highlights the fact that not all giant banks are bad.

When ING first formed, they hosted focus groups to find out what people hated about their banks -- and they did the opposite. The first rule of ING's code of conduct is a simple concept: "We will tell the truth." Great businesses often start from this premise. Look at Costco, for example, which has "Obey the law" in its code of ethics.

This is not one of those banks that will give you a disclosure consisting of 4,000 pages of mice type. Clark recalls a TV story he shot where a team of lawyers were asked to vet credit card terms of disclosure from another bank. Even the lawyers were stumped by the convoluted language!

ING's business model is so different from the reality of modern banking where many banks are dead-set on deceiving you and cheating you. Mind you, not every big bank is out to get you, but that seems to be the general m.o. of many of them.

ING has $60 billion in deposits and serves 7 million Americans. When you get a mortgage through them, you get a rate upfront and usually pay a total of $800 in closing costs. That's it. Their banking and checking options come with very few fees and some of the highest interest rates in America.

It's no secret that Clark has a strong bias against the giant monster mega-banks. But he wants to praise Bank of America for their adoption of the SafePass account security system.

The SafePass produces a one-time randomly generated password you need to get into your online account. That password -- which expires immediately after use -- adds a second layer of security beyond just your username and password. So even if a crook has your username and password, they can't access your account without the additional information from the SafePass.

Similar technology has been in use for years in Europe, but our banks have used their powerful lobby to fight what's called "additional authentication" (aka "two-factor authentication").

Bank of America is the first of the major American banks to adopt such a system. The cost for the SafePass is $20. Clark likens it to buying your own insurance policy on an account.

Three years ago, Christa logged into her brokerage account to find that it had been compromised. Someone had sold all her holdings and set up wiring instructions to get the money. Thankfully, she was able to act quickly and reverse the trades.

Her brokerage house then sent her a key fob that offered additional authentication by generating a random code necessary for account access. There is no protection under federal law for brokerage accounts that get looted.

Over the last 6 weeks, Clark has been getting numerous calls from listeners about ING Direct. People wanted to know if their money is safe. Clark repeatedly said that you don't have to worry because ING Direct (a U.S. subsidiary of Dutch giant ING) has full FDIC insurance -- like any other bank -- on deposits up to $250,000.

Well, now the other shoe dropped and ING needed a huge bailout from the Dutch government of 10 billion Euros, which is roughly $13.5 billion. Yet even if the Netherlands hadn't intervened, it would have made no difference to your money. You can have piece of mind -- up to $250,000 -- so long as your bank is an FDIC member or your credit union is an NCUA member.

In related news, the rates out there on savings are good. You can get a 5-year CD in the low 5% range from some institutions -- though not the giant monster mega-banks. Discover, meanwhile, has a 5-year CD offer for its cardholders of around 5.2%. (Editor's note: Figures accurate as of 10/20/08.)

Prosper is in a state of loan lockdown as the Securities and Exchange Commission scrutinizes the site to determine if it is illegally selling unregistered securities.

Regular listeners of the show will know that Prosper is one of a dozen or so "peer-to-peer" lenders. P2P lenders allow people to leverage the power of the Internet to make loans and borrow money from each other directly without the interference of banks.

Clark finds it unbelievable that federal regulators found time in their busy schedules -- in the midst of everything going on in our country right now -- to monitor Prosper. After all, the site isn't doing anything differently this year than it has been in the past.

So for the moment, Prosper is forbidden from making any new loans. If you have an existing loan administered by them, you still must repay on it. Incidentally, The New York Times reports Prosper's rate of default is around 30%, according to one lender cited by the paper.

Clark believes the P2P lending business model can't be crushed by some corrupt regulators. He vows to follow this story because he thinks it's just atrocious. Maybe Clark's paranoid, but this development seems way too weird with everything else going on in our economy right now.

Microsoft has long trailed Google in the search market, which explains why they've been trying to buy Yahoo. By the numbers, Microsoft controls about 9% of the market, Yahoo controls around 20% and Google has 55%-60%.

In order to gain more market share, Microsoft will actually pay you to use them for search! Customers who make an online purchase after using their search engine become eligible for a cash back rebate from Microsoft. Clark has no idea how well this idea will pan out.

In related news, Google offers its own suite of free office software. Those same programs are also available in a free web-based version as well. Clark likes to see what Google has available from time to time on their site.

Finally, did you know that Microsoft Office is available outside the United States in select countries for only $3?! That's a huge difference from the $150-$500 we pay!

Clark wants to warn you about a new e-mail scam making the rounds. Criminals have been gaining access to e-mail contact lists and sweeping out all the addresses. They then send out a very distressed note in your name to every contact on your list. The e-mail will claim that you're in financial, legal or medical trouble and that you desperately need money right away. The criminals hope that even one or two of your closest friends will respond with an offer of funds. Public e-mail services such as Yahoo! have been hit by this scam, according to The New York Times. Sometimes the criminals will even change your password while they're in your account. At that point, it can be very difficult to reclaim your e-mail address. So if you get a suspicious e-mail from a relative or friend, call them first and find out what's going on before you give them your money. On a related note, there's now a $5 security key that really helps secure your PayPal account. The key generates a random code every 30 seconds that you must use to access your account. Even if a thief has your e-mail address and password, they still won't be able to get in without the code. These kinds of security keys have become so inexpensive yet so invaluable. Clark hopes that brokerage houses and banks will soon be offering these devices to customers.

What do you do if you need money but want to avoid borrowing from the banks? In the past, Clark has always recommended credit unions. But now there are even more options available. Prosper.com is a site where people lend money to each other instead of a bank being in the middle. The investor who takes a risk in lending to you earns relatively high returns and you get a low rate. This is a big success that's growing exponentially. The way it works is that a borrower gets a lot of cash from several different people online. That helps lower the individual lender's risk in the case of default. People are essentially becoming their own loan officers by calculating the risk to see if they want to be part of a loan. There's a similar website in Britain called Zopa.com that's getting ready to come to the United States. A little competition in this field is going to be a healthy thing. However, there are some core differences between Proper and Zopa. The former grades your credit and then assigns you a lender, while the latter is tougher and only allows loans to those with moderate credit.

The volume of transactions on sites like these is growing. So is this a threat to the banking business? While it's still small potatoes today, over time it could be. CircleLending.com is also a good site to use for lending to people who are your family members or friends because it helps you negotiate a contractual agreement. Meanwhile, Clark has a rule for lending to family that he calls the "one time out rule." It states that you can lend to a family member once (and only once) as a gift. Even though they will call it a loan, you may never see the money come back. If it does, you'll be pleasantly surprised. It's kind of the same idea as the old saying, "First time shame on you, second time shame on me."

How can you earn the most on your money that are sitting in a “parking space” such as CDs, savings accounts, and money market accounts? Those places aren’t designed to get you a great return, averaging less than 0.5% interest on your savings. While you’ve always had the option of credit unions and local banks for better deals on savings, there’s now an even better choice: a “Direct” -- an online bank which has no branches, and can therefore offer you better rates. ING Direct (ingdirect.com) was the first bank to do this, and they’ve been phenomenally innovative, with checking accounts offering over 4.5% in interest, no-fee savings accounts and more. They spawned an entire league of competitors who are offering even greater rates on savings accounts now. We’ve gotten almost no complaints over the years on these Direct banks, compared to regular banks, so the customer service is fantastic. The newest player in the game is wtdirect.com, who are geared only to people with big bucks. You’ll need $10,000 to earn any meaningful interest, but they’re paying 5.26%, which is a good deal, and not a teaser rate. They limit the number of withdrawals to 6 per month, so this one is geared for those who mainly want to “park” their cash. Fnbodirect.com has a 6% teaser rate through September, and the national average is about 5.05%. However there are some economic trends that may push the rates even higher- inflation may step up, which will push up interest rates, and in turn, rates on savings. If you want to keep some of your business at a monster mega bank, you can electronically link your high-interest savings account to your crummy mega-bank checking account, and in just two days be able to transfer money back and forth between the two accounts.

Clark has great news for you if you need to borrow money. Online banks offer great interest rates for people trying to save. But what about those who need to borrow? Well, the same great offers are available to them. ING Direct, for example, has been offering mortgages that are below the market norm and have almost no closing costs. Emigrant Direct is also offering a similar deal, and offerings will steadily increase. ING is also testing online checking accounts that don’t have checks. Everything you do will be electronic. So, look for these deals soon!

Clark has been a big fan of electronic bill pay. Since the ‘80s, he’s paid bills over the phone because he’s always though checks were the wrong way to go. The number of people paying bills online has grown in very small increments – until this year! It seems that the number of people who pay electronically will surpass those who pay by check by the end of the year, according to Harris Interactive. So why does Clark like electronic payments so much? First of all, it’s much safer than sending a check. Secondly, you have proof that a bill was paid if questions arise. Best of all, it’s FREE! Check with your bank or credit union on how to set it up. Once you get the vendors and account numbers set up, it’s so easy.

People are getting more worried about lax security in the banking world. More than 40 percent are doing fewer online transactions and more than 50 percent are concerned about their financial information being compromised online, according to USA Today. And about 80 percent of people are now afraid of ID theft occurring online. Add to that the fact that only one of the eight largest banks has moved to cooperate with federal guidelines to use better online authentication. Only Bank of America has adopted real security measures, while 99 percent of banks only require a user name and password. It’s in excusable and unacceptable, and it’s happening at J.P. Morgan Chase, Citibank, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, US Bancorp and Wells Fargo. People can easily access your account and steal your identity with just the user name and password setup. In Europe, there is very little account takeover because they are required to have very tight security features. There are many ways to do this in the U.S., and it would save banks a lot of money in the long run. Instead, banks are undermining people’s faith in our financial institutions. It would behoove everyone if banks would wake up and set up more secure service.

Clark has talked a lot about how safe paying bills electronically really is, but people are often still skeptical. He went to a computer expert to ask just how safe it really is to add some certainty to his claim. One thing you can do is check for the “master lock” symbol at the bottom of the screen while you’re on the site. That lock means the server is scrambling of the data through encryption. It also means that you’re with the right site and the information on it is true. The address should read “https” instead of “http,” which means the server is secure. Some criminals have figured out a way to mimic the “https” address, but when you see that site lock you are A-OKAY.

When you get a bill in the mail, how do you pay it? Many people still pay with checks, but that number is dwindling. About 30 million Americans now pay at least several bills online. About 10 years ago, we wrote about 50 billion checks a year as a country. Now it’s about 30 billion. As a result, check printing factories are shutting their doors. What’s causing the change? Electronic bill pay. It’s just so easy to do once you set it up. And it’s much safer than writing checks. When you send a check, you have no way of verifying that the payment was made. The recipient can simply say he or she never received it. And you’re out of luck. With electronic bill pay, you have all of the proof you need. The way banks mail and process checks is changing, too. When you mail in a check, an electronic image will be taken and your actual check will be destroyed. So, basically, all checks are going to end up in electronic medium. It’s just a matter of whether the check starts out as electronic too.