WELCOME TO THE WEB!

We love announcing new websites and we have three that have been launched this month:

Hockey’s Resource (center) at www.HockeysResource.com is a new website that provides hockey news and information from both amateur and professional leagues around the world. Aimed at the hockey industry, articles vary from general interest to game reviews, scouting reports, camps, tournaments, drafts and more.

Desert Security (right) is a home and business security monitoring and installation company. They also provide home wiring, automation systems, networking and audio-video services. Desert Security has been protecting Arizona home and business owners for over 17 years. They’re service is top-notch and price is hard to beat. Checking out the JDE-designed website at www.DesertSecurityMonitoring.com.

www.AllHomesArizona.com (left) is home to HUD Home specialists Alex and Matt, a team of REALTORS here in the Valley who primarily serve the HUD home buyers. Their new website provides up-to-the-minute listings of HUD homes around the Phoenix area. They have a questions-answers page with a ton of useful information on it, and they also provide comprehensive real estate services for non-HUD clients.

WELCOME TO THE WEB!

THE MOST DANGEROUS SEARCH TERMS ON THE WEB

The top 10 most dangerous internet search terms (The Telegraph)

The above is a  link to very interesting article from the UK Telegraph newspaper regarding some of the “most dangerous” words that can get web surfers into trouble. By “trouble”, they mean ending up on websites where there’s a very good chance that something nasty, better known as “malware” might end up being downloaded onto the visitor’s PC.

The list that they provide is a little UK-centric, but there’s a link to a McAfee (here it is – it’s a PDF file) study from 2008 which shows the most dangerous keywords from around the world, many of which one could imagine still being in use today.

Web surfing has always been a somewhat risky proposition. In most cases, surfers are going to be okay, because most of their surfing is done on “safe” sites, but the growth of search engine browsing has been accompanied by a huge growth in sites that exist simply to respond to the latest online trends in order to infect computers with spyware, keystroke loggers, trojan horses…you name it.

The “top 10” from 2008 include some very run-of-the-mill keywords:

1. Lyrics
2. Free
3. Web
4. Gear, Gadgets and Games
5. Olympics
6. Videos
7. Celebrities
8. Music
9. News
10. Miscellaneous

From a personal perspective, the scary thing is that having security software installed doesn’t mean automatic protection any more. A recent piece of malware pops up a box in the lower right part of the screen that looks a lot like anti-virus software and tells the user to “click to scan”. That click, in essence, gives the software the permission to access the computer, circumventing (in most cases) the security and then disabling it.

Security is a game of cat-and-mouse. Anyway, the above are interesting articles and worth a read. If you don’t have security software installed then all I can say is “wow”. I would consider supplementing the traditional security suite type of application with a malware checker such as MalwareBytes’ Anti Malware or something along those lines (Spysweeper etc). As far as I’m concerned, you can’t get enough protection.

Safe surfing!

CHEAP IS GOOD – FREE IS BETTER – SOME FREE SOFTWARE WORTH A LOOK

In any economic climate, but particularly this one, cheap is good, free is better!

As Autumn approaches and days under 100 degrees loom on the horizon for those of us in the desert, I thought I’d share some freebies I found over the summer. This is a somewhat eclectic collection of varying categories, but might be worth checking out if you’re trying to save some money…

1. OPENOFFICE (www.OpenOffice.org)

I’ve written about OpenOffice in the past (link) and I’ve been using it as my word processor, database and spreadsheet for three years. There’s a small learning curve, but considering that OpenOffice is free, 100% MS Office compatible and comes with nice features such as the ability to save files as PDF, I think it’s one of the best value deals out there. Between my home and office I have six PCs. Using OpenOffice saves me a fortune when it comes to productivity tools. The only problem I see is that OpenOffice.org doesn’t come with an email client…however…

2.THUNDERBIRD (MOZILLA MESSAGING) EMAIL CLIENT (www.mozillamessaging.com)

Full featured and comes with an RSS feed reader. This is a decent email client. Thunderbird has a built-in spam filter which learns over time, has an email encryption tool, can be run from a USB drive (stick) and you don’t have a ton of bells and whistles that you won’t need. If you want a calendar, you can download the plug-in, and there are a ton of these. Oh, and you can migrate to Thunderbird from Outlook and Outlook Express.

3.SKYPE (www.Skype.org)

No, this is not satellite television. Skype is an instant messenger / PC-to-PC calling system / PC-based phone…you name it. I used Skype all the time. With a headset and an Internet connection, I have a good telephone. It’s free to talk to other Skype users which I do a lot. Many of these are long-distance “calls” and overseas conversations and the quality, 9 times out of 10, is as good as a land line. Calls from Skype to a phone do incur charges and there are plans to choose from. You can also forward your phone to Skype and vice versa. At minimum, Skype is a good instant messaging client. Users can also show their desktop to other callers and share files with a drag-and-drop.

4.ZONE ALARM (www.ZoneAlarm.com)

When it comes to security, I’m always a little wary of free products. Perhaps it’s because I feel safer if I’ve purchased it, who knows? The ZoneAlarm firewall (by CheckPoint, one of the names in computer security) is available for free. It’s a basic firewall, but it’s an effective firewall. Combine it with anti-virus / spam filtering / browser protection and you’ve got some good security going on!

5.AVG (www.AVG.com)

If you want a free anti-virus product, AVG is probably the best-known. Their free package comes with anti-virus protection and surfing protection (links are checked for you). There are minimal features in the free version. If you want spam filtering, online file sharing protection, identity protection, etc, then you’ll need to upgrade to a paid license.

5 more next time!

ACTIVE RAIN AS A DATING SERVICE? EMAIL SECURITY 101 REFRESHER

I received this in my inbox this morning :

Hello sweetie


My name is judy, i am 25yrs old, i’m a free minded, open hearted girl, i like to take life as easy as i could, i’m one of the few that still belives in friendship,love, trust and signs, am very much single and ready to mingle. was browsing through the internet and came across your contact at (www.activerain.com) belive me i like what i see,it will be my sincere pleasure to be your friend if you don’t mind, i hope you will not take my request for granted, feel free to email me, i will appreciate it if you can send me some pics, i look forward to hear from you soon.
Take care.


Judy.

I didn’t open the attached photograph, but it made me smile; there is nothing hackers and scammers won’t try.

I’m sure we’ve all received emails from some generous person in Africa or Eastern Europe offering to pay us a healthy cut if we’d accept a deposit of several million dollars into our bank account…."just send your bank account information". These sorts of emails are all covered under the term Nigerian 419. The FBI has a good description of it in their website (http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/fraudschemes.htm#nigerian).

It seems that the temptation, or impulse to take people at their word can often override common sense. We’ve all done it, myself included. Spam and anti-virus filters don’t always catch these emails. So, here’s a refresher….TO OPEN, OR NOT TO OPEN? THAT IS THE QUESTION…

• Never click on a link in an email unless you know for sure that it’s genuine. If it’s from someone you know, then it’s probably okay, but there is always a chance that someone’s email address book has been compromised and there are viruses that replicate and forward themselves. Sometimes a link looks almost real. For example "account.bankofamericaa.com" or something along these lines. Almost, but not quite the real thing…




• Any organization worth it’s weight in salt will not ask you for personal information by email, so don’t ever send information that could compromise you by email. This includes passwords, birthdays, social security numbers…you get the idea.




• Don’t open attachments. You may know the sender, so this can be a tough one. Recently, there have been compromises to PDF security, so there’s no guarantee that an innocent-looking PDF might be more than it seems. Of course, we all know never to open an attached ZIP file or executable program…




• Never reply to a "phishing" email. These are the kind that offer you something like a million dollars if you furnish some information, or "you’ve won the European lottery". It might be tempting to reply with "ha ha ha" or something stronger, but this confirms that the email address is active and being used. The next email might not be so easily recognized.





• Email attachments are a fact of life, so protect yourself by ensuring that your anti-virus / spam filter is up-to-date. Generally that means you’ve got to pay for it. I’m not a fan of freebies, especially when it comes to security products.




• If you usu products like Outlook, you’ll have a Spam folder. Yes, the occasional genuine message will go in there, but it won’t let you open links, so you have to make a conscious decision to do so.




• Never click on pop up windows. I’ve seen a lot of these lately that say things like "Your PC security is not up-to-date. Click here for a scan". The next thing you know your PC stops working until you "register" for the software.




• Instead of clicking a link in an email, if you believe it’s genuine and you absolutely have to click it, copy and paste it into your browser. In phishing or virus-laden emails, the text you see might not be the link that lies beneath.




• DON’T USE THE SAME PASSWORD ACROSS MULTIPLE SYSTEMS / WEBSITES.




• DON’T USE OBVIOUS PASSWORDS (ie "password" or your name).




• Keep your software up-to-date. With Windows, ensure you are doing your "Windows Updates" regularly. Be sure your virus software is current. Download the updates for products that you use a lot. Ensure your PDF reader is updated with the latest versions. Software companies do their best to react to breaches as soon as possible, but you have to keep yourself protected.

Computer security doesn’t stop at emails and browsing. There have been umpteen reports about social media links and compromises recently. Every new tool and technology seems to spawn it’s deviants…

Ultimately, security is like insurance. It’s a "best effort" approach. It will work most, if not all of the time. Sometimes, you’re going to be compromised because the stars aligned "just so". If so, then:

• Disconnect your computer from your network / Internet connection immediately.




• Call in the experts (Geek Squad, or your Technician or whomever…).




• Change all your personal security information as soon as possible.




• If you bank online, let your bank know your computer was compromised.




• Don’t try and work around the problem. If you think your PC has been compromised, listen to your gut feeling and take the appropriate precautions.

In many places, if you use Cox Internet, you get McAfee for free – worth checking out to save money. Like insurance, you hope you never have to use it, but a few bucks up front could save you a fortune later one…

Be safe.

Some useful links:

• PC World’s page on PC security (http://www.pcworld.com/topics/security.html)
• Indiana University PC security tips (http://kb.iu.edu/data/akln.html)
• Microsoft Windows update (http://update.microsoft.com)
• Symantec (Security) (http://www.symantec.com)
• McAfee (Security) (http://www.mcafee.com/us/)
• Adobe Acrobat Reader updates (http://get.adobe.com/reader/)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer (you should have the latest version) (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx)
• Mozilla Firefox Browser (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/)
• Google Chrome Browser (http://www.google.com/chrome)
• Opera Browser (http://www.opera.com/)

Talk to your IT / Security person about getting your PC / Mac secure. This information is not intended as definitive in any way….