Internet Security for Simple People

Danger in posting your Facebook status

2012-01-07T22:03:00.000-08:00

What is the danger in posting your Facebook status? Step in the shoe of a criminal mind and you'll find out.

If you post that you'll be in a full week vacation to your friends it is fun and exciting but for a theft it is an opportunity to get into your house. Your location is a critical information don't just announce it in public don't be so excited to post where you'll go and your current location. Be careful, even if you did not mentioned your current location but if you just snapped a photo then post it online it's the same thing, the photo may tell where you are and how far are you from home. Just don't get so excited you can post that picture later when you got home.

Feel free to share this information to your friends.

Keepass - Keep your password safe in one place

2011-08-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

KeePass is a free open source password manager(Which mean 100% FREE), which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish). Get it here

And Here is a short video on how to use it

I already accumulated lots of password and now I want to be organize keep them on a safe place.

Keepas has lot more other feature to offer but keeping password is what it do best and that all I need, simply keep all my password secure.

Window 7 GodMode

2011-08-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

GodMode on Windows 7 and Vista just a folder where the complete list of setting the you would probably need to make changes on your Windows operating system.

Do you need enable this? It depends on your need. If you have experienced spending time just trying to look where you can change a setting in Window or you just have changed something and you forgot how did you do it and you needed to undo it this is a nifty trick to make everything simple.

To have the all the settings stored on one location, create a new folder I would suggest on your desktop so you really wont miss it when you need to find something. rename that folder into " GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} " of course without the " " . After renaming it the folder would change it's icon and it will contain all the shortcut to the windows settings.

I found this short video too that demostrate how to do it.

Secure Your Wifi

2011-07-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

Put in mind that now versions of WEP(Wired Equivalent Privacy) password are easily cracked and disabling SSID broadcast or changing your SSID name from the default are useless also MAC filtering is useless.

For a strong security, enable 128 bit WPA security on your Wifi system. And do not use common password like names or any words that can be fount on the dictionary instead use random WPA password and change it often at lease once a month specially if you are located in a crowded area where there could be lurking hackers or wanna be. Store it in a text file on a thumb drive and use this to change the passwords on all your computers. Or use WPA-PKA if your network will support that.

The best secure way is to turn off the wifi and just use LAN cable

Clickjacking-What is this?

2011-07-03T13:36:00.000-07:00

For simple internet users the work click jacking is kinda too technical. To make it simple we can relate this to car jacking except the car is the click of the mouse button.It may seem not so important as losing your car, but it might be. If the click that will be jacked is towards losing your identity to an identity theft.

How does it work and how we can avoid it? Clickjacking works by hiding a malicious script under a legit website like post on facebook that would activate after a user click it. After clicking it it might send to to a well fabricated look a like of a legit website like a fake paypal website or just a fake Facebook page. When you are on the fake site your just one more click or less away from being clickjacked or you may have been clickjacked already. So to avoid this is DO NOT CLICK STRANGE LINKS even it is coming from a trusted friend. Your friend could have been victimized by this clickjacking that a automated script had taken over the account and repost it self to propagate

How to be 100% Hacker Proof

2011-06-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

If hackers can hack big companies like Sony(Click here to reference site) who pay thousand of dollars to their IT group to secure their computers what chance do you have? And in addition to that hackers can even hack some FBI computers and none of that they are also hacking. With the case stated we the simple computer users doesn't stand a chance specially with the popular hackers known as LulzSec.

I'm not paranoid about it because they are probably not interested in me or with you. First is if they are hacking for money, I only have little or nothing at all in comparison with what they could have get by hacking Sony. Second is if they are going to hack us it will be a very boring thing for them, no challenge at all, meaning they will have no fun.

But if you are still paranoid from being hacked, there is a way greater than buying expensive security protection software and firewall routers simply just turn off your computer or unhook it from the internet and do not make online transactions. That way you really have closed all the doors that they can enter and therefore you are now 100% secured on your side from hackers. I said on your side because if our bank, school, employer is online they can still hack in there to extract informations about us.

Where Do you Keep Your Passwords?

2011-05-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

Password keeping is getting tough these days but we need to keep up with it to keep our accounts secure. Passwords and user name requirements are getting longer and requires alpha numeric characters and some capitalization thus this makes it hard to remember.

With these said most people end up using the same password on multiple account if you're one of them be warned it is dangerous. If so happen one of your account was hacked then considered all has been hacked, or if had opened an account to some bad websites the require your e-mail add as the user name and you have used the same password as your e-mails password on to that account then they already have an access to your e-mail account which might contain more links to you other accounts.

So where do you keep your password?

There are lots of password keepers software out there but it will also require you to have one password to protect all your other passwords, and if you lost this one password then you lost all (if you can't remember them). You could write your password on a text file or XLS file, but someone got their hand on it then they had your passwords too.

Leave your suggestions on the comment on where is the best place to keep your passwords.

Do Want to see Who viewed your Profile on FB?

2011-05-04T14:04:00.000-07:00

Do want to see who viewed your profile on FB? For what ever reason you may have better think again because this is agains FB's policy (FB faq=12903 )

So if ever there is an app that would offer you this capability think twice or maybe more because more likely they are fake or even worst they are just rogue apps that would steal you identity. Legitimate FB apps would probably follow the guideline set by FB.

I conclude that this rogue apps is just using your curiosity enthaising you to use their app. You may need to sign up for their free service so they could capture some information from you or you maybe forwarded into a fake facebook website asking you to log-in, if your not careful enough they will have a chance and capture your FB username and password and all the information you have there.

Be Aware You Have Been Warned.

Free Anti-Virus Software for Simple Users - Part 2

2011-05-04T10:31:00.000-07:00

I have written about free anti virus program in the past but now it is not about free antivirus program that has limited functionality, this about a full version.

Did you know that most of the high speed internet providers offer a free anti-virus program? Yes it is free and it is full version. Check out the website or call them to find out how you could get a free antivirus program. I have Comcast as my ISP and through them I was able to download and install the latest Norton Security Suite for free.

MEDIACOM
CHARTER
COMCAST

For Comcast you will need to download install comcast security software called Constant Guard before you can download and install the free Norton Suite. Constant Guard is Comcast software that adds another layer of security for you internet banking passwords. I just had a minor problem with Constant Guard, I cant use the Yahoo Messenger while it is running so I had to uninstall it and just use Norton Security Suite.

Free Anti-Virus Software for Simple Users

2011-02-14T09:24:00.000-08:00

For simple computer users, like you and me(I assume since your reading this blog). We don't need those heavy duty anti-virus software that cost $30-$100 per year or even more to be protected from computer virus. There are free the is just perfect for our need.
What do we need? We just need to be free of virus that comes from the internet, e-mail and removable storage device like a USB thumb drive. The free anti-virus does this job as great as the paid versions since it also uses the same engine to detect viruses. The difference between paid and free versions is that the paid will offer extra protection like a back up option, sand box, identity theft protection, spam mail filter and protection from spy wares. We can ask our self do we really need those extra protection? Are we, the simple computer users exposed with those threats? If you just use the computer to process some office documents, watch youtube, go to face book, read and send your e-mail, pay your bills and maybe visit a couple of respected sites like CNN, NBC, Yahoo, e-bay I would say the free anti-virus program is enough to keep you safe. But if you go watch porn, go download illegal copies of movies and program, use torrent and other files sharing program then you are prone to be attacked by computer viruses, the free anti-virus is not enough but then again this blog is not for you because the also means your not a simple computer user.

What are the free anti-virus program?
1. Avast
2. AVG
3. Avira

I have personally tried all of the above, they all worked for me and had kept me safe. There was I time we had 3 computer at home so I use one for each computer just to compare them but now I ended up using just Avast. I have nothing negative to tell about the others it is just my personal preference. If you have an expire anti-virus program, un-install it first then download and install one of the free anti-virus program.

Here is a quick un-installation guide-Click Here

The thing that these free anti-virus program missed to detect are spy ware but I don't blame them because even paid version do so.I would recommend Spybot a free anti spy ware program. Just download and install then follow the pop up instructions.

Paypal scam

2011-01-28T09:46:00.000-08:00

PayPal is good to protect you from fraud and provide safe online transactions, but even if you are a PayPal user, you are not completely safe from internet scams, you are rather a target for scams. You are a greate target because they know you have money and you are doing online transactions.

The scam works this way, they will front as Paypal and will send you an e-mail that tells you that Paypal have detected that there is an unauthorized used on your account. They will be using Paypal logo, graphics and fonts so it will really look good and sounds officiall, they would even include links that point to the official Paypal site.
BUT BEWARE they will offer you something like activate a security to prevent the unauthorized use by click a button or a link and there where the trick is, the button or the link will point you to a FAKE Paypal website that will ask you to log in but instead they will just capture you Paypal user name and password so they can have access to it and use your money.

What to do if you receive this type of e-mail.
1. Ignore it or rather report it as a scam so other people may be alerted.

How to identify if it is a Paypal Scam?
1. The e-mail address is not officially from Paypal.
2. The greetings is using generic term like"Dear Paypal User", Paypal will usually greet you with the name you registered to them.
3. They are asking for private information.
4. There are links the points to a different site location and not to paypal.com
5. The links are not secured - http:// only and not the secure https://
6. It is asking you to verify your account by logging in or sending your password.

Help Me, Please Send Money Scam

2011-01-19T19:03:00.000-08:00

On my previous post I have lay down some tips to prevent Facebook account from being stolen. Now I just want go share a real example of what happened to someone when his account was stolen. I will not mention names anymore to provide privacy.My only intent is to share some point so we may learn from their experience. The first one noticed that there is something wrong was his daughter when she noticed that there is is a post her dad needs help. Basically the approach of the hacker is make it sound that the victim in trouble by posting something on their walls that would make their friends and relatives worry. Then he would send email and PM to those that would seems to concerned. He would try to ask help and make them transfer money electronically and the that where real trick comes in because the receiving end of the money was the hackers bank account (it was open somewhere in Nigeria or other country where US authorities has less power to investigate).

Here are the points we need know in case this happen to on of our friends:
1. Commonsense, as always. Sometime our emotion takes over whenever we hear bad news about our friends and love ones.
2. Confirm the situation personally don't just rely on the Facebook message, give him a call or call some that could personally confirm the situation. Confirm with the hospital by calling it directly in case the hacker would use health as the threat.
3. Never send money electronically, maybe send a check named and addressed to your friend.

Leave a comment and add more info, together we can warn our friends with regard to this scam.

Facebook Information Can Be Used by Hackers

2010-12-28T21:13:00.000-08:00

Most of the time when ever I do phone transaction (banking and other such alike) the call agent would ask a question to verify my identity and the most common question I encountered are "What is your date of birth?" and "What is your mothers maiden name?". Did you know that is information could be easily access by a hacker thru you facebook account? Thus resulting for the hacker to trick any agent over the phone and can post as you. From there the hacker could stole you identy and make phone transactions in your name. The hacker would just check your facebook profile to see your date of birth and from there the hack could also do an investigation to find out who is your mother and try to check her profile too to find out her maiden name. Everything would be easy for him unless raise your security settings.

Here what you need to do.
1.On the upper rigth corner click "Accout" Tab and choose "Privacy Setting" from the drop down menu.
2.Click "Custom" then "Customize Settings".
3. On Family you may choose to be seen by "Friends Only" If you know all you friend and you trust all the friend that you would accept but if not just change it to "Custom" and set it to "Only Me". In this case there will be no direct information from facebook that will be available to the hacker to trace who is your mother.
4.Do the same for your date of birth, I bet you'll choose only me unless you want everybody to know your date of birth.

These are just specific examples but the general rule it keep your personal information private.

Identifying Spam Mail

2010-12-13T09:08:00.000-08:00

Spam mails are now getting smarter because they are improving their methods so that they can get away of the spam filters. Although we have spam filter to protect us there are still a few spam mails that get thru. Some of them are just annoying but there are dangerous ones too. The dangerous ones have virus, spywares and key loggers. If the spam mailers are getting smarter, we the targets should be smarter than them. Here are a few smart ways to stop it and avoid being victimized. (This is only for the spam mails that get through the spam filter I post later how to avoid getting spammed).

1.    It is from someone you don’t know. Unless you are expecting someone will send you an e-mail for the first time don’t open it.
2.    In case you have opened a spam mail it and it has something on it that says click here to unsubscribe. Better not to because you are only confirming that you are an active spam reader and they will target you more. The only exception is if the mail is not a spam. To stop receiving from this sender just block it from your mail or add a filter that it will be sent directly to the spam folder or the trash folder.
3.    Obvious spam mails that get thru sound they have a legitimate business with but don’t because they are just selling stuffs that you are not interested (Viagra, penis enlargement and etc…) If your mail program has an option to report a spam mail, use it to report the mail then delete it.
4.    Spam mail trying to outsmart the spam filter usually has funny characters on the Subject or intentionally miss-spelled words so they can get away from the spam filters watch out for this, report and delete them immediately.

Fake Facebook Profile

2010-11-04T13:12:00.000-07:00

There are lots of Fake Face book profiles. It is more than 50% of the Face book profiles are Fake means there is no real person behind the name that was registered. These Fake Profile are created for several reasons like, to keep an identity secret or it was just an alternate account for playing games. But be aware that sometimes Fake profiles are also created with malicious intent, it could be to impersonate someone and destroy the reputation of the real person or to spy on the activities to the real persons friends.

The only thing that we can do about this is to report it.

Before taking action check if you have mutual friends with the impostor, if you do contact them and tell them about the impostor, ask them to report also.

Take these steps to file the report.

Go to the Fake profile, on the lower left click "Report/Block this person" then choose "Fake profile". On the drop down menu choose the profile of the real person. Also check the box of "Block this person".

High Risk Places on the Internet and How to Avoid Them

2010-11-03T09:57:00.000-07:00

The most dangerous places on the internet are on the places you don't expect the most.

Website that let you watch video instantly, well not Youtube off course because it is the most popular and highly respected site it, they are have an establish system that protect they users. I am talking about websites that ask you to download codec or a play to be able to watch their video. Don't be tempted specially if it is free, because if it is free they probably have a catch why they are doing it for free, it could be on the cost of your security. If you download anything ( a codec or and EXE file) you are giving them an opportunity to stage an attack to your computer. So beware most of these websites are very tempting because they are even offering the latest movies that are not even released on DVD and CD in short it could be a leaked copy.

Fake websites, these are copy cats of the original website. I cant think of any good intention why someone would fake another website. The least is they want to clinch on the popularity of the original but most of the time they have a malicious intent. With the fake website they can lure people to log in with they password, hence capturing it for they own use. To detect this fake website is easy because it probably wont provide with the service of the original website but some it is already too late because you already punched in your user name and password. To re-secure your account, immediate go to the original site and change your password and if you could notify them that you suspect that you have been targeted then do so. To avoid fake website, bookmark the original website and open it through it.Do not log in to websites if they we're opened through links from e-mails, chat etc...

I'll just add some more, they are a little bit obvious but just so in case your not still aware. File sharing site like torrent and others a like. From here you can download movies, music and other files but since your just getting these files from untrusted sources you have no way of knowing if there are any malaware, virus and other threats that was injected on the file. Porn sites, if you still don't know and you have habit of watching it then your computer is at risk. Most porn site are not secured for what ever reason, I haven't done any research why so I can give any advise how avoid being attacked while going the porn sites. What I can say is just don't go there.

The final thing I can say is keep your security programs updated (anti-virus, anti-malware and firewall).

Fake Facebook Pages.

2010-10-28T13:21:00.001-07:00

Beware, there are uprising FAKE Facebook page. Some are just a die hard copy cat some are with malicious intent. It is very easy to anybody to create a Facebook page for somebody else even wthout the permission. This is being exploited by people with malicious intent to destroy someone’s personality. The victim will have no control over the fake book account, because it was made by somebody else.

To find out if there is fake account is to search for the original account (the only way you can tell is if you know the original account) on the Facebook search bar and view the result to check it.
The fake account is usually made by the haters of the victim or a freeloader to the popularity of the victim. The freeloaders are people wants to drive visitor to their site or to cature attention. In both cases it is damaging to the victim, the haters is posting hate contents and fraudulent contents and the freeloader is capture visitor the supposed to be searching for the victim.

What to do with fake Facebook accounts? Go to the impostor profile and click "Report/block this person" at the bottom of the left column. Check the "Report this Person" box, choose "Fake Profile" as the reason, and add "Impersonating me or someone else" as the report type. Be sure to add a valid web address (URL) leading to the real profile so that Facebook can review the information.

Some impostor are just creating Facebook Page, just do the same , go to the fake Facebook page and click "Report/block this person" at the bottom of the left column, check the appropriate report on the menu that will popup.

Protect Your Facebook Account

2010-10-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

A stolen Facebook account is like a stolen identity, it is difficult to recover it. I bet you don't want to spend time informing all your friend that you Facebook account was hacked and stolen. There is a lot of damage a hacked account can do, the least is it will be used to send spam message to all of your friends. Once your account is stolen, it can be use to steal another account from your friends, it can damage your reputation if the hacker start posting offensive material (violence, Porn and etc). If you have personal and private information it may not stay private and personal any more.

To protect you Facebook account

1. Avoid using it on public computers and networks.

2. If your not a public person keep your profile private. Click the "Account" tab and on the drop down click on "Privacy setting" change all of the setting where in only your friends can view.

3. Never add someone you don't know. But also be aware that sometime stalker may create a fake Facebook account just to get accepted to be your friend on Facebook. If you know you are a target of someone, besure to verify the friend request in person before accepting it.

4. If your really want to keep information private NEVER put them in Facebook.

5. Never use your credit card on Facebook, no matter how tempted you are on any of the offers even it is to good to be true (if it is too good to be true and most probably it is not)

I would like to keep this updated, please leave a comment or a question below and I will try to update this article.

Protecting Yahoo Messenger Account from Hackers

2010-10-22T13:14:00.000-07:00

Are you using your Yahoo Messenger to attend confidential conferences? Then you are probably a target from hackers who want to break in and sniff into the conference.

There are lots of reason why a hacker would be interested in hacking your yahoo messenger account. I could only name a few but the bottom line is the hacker is up to something bad.

here are is a guide line to avoid accounts being hacked.

0. Have an alternate Yahoo ID, so you wont use the same ID that you are using to attend confidential conferences.

1. Avoid using your account to public computer and networks

2. In case your using a public computer or network don't forget logout.

3. Don't be fooled by rogue website. Rogue websites are copycat of the original website tricking you to login so they can capture your user name and password. The hacker would usually send you a link thru chat or email of this rogue website so to avoid this never login if the page was opened via link instead make it as a hobbit that you open a new browser window manually and type in the yahoo URL by your self.

4. Don't be fooled by someone pretending to be an administrator and asking you to verify your account. better yet if you want to verify your account just log in to Yahoo's official website http://www.yahoo.com/

5. Never open e-mails from unknown senders.

6. Never open links from spam mails, even if it came from your friend.

7. If you receive an email from your friend that looks suspicious his account might be hacked, dont open any links inside it it might lead you to a site that would hack your yahoo account.

8. Have a strong password, but be sure not to forget it. Strong password means it is more than eight character, combined with symbols and numbers i.e. d!ff!cult2r34d

Just be smart enough not typing your user name and password into anything else but the official website of Yahoo and official Yahoo Messenger.

If you suspect that your account has been hacked, immediately change password, update and run virus and malaware scan on your computer. Ask one of your techie friends to immediately assist you if you have trouble.