Mom4Life

Safer Online Holidays

2009-07-13T06:00:00-07:00

I want to thank Patrick Runald, Chief Security Advisor, at F-Secure for the following guest post for our readers!

Travel plans and the Internet were clearly made for each other. There’s no better way of researching different destinations, comparing prices, and contemplating delicious holiday alternatives than the Internet. Whether it’s a trekking adventure through the rainforest, relaxing cruise or a fly-drive holiday you are looking for, the Internet provides a wealth of information at your fingertips.

So ease yourself into the traveling mood with an exotic drink, zoom into your chosen destination on Google Earth and enjoy the inside information from people who have been there. The online forums where travelers share tips and experiences can be an invaluable aid to planning your holiday and choosing where to stay.

Using the Internet as your holiday launch pad is extremely convenient. Millions of people are now doing all their travel preparations from the comfort of their home, including printing out their own flight tickets and doing the check-in online. To make sure everything goes smoothly, booking holidays online also requires some attention on the security front. By following a few simple safety measures you are all set for a wonderful trip.

Passport, inoculations, security

After checking that your passport is still valid, the first thing to do before booking the journey of your dreams is to make sure that your computer is ready for some online shopping action. Unfortunately, surfing the Internet without security software is these days a bit like choosing to travel to the middle of a yellow fever epidemic without having an inoculation.

The Internet has hundreds of thousands of contagious diseases, which have been specially designed by criminals to attack your computer, your privacy and your bank balance. So ensure your online wellbeing by protecting your computer with software like F-Secure Internet Security 2009, which stops those pesky viruses from infecting your system.

The next security concerns are your Internet connection and browser. In two short sentences, don’t trust unsecured wireless networks with your credit card details because they can be intercepted by outsiders. And do keep clicking on those security updates which keep Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox (or whatever browser you are using) patched up against the viruses.

Diving in, staying safe

Now you are ready to dive online into the colorful coral reef of exciting travel offers. There are definitely great holiday deals to be found online but it pays to keep vigilant against dodgy web sites. Don’t start your holiday by getting ripped off before you have even left your living room.

Make sure your chosen travel agency is a reputable company by checking it has a real address and a customer service phone number that answers your call. A quick online search of the operator’s name should reveal any issues you need to be aware of. It’s not unknown for travel companies to go out of business and leave their customers stranded in far-away places, so it’s better to be safe than sorry when you make a booking. Paying for your holiday by credit card usually provides some financial protection against such events, but it’s also important that you have appropriate travel insurance to cover your trip.

As you browse different holiday web sites, don’t fill in the pop-up questionnaires that may appear, even if they are offering bargains. These only bring more spam to your e-mail inbox and may also infect your computer with something nasty. The same goes for spam e-mail messages; never click on their attachments or links, or buy anything from junk mail.

Small print and secure payments

Give yourself time to think over the different holiday options and shop around for the best deals. Being flexible about departure dates by a few days can make a big difference in what you pay for a holiday. Before making the payment, don’t forget to double check all the information about your chosen trip, including all the taxes and supplements, departure times and dates. It’s worth making the effort to read the boring small print in the ‘terms and conditions’ to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Take special care when it comes to making the payment. Reputable companies have a secure web page for taking your personal details, which you can identify from a closed padlock or an unbroken key symbol , or a web address that begins with https:// – that extra ‘s’ stands for secure.

It’s good practice to print out the confirmation e-mails and receipts from the operator in case of any problems. If you are travelling somewhere remote, leave copies of the most important documents with a friend and take one copy with you on the trip. Always check your credit card and banks statements after paying for your holiday. Also remember to do this after the holiday, especially if you have been using a credit card abroad and notify your bank immediately if you spot something amiss.

Online away from home

Relax, you’re on holiday. Let your mind and body infuse with the new surroundings. But when you stroll cheerily into your hotel and think about using the computer in lobby, don’t forget that those Internet viruses are still lurking behind the screen. Only this time you have no idea and no control over how secure the computer and the Internet connection is. So think twice before offering your credit card details to the local online crime syndicate. The same goes for your e-mail passwords, online banking login details and other sensitive information.

Instead, set up a new e-mail account that you can use during the holiday for keeping contact with family and friends. Also use this temporary e-mail for booking local tours and other holiday activities. Even if it ends up on a spamming list, the problem does not affect your normal e-mail.

If you are using a mobile phone abroad, keep in mind that the cost for calls and surfing the net is probably much more expensive than at home. Your phone may also be targeted by unfamiliar mobile viruses through mms messages or your phone’s Bluetooth connection. Installing security software before the trip is highly recommended. Also don’t give your phone to anyone for ‘tuning’ or new screen savers because this is an easy way to get infected.

Laptop users should also not take risks with sending sensitive information over unsecured wireless networks. If using the Web is an essential part of your holiday plans, then check that your hotel has its own secured wireless network before making a booking. Have a safe and wonderful holiday, and don’t forget to send a postcard!

Tell me about your kids please!

2009-07-10T12:00:00-07:00

When Mom 4 Life began almost 6 years ago the focus was on products for moms and babies. As my kids grow I am better able to expand our line to also include wonderful products for toddlers and pre-school aged children. I want to know if products for this age range would potentially meet a need in your family. Would you be wiling to fill out this quick 2 question survey to let me know how many kids you have an what their ages are? It will help be better match our product line to your needs. Thanks in advance!

Reader Poll: what time do you want emails delivered?

2009-07-09T14:49:17-07:00

I would love to get your input on the delivery time for our blog emails. Please click here to take our poll so you can tell us what time works best for you.

Weekly Giveaway - Bellarisa Designs

2009-07-09T08:37:27-07:00

OOPS!! We sent our newsletter out this morning by accident, so our Friday giveaway will begin today!! The DigitSaver IS still 10% off through tonight, though!

Congratulations to Danielle who won a Jackaboo BabySit Safety Harness
and a Jackaboo BabyGrip Handle Cover in matching cow/red print.

All Jackaboo products are 10% off this week (until next Thursday night)!

Also...

Military Moms have until Friday, July 24, to enter!
The first 30 entrants will receive a pair of USA Flag BabyLegs!

We are celebrating our "Made in USA" products this month!
This week you could win:

Two Bellarisa Designs Headbands!
Retail Value: $18.00 each

One lucky winner will receive the white crocheted stretch headband on the left
and a nylon headband in hot pink (pictured on the right in white).

All Bellarisa Designs (and all other Made in USA products) are 4% off for the month of July!

Take a look at all of Bellarisa Designs Customizable options. You are sure to fall in love with something your little angel needs on her head - or maybe even her feet!

How do you win?

After you've browsed all of the Bellarisa Design options,
leave a comment here telling us what your favorite hairpiece is - or how you would customize one.
The winner will be randomly drawn. You have until Tuesday evening, July 14, to enter.
Good luck!

Good Daddies are Hot!

2009-07-08T11:24:53-07:00

........and one daddy was so hot, he burned a hole right through his shirt. Well, not really. But we have a returned shirt that appears to have a couple of scissor pokes on the back, right shoulder. It is a size medium, and would be perfect on your hot daddy while he mows the lawn or works on the car.
SO! We are taking offers. Please email us with your offer. The best offer gets the shirt. It is a size medium of the style pictured below.

Just a "heads up" on a product

2009-07-08T06:00:00-07:00

I always appreciate finding out about products that are safe for kids so I wanted to pass on the following:

Recently I found out about a product that is used to treat/eliminate lice & eggs that is pesticide free, non-toxic, free of dyes, perfumes and harsh chemicals. Now thankfully, I don't have a current need for lice treatment in our home:), however, should the need ever arise I plan to use LiceMD. I noticed they even have a downloadable coupon on their website and thankfully it is available at places like Wal-Mart, Rite-Aid, KMart, Walgreens, Safeway and more. This is good because if you have a need for such a product I woudn't imagine that you would want to have to order it online and wait for it to arrive in the mail:).

Now hopefully none of us ever need to use this info, but just in case;). . .

Keeping Cats out of the Garden by Kristina B.

2009-07-07T06:00:00-07:00

Let me tell you a little story that happened a few years ago, not long after we bought our house. The previous owner had put in some hardy plants in the back corner of the yard and made it a little garden area of about 4'x2'. Cute. But I wanted an herb garden more than I wanted a grouping of whatever was drought resistant and struck the previous owner's fancy.

I went out and worked hard, digging up the old plants to prepare for my herb garden. It took a while, but I was happy. I bought some seeds and returned to the spot a few days later to find, to my horror, someone's cat had used the place I was about to plant as a litter box. If you don't know much about gardening, that's bad. Very bad.

Why is it so bad? Well, cat feces carry all sorts of nasty things that can contaminate the soil.

I was startled and angry and disappointed and gave up on my little corner garden right then and there.

Fast forward a couple of years. Husband and I decided that we wanted to plant a sizable herb and veggie garden around the border of our house. Again, we had to figure out a way to keep the kitties away from our growing soil.

We did three things together that seemed to work pretty well:

1. Wood mulch. The soil in our area is very sandy, and this helps to change the texture of the dirt, making it less attractive to cats. We spread it across our whole garden area, not leaving any of the sandy dirt exposed.

2. Coffee and tea grounds. We drink coffee and iced tea pretty often at our house, so I open up the used tea bags and put the tea grounds in a bowl with used coffee grounds. Every few days I sprinkle the contents of the bowl onto the garden surface. Cats don't like it.

3. Orange peel. We are blessed to have our very own orange tree. When they are in season, I take some of the orange peels, sliced into slivers, and sprinkle on the garden surface. Cats don't like that, either.

In the end, our garden has been left alone by the cats. An occasional squirrel will dig in it but not cause any serious trouble.

Now if only we could find a way to keep cats from using other areas of our property...

Safer Social Networking

2009-07-06T06:00:00-07:00

I want to thank Patrick Runald, Chief Security Advisor, at F-Secure for the following guest post for our readers!

Would you tell a complete stranger all about your family, work, love life, hobbies and interests? And give them some personal photos to look at too? Most people approached on the street would probably answer ‘no’ to the above questions. But on the Internet, that’s exactly what millions of us are doing on the hugely popular social networking sites and chat rooms.

MySpace, Facebook, Orkut, Bebo, Hi5 and other social networks have caught the imagination of Internet users all over the world. They provide an entertaining way of keeping in touch with friends by creating a community where people can interact in different ways, for instance by instant messaging, e-mail, chat rooms, special interest subgroups and blogs, or by sharing photos, music and video clips. Some social networks are geared for dating purposes while others promote business contacts.

These web sites are probably the best way to find out what happened to your old school friends or who belongs to your ex-partner’s circle of friends. It can be an addictive pastime and many people are well and truly hooked. The media hype around these web sites has also increased their coolness factor. Celebrities are giving interviews about how many times a day they update their Facebook pages and read up on their friends’ activities. Musicians and other artists are actively promoting their work on MySpace.

Online social networks are fun and hip, but they also present a major security concern for Internet users. With millions of active users and vast databases full of valuable information, social networking sites are increasingly targeted by online criminals. Their mission? To get inside our computers, steal our personal information and empty our bank accounts.

Danger of revealing too much

At the heart of the social networking phenomenon are the personal profile pages that users create about themselves. These can be linked to their friends’ pages, the friends of their friends, and so on. The more information everyone publishes on their pages and the wider the communities grow, the juicier the interaction obviously becomes.

Of course, it’s up to you what to reveal about your personal life. The web sites also provide different levels of privacy settings to control access to your profile page and your interaction with others. But does your information really remain private? The reality is that the more information you give online, the more vulnerable you also become – with possibly far-reaching consequences on your life outside the Internet. Nevertheless, many people are throwing caution to the wind when it comes to protecting their privacy and reputation online.

So what are the risks of telling too much about yourself? For a start, identity theft is a major industry on the Internet. Information extracted from social networking sites is used by criminals to spam our e-mails and for targeted attacks on specific individuals and companies, using sophisticated social engineering techniques.

Personal information provides a level of credibility that can make the criminals’ approaches more convincing. For example, it could be an e-mail pretending to be from someone you know, addressing you by your first name and mentioning the names of your children. It doesn’t look like a spam message and can trick you into revealing even more sensitive information. Similar methods are also used to gain financial information from businesses.

Social networking sites are also used by predators and paedophiles searching for possible victims. It’s easy for anyone to adopt false identities on the Web, so you should maintain a healthy scepticism over what you see and hear on social networking sites. The bright young student you are conversing with could always be a middle-aged fraud. If you want to meet a person who you have befriended online, always do it in a public place, preferably accompanied by someone.

As social networking sites and chat rooms are especially attractive to children and teenagers, it is essential that parents educate them about safe online behaviour and keep tabs on what they are doing online. The first rule about making profile pages and posting messages on public web sites is that you should never give out your address, telephone number, social security number, banking details, passwords, or any detailed information about your daily routines.

Bebo provides an excellent summary of the security issues involving social networking sites for both parents and children at www.bebo.com/Safety.jsp Another recommended site for parents is www.saferinternet.org.

Maintain a good reputation

It’s worth remembering that whatever you post on your profile page, or other community forum, remains in the public sphere long after you log out of the web site. This includes the crazy stuff and wild photos that you posted on Facebook but decided to delete ten minutes later because it suddenly seemed like a bad idea. The problem is that you can’t really retract it. Once it’s out there on the Web, you have little control over who copies the material, where it is used and how widely it gets distributed.

So protect your reputation. Think twice before getting involved in slanging matches in online forums or publishing compromising photos that may one day show you in a bad light. Resist the temptation to impress your friends with a profile that gives away too much. It may end up being abused by people who really should know nothing about you.

A momentary lack of judgment can still come to haunt in years to come when applying for jobs or courses, or when accepting a position of responsibility in the community. Employers do a web search on everyone they are thinking of hiring. So do potential life partners! Some stories are just better told face to face, to the right people, and when the time is right.

Staying safe

Many online social networks encourage users to import content like video clips and also accept third party add-on applications. This can be exploited by virus writers as a way of getting malicious code into the networks, such as the worm which spread rapidly on Orkut’s web site last year, infecting an estimated 655,000 users in Brazil.

The best way to guard against such threats is to install software like F-Secure Internet Security 2009, which updates your computer’s defences automatically and makes sure you won’t be the one spreading worms among your network of friends. It’s also important to update your web browser, so remember to click on the security updates for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, or any other browser you are using. This helps to keep your computer patched up against the viruses.

Today your online wellbeing has a direct impact on the rest of your life. So enjoy the social networking sites while also keeping security in mind. That way you are protecting your computer, money and reputation, as well as your family and friends.

Weekly Giveaway - Jackaboo BabySit and BabyGrip

2009-07-03T00:30:00-07:00

Congratulations to Stephanie, who gets to choose her style of DigitSaver Pinch Guard.
All DigitSavers are 10% off this week (until Thursday night).

Also...

Military Moms have until Friday, July 24, to enter!
The first 30 entrants will receive a pair of USA Flag BabyLegs!

Jackaboo BabySit Safety Harness
Retail Value: $29.99

Jackaboo BabyGrip Handle Cover
Retail Value $19.99

One winner will receive both items in the cow/red print!

The Jackaboo BabySit Safety Harness is a great item to use in shopping carts, high chairs, booster chairs and regular chairs (when a high chair is not available). The BabySit is a one-size-fits-most toddlers (10 months to 3 years) baby safety harness. The comfortable design works great to slip on your child before you ever leave home. That way they are ready to be secured to everything you need them to sit in during your day out. The BabySit an also be used as a walking tether.

Not sure you want to mess with a bulkier shopping cart liner? How about adding a matching BabyGrip to your Safety Harness? The light-weight option, simply wraps the handle of the cart and easily slips into a diaper bag for convenient storage.

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Both items come in five adorable fabric choices. You can read more about them and get them at 4% off (for the month of July) here!

How do you win?

Leave a comment here telling us why you think it is important to buy products Made in the USA!
The winner will be randomly drawn. You have until Tuesday evening, July 7, to enter. Good luck!

Strap To It - my first outing

2009-07-01T22:34:52-07:00

The first time I took Quinten out alone was after we went to his first dr. appointment and I stopped at a local thrift store to see if they had any infant long sleeve/long legged outfits (apparently we didn't have much of a need for those with Hunter, born in August, in Southern California:). I had fun browsing the store but was nervous at how un-secure Q's car seat sat in the basket of the shopping cart. I found myself navigating the store with one hand on Q's car seat and the other pushing the cart through the narrow isles.

Did you know that 21,600 is the annual average number of kids hurt in shopping cart accidents? 2 out of 3 accidents result from falls.- The National Safe Kids Campaign

It occurred to me that I had just recently seen something to help solve this problem on one of my favorite websites, Mom 4 Life;)!

My second outing was yesterday, to get groceries. This time I was prepared with my Strap To It Car Seat Safety Strap. It was quick and easy to put on and really secured Q's seat down well. No more worried mom, no more one hand on the car seat to make sure it doesn't fall off, perfect!

You can get the Strap To It Car Seat Safety Strap for 10% off on Mom 4 Life currently if you act fast.