Safe Internet Blog

The shopping season is over and the new year has begun. But keeping safe online is more important than ever. Internet is still something very scary for many users and experts believe that 2010 will be the year of the cyber criminal. The staff at digital defender would like to share some simple tips that anyone can use and that we use in our daily work and private lives to stay safer online.

1. Better be safe than sorry

If something looks too good to be true it probably is. Emails offering to enhance body parts, make you lose weight or offering you the chance to untold riches are 99,99% untrue. Do not answer these emails, just remove them or add them to your spamfilter’s blacklist.

2. Always protect your identity online

Create an email account at gmail, hotmail or whichever free email provider you prefer that you can use when you need to sign up to a services you are not 100% percent sure about. If the site owner starts to spam you or send a lot of unnecessary information then it will intrude in your daily life. You should be very careful whom you share your personal mail address with.

3. Google it before you try it

If you have found a new software that sounds really interesting or a website for that matter and you would really like to try it out, then Google it before you try it. If there are no negative reviews then you are a little bit more safe then before.

4. Https is your friend

When you are paying for something online and it says https and a padlock in the browser line then you are using an encrypted connection. This will make sure that you send the information to the right party and only the people you want to send it to.

5. Never, ever open attached files if you are not 100% sure of what they contain

I remember once I worked at an IT-company where the boss for some reason opened an attached file that was called openme.exe, which was obviously not good. The attached virus destroyed his computer more or less.

6. Create good passwords

Typically most people have one password that they try to use whenever they can, since it is easier to remember that way. But imagine that you would have just one key that would open anything that you owned or worked with. I would not be comfortable with that. There is a lot of good software out there that will help you store multiple passwords and you only need to remember one to access the rest.

7. Keep a backup

When disaster strikes, it’s good to be able to get your valuable pictures, music and other things back. Backup systems today can be used by anyone without any special knowledge and they are getting cheaper by the minute. Online and offline backups have their advantages and disadvantages. Choose one that you like and stick with it.

8. Update your drivers and software

There is no such thing as a 100% secure software. Software is always updated to ensure that any discovered security holes are patched. Having the latest version of your software and drivers also ensures that your computer runs smoothly. If you think this is a lot of work, there are various kinds of software that can handle this for you.

9. Use a good antivirus and antispyware software

This is a hard one. There are a ton of software out there. There are free versions and paid versions, some are included with your computer and some are not. Our recommendations from digital defender is that you should run a software that you feel comfortable with. It should also as a minimum have: a real-time element that always monitors your computer, frequent update and an easy to use interface. Our experience is that if you do not understand your software then you will not use it.

10. USB drives

We move, more and more data around with USB drives and their storage capacity is growing exponentially while prices drop at the same rate. What many people forget is that if you use your drive at a couple of different computers it is a very good change that you have picked up what ever was on that machine (good or bad). Different computers, with different users pick up different sorts of bugs. If move or share information with your USB drive frequently then ensure you scan it.

Cybersecurity is an enormous are and it is impossible to become an expert overnight. We would like to share these simple things to help you surf safer. We hope that you make use of them and wish you a safe online experience in 2010.

Greetings from the digital defender team

http://www.digital-defender.com

Safe Internet Blog antispyware, antivirus, computer protection, cybercrime, cybercriminals, internet, internet security, online, online security, viruses

The shopping season is over and the new year has begun. But keeping safe online is more important than ever. Many experts believe that 2010 will be the year of the cyber criminal and Internet is still something very “scary” for many users out there. The staff at digital defender would like to share some simple tips that anyone can use and that we use in our daily work and private lives to stay safer online.

1. Better be safe than sorry

If something looks too good to be true it probably is. Emails offering to enhance body parts, make you lose weight or offering you the chance to untold riches are 99,99% untrue. Do not answer these emails, just remove them or add them to your spamfilter’s blacklist.

2. Always protect your identity online

Create an email account at gmail, hotmail or whichever free email provider you prefer that you can use when you need to sign up to a services you are not 100% percent sure about. If the site owner starts to spam you or send a lot of unnecessary information then it will intrude in your daily life. You should be very careful whom you share your personal mail address with.

3. Google it before you try it

If you have found a new software that sounds really interesting or a website for that matter and you would really like to try it out, then Google it before you try it. If there are no negative reviews then you are a little bit more safe then before.

4. Https is your friend

When you are paying for something online and it says https and a padlock in the browser line then you are using an encrypted connection. This will ensure that your information is only sent to the party you are trying to send it to.

5. Never, ever open attached files if you are not 100% sure of what they contain

I remember once I worked at an IT-company where the boss for some reason opened an attached file that was called openme.exe, which was obviously not good. The attached virus destroyed his computer more or less.

6. Create good passwords

Typically most people have one password that they try to use whenever they can, since it is easier to remember that way. But imagine that you would have just one key that would open anything that you owned or worked with. I would not be comfortable with that. There is a lot of good software out there that will help you store multiple passwords and you only need to remember one to access the rest.

7. Keep a backup

When disaster strikes, it’s good to be able to get your valuable pictures, music and other things back. Backup systems today can be used by anyone without any special knowledge and they are getting cheaper by the minute. Online and offline backups have their advantages and disadvantages. Choose one that you like and stick with it.

8. Update your drivers and software

There is no such thing as a 100% secure software. Software is always updated to ensure that any discovered security holes are patched. Having the latest version of your software and drivers also ensures that your computer runs smoothly. If you think this is a lot of work, there are various kinds of software that can handle this for you.

9. Use a good antivirus and antispyware software

This is a hard one. There are a ton of software out there. There are free versions and paid versions, some are included with your computer and some are not. Our recommendations from digital defender is that you should run a software that you feel comfortable with. It should also as a minimum have: a real-time element that always monitors your computer, frequent update and an easy to use interface. Our experience is that if you do not understand your software then you will not use it.

10. USB drives

We move, more and more data around with USB drives and their storage capacity is growing exponentially while prices drop at the same rate. What many people forget is that if you use your drive at a couple of different computers it is a very good change that you have picked up what ever was on that machine (good or bad). Different computers, with different users pick up different sorts of bugs. If move or share information with your USB drive frequently then ensure you scan it.

Cybersecurity is an enormous are and it is impossible to become an expert overnight. We would like to share these simple things to help you surf safer. We hope that you make use of them and wish you a safe online experience in 2010.

Greetings from the digital defender team

http://www.digital-defender.com

Safe Internet Blog antispyware, antivirus, computer protection, cybercrime, cybercriminals, internet, internet security, online, online security, viruses

Knowing how to protect your computer from threats on the internet is important. It’s something that you should do to protect not just yourself but to protect everyone else, because one vulnerable computer user simply becomes a tool to harm the next. One of the most important tools for helping with online security is common sense, but where common sense runs out some little tips can come in handy.

The first place to start with protecting yourself from threats online is by starting good password habits. The worst thing you can do with your passwords is to use the same one for more than one thing. The next worst thing you can do is to not change them. All your passwords should be different, they should be more creative than obvious things like birthdays, and they should be in a constant state of change, never staying the same for more than a few months at a time.

That’s because every password you have protects a piece of information about you, and so many of our secure accounts link to the next in various ways. For instance, your bank account sends messages to your email account and with things like Facebook, well, anyone who has access to your email can easily reset your Facebook password. All in all, weak passwords are an open door for identity thieves.

Credit card information is also sacred. You should be sure to only use your credit card on secure sites and, better yet, avoid using them when possible. There are a variety of online payment methods you can choose as an alternative to credit cards. Paypal is a good example of this, where you pay Paypal with the credit card but everyone else gets money only from Paypal, meaning only that one place has access to it. Another good idea that’s growing in popularity is to have one credit card for online use that’s given a very low spending limit.

When passing information around the internet you should also be aware that there is more to internet security threats than dangerous websites. Your computer can get infected with something like spyware in any number of ways, and once it’s there it won’t matter how secure your internet surfing habits are. The spyware on your computer will be stealing all your information anyway.

Because of that you need to be proactive about making sure your computer is free of malicious software. You should always have internet security software installed on your computer, but more importantly you should actively use it. Daily scans are essential otherwise the protection software is merely going to waste.

All of this boils down to the absolute importance of being aware and informed about what’s happening out there in terms of internet based threats, and being aware of your actions and online decisions and how they may affect your security. If you do this and stay ever diligent then you’ll find that your internet surfing will be safer and your information will be more secure.

Safe Internet Blog internet, internet security, online safety, security

Project managers and engineers at technology management and computer services firms commonly wage a “battle of password policy” with the users and administration of the clients we serve.   Information engineers must ensure the confidentiality and security of the technology infrastructure,  which starts at the end user computer with a password.  Most companies have a password policy, sometime dictated by a compliancy standard, other times an adopted standard with loose terms. But for the most part requiring passwords on anything that needs to be access controlled is step one.

Despite the nonsense of it, employees jotting down a password on a sticky note and attaching it to a monitor happens all the time.   Here are some aspects when it comes to secure passwords:

The Good:

1.People don’t fear passwords themselves, they fear remembering passwords.  Many users consider this embarrassing or a failure on their part if it happens.  As strong as this fear is, never write a password down.

2.Good passwords have uppercase and lowercase letters.  They also can contain numbers, spaces or even special characters such as &%$#.  With this in mind, try taking a password you can remember and converting it a bit to make it a bit more complex.  Example: (current password) matilda – (new password) M@tild@  or M@T1lda.  This increases the security of the password exponentially.

3.Length of the password is also important.  Six to eight characters is a decent size password when combined with these other methods.  M@tild@ would be good, but L0vEM@tild@ is much better!

The Bad:

1.Do not use plain English words by themselves (anything in a dictionary), such as ‘the, password, cat’.  Consider something stronger such as i.e. ‘p22sswo44rd’.

2.Do not use easily retrievable information by itself, such as your birthday, date of hire, child’s, phone number…etc.

3.Do not make the password too short i.e. ‘bob’

4.Lastly do not use the same password for every system or login.

If you absolutely need assistance in remembering a password and must write something down, then do the following.

1.Jot a sentence on a post-it note.  For example purposes we will use “My daughter is two years old.”

2.Now (mentally) take the second letter of each sentence: “yaswel”

3.Lastly, take your birth date, add it to the end: “yaswel22”

4.Use capitalize to strengthen further: “Yaswel22”

Using this example, all you have to remember is to use the second letter of each word and your birth date and not some obscure random password.

Finally, there are many choices for password management software nowadays which are much more reliable and secure than an excel spreadsheet or writing them all down on notepad paper.

Safe Internet Blog computer services, corporate it, internet security, online security, password policy

So your internet connection is one of the fastest possible and you’re pretty sure that there have been no power problems in your area. Then how is it that it takes you minutes to completely load your Internet Explorer? The good news is that this is not a connection problem and can be easily fixed.

The reasons behind Internet Explorer’s low performance can be because of different factors. The most probable reason for this is the failure to delete cookies and history of the program. To do this, select the “Tools” option of your Internet Explorer browser and choose the “Delete Browsing History” line. Basically, deletion of cookies, forms and passwords are the primary functions of this tool. Cookies are bits and pieces of information stored in your PC when you browse through the internet. History is the name and address of the different websites you have visited. Note that it is important to delete these information regularly to keep your Internet Explorer running at its best form.

Another reason for IE’s low performance is the software itself. It could be that the program is outdated and needs to be refreshed or updated for it to run better. Try to download a newer version of the software and use it for a few days. Get the program from Internet Explorer’s main page to be sure of the validity of the software. Be sure to properly uninstall the old IE from your PC rather than just deleting it from the system. If the web page still loads too long, then the problem must rest in the computer itself.

If your PC is unmaintained, then chances are it will have an effect on the performance of all the programs in the system – including Internet Explorer. First of all, make sure that the antivirus you have installed in your computer is up-to-date. An outdated antivirus will fail in recognizing new viruses that could harm your computer so it is always important to keep your antivirus program up to date. When you have done this, run a full system scan on all your hard drives. When scanning for viruses, you might also want to include your pen drives in the process.

Note that these are only the most basic ways employed to boos IE performance. However, there are also programs available online that could help you with your problem in the event that the solutions given above don’t work. Regardless of what program you choose, make sure that the software is legitimate and does not contain any viruses, spywares or any other malicious file.

Safe Internet Blog ie, internet explorer, internet security, make internet explorer faster, windows security

You might be surprised to find that the range of available free security software makes it difficult to single out the best free internet security software downloads for Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 or even older Windows based systems. As a matter of fact you can find free security download in a variety of categories some of which you may not even have considered. Security for your Windows XP or Vista computer using well selected free software can be as good as or better than store bought.

INTERNET SECURITY AS A ‘TRIANGLE’
Because of the range in quality of free internet security software downloads for Windows XP (from worthless to phenomenal), you can’t just randomly pick a free product and expect it to work. Only consider well tested and reviewed free security software products as potential contenders. If you find an interesting free security program that does not appear to be in wide use or well reviewed, you certainly should not install it on any XP or Vista based computer especially if the computer is used to store sensitive business information or is running mission critical operations.The problem is that it certainly would be very difficult to tell if the free firewall or antivirus software is protecting your computer is functioning correctly or even working at all! While it is often easy to determine if some types of software such as a game is malfunctioning, you may have no idea if your security software is functioning correctly. When internet security software fails, it may do so without any warning as to its failed status. While not all online risks are extreme, why should anyone have to face any of them.

When talking to our clients we often refer to the concept of internet security as existing in a triangular shape. This idea of a triangle allows for consideration of all three main groups of downloadable security software. Antivirus software, firewalls and antispyware programs make up the primary classes of protection for your Windows computer. You would find other types of security software that will provide additional protection within the center of the triangle. While using this analogy of a triangle is helpful, new hybrid function software products have complicated the design a little. This idea of three types of security software will be followed to allow us to quickly cover our six favorite internet security programs. There are a number of exceptional free security software products available to fulfill each region of our triangle concept. A few of the top internet security downloads will be reviewed in this article.

FREE ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE DOWNLOADS
The range of top free antivirus software downloads available for your Windows system might surprise you.The free Internet Security Suite from Comodo is in my opinion the absolute best free antivirus product. Comodo makes money working with enterprise security and other corporate solution products so decided to offer their personal security products to all users free of charge. Almost a year ago Comodo created a security suite from their free antivirus and firewall products. Comodo Internet Security finds and removes viruses from desktops and even networks protecting in real-time using proactive heuristic analysis to intercept unknown threats. Comodo can block malware before it has a chance to run by using host intrusion detection. New virus update files are sent to Comodo every day to keep it current. Like Comodo Antivirus, PC Tools Antivirus Free is a great but little known program. PC Tools is better known for two other Windows products, Spyware Doctor and Registry Mechanic. Unlike Comodo, this product does also come in a paid version with live customer support and more rapid updates but the antivirus protection is identical. Frequent database updates and real-time protection a key features of the free antivirus product from PC Tools. Deep virus scanning power is a key feature of PC Tools Antivirus Free Edition to allow you to be confident of your virus protection. There are not any problems under Vista for either of theses products.

FREE FIREWALL SOFTWARE DOWNLOADS
When looking for a free firewall for your Windows XP or Vista computer you will find fewer to choose for when compared to a couple of years age. This really is not of any concern because the two very best free software firewalls for Windows XP and Vista are still running strong. Zone Alarm Free Edition is on most short lists of top free firewalls to protect Windows based systems. While not a universal choice, many users consider this to be the best choice available. The popularity and wide use of ZoneAlarm has made it the best understood and most reviewed free internet security firewall. While suitable this still is not our favorite free firewall download. You cannot find a better firewall than the one included in the free Comodo Internet Security suite. While good the free Zone Alarm has less features that the retail versions of firewalls they offer for Windows XP and Vista.Simply put, Comodo Firewall may the absolute best firewall free or paid to protect your Windows XP or Vista computer. Many reviewers called Comodo Firewall the best stand alone firewall in existence. The new free Comodo Internet Security suite is a compelling blend of Comodo Antivirus and Comodo Firewall.

FREE ANTISPYWARE SOFTWARE DOWNLOADS
There are quite a few great free antispyware software downloads available for your Windows computer. While many internet security products can only be run as one per class, antispyware often works best with two or three running at the same time. In addition to Windows Defender from Microsoft, we have also added Spybot and Spyware Terminator to give an extra measure of spyware protection. This antispyware trio has been performing together for over a year providing enhanced spyware protection and no problems.

If you select one of the free security software products from each of the three main groups, the combination should provide you with more than suitable internet security protection. Once you have taken care of the three primary security groups, you then can begin to consider secondary security products such as those dealing with spam, privacy issues, content filtering and select from some of the more exotic classes of free internet security software.

Safe Internet Blog best free internet security software downloads for Windows XP, free internet security software, internet, internet security

Someone wants to use the internet to order tickets and want to find out when and who are playing at a local stadium. Once you open the site, you have to first fill in a query. It is an simple one. In fact, the point is how simple it is. Because you are a human, the whole thing should be plain and simple. A different story for a computer, the simple test would be mostly impossible to do.

This question is what we already know as CAPTCHA. The acronym actually stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test. It is there to prevent computer-automated user from getting through. There is another term for that, that is a type of Human Interaction Proof or HIP. By now sure you have been through many CAPTCHA tests on many web sites. CAPTCHAs that are widely used nowadays is a sequence of letters but in image form unrecognizable by machines, and made of scratches, undetectable by OCRs. As a human, you only have to type the correct letters in the sequence into a field. If what you typed match exactly the ones in the distorted picture, you are considered a human and pass the test.

So you might be wondering why is this all necessary, to test if it is a computer or a human? The main problem is prompted as there are many people out there who are trying to fool the system. Exploitation of security holes in online systems are more frequently made and improved by hackers. Although they are probably only a minority of all users on the internet, what they do affects almost all of users and web sites. For example, a free dating service might be massively bombarded with an automated account requests from a script. The requests of new accounts could be in a scenario of romance scam that’s meant to harm millions of people. By implementing CAPTCHA to sort out computer programs, the bad attempts can be vastly reduced.

Safe Internet Blog automated, black hat, captcha, computer security, exploitations, exploits, hacker, internet security, security

Suppose at the time being you are awaiting the arrival of or even have received a check from a friend you met online, to preserve your security against nigerian scam, you have to really take these into consderations:

Scammers get your data either by getting close personaly to you or by intruding your privacy with a spyware.

Scammers send to victims checks that are either one hundred percent counterfeit, or made of stolen check books.

Possessing a fake check only can be enough to make you being charged with felony even if you are a victim in the chain.

It may be considered a felony too to trade a fraud check for money or to deposit it in an account.

Although Federal felony charges are rare, the law is already there for such prosecution. A felony can be charged upon you both on a State and a Federal level.

What should be put in mind is that the system is not letting it go away. On the contrary, justice is blindly upheld, as it should be, and despite the fact that they are victims, fraudulent checks are prosecuted against them.

The consequence of cashing a forged check is not only a criminal prosecution, but there also are other consequences you should consider. They financially classify as catastrophe.

When you deposit a check into your account, once the bank’s hold on the check expires, it then advances their own money to you. Although your bank may state that the bank’s hold is equal with the check clearance process, it actually is not equal. A check can take from days to months to clear. You are obliged to pay the check balance back to the bank when they clears it and finds out it is fraudulent.

What your bank can do is not only to demand collection remedies against you, but also incur a judgment against you for the amount of money owed, and (depending on where you live), withhold your wages and revenues from your bank accounts.

Nevertheless, banks will most likely not settle with fairly low installment. For example, a bank will not settle with a $200 monthly installments for $100,000.

What you should keep in mind also is that your credit can be badly affected by the collection activities. Lower credit score will make it hard for you to get loans with low interest rates, and you can be prohibited from obtaining a mortgage.

You may have a difficult time explaining how you came in the possession of that money to the IRS officer auditing your tax return, when he inquires about the origin of a large deposit in your account. The officer is unlikely to believe your story, and you would face further penalties and fines for not stating the revenue from the check as income.

This concludes one thing: Cashing a check you received from someone on the internet is very risky and can be damaging to your life literally.

Safe Internet Blog fraudulent check, internet security, love scam, nigerian scam, online friend, online security, romance scam

What You Need to Know About Spyware Hearing the word spyware tends to evoke an image of popups for most internet users. It would probably surprise most to learn that just about every internet user has at least some spyware or adware on their computer.

The reason for this is that these unwanted parasites can hide in parts of the computer that you can’t normally access. The biggest problem with these parasites is that most users don’t know just how dangerous they can be. Sure they cause your computer to slow down (a lot), install things you don’t want, and more, but they also do much worse things. Having spyware or adware on your computer compromises your privacy to an unacceptable dangerous level.

How often do you enter sensitive personal information on the internet? For most people, this will be very often. Many of these parasites will track everywhere that you go on the internet and report it back to it’s creator. It doesn’t stop at that though. Not only will it track everywhere you go, but it will track everything you type and click at these locations as well. What this means is that if you enter sensitive data such as your social security number, credit card number, bank password, or anything else of that nature, a stranger who is probably a thief also has that information.

To make matters even worse, your private information is often sold to even more people; this means that hundreds of people, perhaps many more, could have access to your valuable personal information. In order to keep your privacy on the internet, you’ll need to rid yourself of any spyware and adware that inhabits your computer. There is a free report named “Adware Removal” which outlines everything that spyware and adware do, as well as how to get rid of it. Remember, the report is completely free and definitely worth a read if you have computer security concerns.

Click Here To Dowload Your Free Spyware Removal Report Follow this link to learn more about the removal of Spyware and Internet Affiliate Marketing.

Safe Internet Blog adware and spyware, adware removal, internet security, spyware, spyware removal

In spite of its older brother PC Tools Spyware Doctor’s popularity, PC Tools Internet Security is an interesting product. The reality is that it is a rarely sought after product. This is surprising. PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2009 is built with the same foundational technology as that which gives us PC Tools Spyware Doctor and PC Tools Antivirus! Additionally, this product has spamprotection in the offering as well.

I began to wonder if it might be price that is keeping it from wide spread adoption. After checking on pricing, $59.95 (as of 9/26/08) is a reasonable price. The only bad thing I found in reviews was its lack of heuristic scanning.

Heuristic scanning: “A heuristic probe is used to catch new, unknown viruses in your systems that have not yet been identified. Only some antiviruses can do this type of probe, the majority are only able to catch known viruses.” This doesn’t seem to be the reason either.

I will chalk it up to a lack of marketing. The reason I say this is because I see heuristic search capability incorporated in the latest release. Most importantly, I found out that most customers and potential customers are still looking for their antivirus and firewall as separate offerings.

Bob Metcalfe, the person attributed as the Inventor of the Internet exemplifies what choosing what is not so popular….”And I turned around to look at these 10, 12 AT&T suits, and they were all laughing. And it was in that moment that AT&T became my bte noire, because I realized in that moment that these SOBs were rooting against me. To this day, I still cringe at the mention of AT&T. That’s why my cell phone is a T-Mobile. The rest of my family uses AT&T, but I refuse .”

Granted, choosing PC Tools Internet Security will not be that dramatic but it could prove to be a good internet security application for your computer.

Safe Internet Blog internet security, internet software for business, pc tools, pc tools internet security, pc tools internet security 2009