How to Prevent Identity Theft.

Identity thieves use many different ways to steal your information. They use low-tech methods (stealing your wallet or even eavesdropping at key moments) or they use sophisticated Internet scams to rob people of their sensitive personal data.

That's why it's so important to protect any documents, banking cards, or sensitive numbers that can be used by thieves for their personal gain.

The following are a basic guideline to help you reduce the risk of identity theft, whether you are online or offline:

• Monitor your credit closely. Your credit report contains information about your credit accounts and bill paying history so you can be tipped off when someone is impersonating you. Watch for suspicious signs, like accounts you did not open. You can also consider identity protection services, which range from credit monitoring to database scanning, for extra security.
  
• Keep records of your financial data and transactions. Review your statements regularly for any activity or charges you did not make.
  
• Install security software (firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware software) and keep it up-to-date as a safety measure against online intrusions. Use an updated Web browser to make sure you're taking advantage of its current safety features.
  
• Be wary of e-mail attachments and links in both e-mail and instant messages. Use caution even when the message appears to come from a safe sender, as identity information in messages can easily be spoofed.
  
• Store sensitive data securely. Just as you keep sensitive paper documents under lock and key, secure sensitive online information. This can be done through file encryption software.
  
• Shred documents (both paper and electronic) that contain personal or financial information before discarding them. This prevents dumpster diving and, in the online world, the ability for hackers to bypass information that has not been permanently deleted from your computer.
  
• Protect your PII. Be cautious about giving out your personally identifiable information (PII) to anyone. Find out why the information is needed, and if it's absolutely necessary to give out. Be careful about the details you provide about yourself online, such as on social networking sites.
  
• Stay alert to the latest scams. Awareness and caution are effective methods to counter fraud. Share security tips you learn with your friends and family.
  

You may ask, "What do I do if I think I may have already given my information to a scammer?" Helpful sites like the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) have you covered! Refer to the ITRC's fact sheet, " I Gave My Info to a Scam Artist, Now What" to find out the immediate steps to take, tips for dealing with authorities, and additional resources. On the ITRC's website, you'll also find specific information to help guide you through a variety of identity theft issues — including safety tips and tactics aimed specifically at college students, job seekers, and travelers.

Hopefully you find this helpful & I think this is Keith signing off. Have A Happy New Year.

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Adobe exploits continue to be found.

Adobe Reader has been hit again. Hackers love Adobe. Adobe has over the last several years claimed many of the top security vulnerabilities due to its rich format which gives hackers many easy routes to take over computers. The following link give you the full story.


http://www.dailytech.com/EWeek+Ads+Infect+Users+Thanks+to+Adobe+Flaw/article14407.htm


If Adobe scares you after reading the above article, here is a link to an alternative called Sumatra PDF reader.

http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/free-pdf-reader.html

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Google, Microsoft Duped Into Serving Malware Ads.

Hey, what do you know, I'm not posting something about Facebook. LOL.

It appears that Google's advertising subsidiary DoubleClick and Microsoft’s MSN ads service both have admitted to falling for a clever scheme by some nasty black hat hackers. Malicious banner ads for both services were found to be trying to perform drive-by download exploitation and install malware on users' machines. See even the big boys can get scammed. Click on the following link to find out more.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=20373

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Facebook Places - good or bad?

I know that this post is a little late, but I had to do my research first.

Several months ago Facebook unveiled a location-based application that allows users to instantly log where they are via GPS, and display the results on Facebook in a manner very similar to Foursquare (www.foursquare.com)
People using the Places application are also asked to tag any 'friends' that may be in the same location, with Facebook Photo.
Facebook was keen to address privacy concerns with the new application. Anyone can remove their name from a posting, and settings can be adjusted to limit the number of people who receive the Places notifications, but how many of us really pay attention to the "Settings" tab.

Foursquare counts around 2.5 million users in its base, Facebook has 500 million. This means that Facebook is positioned to introduce the benefits of location sharing to a new and much wider audience, Don't worry though, every single one of the 500 million on Facebook are honest.
In an effort to protect privacy issues, Facebook has decided to set privacy settings to 'friends only'. I don't know about you, but there are a few "friends" I don't want knowing where I'm at. LOL.

Seriously though, there is a difference between true Friends & Facebook friends. Most people have 100 or more Facebook friends, but how many would you trust with watching your house while your out of town or even picking your kids up from school because you are running a little late?
Tim could have been very cool back in High School, but now he uses all that time he spent on Saturday nights down in his parents basement on the computer to steal peoples personal & financial information. He then sells it to his old Dungeons & Dragons buddy who is a B & E guy.
If Tim wants your info, he will get it, so don't make it easy for him.

I have noticed alot of my Facebook friends using this app to post their location. "John is at Walmart and probably won't be home for a while and since he is single and has no dog, no one is watching his stuff. And by the way, check an earlier post and you will see John in a picture playing "Call to Duty - Black Ops" on his Xbox 360 on his brand new 52 inch plasma screen TV." What do you know, John also listed his full address on his profile page. He may even have left a fully fueled moving truck in the driveway.

As with anything, privacy is one of the most important things to guard. My advice, whether you chose to take it or not, is to be careful what and when you post stuff. Something like, "I just got back from Walmart" is ok, but just don't go to Walmart at the same time and on the same day each week. That is called a routine and makes it easy to plan a visit to your home.
If you go on vacation or just a day trip, tell your Facebook friends about it when you get back and not when, where, and how long you are going to be gone before you even leave.

As always, I hope this helped or at least made you rethink your Facebooking practices.

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Armor for Social Butterflies

Those of you that have followed me from the beginning (about a year), know that I'm on Facebook, but I don't fully trust Facebook. See the "Facebook" section on my blog page for more info (6 posts). Don't get me wrong, I know Facebook isn't the only one out there, it's just the one I have the most experience with.

In my ever continuing quest to protect myself as well as pass on tips I come across, check out the attached link for some great tips on how to stay safe on social networking sites. Hope you find it as informative as I did.

One last thought, only 16 more days until Christmas and it still isn't too late to order a custom built computer from yours truley. LOL.

Have a Merry Christmas & A Joyous New Year.

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Cyber Monday - Part 2

Hello again. Two posts in one day, I must really be bored or in a chatty mode. Here is a link I came across while doing some research on the Internet today. It goes along with my post from earlier today. I hope you find this as helpful as I did.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40218820/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/?GT1=43001

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Shop Safely on Cyber Monday and Beyond.

Cyber Monday is just around the corner and if you are like me and many others, than you plan to enjoy the convenience of bypassing crowded stores in order to find the perfect gift and plan to do much of your shopping online. Just remember, the Internet is loaded with attackers looking for unsuspecting shoppers to slip-up and give them access to their personal and financial information. The following is a list of ways to safely surf the internet for sales this holiday shopping season - and skip the scams.

1. Make sure you're shopping on a secure site. Look for the padlock icon or a URL that starts with https://. That means your transaction is encrypted.
2. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. If you're not familiar with a particular seller, look for privacy and security seals or research them before you make your purchase. These seals are usually found on the bottom of the sellers webpage.
3. Create lengthy and complex passwords. Passwords can be guessed very quickly by hacker programs, so use both upper- and lower case letters as well as numbers and characters when creating passwords or when registering on sites.
4. Maintain your security software to keep malware off your PC.
   Make sure your antivirus and other security software are up to date. When you are done shopping, I recommend that you run a scan of your computer.
5. Don't make hasty online purchases. If you're hesitant to enter your credit card details online, consider using a separate credit card, or use an "e-card" solution that gives you the ability to create a temporary card number to be used just once or with a spending limit.
6. Pay extra attention to your bills and your credit. During the holidays, take the time to ensure your financial statements are accurate and that there are no surprise charges on your credit card.
7. Don't Shop in Public (online!) If buying something online, use your own computer. Don't use public computers while on vacation at hotels or airports. Public computers can have keyloggers that record your information as you type it.

Remember, cyber thieves are everywhere, so use a little common sense online this holiday season and you can spend more time on the phone with Grandma and less time on the phone trying to straighten out your charges with your credit card company.

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It must be Halloween.

Halloween must be coming because the amount of scareware I am removing from peoples computers is on the rise.

You may not have any idea what I am talking about when I mention scareware, also known as rogue security software, but I'll be willing to bet that you or someone you know either has experienced it, or will in the near future. Scareware now poses one of today's greatest security challenges to computer users. Scareware has become a very lucrative industry for cyber criminals, and it does not seem to be slowing down.

WHAT IS SCAREWARE?
Scareware comprises several classes of scam software with malicious payloads, or of limited or no benefit, that are sold to consumers via certain unethical marketing practices. The selling approach uses social engineering to cause shock, anxiety, or the perception of a threat, generally directed at an unsuspecting user. Some forms of spyware and adware also use scareware tactics.*
Scareware, or rogue security programs, normally start as a popup that claims your PC is infected with malware. It then prompts you to purchase the fake security software - which is actually malware in disguise — in order to remove the "threat". Essentially, it is malware pretending to be genuine Internet security programs, with the aim to steal your money, private information, or to expose you to other high risk cyber threats.

How does it End Up on Your Computer?
Scareware is distributed in a variety of ways, using social engineering tactics to deceive and mislead people. It can be encountered almost everywhere on the web today. For example:

1. Search Results: Be careful what you click. Look at the link before you click it. Scammers prey on unsuspecting computer users by exploiting misspelled URL's (Uniform Resource Locator) and use popular search queries about celebrity news and other hot topics to lure users to their website. Clicking on such a link could launch the scareware.


2. Fake Ads: Ads that look like they come from a legitimate company can in actuality be malware. These ads have even appeared on high-profile sites, such as FoxNews, New York Times, and MSNBC. If clicked on, either a fake malware scan is triggered, or a warning is shown in an attempt to trick the user into believing their computer is already infected with malware, and that purchasing the application will help them get rid of it.


3. Social Networks: This past year, "clickjacking**" attacks and other similar scams on social networks have been on the rise. Tainted links can easily be distributed this way. Again, be careful what you click.

Spotting the Fakes.
It is nearly impossible for most people to spot a rogue security program by merely looking at it. Most of them have a professional-looking website that appears to be from a legitimate company.

How Can You Avoid Scareware?
What can you do to help prevent the spread of scareware and make sure that you don't fall for the cyber criminals' tricks?

1. Do not fall for scare tactics. While browsing sites, be cautious of pop-ups warning you that your system is infected and offering a product to clean it up. Never pay for a program that installed itself to your computer. This is a sure sign of rogue software.


2. Use security software with real-time protection and keep it up-to-date. If you know that you have anti-virus, anti-spyware, and a firewall on your PC, you can safely ignore security alerts you receive that do not come from your chosen security software provider.


3. Ask ME (Kesar Tech) or knowledgeable friends and family members about quality software they use. Keep in mind that when you search for trustworthy security software online, rogue products can, and often do, appear in the search results list.


4. Practice online skepticism. Be aware that rogue security software does exist on the Web, and be careful to avoid it. These programs are designed to look real - meaning they may act like legitimate programs, use false awards and reviews to hook you , or employ other deceptive tactics. It's also a good idea to familiarize yourself with common phishing scams, and to be cautious of links in e-mail messages and on social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc...).

For more info, check-out my post from Jan. 28, 2010 entitled: Extortionware / Rogue Security Software / Malware


* Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scareware

** Clickjacking is a malicious technique of tricking Web users into revealing confidential information or taking control of their computer while clicking on seemingly innocuous Web pages. A vulnerability across a variety of browsers and platforms, a clickjacking takes the form of embedded code or script that can execute without the user's knowledge, such as clicking on a button that appears to perform another function. Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickjacking

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Again, how can people sleep at night?

Yet another example of how "trained professionals" take advantage of the unsuspecting public. This time it is the folks that drive around in the black & white "Bugs." Read the attached link and find out all the unbelievable details.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/home/best_buy_geek_squad_charging_30_free_ps3_firmware_updates

I guess the morale of the story is, when in doubt ask Kesar Tech.
My blog, my commercial. LOL.

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5 ways to speed up your PC.

Have you ever thought to yourself, "Boy my computer is running a lot slower than it used to!" Lots of people do and they must, based on all the television commercials offering to speed-up your computer. These commercials offer "free" scans, but what they don't tell you is that you have to buy the software to fix what the scan finds.
Speeding up your computer isn't that difficult and you already have all the tools on your Windows computer. Sure there is better and faster software to accomplish this task, but Microsoft supplies stuff already embedded in Windows to accomplish this task.
Here are the 5 things Microsoft says you need to do to speed-up your computer.

1. Free up disk space: Use Disk Cleanup
2. Speed up access to data: Use Disk Defragmenter
3. Detect and repair disk errors: Use Check Disk
4. Protect your computer against spyware: PC safety scan from Windows Live OneCare.
5. Learn all about ReadyBoost: Only for Windows 7 & Vista.

For more a more detailed explanation on each step mentioned above, see the following link:
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/maintenance/speed.aspx

Just to show that I am not on Bill Gates payroll, although I'd love to be, here are the 6 things I do to clean up & speed up a computer:

1. Tune up and clean your registry: I use a free program called "CCleaner."
2. Clean up Temp, Prefetch, & Temp. Internet Files: "CCleaner."
3. Manage Start-up Programs: "CCleaner."
4. Move large files to a separate back-up: This involves either burning these files to a CD/DVD or moving them to an external Hard Drive. Once you do this, delete them.
5. Out with the Old: Delete all your old files when you are done with them.
6. Get rid of viruses, malware, spyware: I recommend "SpyBot Search & Destroy," "AVG," & "Malwarebytes." All of these are free online.

For even more advice on this subject, here is another link to checkout:
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_can_i_speed_up_my_windows_xp_pc.html

I hope this helps and as always, keep your comments & questions coming.

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$161.84 to Infect 20,000 Users

I came across the following article and thought someone beside myself would find it interesting.
This might explain to some of you that have asked me, "How did I get a virus, I only go to "good" websites?" This may explain it! I hope you enjoy the following article & find it very infomative.

"In a paper titled “Is the Internet for Porn? An Insight Into the Online Adult Industry” and presented at The Workshop on the Economics of Information Security conference, researchers spent $161.84 to have approximately 49,000 visitors directed to their adult web sites.
As visitors arrived, the research adult web sites would check to see if the browsers had current versions of the Adobe Flash plugin, the Adobe PDF plugin and a Microsoft Office plugin. All of these plugins have had remotely exploitable vulnerabilities.
The researchers discovered that over 20,000 of their visitors had at least one outdated plugin, which means that these visitors are easy victims for drive by infections.
The researchers did conclude that adult oriented web sites tend to be more dangerous than other web sites, but you would be wrong to believe that the risk is insignificant if you don’t visit such web sites.
The criminals are also targeting legitimate web sites. The criminals are always trying to make sure that when you search for something on the web, their malicious web sites will be at the top of your results.
I’ve said it on many other occasions, but it is worth repeating again, keep those third party programs up to date!!! I highly recommend that home users take advantage of the Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) at http://www.secunia.com/. This free utility can help you keep your software current. Even if you limit your browsing to “clean” web sites, having vulnerable software puts you at considerable risk."

Randy AbramsDirector of Technical Education

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Social Networking Sites — Safety Guide

The following article is from the monthly Lavasoft news letter.

Social networking sites are growing in popularity at an exponential rate. With 500 million users, Facebook has become a common occurrence in our daily lives — among all generations. In fact, according to a recent study by Nielsen research, Americans spend a third of their online time (36 percent) communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal email and instant messaging.

And while they are a great way to stay in touch with old friends, find new friends, keep family up-to-date, post pictures, and so on; they are also now very popular places for people who have bad intentions. Just think about what your account may contain — email address, home address, date of birth, pictures — the list goes on. That's valuable information to cyber criminals and scammers.

Twitter's global surge in popularity has encouraged spammers and other online criminals to take advantage of the tiny URL links used within Twitter to target unsuspecting users. New Facebook scams seem to make emerge on a daily basis.
According to Consumer Reports' 2010 State of the Net survey, more than half of social network users share private information about themselves online, opening themselves up to a variety of online dangers, including identity theft.
So what can you do to stay safe one these kinds of sites?

Here is our top 10 list of the ways you can restore or maintain your privacy on social networking sites.

1. Check your privacy settings: Make sure you know what information is being shared publicly — and what information can be accessed by applications. You may be sharing more than you intended. Keep in mind that without taking the precaution of adjusting your privacy settings, when you visit partner sites, they may able to obtain information from your Facebook account, including your name, profile photo, and information on your interests. For more information on Facebook settings, please visit "A guide to privacy on Facebook" http://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation.php?ref=pf
   
2. Create strong passwords: Create complex passwords that are at least 10 characters long by mixing letters, symbols and numbers (don't just use words that can be found in a dictionary). You'll also want to avoid reusing the same passwords for different sites — if the password is breached or cracked, the cyber criminal would then have access to all of your accounts. If you are using a public computer, make sure it doesn't store your email address and password. It's easy to accidently choose 'remember me', so don't forget to look over the privacy settings on your browser.
   
3. Think twice about who you add, follow, or connect with: It's a good rule of thumb is to only connect and share with people that you know in real life. By 'friending' people online that are strangers, you open yourself up to added privacy and security risks. According to a study from Cloudmark, nearly 40 percent of new Facebook profiles are fake, created by malware writers and spammers.
   
4. Think before you post: Always remember, once shared online, your information is no longer private. Personal information like date of birth, home address, and email address can be used for a variety of scams and even identity theft. And just think how valuable it would be for the bad guys to get a hold of your dates and details of trips, vacations and time spent away from home.
   
5. Be careful what you click: Never, ever click on suspicious links, even if they look enticing. A lot of scams and malware in the social network world is spread through links and rogue applications. You may have seen recent posts such as "I just got the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!" or "Student attacked his teacher and nearly killed him" with a link attached to it. Take caution when clicking on links — even if it comes from a friend. Many of these applications are given access to post items — without you knowing — when you install them.
   
6. Limit your use of applications and extras (like games and quizzes): Software applications that are available for download to run on the site may not undergo any type of security approval, verification, or review. These applications can potentially be leveraged by cyber thieves to compromise your information. What's more, you may be handing over private information in your profile to the applications developers when you install the new app, even if you use privacy settings.
   
7. Monitor your kids: Networking sites can potentially open up children and young adults to many unfavorable aspects of the Internet — including bullying, online predators, and cyber scams. Make sure to prepare kids with information that can help them to make safe decisions, and to have an open dialogue about safe and appropriate web use.
   
8. Take action if you see suspicious activity: There are several ways to report potential spam or scams. Check your social network of choice for more details. If you think your account may have been compromised, immediately change your password. If status updates are appearing on your Facebook page that you didn't make, you may have a rogue application. Remove the suspicious application from your Facebook profile as well as the related message from your status, News Feed, and your Likes and Interests in the "Edit my Profile" menu.
   
9. Keep up with the latest scams and social engineering trends: This is easier said than done, but a little caution and awareness can go a long way in making sure you don't fall for online ploys, which are becoming increasingly targeted and believable. Here are a number of resources available for you to turn to in order to make the process quicker and easier: read easy-to-understand safety tips in the Lavasoft Security Center, check the Lavasoft company blog and Malware Labs blog for your daily dose of security news, and follow Lavasoft on Facebook or Twitter to stay up-to-date on online issues.
   
10. Have basic security software in place and keep it up-to-date: Protecting your PC with anti-virus, anti-spyware and a firewall (and making sure the software is always up-to-date) is critical in keeping safe from malware and online scams. Also make sure that your computer is up-to-date with the latest security patches.

Words to live by? If you wouldn't give a stranger the information, you probably shouldn't be posting it online.

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Linux -vs- Windows

I have had several people tell me they are fed-up with Microsoft Windows and asked if there in an alternative. There is, It is called Linux. Like Windows, Linux has several versions:
* Debian-based
* Slackware-based
* Pacman-based
* RPM-based
and a few others.

The following link tells about all the different versions and their main purpose: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions

For those interested in comparing Windows & Linux, the following links are for you: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000575.htm
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5664526/linux_vs_windows_which_is_best_pg2.html

I don't know much about Linux, I have never used it, but I know people that have and they say it a good Alternative to Windows, but not every ones "cup of tea."

I hope this helps a little and I will continue to research this, so I can give a more informed opinion. Watch for future posts on this subject.

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Are You Sharing Too Much Information Online?

These days, we share more and more personal details about ourselves online. Are you sharing too much private information? And, the even bigger question: is what you share putting your privacy at risk?
According to a recent industry study, the answer to both of those questions is a YES; more and more people are using social networking sites, and the majority are posting risky information online, without enough thought to privacy and security — ultimately exposing themselves to threats like identity theft.

According to Consumer Reports' 2010 State of the Net analysis, a survey of 2,000 online households, the amount of people using social networking sites has nearly doubled since the previous year's findings, while more than half of social network users share private information about themselves online, opening themselves up to a variety of online dangers, including identity theft. The key findings of the report include the following:


* About 25 percent of households with a Facebook account don't use the site's privacy controls or were not aware of them.


* 40 percent of social network users posted their full date of birth online, opening themselves up to identity theft.


* Nine percent of social network users dealt with a form of abuse within the past year — like malware, online scams, identity theft or harassment.

I can devinately testify to this one. I have had to clean-up many computers that became infected with a virus because the owner clicked on a link a friend sent them.

While the Web and popular networking sites allow people to be more social — to easily share information with others — at the same time, it's also easier for cyber criminals to learn more about potential victims, and to use these sites as a vector for various kinds of bad online behavior. In fact, reports of malware and spam rose 70 percent on social networks in 2009, according to an industry report from security firm Sophos.1


“Social networking sites are meant to get as many users in one place as possible on one platform, and for attackers there's a lot of return-on-investment in going after them,” said security analyst Shawn Moyer in a recent CSO article, describing the climate as a perfect storm of social engineering and bad programming.2


One popular site to taking heat recently over its attitude towards users' privacy and security is Facebook; criticism has been prompted by changes to the networking site's privacy settings in mid April. There has been so much concern, that the privacy debate on Facebook has even caught the attention of legislators. United States government officials, as well as privacy groups, have criticized Facebook for not doing enough to protect the privacy of its users, and have called on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to protect consumers of social networking sites. The FTC has been asked to examine privacy issues on Facebook, as well as to issue privacy guidelines in order to guarantee that social media companies protect user privacy.3







1http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/020110-facebook-twitter-social-network-attacks.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_daily_am_2010-02-02


2http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/020310-social-media-risks-the.html?hpg1=bn


3http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/01/BUFG1D5QIS.DTL

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Facebook, Again?

Guess what? Facebook is at it again. This time it gives out phone numbers to your friends. Read the following:
VERY IMPORTANT: WARNING!!! FB IS MESSING AROUND AGAIN!!! Go to the top right of your screen, click Account & then click Edit Friends. Go to the left side of your screen and click Phonebook. Everyone's phone # isbeing published.

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Control Your Privacy on Social Network Sites.

As Facebook, Twitter, and other Social Networking sites become more and more popular, cyber criminals are taking note and delivering new ploys through these channels. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to navigate the Web safely, securely, and privately. Unfortunately, giving up the social sites we love is not an option. So, educating yourself on your safety options and being vigilant about taking precautions are critical.

1.)Use strong passwords and take care when answering security questions.
Create complex passwords that are at least 10 characters long by mixing letters, symbols and numbers (don't just use words that can be found in a dictionary). You'll also want to avoid reusing the same passwords for different sites — if the password is breached or cracked, the cyber criminal would then have access to all of your accounts.

2.) Tweak your account settings, and use advanced privacy options.
The first step as soon as you sign up to a networking site is to check the privacy options available to you, and use any advanced settings offered. For example, PC World recently ran an article on the five essential Facebook privacy settings you need to review and tweak in order to keep your private information secure. According to the article, without taking the precaution of adjusting your privacy settings, when you visit partner sites, they're able to obtain information from your Facebook account, including your name, profile photo, and information on your interests. For more information, go to list on PC World to learn more and find out how to change your privacy settings.

3.) Have a clear understanding of what sensitive information is — and don't share it.
Once shared online, your information is no longer private. Before posting any personal information, think about how much data you want available about yourself online. Even facts that may seem mundane to you at first glance can be valuable to scammers, who are able to mine information, and connect the bits of personal data you make available. This can be used for a variety of scams and even identity theft. In order to limit the amount of potentially sensitive information about yourself — and to limit your susceptibility to theft or abuse — reconsider publically posting the following:
a. Your full name
b. Your full date of birth
c. The names of your children or family member
d. Your full home address
e. Dates and details of trips, vacations and time spent away from home

4.) Be careful what you click.
“Don't click on unsolicited messages.” You've heard that said about e-mails, but it pertains to social networking sites as well. Always take care with surveys, giveaways, and other types of special offers that seem too good to be true. A popular trend that researchers are currently seeing on social networking sites is the proliferation of fake gift card pages and scams — where scammers attempt to fool victims into believing they can qualify for a gift card (basically free cash) in exchange for becoming a fan of a certain page, and often clicking on a link and submitting personal information.

5.) Don't friend, follow, or otherwise connect with strangers.
It's a good rule of thumb is to only connect and share with people that you know in real life. By 'friending' people online that are strangers, you open yourself up to added privacy and security risks. According to a study from Cloudmark, nearly 40 percent of new Facebook profiles are fake, created by malware writers and spammers.

6.) Limit your use of applications and extras (like games and quizzes).
You have the ability to download and install third-party applications and various extras that work with the social networking sites you use. This can be done to add fun or functionality to your networking experience, such as playing games or personalizing your page. Software applications that are available for download to run on the site may not undergo any type of security approval, verification, or review. These applications can potentially be leveraged by cyber thieves to compromise your information. What's more, you may be handing over private information in your profile to the applications developers when you install the new app, even if you use privacy settings.

7.) Monitor your kids.
Networking sites can potentially open up children and young adults to many unfavorable aspects of the Internet — including bullying, online predators, and cyber scams.

8.) Have basic security software in place and keep it up-to-date.
Preparing your PC with anti-virus, anti-spyware and a firewall (and making sure the software is always up-to-date) is critical in keeping safe from malware and online scams.

9.) Keep up with the latest scams and social engineering trends.
This is easier said than done, but a little caution and awareness can go a long way in making sure you don't fall for online ploys, which are becoming increasingly targeted and believable.

If you follow the previous advice, you and your family should stay safe on Social Networking sites.
The previous suggestions, were found in Lavasoft News June 2010.

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Keep your computer up- to-date.

What is Patching?



You know it’s important to keep your security software up-to-date in order to stay protected from the latest threats. But, other programs and software on your computer – not to mention your operating system – also need to be updated regularly in order for you to stay secure.

“Similar to the way fabric patches are used to repair holes in clothing, software patches repair holes in software programs. Patches are updates that fix a particular problem or vulnerability within a program,”



Why is it important?



You need to update your operating system, your security software, and all other programs on your computer on a regular basis. Why? Patching your system and programs is key to keeping malware from infiltrating your computer. Unpatched programs can become an entry point for an attack.

One example is the malware, known most commonly as Conficker. The Conficker worm, (also referred to as Downup, Downadup and Kido), began dominating the security headlines last March, due in part to Microsoft’s offer of a $250,000 bounty in return for information leading to the arrest of the malware’s perpetrators, as well as because of hype surrounding the predicted April 1, 2009 activation of the massive botnet of infected computers that it produced.

But here’s the important part in the updating context: one of the ways Conficker has been known to spread and infect computers is through a known vulnerability in the Windows Server service, the MS08-067 vulnerability. The patch that fixed the MS08-067 vulnerability was published in October 2008 yet Conficker continues to thrive, meaning people are still not in the habit of installing security updates. In fact, according to data released in April 2010 from Qualys, one in 10 Windows computers are still unpatched against the Conficker worm’s exploits; 25 out of every 1,000 systems are estimated to currently be infected by it.



How you can stay up-to-date.



It’s important to keep your operating system and programs up-to-date and install updates as soon as they become available. Below are a few quick tips on how to do just that.

• Use automated update options, such as turning on Microsoft’s Automatic Update feature. You can also choose to take advantage of mailing list notifications from some vendors that will inform you when an update is ready.
• Don’t click ‘remind me later’. For your security’s sake, install security updates as soon as they become available in order to protect your computer.
• Get the updates only from the product’s vendor, and through a trusted website. Remember: don’t blindly trust links in e-mail messages. Cyber criminals have been known to push patch-related scams through spam – directing a user to a malicious site or attachment, in an attempt to infect your system with malware. Hope this helps and as always, keep your questions & comments coming.

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Busy Month.

God was good to me during the month of April. This was my busiest computer related month to date.

I did the following:
* Built 2 computers from scratch
* Replaced a Motherboard on a laptop
* Cleaned-up & updated another laptop
* Located a new screen for a third laptop - Screen was too expensive for costumer so no work was preformed.
* Reformatted a Netbook computer
* Replaced 2 Network cards
* Replaced 1 bad power supply and diagnosed another bad one - customer wanted to change the second one by themselves.
* Set-up a small business network for a local business.
* Removed 5 virus from 4 computers -4 remote removals and 1 on-site.
* The normal questions

All these jobs went smoothly, but the laptop I cleaned-up & updated, crashed from an unforeseen & unrelated problem a few days after I returned it. The customer returned it to the Manufacturer and I have not heard what the problem was.
God gave me all these opportunities so I must give him all the glory.

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Facebook is at it again.

As of today, there is a new privacy setting called "Instant Personalization" that shares data with non-Facebook websites and its automatically set to” Allow." Go to Account > Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites > Edit Settings under Instant Personalization (at the bottom) and uncheck "Allow."
Sorry to say, but Facebook is proving my initial observation of them. How can they just release personal info to non-Facebook sites?
As I’ve stated before, BE CAREFUL.

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How can some people sleep at night?

I don’t know if it’s my faith, the way I was raised, or just that I’ve never thought of purposely cheating anyone, but I heard the most shocking thing today.
I built a computer for someone from church, we’ll call them Mr. & Mrs. W, and when I was all done setting it up at their house, they asked me to go through a pile of software cds to see which ones they needed & which ones were garbage.
I came across a homemade copy of AVG Antivirus & SpyBot Search & Destroy and asked where it came from. What they told me almost knocked me out of my chair.
They said that a local computer store sold it to them for $10.00.
$10.00!! I couldn’t believe it. Both programs are free on the internet and the CD was probably $0.50 or less if purchased in a spindle of 50 or 100.
I don’t know why I was so shocked. The same store is the reason I got the W’s as customers in the first place. These folks took their “slow” computer to said computer store only to be told they needed a new computer. They were told that nothing could be done and that their computer was on it’s last leg and would soon die. But have no fear! “We have a shipment of new computers coming in on Thursday.” This is also when they sold them the $10.00 disk.
God caused our paths to cross and I saved them a lot of money and added a loyal customer to my list.
Instead of going to bed one Sunday morning after a midnight turn, I went to church. After church as we were leaving to go home, our minister asked Mr. W what they had planned for the day. Mr. W told him they had to go window shopping for computers and asked what our minister knew about computers. The minister immediately pointed at me and said, “There is the man you want to talk to.” He told me his story and I told him to hold off a day and I would be over the next day to check it out.
I showed up the following day to take a look at their computer. I first checked the defragment tool. There was more red on the screen than a Freddie Kruger movie. I cleaned that up and then ran “CCleaner” to clean up temp files, temp internet files, and a whole lot more useless files. 2GBs later, the computer seemed to run a whole lot faster than before. By the time I was done, they thought they had a new computer. That must have been one strong leg because a year and a half later, the computer is still running strong. The only reason that I built them a new one was that they out grew the old one.
So if anyone needs protection software, give me a call, I have plenty of free programs I can throw onto a CD and sell you. Just Kidding, but if you are looking for software, checkout the links I have to FREE software on the righthand side of this page.

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Facebook Flub Leaks Private E-mail Addresses

The following link will take you to an article about the title of this blog post.


http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,193009/article.html


As I stated in my post of Febuary 3,2010, Facebook and the other Social Engineering sites have their good points, but you also have to look out for the bad.

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I'm done with AVG free Antivirus. Atleast for now.

Avg has finally done it. I have praised this free antivirus for a couple of years now. I even install it on new systems I build, but like I stated in my post on February 12th of this year, the latest version, version 9, is a far cry from previous versions.

I tried to live with version 9’s idiosyncrasies; I even tweaked several of the tools to get them to work a little smoother with my system, but then came the latest updates.
Thursday morning, it did its normal automatic updates, but this time it had to restart my computer in order for the updates to take affect. Everything seemed OK upon reboot, but as soon as I used Outlook Express to check my e-mails, it seemed like it took forever to retrieve them. When I was done with my e-mails, I attempted to surf the web, attempted being the key word. My internet connection was sooooo ssssllllloooowwww. I could have probably run a marathon, changed the oil in both my cars, and painted my garage again before the home page opened up. Everything I attempted to do, where meet with the same results. I tried to tweak AVG, but that didn’t work and of course it has nowhere to temporarily turn it off, so I tried a system restore.

When I went into the System Restore option, I noticed that AVG had two restore points from the day before. AVG had updated TWICE. The first one was an update for version 8 and then three minutes later, an update for Version 9. Why it did an update for version 8 is beyond me, so I tried to restore to before the version 8 update. After it went through all its steps and restarted the computer, it told me the restoration was incomplete. I then tried to restore to Wednesday, but again, I got an incomplete restoration. By this time, I was so fed up with AVG, I just uninstalled it.

Now I had a bigger problem: NO ANTIVIRUS ON MY COMPUTER.
At this point, I did a search on Bing for good free antivirus software. The search lead me to the following website: http://freebies.about.com/od/securityfreebies/tp/best-antivirus.htm . This link listed the top three free antivirus software.
1.) Avast Home Edition Free Antivirus
2.) Avira Personal Free Antivirus
You’ll never guess what number 3 was? If you said AVG Antivirus Free Edition, you are correct. After reading the reviews, I decided to download Avast.

Stay tuned for my review of Avast. I am already disappointed in one feature. You must register it within 30 days to keep it active and then every year there after. I have never heard of registering a FREE version of software in order to use it.

It better be one heck of an antivirus.

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Social Engineering

Look at the latest security headlines, and many have one thing in common: social engineering was used to victimize people. These deceptive tactics - attacks where the criminal relies on you to make the wrong choice - are hidden throughout the Web, as you shop, bank, and socialize online.



What is Social Engineering?



Social engineering is when a scammer - rather than using technical hacking techniques - manipulates, tricks or deceives people into performing certain actions or divulging personal information.1



Social engineers take advantage of human behavior to pull off their scams – with the aimed end result of infecting a user with malware, and stealing personal information or money.

Social engineering attacks are becoming more complex and increasingly prevalent, according to security experts. “The nature of malware infections has changed during the past years. A long time ago, malware and viruses were spread in much less sophisticated ways. Now, malware authors constantly invent new intellectual ways to manipulate people and compromise their machines,” And these types of attacks are on the rise.





What Methods Do Attackers Use?



Social engineering attacks aimed at home computer users often take advantage of basic human emotions to manipulate and persuade people to fall for their ploys – including curiosity, fear, and empathy.



Curiosity. Exploiting a person’s curiosity might involve sending an e-mail that purportedly contains a link to watch a video about the latest sensational news story. The link, however, will lead to a malicious site aimed at installing malware or stealing private information.



Fear. One tactic cyber thieves use to instill fear and persuade a person to act in a certain way is by sending phishing e-mails, supposedly from a victim’s bank. Using the claim that his or her account has been breached, the message will push the user to click a certain link to validate the account. Again, the link will lead to a malicious site aimed at compromising the person’s computer, or stealing sensitive information.



Empathy. To take advantage of a person’s empathetic feelings towards others, hackers have been known to impersonate victims’ friends on networking sites, claiming to urgently need money. In another prime example, recent social engineering scams have also been seen in the wake of the earthquakes in Haiti, with con artists attempting to profit from the feeling of good will that follows such events to target users with donation scams.



While the above tactics are common ploys, it’s important to keep in mind that there are many other methods used by scammers; we can expect almost limitless variations on tried and true attacks that have been found to be successful in the past.

All of these tactics, however, involve an interactive choice by the computer users – meaning that, armed with the right knowledge; you can effectively choose to not be the victim.





What Can You Do To Avoid Becoming A Victim?



Protecting your PC with trusted security software is an effective first step to help keep you safe from social engineering attacks. But, you also need to be aware of social engineering tactics, and employ a healthy dose of skepticism when online.

The most important thing for users to do is to use common sense while surfing the web.



To findout more, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has compiled additional helpful guidelines to avoid being a victim in its Cyber Security Tip on social engineering attacks.





The majority of the information above is from the Lavasoft website.



1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_%28security%29

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Data Back-Up.

I have been asked a lot lately, "Why should I back-up my files, what should I back-up, how can I back-up my files, and what's the best way?"
For reasons of laziness, I will be using the acronym HDD when I am referring to the Hard Disk Drive or the Disk Drive throughout the following blog.

The answer to the first two questions is: any file that you would be crushed if you lost. Lets say you converted your wedding VHS tape to DVD. The tapes degrade after a period of time, around 7 years, your young children scratch the heck out of your only DVD copy, and in order to free up some space for a video game, your teenager deletes all your video files. After you send your kids off to military school, now what do you do? Well since you have a back-up copy of the video saved, you just make a new DVD.
Another example is, you spent hundreds of dollars downloading songs off of I-Tunes and never quite get around to burning them to a CD. You get a virus that wipes your HDD out. Without a back-up, Bye Bye music & Bye Bye money.

The answer to questions 3 & 4 are as follows:

• External HDD.
• $80 & up, depending on brand & capacity.

An external hard drive is probably the best at backing up files. I say the best because you can back-up your files and then store the hard drive somewhere away from the computer. This is for worst case scenarios. Lightning fries your computer. Your computer is dead, but those vacation photos of your trip to Aunt Freda & Uncle Irv's summer cottage are safe and sound. Now all you have to do is call me to build you a new computer (shameless advertisement) and load the photos onto your brand new computer. Plus now the files are portable. Instead of spending money to print all the photos out and buy a scrapbook, just take the drive with you when you go to the family reunion, plug it into a laptop and in the words of Emril Lagasse, BAM instant slidshow. Also, most external hard drives today come with some sort of back-up software pre-installed that makes it relatively easy to back-up your files.

• Extra Internal HDD.
• $80 & up, depending on brand & capacity.

Except for the fact that they are fastened inside your tower/case and not very easily accessible, they work the same as the above mentioned external HDD. An advantage to these is the fact that they are already tied into your system thus making the back-up process a little easier. Another advantage is storage. Now you don't have to worry about trying to find a safe, dry, out of the way location to store it. In my lightning scenario though, the internal HDD doesn't help too much because it is going to get fried along with your computer.

• CD or DVD.
• $ .15 & up per disk, 10 to 100 disk spools.

These are portable and cheap forms of storage, but do not have a whole lot of storage capacity. They are better suited for things like: making picture CDs to give to a family member, putting your downloaded music onto for listening to in the car, or storing updates on for commonly used software. They would probably be just fine for the novice computer user that just wants to do the above mentioned activities.

• Thumbdrive / Flashdrive.
• $10 & up, depending on brand & capacity.

Similar to CDs & DVDs, they are limited in there capacities, but not for long. Like CDs & DVDs they have specific uses and backing up systems is not one of them, yet. They are great for transporting files between the office and home. Or in my case, to store troubleshooting software and fixes on to take to jobs.

• Online storage services.
• Usually 1 or 2 gigabytes (GB) free and anything above that is either a per GB fee or fixed block fees. An example of fixed block is $5.00 per month for 10 GB and so on.

Online storage is kind of what it suggests, you store all your back-ups to an Internet storage host. In essence you are renting storage space from someone else. So now some person you don't know with a company you found on the Internet has control of all the photos, music, files, etc... that you back-up to their site. Your stuff is "safe & secure," just waiting for the day you need to download it to replace lost originals or for whatever reason you need it. The problem is, it's all on some server in India or somewhere else you can't gain access to with out a computer & an Internet connection. Another drawback is the fact that some hosts limit the size of the files you can upload to 25 megabytes (MB). This is about 20 minutes of music or a folder with about 100 photos in it.

The best strategy is to back-up your back-ups. For example: save your music files & photos to an external HDD and a CD. Then if you don't need the originals on your computer, delete them and free up some HDD space on your system. Backing up your files is a smart thing to do for the off chance that some precious photo, song, or important file gets deleted or corrupted, you don't have to sweat it, you have a back-up.

So there it is, everything you wanted to know about backing up data, but were afraid to ask. Or, something you don't care about, but unfortunately for you, I needed to fill some space so I wrote about it.

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Snopes.com

I don't know how many people read this blog, but for those of you that do, here is a website you may never have heard of. http://www.snopes.com/.

For those that don't know, snopes is a website that clears up the Internet rumors: " The new U.S. dollar coins were designed with the motto "In God We Trust" omitted (FALSE)," "Abused goat kills it's owner (TRUE) ," "During a campaign stop, Barack Obama stated that he had visited "57 States," a reference to 57 Islamic states (Multiple Truth Values)," "Keith is the best computer guy around (snopes has never heard of this one, but this is my blog & I say TRUE)", and the list goes on.

I check all e-mails I receive on snopes first before I forward them on like so many emails ask me to do. It is quick & easy to check these stories out, all you have to do is go to snopes website, chose from one of their search categories or type in either the email title or some key words into the search box and snopes will do the rest. Occasionally a topic can not be found, but my experience has been that this doesn't happen very often.
When the item is found, snopes gives it one of 5 different rates:

1. (Green Circle) = True
2. (Red Circle) = False
3. (Red & Green circles joined) = Multiple Truth Values
4. (Yellow Circle) = Undetermined
5. (Grey Circle) = Unclassifiable Veracity

The reason for this post is, I usually don't mind checking these out when I get them, but recently I was told by a friend, that I was their fact checker. I receive a lot of emails from this person and a lot of them are False, so when I asked them if they checked them out at snopes before they forwarded them to me, they replied, "No, that is why I send them to you. I know you check them & then let me know one way or another." Last time I checked, Fact Checker was a paying gig. I will be glad to do this if you forward along a check or money order made payable to Keith Schwandt. HA HA.

Seriously though, I will probably continue to be their unofficial, unpaid fact checker. Plus a lot of people are unaware of this website and I am here to inform.

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AVG 9 does not play well with others.

I don’t know if anyone else noticed, but upon boot-up of my system, Windows Defender is turned off. I have to manually turn it on every time I start my computer. I became curious as to why this was happening, so I did a little research and here is what I found: AVG 9 is turning off Windows Defender.

The following is a quote from AVG regarding this action:



Dear Sir/Madam,



Thank you for your e-mail.



Please be informed that we are aware of this behavior. AVG 9 is disabling Widows Defender per recommendation by Microsoft. AVG offers duplicate functionality, so Windows Defender doesn't complement your security level further. It only contributes to the system load and lowers the performance of your computer.The new version of AVG and Windows Defender cannot run at the same time.Thank you for your understanding.



So far my experience has been that they can run together, but you must manually start Defender every time you start your computer. One problem I have noticed and it may not even be related, but when both are turned on & running, my internet browsers (IE8 & Firefox) are slower than molasses. Just beware.

Another option is to just turn Defender on once a week to run a scan. If you leave your computer turned on all the time, Windows Defender will stay turned on. This problem only occurs if you turn your computer off nightly.



How to manually turn on Windows Defender:

• Click on the START button - All Programs - Windows Defender.
• Next a little box will come up telling you that “Defender is currently turned off, would you like to turn it on and open it.” Click on this.
• In seconds, the Windows Defender page will open and now just click on the “Red X” in the upper right hand corner to minimize it to the Notification Area (bottom right of screen, next to the clock) or run a scan, your choice.

As always, I hope this was informative and I welcome your comments and questions.

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Facebook!

I have been getting a lot of grief over something I have been saying for about a year now.
I said, “I will never use Facebook, Twitter, or any of the social networking sites! They are nothing but a problem waiting to happen!” To a certain degree, I still believe that statement, but like I said in my January 28th post, if you are careful with what you are doing and not just clicking on links people send you, you should be okay.
Like a lot of things, there are good and bad to it.
It is good from the stand point of keeping in touch with friends & family, especially if they are overseas in the Military. You can find and catch up with old friends, and it even has discussion boards on just about any topic you can think of and some you probably would never have thought of.
The bad of course is the potential for infection, phishing scams*, it can become addicting, is very dangerous for younger children to be on unsupervised because of online predators, and it even has discussion boards on just about any topic you can think of and some you probably would never have thought of. Satan is always on the prowl.
I have heard stories of people reconnecting with High School friends, exchanging e-mails for a couple of days and then when the one party has said what they needed, they just stop e-mailing. Only to get an e-mail a few days later from the second party, “Are you mad at me? Did I say something wrong? You haven’t written to me in a few days.”
Ahhhh, because I have other priorities and sitting in front of a computer for hours on Facebook isn‘t one of them.
Of course the reason for this blog is I GOT CAUGHT and now have to apologize. I am on Facebook. The reason I got on Facebook was as a means to keep in touch with people from work and to keep up on all the rumors. So to all of those people that read this blog and I told Facebook was bad, I’m Sorry.
But like I mentioned previously, I still believe Facebook and the other social network sites have a dark side, just be careful.
　
* Phish is an Internet scam designed to trick the recipient into revealing credit card, passwords, social security numbers and other personal information to individuals who intend to use them for fraudulent purposes. Definition provided by www.answers.com
　

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Extortionware / Rogue Security Software / Malware

You may not be familiar with the terms ‘rogue software, extortionware, or malware’ but there’s a very good chance that you or someone you know either has experienced it, or will in the near future.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have seen a lot of virus attacks lately. A large part of the viruses I had to clean-up where this type. They appear as a pop-up on your PC, warning you that you’re infected with malware, and urging you to buy a specific program in order to remove the threat? Some of them keep popping up and won't let you shut them down. I have even seen one that won't let you access the internet. While the “threat” being reported by these fake scanners isn’t real, the danger posed by the scam is.

As malware writers fill the web with rogue anti-malware programs, this kind of trickery is becoming more and more common, and now poses one of today’s greatest security challenges to computer users.

What exactly is a rogue? Rogue security applications are sometimes referred to as scareware or extortionware because they try to frighten users into thinking they need to buy a certain program. Taking the form of legitimate-looking anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-malware products, these rogue applications appear beneficial from a security perspective but provide little or no protection, generate misleading alerts, or attempt to lure you into a bogus transaction; essentially, they are malware, pretending to be genuine Internet security programs, and they aim to steal your money, private information, or expose you to other high risk cyber threats.

Rogues are distributed in a variety of ways, using social engineering tactics to deceive and mislead people. For example:

• You may see an ad for a security software product pop-up on your PC as your browsing the Web, warning you that your PC is infected with malware, prompting you to download a specific program to remove it.
• It may be distributed by a fake codec (supposedly necessary to view a certain video).
• You may see messages that appear to come from your operating system, telling you that your system is infected, and pushing you to take a certain action, like visit a website or download a program.

Microsoft’s Help and Support page explains it well, stating that, “Rogue security software might report a virus, even though your computer is actually clean. The software might also fail to report viruses when your computer is infected. Inversely, sometimes, when you download rogue security software, it will install a virus or other malicious software on your computer so that the software has something to detect.”*

In my opinion the best ways to avoid Extortionware is:

• Do not fall for scare tactics.
• Use security software with real-time protection and keep it up-to-date. If you have ant-virus, firewall, anti-spyware, etc… programs and a warning pops up from another service telling you that you are infected, DON’T BELIEVE IT.
• Access experts. If you do get a warning like this, contact someone that knows. Hopefully me. HA HA.
• Read the software reviews. Refer to sources such as Download.com, Afterdawn.com, or even type the suspect program name into a Google, Bing, or Yahoo search bar. The search may show the program as legitimate, but all of my experience it comes back with a cure to get rid of it.
• Ask knowledgeable friends and family. Ask them what they use and if they have ever heard of the “rouge” software.
• Practice online skepticism. Be aware that these programs exist and can cause trouble. Also be cautious of links in e-mail messages and on social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc…).

Remember, be careful what you download and what links you click on. If you do get a warning that pops up on your monitor saying you are loaded with "infections.", don't get scared just contact someone that knows about this kind of stuff, ME, and see what can be done.



*Part of the above content is from the Lavasoft Newsletter.
* http://www.microsoft.com/security/antivirus/rogue.aspx

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Belarc Advisor

This entry is to explain what the Belarc Advisor link on this page is for.
Belarc's products automatically create an accurate and up-to-date central repository (CMDB), consisting of detailed software, hardware and security configurations. The Belarc Advisor displays a detailed profile of your installed software, hardware and vulnerabilities in your Web browser. Click on the Belarc link in the "Links" section on this page to download a free copy for personal use. This product is used for software license compliance, hardware upgrade planning, cyber security status, information assurance audits, IT asset management, configuration management, and more.

It will give you a Computer Profile of the current Operating System (XP, Vista, etc..), all the hardware you have install in your computer, the active and inactive user accounts, attached printers, attached monitors, communications (I.P. Address, Default Gateway, etc.), and much more.

Next, it tells you what Microsoft hotfixes are installed on your computer and the dates they were installed,  
if there are any hotfixes that need to be installed, and any antivirus software installed.

Lastly, it lists all your Software Licenses and Software Versions for all currently installed software.

This isn't a necessary thing, but it is cool to see the report that it generates. Also helps to see if you are up to date on all your hot fixes and see if you have the most current versions of your software.

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Another one bites the Dust!

Viruses seem to be on the rise lately. I have heard of and removed quit a few over the past few months. Some of my tips for avoiding viruses are in a previous post. Not that I mind the business or anything, but I can see how stressful it is and potentially dangerous it can be to your data. Especially if you store personal info on your computer like: bank passwords, credit card info, insurance policy numbers, social security numbers, etc...
Unfortunately the world is full of jerks and we have all heard about identity theft and the damage it does to your credit. Just be careful with what you do and where you surf.

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Virus, Spyware, Adware, Trojan Horse, Malware

Day two:
I have attached a few definitions of some common computer infections. Some of these are just annoying while others are nasty. In my opinion, your best chance to avoid these is to:

• Keep your anti-virus & other protection programs up to date
• Don't open any e-mails / attachments from senders you don't know
• Don't download anything from the web that you are unsure of
• Don't frequent questionable websites and on-line game sites
• Don't leave your computer logged into a website and walk away for extended periods of time.
• Be careful when installing programs or copies of programs from "friends."

Even after adhering to these guidelines, you still get something, don't panic not all is lost. Unless you feel comfortable "treating" the infection yourself, seek help from someone that has an idea of what they are doing. Again these are my opinions, but I follow these and with God's watchful eye, I have only had one bad virus in my eight years of "serious" computer experience. The aforementioned virus was from someone else using my computer to play an on-line game. It took me two days to clean-up my system. Needless to say, NO ONE uses my computer unless I know what they are doing. On the right hand side of this page, under the "About Me" section, you will find links to my favorite computer protection sites. Not saying any of these are perfect, but I have had good experiences with them. You are free to try your own.


Computer Virus:
A program that enters a computer (usually without the knowledge of the operator). Some viruses are mild, and only cause messages to appear on the screen, but others are destructive and can wipe out the computer's memory or even cause more severe damage.Computer viruses spread from machine to machine on disks and through telephone lines.


Spyware:
Software that sends information about your Web surfing habits to its Web site. Often quickly installed in your computer in combination with a free download you selected from the Web, spyware transmits information in the background as you move around the Web. Also known as "parasite software," "scumware," "junkware" and "thiefware," spyware is occasionally installed just by visiting a Web site (see drive-by download). The license agreement that everyone accepts without reading may actually state that you are installing spyware and explain what it does. For example, it might say that the program performs anonymous profiling, which means that your habits are being recorded, not you individually. Such software is used to create marketing profiles; for example, people who go to Web site "A" often go to site "B" and so on. Spyware may deliver competing products in real time. For example, if you go to a Web page and look for a minivan, an ad for a competitor's vehicle might pop up (see adware).

Adware:
(ADvertisementWARE) Software that periodically pops up advertisements on a user's computer. It displays ads targeted to the individual user based on key words entered in search engines and the types of Web sites the user visits. The marketing data are collected periodically and sent in the background to the adware Web server. Adware is known as "contextual marketing."

Trojan Horse:
A malicious security-breaking program that is disguised as something benign, such as a directory lister, archiver, game, or (in one notorious 1990 case on the Mac) a program to find and destroy viruses! See back door, virus, worm, phage, mockingbird.

Malware:
(MALicious softWARE) Software designed to destroy, aggravate and otherwise make life unhappy. See malvertising, crimeware, virus, worm, logic bomb, macro virus and Trojan. Malicious computer software that interferes with normal computer functions or sends personal data about the user to unauthorized parties over the Internet.

* Definitions from www.answers.com

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Welcome

Let me first start by saying, I am by no means an expert at writing, so you will probably find many grammatical errors and maybe even a spelling error or two on this page. Please don't let that sway you from reading on or asking questions. With that said, Hello and Welcome to my "Experiment." I have been thinking about setting up a website for awhile, but decided the cost may be a little more than I want to handle. Renting a URL and all that goes along with that. A special person told me about this and I figured I would give it a try. I am setting this up to answer technical questions and to provide links to sites I find helpful. And those of you that I already deal with, links to the sites for your various security programs will also be provided. Hope you enjoy and PLEASE keep your comments appropriate.

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