Best Buy has lost it's mind.

I heard the strangest story today. A friend I hadn't talked to in a long time told me that during Christmas, he went to Best Buy to purchase 4 laptops. He ATTEMPTED to purchase the laptops with cash.
First off, the laptops could only be purchased at the Geek Squad counter. Not too strange, but kind of inconvenient
Here is the strange part. Once a Geek Squad tech got around to waiting on him, they told him that they needed a credit card to complete the purchase. The credit card was to auto purchase Norton 360's service when the trial period ran out.
My friend told them that he had $4,000 cash and was just going to delete the Norton when he got home anyway. The tech told him that he still needed the card.
My friend then asked to speak to a manager. When the manager arrived, my friend explained his situation and again was told by the manager, "This is store policy and I can not do anything about it."
So my friend took his money and went to a competitor to purchase his laptops.
I guess Best Buy isn't/wasn't effected by the economy and can afford to let a $3,700 sale walk out the door and go to a competitor.
I find this simply amazing.

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Who is in charge of your family's computer security?

I have been doing a little research on Identity Theft and some of the statistics I've found are scary. In 2009, according to Javelin Strategy and Research's annual "Identity Fraud Security Report" [ http://bit.ly/aKgBRe].
11.1 million adults were victims of identity fraud. 11.1 million people, that's a lot of people! That's almost 5 percent of the total population of the United States.
If that isn't scary enough, the monetary damage from all this fraud was $54 BILLION. That's an average of $4,841 per victim.
According to this survey, small business owners suffered fraud at one-and-a-half times the normal rate.
I see the potential for this to get worst and not better. It's not like all the data we have floating around the web, our multiple PCs, our home networks, our phones, and our wallets is going to decrease over time. This makes it more important than ever that you and I assess our data security on at least a yearly basis.
I urge you to preach the mantra of digital security to your family and friends.
After all, I don't think any of us can afford $54 billion.

Here is a link to an article that tells you just how to protect yourself from fraud.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/protect_and_defend_32_ways_secure_your_digital_life


On the same note, I recently read an article titled "FCC Probes Google."
Here are some key points of the article:

• At issue is Google's admission in May 2010 that its Street View cars had mistakenly gathered data, including email addresses, passwords, and URLs, in the process of photographically mapping the world's streets.
• This information was inadvertently collected from unprotected Wi-Fi networks.
• The FCC has announced that it's launching a probe to determine whether the unauthorized data collection violated the Communications Act.

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Confused by ‘Update’ Jargon? Maybe this will Help!

UPDATE GLOSSARY

Lavasoft has put together a basic patch-time dictionary to help demystify common phrases associated with keeping your computer and software current. Browse through it to become familiar with the basics of what you need to know to stay safe!

• Security update/software update. A security update is a fix for a security-related vulnerability for a certain product. A software update is a patch or fix that is used to improve a certain software product or fix a specific problem.

• Operating system patches. Computer system software must be regularly updated. Operating system patches are security updates that are released by the operating system vendors, like Microsoft or Apple. Vulnerabilities have been found in every major operating system. You need to patch your operating system regularly in order to keep it up-to-date, and help stay safe from viruses, spyware, malware and other online security threats.

• Vulnerability. A vulnerability is a weakness or flaw, allowing for exposure by an attacker, due to a product flaw. Vulnerabilities are found in operating systems, software products, and web applications, and can compromise the security of your computer. The maker of the product or application fixes these flaws as they identify them or as they become known.

• Exploit. A vulnerability or bug in software used to take advantage of a user's system to gain unauthorized access.

• Zero day exploit A zero day exploit is a vulnerability for which exploit code has gone public before a fix by the software developer is available; an attacker can use this security hole to carry out an attack before the vendor has been able to issue an update.
  
• Microsoft Security Updates / Automatic Updates. Microsoft releases security updates to address specific issues and flaws in its Windows operating system and other Microsoft products. You need to install these updates on a regular basis in order to keep your system up-to-date and safe. Windows includes an Automatic Update feature that can proactively inform you that an update is available, and allows you to schedule these security update downloads and install them on a timeframe that you specify.
  
• Patch Tuesday. Microsoft releases its security updates, or patches, on the second Tuesday of each month; hence, this day is commonly referred to as Patch Tuesday.
  
• Out-of-band. Microsoft issues critical patches, outside of its regular Patch Tuesday cycle, when necessary. These are known as emergency or out-of-band updates.
  

If you still want to learn more, Microsoft provides a list of standard terminology used to describe Microsoft software updates.

* Article provided by Lavasoft News.

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