It seems so easy — at any time of day, from any room in your house, you can buy anything from books to automobiles.

But when you type in your name, address and, most of all, credit card number, just how secure is that information you send into cyberspace?

In recent months, hackers have made their way into several well-known e-commerce sites, including the popular amazon.com.

But local computer expert Chris Maxwell of Maxwell’s Printing said most of the publicized attacks by hackers happened at the server level at those companies, not at the transaction level — the moment when you type your information into the computer.

And Maxwell advised people to look for certain symbols when shopping online to set your mind at ease about security.

“On the address line of your browser, there’s one thing that’s a dead giveaway for a level of security,” Maxwell said. If it’s a secure site, the first part of the address will read “https,” rather than just “http.”

Another thing to look for is a lock or key symbol in the bottom corner of the browser, Maxwell said.

An open lock or broken key means the site is not secure.

Maxwell admits it is hard for anyone to reall see what the level of So he advises that if you can’t see what the security level is, don’t log information you want kept private onto the site.

Maxwell, who has used the Internet to buy, sell and even make bank transactions, said he always makes sure he logs off of a site before he leaves it.

“If there are sites you have to log into, make sure to out out or log off. I don’t want to leave anything to chance,” he said. “There’s too many people out there who know too many hooks.”

But in general, Maxwell believes buying and selling on the Internet is safe.