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Social Media Generation is Too Trusting, at Higher Risk to be Scam Victims

December 27, 2011 By 1 Comment

The younger generation, living the the Social Media Lifestyle may become the next target of new scams coming in 2012. Given that they share almost everything with their “friends”, they make better targets for social engineering scams that ask for personal information.

According to this article by the online Indian Financial Chonicle, MyDigitalFC.com, the risk will be greater in India and Asia, but the US is not immune. Read on.

Anti-virus providers say net banking, social networking at high risk in ‘12 | mydigitalfc.com.

Filed Under: Internet and Web, Virus-Malware Security Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Simple Privacy Tricks Anyone Can Do: Tip 4

June 17, 2011 By

Use Temporary Credit Cards for Safety and to Avoid Repeat Billing

This is a great way to add some extra security to your online purchases.  It’s also a way to avoid repeat billing from sneaky vendors (like antivirus subscriptions) or  overbilling.  Most card issuers have them (usually called “safe shopping” cards or “gift cards”).  While the gift card type of card simply runs out, the safe shopping cards let you do things like choose the card’s spending limit, expiration date, and more.  That way, you can make sure that automatic billing doesn’t kick in unless you absolutely want it to.  Vendors can’t charge you if there’s no money left on the card.  Another security feature is that if anyone ever gets a hold of your account information, all they can get is the amount of the balance on the card, or the amount of the spending limit (if you have that type of card).

Filed Under: Internet and Web, Virus-Malware Security Tagged With: , , , ,

Top 10 Simple Online Privacy Tricks Anyone Can Do: Tip 3

June 11, 2011 By

Use Multiple or Disposable Email Addresses to Avoid Spam and Stay Secure

There are two concerns here.  One is reducing spam and the other is avoiding viruses from emails.  Here are two approaches.

 

1)     Reducing Spam: Use Multiple eMail Accounts.

I get a lot of resistance from customers on this, because it seems confusing, but it’s really not.  Just create 1 or 2 more email accounts with a free email provider like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail (Live Mail) or AOL.  It costs nothing and can greatly reduce the hassle and risk of spam and viruses.

Use one of these addresses for sites you don’t want to hear regularly from, like newsletters or coupon sites you’re only mildly interested in, or any new site you haven’t heard of, where you suspect they’re going to bombard you with spam.

I like to use them for product registrations, like when I buy a new printer, because I know they’re going to spam me with all kinds of product offers and deals.  Sure, I may want to look at these occasionally, but only when I feel like it.  I don’t want them cluttering up my regular mail inbox.

Do not add any contacts to the address book.  You don’t want to worry about a worm infecting it and sending spam to your friends.

This is also a good way of separating different aspects of your on line life into different areas, associating each area with a different email address.

 

2)     Security and Reducing Spam:  Use Disposable eMail Accounts.

A more aggressive way to reduce spam in your inbox is to use a disposable email addresses for websites you suspect might be very risky or questionable.  These are also great for sites you want to check out once (out of curiosity) but don’t want to go back to, or ever hear from again.

Many such sites require you to register with your email address before you can see their content.  These could be sites like forums, or “marketing” sites that offer business tips and help, but are really about harvesting email addresses so they can spam you.

For this, you can use a service like Trashmail or 10 Minute Mail.  You’ll use these temporary email addresses to get the necessary “confirmation email”, check out the site, and avoid the spam that might come your way.

 

That’s it for now.  We hope you are finding this series of articles useful.  Stay tunes for the next installment later this week.

As always, if you need more help in any area of computer repair in Tucson, or general support, please visit our Saguaro PC Tech Website or Facebook page.

Filed Under: Internet and Web, Virus-Malware Security Tagged With: , , , ,

Top 10 Simple Online Privacy Tricks Anyone Can Do: Tips 1-2

June 7, 2011 By

Tips 1 & 2: Passwords and Security Questions

These first two tips go hand-in-hand, so make sure you use them both.  Read on……

 

1. Create Secure, Easy-to-Remember Passwords

Secure passwords are the best, but not if you can’t remember them.  Most of you already know this, but are you implementing it?  There are a lot of tricks to creating easy, memorable passwords without making them easy to guess.  You can research this on Google, but I’ll give you a few ideas.

1)  Don’t use the same password for every website, especially banking sites.

2)  Alternate UPPER and lower-case letters, as passwords are case-sensitive.

3)  Use special characters, such as #,%,@, or !. Either add them or replace a letter with one of these characters.

4) Use a common base password (like a pet’s name), then add pattern of numbers that means something to you (like your kids’ birthdays).  Or perhaps add the initials of the website it’s for.

Example:  If your cat’s name is Muffy, your kid was born in 1964 and the password is for Yahoo Mail, you can use MuFFy1964YM.  For a Wells Fargo password, say your birthday is May 5, 1945.  You can use MuFFy1945WF.  Get the picture?

5)  Shift your fingers up one row and to the right (or the left, since they don’t quite line up) on the keyboard from the actual letter you want.  For instance, instead of “muffy“, type k8tt7.  Use whatever rule you want, but stick with one rule, so you don’t get confused.

 

2. Security Questions.  Keep them as Private as Your Passwords

Strong passwords are important, but they’re useless if your security question is something anyone can answer.  Most websites have ways to recover or reset your password if you forget it by using security questions, also known as “challenge questions”.  When you answer these correctly, the site lets you change your password, or will email it to you.  What would happen if a hacker, coworker, your kid, or an angry “ex” knew the answer to this question?  I shudder to think!

Instead of going the traditional security question route, you could use a formula to create a memorable, yet indecipherable security question.  For instance, you could use word association to make the question easy for you, but hard for others, for example:

  • “What’s your mother’s maiden name?” could be answered with your favorite Iron Maiden album instead.
  • Put in your mother’s birthplace when the question asks for your birthplace.  Get the picture?

Here’s another trick, but it’s not available on all websites.  Some sites let you create your own privacy questions.  If they do, definitely go for this option, as it opens up a whole world of options.

 

2. Create Secure, Easy-to-Remember Passwords

Filed Under: Internet and Web, Virus-Malware Security Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

New Spyware Infections Using Hardware Failure Scare Tactic

April 4, 2011 By

How’s this for a new one?  After years of distributing spyware infections posing as Antivirus or Security programs trying to grab your money, the “scamware” writers are now trying a new tactic.

We just got in a laptop sporting a big,

This infection is called “Windows Repair“.  Not a very creative name, but I guess they’re trying to make you think it’s a part of Windows.  The structure of this programs is the same as all the other spyware programs out there and we used the same virus/spyware repair methods as we always have.

So don’t fret if you get this.  You hard drive is not dying and your data is just fine.  If you do wind up getting this, or any other infection, give us a call and we’ll get your pc running again in a jiffy.  To learn more about us, please visit our sites below.  Thanks.

The Saguaro PC Tech Tucson Computer Repair website.

Or visit the Saguaro PC Tech Facebook Page for more tips and articles, bot ours and from other sites around the web.

Filed Under: Internet and Web, Virus-Malware Security Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Internet Explorer 9: Fast and Smooth with Great Graphics and Video

March 27, 2011 By

Last week, Microsoft released their new web browser, Internet Explorer 9. You can only install this version on Windows Vista or 7. According to Microsoft, Windows XP, won’t run the better graphics (more on that below) capabilities of IE 9.

However, XP users can take heart that the new Mozilla Firefox 4 (just released this week) can run on XP and deliver the advanced graphics that both these browsers possess. I posted some great links about Firefox 4 on our Facebook page.

Before you upgrade, you will want to check to see if there are going to be any compatibility issues between your software and this new browser. Some of the software that might have issues are older versions of AOL’s software, and QuickBooks (pre-2008 versions).

Usually compatibility issues will be talked about on the support pages of your software so you can check there. If any software that you run talks about Internet Explorer version requirements, you will want to check closely before proceeding.

There are two places where you can obtain the newest IE. The first place is Microsoft’s website. The other site (also from Microsoft) is called www.beautyoftheweb.com. The first site will direct you to the download itself. The second site will give you some videos talking about new features, websites that are incorporating the new features of IE 9 and video reviews.

One bit of technology that really makes Internet Explorer 9 so great is the ability to tap into the video hardware on your computer. Most people don’t realize that they have two processors on their PC. The CPU or Central Processing Unit is the main general use processor of your computer. The second called the GPU or Graphics Processing Unit, is used to display graphics and video. Internet Explorer 9 now uses both of the processors to render crisper, clearer text, richer graphics and smoother video (You Tube fans will love this).

To test this out, I went to YouTube. I went on to find various types of video from old Lo-Def video (240p), right up to the max 720p Hi-Def clips. I played five different videos in both windowed and full screen modes. With IE8, any video higher than 240p would jump a bit. During transitions such as fades, the video would skip. The higher the quality, the more I noticed this. Lots of people have accepted this as “just that way it is”.

After I upgraded to IE9, I cleared my browser cache to remove any vestiges of my previous visits and started fresh. I started with the 240p Lo-def and of course, there was no difference in speed but the images were a bit sharper. When I got up to the 720p Hi-def clips, I really saw IE 9 shine. One of the videos that I chose had lots of fades and wipes. There were at least 7 transitions that made IE8 drag and pause. With IE 9, it played smooth with zero jumps, skips, or lag. The video playback was perfect!

I continued to explore some other pages that I have always had lag issues with. Yahoo has always loaded slowly due to the vast amount of content. The load time usually for me was about 5-6 seconds. IE 9 was able to load the page in less than 1 second!

I have always been concerned with upgrading my browser from past experiences. It always seemed to me that the more complex they made IE, the slower it went. Not so with this release. Check it out. There are plenty more new features in IE 9. You can read about them on the beautyoftheweb site.

Thanks for reading this post. Read more articles on our Saguaro PC Tech Blog site. For any other questions or assistance, pop us an email or give us a call. See our website for contact info. Thank you and happy browsing!

Filed Under: Internet and Web, Windows 7 Tips, Tricks & Tweaks Tagged With: , , , ,