Protecting Your Digital Identity - Available Technology Inc

Protecting Your Digital Identity

 

We get used to technology changing at a rapid pace, and sometimes you don't notice how things have changed until you step back and realize how dependent we are on our computers. The prolific use of the Internet is probably the most significant change in technology we have experienced (or will experience) in our lifetime.

We use the internet for everything. It is used to pay bills, reconcile our bank accounts, pay quarterly taxes and do our Christmas shopping. Cell phones deliver messages to us at the moment they are sent. There can be no disputing that email use has revolutionized communications in business. We are truly a "connected" society.

The problem is that we are all indeed connected. Those of us who would normally not come into contact with certain less-desirable elements of society are now thrown into the collective melting pot that is "the internet." And just like all societal groups, that by their nature largely follow the rules and mean no harm, there are predators there.

Everytime you pay a bill or sign up for a coupon or newsletter, a piece of your information is being submitted to a potentially unsafe source. Online banking and shopping put credit card numbers and vital security info on a database server that could be hacked by electronic criminals. Even our medical information is kept in a digital format, with the possibility of dissemination to the wrong element in our collective internet community.

To exclude ourselves from the internet and it's advantages, both personal and professional, is to some degree an irresponsible squandering of opportunities to enrich your own life and the lives of others.

Fortunately, you can take steps to protect yourself and become a less likely target for identity theft.

How Big of A Problem is It?

Everyone is taking notice, and most are concerned. The Federal Trade Commission estimates that up to 9 million Americans were victimized in this way last year. Identity theft costs victims hundreds if not thousands of dollars, and months or years of agonizing struggle to sort out the instances of fraud.

One of our own clients had their company's information used to take out a business loan. When the loan was defaulted on, the company began receiving calls to collect the bad debt. The company is still spending time and money to straighten out the aftermath of the identity theft.

How Does it Happen?

Identity thieves are looking for such information as your name, social security number, credit card numbers, birth date and so on. Once found, this information is used to make purchases or commit crimes, or the information is sold to others who will do so.

These attacks occur primarily in two forms: Phishing and Keylogging.

Phishing

Keyloggers or other viruses

"Phishing" is a term coined by computer hackers, who use email to fish the Internet hoping to hook you into giving them your logins, passwords and/or credit card information. In all these scams, the phisher first impersonates a legitimate company such as your own internet service provider, or your auction site or a financial institution. In the typical scam, you'll get an email that appears to be from a reputable company. You'll be asked to go to a special site to update your account information. This is usually a "red flag" because a reputable business should NEVER ask you to update personal account information in an email!

 

If you get one of these messages, don't panic - and don't respond. Remember this advice: Don't give your personal information to anyone you don't know. If you are concerned that the message might be genuine, call your ISP (or bank or other organization being spoofed) at a telephone number you obtain from your billing statement or through an email address the legitimate company provides.

 

Keyloggers

do not search for your personal information on your computer but literally do what the name suggests - log the keys that you press on the keyboard. Once the virus makes a record of every keystroke you enter, the information can be used to find out login names, sites you have visited, credit card numbers and passwords. Keyloggers are normally spread by viruses in downloads or emails and can also be added as attachments in advertising or spam. Howver, they could also be planted by someone with physical access to your computer. Since they are designed for stealth, keyloggers are typically hard to detect. Updated virus protection like ESET NOD32 will catch these programs before they can set up shop on your PC.

 

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Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft

 

For both Keyloggers and Phishing scams, follow these tips:

 Consider using a keyscrambler. The most popular of these is called - you guessed it - Keyscrambler. The free version of Keyscrambler encrypts each keystroke you enter to feed false information to any keyloggers that may be on your system. Google "keyscrambler" to find out more.
 Look for the Lock. Be sure that any transaction which requires you to enter sensitive information is done so in a secure environment. The lock icon on the status bar at the bottom of your browser indicates that the site you are currently viewing is encrypted, meaning that the site publisher has been verified to be who they say they are and that communication is secure.
Also, don't enter credit cards or other information in to a site unless the site address is shown as "HTTPS" rather than "HTTP" in the address bar. This ensures that data can't be read if it is intercepted.

 Updates and Antivirus. Be sure you have a good (i.e. not free) antivirus program and keep it updated. We Recommend ESET NOD32 Antivirus and have used it for years.
In addition, virus writers typically look for security flaws in your computer's operating system and exploit them. Microsoft and others are constantly looking to repair those flaws so that hackers and virus writers are not able to get through. They do this by providing security updates that you can download and install from the Internet. Update your operating system to close these security holes.

 

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General Internet Security Tips

 

Use unique passwords and keep them in memory, not on paper. Believe it or not, "passsword" or "secret" are not good passwords. A strong password has capital letters, numbers, and non standard characters like punctuation to makeit much more difficult to guess.

Be careful on wireless networks. Even if password protected, they are not bulletproof. it is a good idea to do your online transactions on a wired computer and leave the instant mesaging and facebooking for the wireless.

Don't enter passwords or other sensitive info in an email. Email is sent as clear text, and is the easiest of data to intercept, especially over a wireless network.

P2P programs like torrent downloaders and some music sharing software are a great way to get infected with a keylogger. Don't use this type of software if you can help it (and you can.)

Take extra care when accessing the internet through a public computer or kiosk. In one recent case, a man successfully installed "keylogging" software in 14 Kinko stores in the New York City area, without Kinko's knowledge or permission. Using the software, he was able to capture customers' usernames and passwords.

Follow these tips and use common sense to protect yourself on the internet. We all belong to the same collective pond, but with a little caution and responsibility we don't have to end up as prey for the barracudas.

 

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For information on any of the information in this month's newsletter, please call Available Technology at 864.232.1234 http://available-tech.net

Virus 101 -or- Malware for Beginners - Available Technology Inc.

Virus 101 -or- Malware for Beginners

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Being a computer technician isn't an entirely thankless job. Every one of us with a job to do, including garbagemen and politicians, occasionally experience intense moments of satisfaction from the faithful performance of our daily grind. That's why we keep on doing what we do.

But IT Guys (yours truly excluded) have, as time passes, developed fragile egos from the constant flip-flop from hero to scapegoat 10 times per day. In the morning it's "Hey, the computer guy's here!" and in the afternoon it's "Everything worked until YOU showed up!??"

But it's those brief realizations of childish fulfillment that keep us going. I am having a great day if someone chooses to call me a "genius" or "guru", which I quickly downplay by insisting that I am merely "digitally dominant." And yes, at the end of those kinds of days, we IT folks feel a bit like brightly-costumed defenders of the innocent with the theatrical stage-wind throwing our fluttering capes out behind us. We then stand tall and proud, and remark, "All in a day's work, Mrs. Jones, all in a day's work."

According to the SuperHero Name Generator, my super hero name is "The Elastic Sapphire Locomotive", a moniker that I hope I can live up to. This isn't easy, because all heroes of Super proportions have dark and dangerous enemies that stay up late at night coming up with new ways to expel us from our Industry Certified thrones.

Similar to comic book super heroes, computer guys and gals have not only normal, boring, annoying enemies (like Green Goblin, Sandman, the Phantom, and Penguin) but also that one foe that predictably keeps popping up, knows your weaknesses, and is always defeated, but never destroyed - our "Arch-Nemesis." For computer techs, our arch-nemesis is the computer virus.

Comic book villains come in 2 varieties, not unlike politicians. The first type works toward the ultimate goal of attaining power while advancing chaos and destroying order. The second type commits crime strictly for monetary gain. Ironically, computer viruses fall into the same 2 categories.

This month, I'll present the important info about viruses that you need to know, in a format that should be easy to comprehend even for the avid "Dick and Jane" reader.

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Types of Viruses

When your computer starts throwing up error messages, blue screens or just starts acting plain-old "weird", most people say "Must be a virus!" But do you really know the difference between a virus, a trojan, a worm or any of 10 other kinds of malicious software waiting to attack your poor innocent computer? Well, read on, and in the next 10 minutes, you will!

Most people use the terms virus, worm, and trojan as synonyms, but these terms are not the same. They all can do damage, but in different ways. And just like Spiderman always says, "Knowing your enemy is the only way to defeat him."

- A computer virus attaches itself to a program or file so it can spread from one computer to another, leaving infections as it travels. Much like human viruses, computer viruses can range in severity: Some viruses cause only mildly annoying effects while others can damage your hardware, software or files. Almost all viruses are attached to an executable file, which means the virus may exist on your computer but it cannot infect your computer unless you run or open the malicious program. It is important to note that a virus cannot be spread without a human action, (such as running an infected program) to keep it going. People continue the spread of a computer virus, mostly unknowingly, by sharing infecting files or sending e-mails with viruses as attachments in the e-mail.

- A worm is similar to a virus by its design, and is considered to be a sub-class of a virus. Worms spread from computer to computer, but unlike a virus, worms have the capability to travel without any help from a person. The biggest danger with a worm is its capability to replicate itself on your system, so rather than your computer sending out a single worm, it could send out hundreds or thousands of copies of itself, creating a huge devastating effect. For example, a worm can replicate and send itself out to everyone listed in your address book, and then to everyone in each of your contacts address books, and the manifest continues on down the line. Due to the copying nature of a worm and its capability to travel across networks the end result in most cases is that the worm consumes too much bandwidth, causing servers and individual computers to stop responding. Some worms are designed to allow a user to control your computer remotely without your knowledge or permission. This is scary stuff!

- A Trojan Horse (or Trojan) is a malicious program (Malware) that looks like something helpful but is actually out to destroy your computer. Trojans can look like coupon printing programs, music downloading software, free games or even antivirus programs, like the infamous "fakealert" trojans. Some are just annoying, doing things like changing your background or redirecting your web browser to a random search site or site with (ahem) objectionable content. Others can cause serious damage by deleting files and destroying information on your system.

A type of Trojan known as a "backdoor" trojan creates a backdoor on your computer that gives malicious users access to your system, possibly allowing confidential or personal information to be compromised. Unlike viruses and worms, Trojans do not reproduce by infecting other files nor do they self-replicate.

A subset of these 3 types of malicious software is called a blended threat. A blended threat is an attack that combines characteristics of 2 or more of the 3 types of ifections to produce a hybrid attack that can be especially hard to detect and remove. Many attacks that we remove on a daily basis fall into this category and require special tools to clean from your system.

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Who Writes These Things?

The typical virus author is male, from 14 to 24 years old. He has an intermediate knowledge of programming, since most viruses are remarkably easy to write. You can think of the guys who write malicious code as vandals, who are either trying to make money or show off to their friends. In some subcultures, whoever does the most damage gets the most credibility.

These days, though, most of the viruses are written to cause just enough trouble get you to put in a credit card number in order to make the problems go away. This is electronic extortion, and is a worldwide epidemic.

Where do these people live? According to Symantec research nearly 46 percent of all malicious attacks come from China. London comes in second place at 14.8 percent. 13% or so originate from the US.

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How do you stay clean?

Now that we know more about the threat, there are a few things that need your attention in order for your computer to stay clean and virus free.

Do your Windows Updates - Microsoft releases critical updates to plug holes that let viruses do their dirty work. Do your updates to stay secure. We reocommend doing only the critical updates, not the optional ones.

Click only on trusted sites - this can be tough to do, but with so many infections spreading through infected sites, if you can get by going to well known sites, rather than clicking on anything you find on Google, you will stay virus free longer.

Install an Antivirus and keep it updated

Use a firewall - a hardware router or a software firewall program, like ESET Smart Security will keep many intrusion attacks out, and will keep your computer from allowing malicious communication attempts to go out on the network if your computer gets infected
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Upcoming Virus Trends:
What changes can we expect in the next year?

Internet users will continue to suffer increased attacks by virus writes who want you to download their malware. Look for increased attacks through social networking sites like facebook and twitter.

Also, as the popularity of Apple products continue to grow, Mac and iPhone users--two of the most popular products by Apple--should look to protect the content they place on their devices as more attackers will devote time to create malware to exploit these devices.

With the increased use of smartphones, mobile security will also be an area of concern.

"Scareware" or fake antivirus software are also expected to make a bigger presence next year. Computers may even be "hijacked" or rendered useless by cybercriminals, who control the machines until the owners pay a ransom fee.

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Armed with an understanding of the dark nature of the forces that oppose you, go out and combat evil. With courage and fortitude you and your fearless computer companion can face and defeat any sinister digital foe.

You can even come up with your own cyber-superhero names and create an alternate identity for yourself. Choose a sidekick and start brainstorming. Here are some names to get you started:

GigaRanger and Bitboy

Mistress Vira and Technolad

The Immutable Technemesis

Digidefender and Virulad

Dr. Disinfector and the Human Viradicator

As for me, I am the "Elastic Sapphire Locomotive." And in the words of Batman, "I chose this life. I know what I'm doing. And on any given day, I could stop doing it. Today, however isn't that day. And tomorrow won't be either."


http://available-tech.net

Computer Related Stress and How to Survive It - Available Technology Inc.

Computer Related Stress and How to Survive It
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Stress? C'mon, really?

Technology is very cool. I know I'm supposed to say that because I work with it everyday, but it's true. In the last few years computers, phones and the internet have changed our lives to a degree that all of us can recognize. From elementary school students to politicians to tibetan monks, we are all connected. Ahh, there's nothing like the smell of progress in the morning!

And progress is a great thing. Technology allows us to do less in more time and finish our jobs quicker, resulting in more efficient use of resources, increased productivity, and ultimately culminating in more time spent at home with our families. Right? Anyone?

Well, not really. It is certainly true that we now have the ability to accomplish more in our workday. But as respectable American humans, we now feel that since we can do the work of 2 people, now we have to. So instead of getting our work done in 2/3 of the time it used to take, we are now expected to do 1/3 more work in the same amount of time.

I've written about this before, and I consider it to be the beginning of the "desocialization" of America. Instead of calling, I email. Why email when I can text. Get it off your plate and move on. So to counteract this trend I write long boring newsletters to be read by few and enjoyed by fewer. Still, it makes me feel better.

Alfred E. Neuman, from Mad Magazine, was the ultimate symbol of optimism for all of us in the 80's. "What, Me Worry?" was the mantra of this carrot topped cartooned symbol of contentment. let's take a page from his book (pun intended) and try to relax, despite the demands placed on us by today's society.

Our dramatically increased productivity has proportionately increase the amount of stress we experience every day. This month I want to point out some of the causes of computer related stress and what we can do to preserve our sanity, our coworkers' safety, and our poor innocent Barbie dolls. (I'll explain later.)

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Is it really a problem?

Yes. 94% of Americans use a computer 4-6 hours per day. 52% of computer users say that they spend more time in front of a computer than they do with their spouse! (Not sure if this is good or bad. You decide.)

Not surprisingly, of these computer users, 86% have described being frustrated or angry at their computer.

All of us have experienced eye strain, neck and back fatigue, headaches, repetitive stress injuries or lack of focus while at the computer. Constant stress can elevate blood pressure and lead to heart attacks or stroke. It's no secret that stress can take years off of your life.

We even have our own syndrome. Computer Stress Syndrome occurs when a user "suffers a continuous state of technical anxiety that can lead to "road rage" style behavior. Examples forthcoming:

Over the years we have experienced:

Computers thrown in swimming pools

Computers ejected from house via window

Punched laptop screens

Baseball-batted printers

Gunshot wound to the CPU (no, I'm not joking)

We also have one client that copes with computer related stress by taking their aggression out on Barbie dolls. The doll is always conveniently at hand to smash against the desk or computer, be thrown across the room or stomped on. (Sorry, Joe, but this is just too good not to write about!)

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So what causes these physical and emotional stresses?

Basically the causes fall into 3 categories

Bad Environment.

Incorrect keyboard placement, chairs that are too low or too high or offer no lumbar support and screens that are too small or dim all contribute to being physically uncomfortable when working at the computer. In addition, Office setup that faces a desk toward a window or cause the user to reach unnaturally to use a mouse or keyboard can be a serious health risk. Insufficient lighting is also a problem.

Bad Equipment:

Outdated computers are the biggest reason for computer frustration. Systems that crash frequently or are just plain slow cause great frustration to users. When talking to employees to assess morale problems, the most common problem we hear is that the equipment is frustrating to use and this contributes most significantly to the discontent of the user.

In fact, outdated or inadequate equipment is one of the top 5 reasons that employees quit their job.

Insufficient training on the hardware or software that is provided also contributes to a high stress level. For example, to select a block of text in Microsoft Word, you could simply click and drag, or you could go through the menu systems and perform the same task in 8 clicks. A user that is not trained adequately may choose the long way to do the function because he doesn't know the shortcuts. Which would be less frustrating to the user having to perform this task 25 times per day?

Bad IT Support:

Interesting stats:

94% of people use computers regularly.

62% needed tech support in the last 12 months.

90% said calling tech support was their absolute last resort.

66% of users have experience frustration or have even gotten mad during a tech support situation.

This tells me that people in general, dread asking for technical help. They will scour the web, ask a neighbor, shake their magic 8 ball or do just about anything to avoid calling the computer guy.

It also tells me that there are a lot of technicians who have horrible interpersonal skills.

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De-stress Your Life?

Here's what you can do to avoid being a statistic (or fishing your computer out of the aquarium.)

Get Comfortable

Make your workstation as comfortable as possible. Don't skimp on your chair or your desk. Get something that fits you perfectly and spare no expense. Invest in a large LCD display with high contrast to reduce eye strain. Raise the screen if it is below eye level.

Use a footrest! This much overlooked addition can really make a difference in your posture and lower back.

Get a plant! NASA researchers have proven that having a plant at your workstation reduces your stress level. So go get yourself a fern, bonsai, english ivy, cactus, venus flytrap - whatever makes you happy!

Stretch and take a break, if possible, for 5 - 10 minutes per hour. Get some fresh air. If you can't leave your desk, try closing your eyes while waiting for that file to save or that page to load.

Get Better Equipment

The absolute worst thing you can do for the reliability and longevity of your computers, monitors and printers is to buy the least expensive thing you can find. Do your research and buy the best equipment you can afford right now. You will not regret it. Your systems will be up to the task for years longer than if you cut corners. Maintain it once you get it. If you have a server, you absolutely must monitor it every month to look for signs of failing hardware or imminent software problems.

Learn how to use what you have. Identify the program you use most often, and buy an instructional book for that program. This will help you learn the smart way to use your software, and save you time and frustration in the process. The "Teach Yourself Visually" series is what we recommend to our clients. Take a look here.

I say this all the time and I'll keep saying it as long as I have the juice - BACK UP YOUR DATA! The #1 cause of computer stress is data loss.

Get Better IT!

This is where Available Technology comes in. We strive to reduce the difficulty of dealing with computer issues. Our technicians are trained to anticipate problems and deal with them before they become down-time situations.

We care about your business and know how hard it is to deal with condescending tech support guys. We deal with them too!

Our everyday desire is to make each client feel like they are the only client we have.

And we speak English fairly well.

Use your time to Develop Patience and Focus

Finally, I encourage everyone to use their time at the computer to develop an attitude of patience by maintaining focus on the job at hand. Distractions can easily make a simple task take twice as long, so when you sit down, think about why you are there and take care of business without letting email and instant messages push you onto a rabbit trail.

Follow the above tips and you can make the time you spend at the computer more productive and more enjoyable.

The more you know about the causes of stress, the better equipped you are to see it coming and sidestep it before you start buying Barbies by the case or bringing a sledgehammer to the office.

Email me your stress saving tips and I'll pass them on to our readers. Have a great month!