Archive by Author
Social Network Scams and Fakes
The popularity of sites such as Facebook and MySpace have spawned malicious imitators. The main tactic they use to peddle their scams is “social engineering”. Wikipedia has a good definition: “Social engineering is the act of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. While similar to a confidence trick or simple fraud, the [...]
Full StoryReal Time Scanning Versus On Demand Scanning
Unless a security app runs real time scans, in other words, when data is coming into the computer (like when you’re browsing, or when you play a CD, or open an email and such) . . . you really don’t need to have it running at start up. Since it’s not protecting you in real [...]
Full StoryInstant Messaging Hazard
People that use IM’s…”instant messaging” programs like Windows Live Messenger (WLM), Yahoo, ICQ, AIM, etc. frequently get invitations from what appears to be friendly strangers, when in fact it’s an automated harvester (“bot”) seeking to infect your machine. I’ll use WLM for this example because I use it myself for communicating with people in real [...]
Full StoryWhy You Should Not Choose Microsoft Automatic Update
While Microsoft recommends that you set the “Automatic Update” settings to automatically download, some users prefer to set them to “Notify” and then the user CHOOSES which updates to download (and I have it set that way). There are two reasons to do this: 1. Now and then Microsoft releases a buggy update (example in [...]
Full StoryA Library of Email Hoaxes
For information on email hoaxes, refer to the links below before forwarding any emails. Email forwarding is a bad practice unless you strip out all the other addresses . . . like petitions, virus warnings, promises of wealth and giveaways and such, do your correspondent a favor and do a little research first. Sites that [...]
Full StoryHow To Remove Malware with HijackThis
If you think you have malware, you should run a HijackThis log and post it on one of the forums I’ve listed below. To download HijackThis go to the following link: http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/tools/security_tools/hijackthis/ Click on the “Download” button at the top of the page, then click on the “Download HijackThis Installer” link that will appear . [...]
Full StoryNathan Bedford Forrest – Civil War Confederate Commander
N.B. Forrest, as he signed his field communications, was not only the reputed founder (there is evidence both supporting this and NOT) of the KKK . . . and, I would quickly add that the KKK then was very unlike the one that we detested in the 20th century . . . but a rather [...]
Full StoryHow to Keep Your Laptop Cool
Cooling a laptop is difficult, because the air space inside the small case is not as efficiently circulated as is inside a Desktop. And Desktops can house a larger fan too. Cooling is also critical, because heat, along with dust and vibration, can substantially decrease the TTF (Time to Failure) of a computer. (The heat, [...]
Full StoryHow to Repair Faded Letters on a Keyboard
Replacing a keyboard these days is easy and cheap . . . with USB keyboards. But if you have a laptop, a USB keyboard can be cumbersome. For laptops, however, there are replacement keyboards for certain models. Nevertheless, you will have to disconnect/reconnect a ribbon cable under the keyboard in a laptop. For some models, [...]
Full StoryBeware of Rogue Registry Cleaners
Most expert users (not all) recommend against using registry cleaners that advertise “automagic” scanning and cleaning. And before anyone says there are good cleaners out there like CCleaner (http://www.techjaws.com/free-pc-optimizing-and-privacy-tool/), I will say that CCleaner, and Eusing, are two exceptions that prove the rule. And, CCleaner and Eusing are two that DO NOT do registry cleaning [...]
Full StoryWhat are the Best Antivirus Programs?
As my colleague Colin often says . . . to paraphrase him . . . “There’s no such thing as the ‘best’ antivirus”. Many people often write a question in forums: “What’s the best antivirus?” It’s like wine . . . it’s a matter of taste . . . what you’re comfortable with, and what [...]
Full StoryHow to Hide Your Email from Harvesting Programs
Leaving your “personal” email address on the web can make you vulnerable not only to spam, but also to Malware. A lot of spam and MALWARE (but not all) comes from “harvesting” programs that spammers AND MALICIOUS mailers use to “harvest” email addresses left on Internet pages. Some spammers can also harvest addresses from “Forwarded” [...]
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