Author: Tom Takihi
Source: articledashboard.com

The about absolute aggregation of claimed computers and the internet brings accessibility to a accomplished new akin in the 21st century. Not accepting to leave the abundance of your own home to acquirement the latest atypical by your admired columnist or accepting your easily on that attenuate collectible via Amazon.com is the ultimate in convenience. Arcade online just beats accepting to sit through cartage and continuing in band to pay for the appurtenances that you want. Online cyberbanking is addition archetype of the advantages that we accept today that did not abide a few, <a href="http://www.

hrsaccountusa.com”>hrsaccount.com, years back.

Banking through the internet enables us to, hrsaccount.com, accomplish affairs like blockage our annual balances, authoritative bill payments and armamentarium transfers, hrsaccount.com, afterwards accepting to accord with acrimonious or ever affable coffer employees. In utilizing, hrsaccount.com, our computers for assuming the tasks mentioned, we tend to overlook that basal claimed admonition has been stored in our computers or in the database of the website area we accomplish our basal arcade sprees.

It has become allotment of our circadian lives, a routine, that we become absent to the basal actuality that our computers authority a cogent bulk of abstracts that translates into the who, what, how and area of our being.

Malicious individuals with even the a lot of basal programming ability can accomplish use of circuitous codes to breach your claimed amplitude online. Siphoning off claimed admonition from your computer with your accord through phishing or afterwards your captivation through limited admission is a accepted convenance a part, hrsaccount.

com, of internet betray artists and hackers. The abstracts they’re usually,, hrsaccount.com, hrsaccount, hrsaccount, hrsaccount.com, .com,, hrsaccount.com, .com, afterwards are acclaim agenda or coffer annual information, amusing aegis numbers and added claimed details.
A beneath affectionate of advance can abrade you with controllable yet acid programs or accomplish your activity absolutely complicated by trashing your arrangement with a bad-natured virus.

Trojans, worms, hrsaccount.com, and added awful software abound in cyberspace and, hrsaccount.

com, there is no curtailment of awful characters to use or actualize them either. Loathing these humans afterwards the actuality is accepted but that will anon be replaced with a activity of blemish as you activate to accusation yourself. You’ll, hrsaccount.com, ask yourself why you didn’t yield time to download the latest aegis application for your operating arrangement or adapted the virus definitions of your antivirus software. There absolutely is alone one affair you can do to action abstracts annexation or electric incursions and that is arming yourself with the appropriate, hrsaccount.

com, admonition at the able, hrsaccount.com, time.

Knowledge, hrsaccount.com, about your system’s aegis issues, vulnerabilities and fixes will get you far with commendations to abstracts aegis and “wellness”, hrsaccount.com, of your machine. Therefore, admonition will be your primary armament adjoin assorted attacks whether they are specific assaults or just accidental annoyances. Admonition about computer aegis of any affectionate can be had in an burning in the net. Blogs and websites action admonition and tips for free, so there’s absolutely no alibi for us not to be vigilant.

It is our albatross to be in the apperceive if it comes to active aegis holes in our system. Read up and you’ll be on your way to a agitation chargeless and added defended computer system.

For some time I have been getting my TV online, principally with the BBC IPlayer. I also receive ITV content, albeit problematically, using the ITV Player. But for some reason I was never able to get the Channel4 4OD service to work.

After selecting a programme to watch I would be presented with an empty video window, a “Loading content” message and nothing else. It didn’t matter whether I used Vista or Linux Mint, Firefox or Internet Explorer, the result was always the same – a sort of black screen of death as shown in this screenshot.

Of course I Googled the problem but found no fix. I could see from the general web chatter that others were having the problem but, clearly, it was a minority issue and there was no obvious solution.

Eventually I saw a reference to a test link that pointed to the url “realmedia.channel4.com” and clicked on it. I expected some kind of test page response or, at worst, perhaps an invalid request or maybe a 404 not found error. Instead nothing happened at all. The click went nowhere. This provided the clue to the problem solution.

After checking my hosts file I found that “realmedia.channel4.com” was being redirected to my localhost at 127.0.0.1 – i.e. nowhere. And this was the reason that 4OD wasn’t working. After commenting out that entry in the hosts file 4OD worked perfectly.

How did this redirection get into the hosts file? I posted a previous blog called “Using The Hosts File To Ward Off Web Attacks” which described how you can download a hosts file from this site to redirect hundreds of well known bad site urls to localhost at 127.0.0.1. This redirection makes these bad sites inaccessible and is a great enhancement to security on the PC generally. However it seems that, for some reason, “realmedia.channel4.com” is included in the hosts file as a bad site url thereby preventing 4OD from working. I’m not sure why the entry for 4OD is considered a bad site that needs to be redirected but it is, as of the date of this post, still being included in the download.

So if you have a problem using the Channel4 4OD service as described above do check your hosts file to see if “realmedia.channel4.com” has been redirected. If you find that this is the case then either removing it or commenting it out will hopefully fix the problem.

Of course now I have to find something on 4OD that I consider worth watching. Sadly, from what I can see, it appears to be some kind of landfill site for the dross that is celebrity culture. But that’s another rant altogether.

GlennIsHere.com Holiday Gift Guide

Hello, pranksters! It’s your security news missive, regular as clockwork. Let’s newsucate!

The Q Awards are awards for music people from the music magazine Q. AP Security helped to secure them. The result? This very story!

Then the Sector Skills Body Forum has appointed a new vice-chairman. Whatever will they think of next? It’s ridiculously difficult to say. Like ‘hyacinths and thistles‘.

Also today, Security Installer editor Alan Hyder has put on his metaphorical opinion hat and analysis boots and linedanced his merry way over the fortnight’s security issues (in this metaphor, these issues function as some kind of sawdust-flecked dancefloor) in his SI Editor’s View.

Other things on the site include: protecting your business from online employee threats; protecting retailers, and their cigarettes; and I4S regular Wilson Chowdhry’s trip to No 10 Downing Street.

Here’s something you can tell visitors to London: the leader of the opposition lives at -10 Upping Street. Bye!

www.info4security.com, www.ifsec.co.uk

Cyber criminals are attempting to exploit swine flu fears by peddling fake flu vaccine over the internet, according to UK web security company Sophos. Sophos says that the fake drugs are offered via spam from apparently legitimate online pharmacies, but customers who purchase the ostensible Tamiflu offered by the scammers receive only substandard or simply fake versions of the anti-flu medicine. The Russian gang thought to be primarily responsible for the wildly profitable spam campaign is known as the “Partnerka,” whose members can see anywhere from $16,000 to $100,000 each day from pushing the phony medicine. The Partnerka is involved in numerous other types of online crime, including scareware and pirated software, and is routinely designated the biggest existing abuser of affiliate marketing techniques. Security professionals – not to mention doctors – unanimously advise flu sufferers to obtain vaccine in the usual way, not via an online vendor of questionable ethics. There is no way to guarantee that any pharmaceuticals purchased online will be genuine and the risk of getting ripped off is very high.

Think identity theft or fraud can’t happen to you? Think again. Scamming for information is nothing new, but the Web provides a fresh means of fraud. The result: identity theft is a fast-growing, serious offense and it could affect you.

Identity theft tops the list of all fraud complaints received by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Consumers reported fraud losses totaling over $1.2 billion U.S., according to the FTC’s annual Consumer Fraud and Identity Theft Complaint Data report. And that means protecting private information is a top priority for anyone who relies on the Internet for communicating personal or financial data.

How exactly does it work? When a criminal gathers enough personally identifiable information about you, that person can take over your identity to commit a range of crimes for their own personal gain.

A variety of techniques – including old-fashioned thievery and cyber scams – can be used to get past your defenses. According to ID Theft Protect’s website, a leading resource for consumers on identity fraud, identity theft, and data privacy, the five most popular methods of identity fraud and theft are:

1. Application fraud: using stolen or counterfeit documents to open an account in your name.
2. Account ID take-over: using your personal information to take over your bank or credit accounts.
3. Mail non-receipt card fraud: stealing new or replaced bank and credit cards as they are in the process of being mailed to you by your card company.
4. Phishing e-mail fraud: posing as a legitimate institution in order to capture personal or financial information by e-mail.
5. Pharming fraud: redirecting you to a bogus website in order to capture credentials, like your online banking username and password.

While there may not be one foolproof way to protect your private information from these theft attempts, there are precautions you can, and should, be practicing. Below are basic guidelines we have compiled 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.
• 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. Consider using an alternate browser (like Firefox or Opera) which may lower your risk of malware attacks.
• 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 friends and family.

There are a number of other online resources with more information on how to protect your identity, as well as actions to take if you think your private information has been compromised. Take a look at the practical tips and resources available at fraud prevention websites, like the U.S. federal government’s OnGuardOnline.gov and the non-profit organization Identity Theft Resource Center.

Originally written for and published Oct. 21, 2009, by Platform Online Magazine.

by Josh Morris

There is a need for the education of our youth concerning the risks associated with creating profiles and posting personal information online. “I stress to my students all of the time the importance of trying to maintain their reputations; trying to make them understand that once something is in cyberspace, it is hard to retrieve it,” said Anita Boyd, Advanced Placement English teacher at Laurel Christian School, in Laurel, Miss. Personal brand management is a necessary term to be learned and practiced by young teens and new Internet users alike.

As parents and teachers try to keep themselves aware and their children safe, newer threats to virtual privacy and safety are inevitable. Rapid technological advancement is creating generational differences, forcing children to learn from trial and error, not from Mom and Dad. Unfortunately, this problem has only recently caught the buzz that social media initially had as it became the biggest trend of Generation Y’s young lives. High school curricula are the perfect platform for implementing a course designed to address the issue from the root of the problem, by targeting uninformed minds.

Brian Stanton, an English teacher at Morse High School in Bath, Maine, acknowledged that, “In our advisory period we are often asked to talk to kids regarding cyber bullying/stalking/sexting and so on.” Battling the friendly foe of the Internet is best left to those qualified for the job: those who have been there, done that and accepted that friend request. Stanton said, “They do not have the benefit of wisdom from a past generation.” That past generation is people like me, my classmates and other young professionals who play witness and victim to the true threats of social networking sites and online profiles.

College graduation is upon us, and as we look forward to the next chapter in our lives, we are forever forced to look back upon the decisions made in previous chapters. Our parents aren’t holding grudges and our friends have learned to forgive and forget, but the Internet isn’t always as generous.

Just as fast as young teens are discovering the benefits of social media, my generation is being made aware of the pace at which potential employers are doing the same. According to a CareerBuilder survey in a CNN.com article titled “Digital Dirt,” in 2009, 45 percent of employers used social networking sites to research candidates. But college graduation is entirely too late to be taught the risks of social media, and employment concerns are barely the surface of potential problems.

Offering high school students a course centered on personal brand management and Internet trends is rising in importance. The Internet is not completely negative and can be a great place to communicate, share and self-promote, but it must be understood to be used appropriately.

“Students do not think before they write or post photos. A course could be a way of showing them moderation, but it could also provide education for any holes in their knowledge,” said Boyd. In November, Morse High School will follow a growing trend by giving every student a laptop computer for their personal use. There is a definite need for social media and the Internet to become a foundation for everyday learning, just as much as Shakespeare and Hemingway are.

The attention must now shift and focus on a proactive approach rather than a reactive approach. Pictures are more than frozen in time when they’re frozen in cyberspace. Deactivate a Facebook account and two months later, the same e-mail address and password can retrieve the same removed photos, information and friend connections. There is no deactivating the threats of the Internet. Students at the high school level must be reached because as Stanton said, “They interact without regard to consequence.” He also stated, “Awareness is valuable when gained.”

Those of us who possess such awareness should feel a commitment to protecting the dignity of less familiar followers and the integrity of the communication tools we’ve come to use, love and at times obsess over. Parents and teachers alike should be eager to help guide and educate the younger generations using knowledge and skills acquired from our generation’s mistakes. Capitalizing on this opportunity to influence vulnerable young minds will eventually lead to the confidence to friend request a potential employer rather than live in denial of their online reputation.

One of the significant problems that Social Media might make for you is in the area of spy software, questionable down load files, malware and other nasties.

Now of course the whole subject of computer security is nothing new and now as more and more people increase their online experience the risk can open up additional dangers. So first up ensure you are vigilant about your Online Use Policies. In the excitement of finding 50 new friends and developing 20 new business relationships in Linkedin, feeling all the connection and sense of belonging should not give you a sense of all is well in cyberspace.

I will mention two areas, One is the software area where your computer security is breached – infected OS, user files etc. The other is in the user area.

First the computer security, a subejct of many web sites, conferences and businesses. Very briefly you need one or more software applications that enable to both protect and remove nasties.

One programme I use is SpyBot from the good green folk in Ireland. It is completely free and donations are voluntary. Spybot has won many awards and you can read on their web site why they make it free…yes we don’t make a commission or have any financial connection and in the spirit of free enterprise and SM thinking something we do simply to be helpful should you read this page.

Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications. Spyware silently tracks your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile for you that is transmitted without your knowledge to the compilers and sold to advertising companies.

Click on the graphic or here takes you directly to the site for a free download.

Patrick Kolla. How? You can follow us on Twitter!  http://twitter.com/SpybotSD

Hardware Malfunction Lurking: I had a frustrating problem on one of my computers this past week that affected my USB port. I was actually unaware I had a problem as the USB ports all worked ok and I was not aware of a malfunction and it was not until I connected one of the new state of the art iQRite Touch frames that I became “challenged” . So after installing the operation software and drivers we found that when we plugged it into the USB the computer gave the normal ping sound and again when it was connected…meaning the computer new it was connected. But the software kept saying it was not connected. Digging deeper in the Systems Device manager we could see it was registered and the OS software knew it existed. Eventually we found a malware exe lurking blocking the frame from talking to the software drivers. The malware backdoor trojan was called sysguard.exe . The upshot was that this was removed by a 30day free use of UnHackme from http://www.greatis.com/ Be sure you visit this site even to get an understanding of the range of solutions and issues. Remember ignorance is no longer an acceptable excuse. You and I need to be responsible for every mouse click.

Some suggestions.

Consider using Gmail (Googlemail), Yahoo etc for your social media experience and keeping it separate from your main sales email address as in sales@iqrite.com. Instead it might be iqrite@gmail.com. These are actually valid email adresses for one of my companies.

If you are a company be mindful of who has the passwords to your company Facebook site and Blog site. The enthusiastic sales person may one day need to be dismissed and has all your passwords. So consider a Policy of updating them regularly and record them accurately and securely.

Consider the whole issue of who owns what. Is the free email account belonging to the employee or the company?

What are employees allowed to say in their use of Social Media about company activities, their opinions etc. Staff have been dismissed and censured over what the company has considered as inappropriate. One current debate in the USA is the case of a female board member tweeting and her miscarriage happening in a board meeting.

Posted by Kevin Andreassend Co-Founder of the Tweet Twins
http://www.simdeck.com http://www.iqrite.com http://www.digitaldaytime.com 

It’s not just for big-screen heroes played by Woody Harrelson and Bruce Campbell any more: A computer security company is promoting “International Kill a Zombie Day” on October 31, and urges users to scan their computers for botnet programs.

The light-hearted event serves a serious purpose, according to Sophos, the company promoting the Halloween-themed festivities. “Millions of computers around the world, in homes and business premises, are – without the knowledge of their owners – under the control of cybercriminals who commandeer the PCs to send spam, distribute malware, and commit identity theft,” wrote Graham Cluey on Sophos’ website.

Botnets are serious business in the world of computer crime, and the criminals behind the zombie hordes are increasingly well-organized and savvy. Additionally, the malicious code that they use to infect computers is becoming more and more sophisticated by the week, say experts.

The U.S. was the top spam-producing country in recent months, according to figures provided by Sophos, followed closely by Brazil, with India running a distant third. Running a computer scan with up-to-date anti-virus software can help solve this problem.

More of us shop online than ever before. Yet trust for online retailers is at an all time low. What went wrong?

A new poll has found Brits consider online retailers to be unsafe when it comes to personal data.

The poll, conducted by security firm Symantec, questioned UK consumers on how safe they felt their personal information was when making purchases online.  The banking sector came in at the top, while retail came in the bottom.

Chi-Chi Liang, senior product marketing manager for data loss prevention at Symantec, said the results show that businesses ‘have some way to go to convince the public that personal data is safe’. She added: ‘These results show a general concern about the safety of personal data held by private and public sector organisations in the UK.’

Ms Liang said that the reason behind the ‘low level of trust’ in online businesses is most probably due to the ‘many high-profile instances of data loss’ in the past few months.  In fact, just last week The Guardian reported a hacker attack on their UK website where the personal data of at least half a million users was stolen.

So considering the time of year and the current economic climate it will be interesting to see if Brits go for bargains online, or stay loyal to the perceived ’safer’ high street.

I’ve found so many good items of interest to Wired Writers that I’m sharing them with you rather than writing a new post myself.

Specifically for Writers

Web site for Newbie Writers (appears to be based in UK, but About link is not working for me today.

20 Hi-Tech Tools and Resources for Writers

Web Sites and Blogging

Author Tech Tips: The Top 5 Author Website Mistakes

New Rule for Book Review Bloggers

Online Security

5 Essential Tips to Keep Your PC Safe

Publishing Industry

Options in the Price War Over Books

If you have articles or Web site URLs to share, please post a comment. Next week, I hope to be done with my evaluation of the free brainstorming software, Personal Brain 5. If you have used this software, please contact me at akinemily(a)gmail.com.

Ring out the Old, Ring in the New

Touch is quite literally touching people’s lives! I’m referring to the touch-based phones, PDAs (and rumored tablets) that are flooding the market these days. How times change! While I’m still typing out this post on a physical keyboard, a few years into the future even that may have become extinct!

Though I’m talking about devices, a chance conversation I had with a friend (more about him) this morning started a chain of thoughts about how we interact in general. With people (social media), with devices (touch-based phones, tablet-PCs), with content (online, user-generated content), with the world around us in general. The topic of our conversation this morning was actually my previous post – a slide deck showcasing some work that I’d done with my previous employer. It is surprising how the more things change in some ways, the more the remain the same in many others! Online content is moving from the static text-and-images to incorporate Flash-based rich media (videos, slides, animation) to capture the user’s imagination and to get the message across. And yet, the CV has pretty much remained static. By-and-large the CV is still a ‘document’ containing details of the work you’ve done. I can only imagine the task of professional head-hunters — poring over thousands of resumes typed out, quite literally, in black-and-white. It is time the CV received a face-lift as well! Sure, you can create a deck showcasing your work quite easily (I did mine using Google Docs), but the point I’m trying to make is that the format of a CV has remained the same, while all around it the world has changed! It is time that the CV as we know it is relegated to the bin – literally and figuratively.

Trash the CV!

The time has come for a ‘video-resume’ — a deck showcasing your work, not in black-and-white, but in a rich-media format that makes it easy to actually communicate. Easy for you to showcase your work, and easy for the head-hunter to get some idea of what exactly you do! An Animoto for CVs? Yeah, bring it on!! Demos are changing from a step-by-step write-up to video-demos. The CV needs to change similarly.

Today’s conversation also refreshed another thought that had drifted in my mind a couple of days back. Interfaces have changed — displays, pointing devices, even keyboards. But again, something that has stood still in time is something very basic to our online existence today – passwords. Without passwords, we’re all in an online equivalent of a house with no locks on the doors! What triggered this thought was the last line on this article about an e-mail phishing attack, quoting Graham Cluley,

About 40 per cent of people use the same password for every website they use, he added.

And why not?! I use about a dozen online services – from Google Mail, to Twitter, to Facebook, to Windows Live and a host of other new services that I try out. I would be overloaded with trying to remember passwords for every one of them, were I to choose a unique password for each of them! The solution – have a single password for all (I don’t) and save the trouble of remembering them all. Why can’t we have a more elegant solution to online web-security? How do we do it? I have NO idea. But as our online lives become increasingly entwined in our ‘offline’ lives, web-security is only going to get more critical. What if I forget a password? Or worse, what if someone hacks my account? The amount of personal information at stake is HUGE. Risking that upon a combination of letters, numbers and special characters and your memory seems naive, to say the least.

Forgot your Password?

Why can’t we have a more … ‘natural’ experience in online security? We need a breakthrough on the lines of bar-code (incidentally, the 57th anniversary of the first official patent on the bar-code passed by very recently – October 7), that changes the way personal security and identification is handled on the web. A fundamental change is what is needed — password managers can only be a stop-gap solution (if at all considered a solution).  When will that happen? I don’t know, may be someone is already working on it!

Finally, I read this post a couple of days back, and it’s too good not to share. This also talks about how the way we access data needs to change from what it is currently.

What do y’all think? Do you have any more experiences, thoughts to share on the way we interact with our surroundings? About how we could change those interactions to something more ‘natural’?

There are many pitfalls out there vis-a-vis security and privacy and cloud computing. Both enterprise and individuals should approach cloud computing methodically and really put some thought into what data goes into the cloud.

From the link:

The best defense against data theft, malware and viruses in the cloud is self defense, researchers at the Hack In The Box (HITB) security conference said. But getting people to change how they use the Internet, such as what personal data they make public, won’t be easy.

Also from the link:

Access to personal data on the cloud from just about anywhere on a variety of devices, from smartphones and laptops to home PCs, shows another major vulnerability because other people may be able to find that data, too.

“As an attacker, you should be licking your lips,” said Haroon Meer, a researcher at Sensepost, a South African security company that has focused on Web applications for the past six years. “If all data is accessible from anywhere, then the perimeter disappears. It makes hacking like hacking in the movies.”

Washington Post:

An investigative series I’ve been writing about organized cyber crime gangs stealing millions of dollars from small to mid-sized businesses has generated more than a few responses from business owners who were concerned about how best to protect themselves from this type of fraud.

The simplest, most cost-effective answer I know of? Don’t use Microsoft Windows when accessing your bank account online.

I use a Mac, which makes these kinds of exploits very unlikely. This article, however, discusses booting a regular PC from a Linux read-only CD when accessing bank accounts.

Via Gruber.

Online security is the most important one for those who have the user accounts in the internet. Now recently more than 30,000 email accounts are compromised from all over the major web mail service providers. It becomes the serious issue that most of the accounts passwords are stolen by using the common phishing schemes. This is due to the lack in providing the proper security measures by the web email providers. Among the various mail providers, Google is also the one but it claims that only across 500 Gmail accounts are compromised. In order to overcome this issue, Gmail is providing the great tips that help you to secure your Email Accounts and they are to be continued.

The first tip is to have different passwords for the different accounts and service products. This is because when using same passwords for every account, if one account is compromised then the attacker can apply the data for all the account and access the user information. The second thing is using the weak passwords that are created by common words of phrases. However Google suggests its users to create a password of having a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters plus numeric numbers and symbols, which makes it difficult for a hacker or an automated attacker to determine it.

Most common mistakes in using the passwords is having a name of their pet names or favorite personality, which is easy for them to remember but it makes the attacker easy to guess the password and find your information. Some of the people write down their password in their computer file or in some important paper and left around in order to remember if they got forgotten. So that Google suggest not storing the password in common files of the office computer, or leaving the paper written password lying around the office that makes easy for others to steal.

Even some time we may forget the password for the websites that we may often visit. On this occasion most sites ask you to type the security questions or to enter the email address for retrieving the password. But this is also made easy for the attackers to steal the passwords. Hence a nice tip for you to use the information, that is not easily known by others to steal your passwords.

Oh look, Hotmail has been breached by a phishing attack. Can’t say I’m surprised, as anyone who knows me will tell you, I don’t believe that webmail is a secure medium – as this has demonstrated perfectly, the weak points being the phished users who got suckered. And Hotmail is popular with kids who are less security-savvy than they might be, ramping up the risks. Ditto with Yahoo and Google mail too.

With webmail you’re trusting a third party, over whom you have little control, to keep your email safe. And you have no control at all over other users who, it seems, screwed up badly in this instance. At least 10,000 of the buggers so far, and possibly hundreds of thousands – all of them too bloody stupid not to respond to phishing emails, about which the publicity is massive, and has been so for years. True, these losers have only put themselves at risk – so far. Do you really want to take the risk that these fuckwits will do something really creative next time, and bring down the entire system?

The only secure way to handle mail is via an email client on your own computer, where you can control ever aspect. You can run your mail through a reliable spam filter, and inspect any dodgy-looking mail before it ever gets to your Inbox, which is also filtered – double protection. And in both your can create your own filters, to cope with repetitive risks/annoyances, something not enough people do. And it should go without saying that your a-v software scans every piece of mail that arrives.

I use Mailwasher to filter my mail, and this allows me to view any suspicious mail without downloading it, and to see that any links it contains actually connect to the correct website – if it’s a phishing attempt, they never do.

I believe you can only use Hotmail with an email client, even Microsoft’s Outlook or OE, by paying for the privilege, so why not use the email facility that comes with every broadband account, or do what I did and buy your own domain name. This, too, comes with email facilities, and means that you keep the same address no matter how often you switch ISPs.

Outlook Express (OE) pretty much sucks, but if you don’t have Outlook try Mozilla’s Thunderbird, or even Incredimail which, stripped of its optional gimmicky bells and whistles, is actually pretty good.

A good email client, fully patched and updated, coupled with a good spam filter, used properly, will protect you from most things. Nothing, though, will protect you from stupidity, especially your own, and it’s long been a given that you must never give personal data to someone who pops up in your Inbox asking for it. I don’t know how many times that has to be repeated before it sinks in and, if you don’t know this by now well, maybe you really shouldn’t be online.

Funniest Blog in the universe: The Best Blog In The Universe.
(http://mcfly.xtreemhost.com come over and get your colons stomped)

Most of the time, it becomes necessary for us to monitor our own computer or a remote computer to keep track of the activities going on. This may be for several reasons. Especially it is most necessary for the parents to monitor their computer to keep track of their children’s activities during their absence. Some people may also require to monitor their computer to keep an eye on the activities of their spouse or partner. Today, with the advancement in the field of the software technology, it’s just a cakewalk to monitor the computer. For this all you have to do is, use a PC Monitoring Software.

But the job doesn’t end here. This is because there exists tons of such monitoring softwares on the market and many times we get confused which to choose and how to use them. So I have decided to make this job simpler for you, by writing this post. In this post I’ll give a detailed information about Computer monitoring softwares which include their features, advantages, installation, usage procedure and so on. To make this post interesting, let’s take up each topic in the form of question and answer.

Funniest Blog in the universe: The Best Blog In The Universe.
(http://mcfly.xtreemhost.com come over and get your colons stomped)

What exactly is a Monitoring Software and how can it help me ?

A computer monitoring software is just like any other software (program) which when installed, secretly monitors each and every activity that takes place on the computer. The activities such as web browsing, chatting, gaming etc. are all recorded and saved. These monitoring softwares can record each and every keystroke. So it is possible to capture usernames and passwords very easily with minimum effort. Monitoring softwares are also commonly known as Keyloggers.

How can I install a monitoring software ?

Installing a monitoring software is too simple. During the installation, you need to setup a secret password and hotkey combination which is required later to see the recorded data ( logs). After the installation is complete the software goes invisible, but keeps running in the background. Whenever you want to see the logs, just press the hotkey combination (ex. Shift+Ctrl+F10). Now a small window will popup asking for a password. Here you need to enter the password that was setup during the installation time. After you enter the password you’ll be able to see all the activities that took place on the computer during your absence.

Funniest Blog in the universe: The Best Blog In The Universe.
(http://mcfly.xtreemhost.com come over and get your colons stomped)

Can the person using the computer come to know about the presence of the Monitoring Software ?

Most of the time it becomes impossible to detect the presence of the monitoring software. This is because, once installed it hides itself from Start menu, Program Files, Control Panel, Task manager etc. Because of it’s stealth behaviour the user can never come to know that he/she is under the presence of monitoring.

Funniest Blog in the universe: The Best Blog In The Universe.
(http://mcfly.xtreemhost.com come over and get your colons stomped)

Which Monitoring Software should I use ?

There exists different flavours of these softwares and you have to choose the one that best match your needs. Here is a list of some of the best monitoring programs that I recommend.

For Monitoring a Local PC:

If you want to monitor a local PC (may be your own PC) then the following program is recommended.

Spy Agent Stealth

For Monitoring a Remote PC (Also works on local PC) :

If you want to monitor a remote PC  you may use the following programs. These programs works for remote PC as well as local PC.

Win-Spy Monitor

Realtime Spy

Keystroke Spy

For Monitoring a Network :

The following program can be used to monitor an Entire Network of computers from one central location. This becomes handy to monitor the staff in a company or students in a school/college.

NetVizor

Funniest Blog in the universe: The Best Blog In The Universe.
(http://mcfly.xtreemhost.com come over and get your colons stomped)

I’m sympathetic to reality of cyberattack against the government, but I’m guessing it’s needless to say I’m against any form of government control over internet traffic.

From the link:

There is no kill switch for the Internet, no secret on-off button in an Oval Office drawer.

Yet when a Senate committee was exploring ways to secure computer networks, a provision to give the president the power to shut down Internet traffic to compromised Web sites in an emergency set off alarms.

Corporate leaders and privacy advocates quickly objected, saying the government must not seize control of the Internet.

Lawmakers dropped it, but the debate rages on. How much control should federal authorities have over the Web in a crisis? How much should be left to the private sector? It does own and operate at least 80 percent of the Internet and argues it can do a better job.

“We need to prepare for that digital disaster,” said Melissa Hathaway, the former White House cybersecurity adviser. “We need a system to identify, isolate and respond to cyberattacks at the speed of light.”

So far at least 18 bills have been introduced as Congress works carefully to give federal authorities the power to protect the country in the event of a massive cyberattack. Lawmakers do not want to violate personal and corporate privacy or squelching innovation. All involved acknowledge it isn’t going to be easy.

品牌重整 企業識別設計更新及規劃… 紐約設計品牌專業顧問服務 Since 1983

商標(Logo)反映出企業的品牌形象，許多企業在成長到一個階段時，將商標加以更換或是修飾，以宣傳新的企業形象及價值，或者直接更換一個全新的商標；也有許多企業整合之後便更換商標，以針對有所改變的目標市場和利基客群,轉化或進增進對企業的品牌感受。重整或更新商標能提振品牌形象，使過時或逐漸萎靡的企業形象煥然一新。例如Inventec Electronic（英業達),  Twinhead International corporation（倫飛電腦), Stylution International Corporation (Restonic)（運時通集團/席樂頓), European Chamber of Commerce Taipei /ECCT (歐洲商會) PartnerTech Corporation（拍擋科技), Ingenuity Management Consulting Service / IMCI (智理顧問有限公司), Compass Public Relation（達豐公關顧問),  Taiwan Depository & Clearing Corporation /TDCC（台灣集中保管結算所)等等…以及其它的許多企業都藉由修飾 / 重整品牌形象的一連串動作，成功將事業推展至更高峰！

無論是新設計、修飾或重整企業商標，打造品牌形象無疑是對企業本身最重要的投資。正所謂：工欲善其事，必先利其器。因此，必須審慎尋找能夠對你的企業深入研究與了解的專業設計顧問…[…] http://newyorkdesignblogtalk.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-find-right-graphic-designer.html 才能攜手創造品牌奇蹟。

台灣集中保管結算所

倫飛電腦

智理顧問有限公司

瀧丰興業有限公司

運時通集團/席樂頓

歐洲商會

拍擋科技

Story Highlights

•  Security experts warn Wi-Fi users to be more vigilant against hackers
• Experts say it’s difficult to distinguish between legitimate and rogue networks
• Wi-Fi Alliance says spread of Wi-Fi hasn’t led to an ‘epidemic’ of hacking
• Users urged to protect their networks, use VPN for sensitive data

http://bit.ly/CYCO7 

http://bit.ly/9zYA9

     From the Panda Labs Blog ( http://pandalabs.pandasecurity.com/ ), shows how malware and viruses can make small changing to your online banking screens and fool you into giving up information that can then be used to make unauthorized charges or clean you bank account out. (Click on the link below “Live Demo” or look on the sidebar under VodPod Videos)

Live Demo: Banking Trojan from Panda Security on Vimeo.

     I had a client a couple of days ago who asked me to clean her pc of viruses, during the conversation, she mentioned to me that on top of having to deal with the virus on the PC that she was dealing with her bank because someone got her info and drained her bank account in one evening.  She mentioned that she didn’t know how they did it because she knew she followed all the rules people know for keeping her information private……

- She would shred old documents

- Had a very difficult sign on passwords

- Only thing she did online was banking at her bank, she would never buy anything online because she was afraid that somehow her info would be compromised (which it was anyways).

     I unfortunately had to explain to her that the virus I was cleaning from her PC was the reason she had her information compromised and her bank account drained.  The panda labs demo in this post shows how normally going to a banking site (they use Bank of America in the example, however, I should point out that B of A was not the bank my client was using) you get prompted for your Online ID and Online password for your bank.  However, as shown once the machine is infected, the entire site looks normal to an untrained eye except for the fact that your sign on suddenly wants you to enter your pin #.  Considering your at your banks website by all appearances most people would not think twice in entering that information.  However, in fact, as shown in the video the information is on the sign in is actually being sent to criminals who can then use it to steal from you without ever meeting you in person. 

     Just another example as to why you need a good anti-virus, a good anti-malware (and yes these are 2 different functions) on your machine and that both programs need to be updated regularly and run regularly on your machine to try and keep your PC secure. Also if you do get infected, you should either directly address the issue and make sure to clean your machine if you know what your doing, or make sure that a trained professional cleans your machine before doing any sensitive work on your pc.