I have lots of news for this month’s Patch Tuesday.

Microsoft has patches today and also released some out of band about a week ago. Did you get them? Adobe is releasing patches today also. Finally, I also will have a bit of an update coming right here at Online IT Guide.

First the Microsoft update news.

This is what Window Update looks like in the start menu

The update release for this Patch Tuesday is not too big in number of patches. Just six critical patches for XP (7 counting Microsoft’s monthly malicious tool remover). There is also an optional patch. You will need to restart your computer after updating. The patches are for all Windows operating systems. I don’t have a count for you on the number of patches for Windows 7 but it should be about the same.

One interesting update is for Windows computers that are Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. There is an Internet Explorer patch to fix a problem that allows information disclosure using the encryption meant to encode the information between you and a web server (SSL). The last one is seeing use already online and the patch may also help secure other browsers and not just IE. The problem is with the operating system.  Exploits are expected soon on most of the problems these patches fix for the ones that are not already exploited. You need to update very soon!

Microsoft also released an out of band patch about a week ago.

At the time the .net problem it fixed was not yet being actively exploited online. There has been an exploit released and from what I understand it is pretty easy to accomplish. Make sure your computer is updated or your going to be seeing some problems soon.

Adobe released updates for Adobe Reader X and Acrobat today too.

Adobe Reader X

Adobe release an update last month for those still running Adobe Reader 9. Adobe Reader X was left for Adobe’s normal release schedule as the sandbox technology in Reader X was believed to be good enough to keep it same till the full release. So, it is time to make sure Adobe Reader is updated on your computer too. If you are using Reader X you’ll probably get the notification icon on the lower right of your screen. Click it to start the update or update manually. I see these icons on computers weeks after these patches are released. It is there to tell you to do it now!

Maybe the icon should say something like “Update now or someone will steal all the money out of your bank account!”

A bit extreme maybe, but I just don’t understand why people don’t do these updates when they are so important to their own online safety.

I have yet to see an update for Adobe Flash.

I mentioned last time there were some new (bad) problems with Adobe Flash. I will be looking for it and let you know as soon as I know it is out.

Now for the last update news.

Within the next week, Online IT Guide will be getting a new theme and update. You can expect it to look a bit mangled for a few days during the process. When done, I hope it will offer some great features to my readers.

One new feature I am looking forward to is nested comments. Replies to  a comment will appear below the original comment.

The new theme and software will take me some time to figure out.

I had been using the old theme since I started blogging years ago. It was second theme I tried on a WordPress blog and was so effective, I have used it on all the WordPress sites I have had since. It was flexible and easily customized (so none of my sites resembled each other even though they all had the same framework underneath).

I am missing some of the ease of use the old theme had as I have been installing the new framework and them on some of my other sites. Should I see support improve for the old theme again, I’ll be able to recommend it highly. However, I’ve decided it’s time to make a change. I’ll be sharing some of the things I’m learning here.

Because of the impending theme update, I am not posting the videos on updating Windows or Reader I usually post. I am not sure what’s going to happen to the videos in previous posts either. I may be spending a lot of time adding them back to the posts over the next month.  So, happy January everyone.

This month’s updates are important if you use Windows. 

This is what Window Update looks like in the start menu

More specifically, it’s important if you view text on web pages or on emails. This Patch Tuesday is important if you use any Chinese language on your computer. It is important if you use Internet Explorer. It is important if you use Microsoft Office. It is important if you have an Apple computer and have Microsoft Office on it.

What? Microsoft Patch Tuesday important if you have a Mac? Yep.

There’s more too.

The most important patches this month are for TrueType fonts.

There is a security hole in the way Microsoft uses fonts. Just viewing a webpage where the bad guys have hacked it to send a font to your computer can allow them to install malware on your computer. This has been actively used recently and everyone needs this patch right away. Language related, the Microsoft IME which allows you to type Chinese on a Windows computer also has a security problem.

Here is a video on manually updating Windows XP

[mc src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2coTJHY8O-8" type="youtube"]How To Update Windows XP Manually[/mc]

There are lots of fixes for Microsoft Office.

If your running Microsoft Office on your computer, there are lots of different fixes for MS Office this month. This includes Microsoft Office for OS X so you Apple fans need to make sure you update Office also.

There are some other updates too, these were just the most notable to me.

There have been and will be some non-Microsoft updates.

Google Chrome was recently updated to version 16. Chrome update automatically so you don’t have to do anything (most likely at least). There was a recent Java update so you should make sure your Java has been updated.

Here is a video on updating Java

[mc src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2coTJHY8O-8" type="youtube"]How To Update Java[/mc]

Finally, the bad guys are picking on Adobe products again.

Adobe Reader X

Adobe release an update for Reader and Acrobat last week, make sure you have updated it (most later versions now check automatically and give you a warning). That’s the good news. The bad news is last weekend another Adobe Flash security hole was publicized. This one is in active use by the bad guys and there is no fix for it yet. I would expect a fix from Adobe on this fairly soon. Make sure you’re subscribed to this site, I’ll announce here as soon as I can after Adobe releases an update.

Here is a video on updating Adobe Reader

[mc src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9mIyKUlMak" type="youtube"]How To Update Adobe Reader[/mc]

Lots to download and update this month.

My experience is the Microsoft Update this month has taken quite a while as it is fairly big. Don’t worry, unless your using a dial-up modem, it won’t take you the whole month to update. It just seems like it.

So, something for nearly everyone to update this November. Also, there is a major vulnerability that is not yet patched – I’ll save that for last.

First Microsoft’s monthly update.

This is what Window Update looks like in the start menu

Like I said, this month there are not too many updates from Microsoft. I’m only seeing 2-4 patches on well updated Windows XP and Windows 7 systems. Some needed restarts while at least one did not, so plan on a restart after the update.

Also, Service Pack 3 for Microsoft Office seems to have been released somewhat recently. You may see this if you choose the custom option in a manual Windows Update. It is a bit larger than a regular patch so maybe leave that one to run when you don’t need to use the computer. That’s all for Microsoft updates at the moment.

[mc src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2coTJHY8O-8&feature=youtu.be" type="youtube"]How To Update Windows XP Manually[/mc]

Adobe also announce a critical update for Shockwave.

Shockwave is an animation plugin a bit similar to Flash. I am really not sure why both are still in use (any Shockwave experts out there that can explain this to me?). There is a chance you don’t have it installed (it’s not as widely used as Flash). The best way to see if you have it installed is to check the Add/Remove Programs in Windows Control Panel. If you have it installed (or still are not sure if it is or not) go the the Adobe website adobe.com and update it by downloading and installing it. It is very similar to installing the Adobe Flash Player and I usually do both when I go to the Adobe site (and then I check Reader to be safe). If you are sure you do not have Shockwave installed, you may not need it. Just remember never follow any link to install it if you are on a website that says you need Shockwave. Always type in the Adobe.com site and then install it yourself.

Here’s a video for updating Adobe Flash and Shockwave

[mc src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL2mmSSfKks" type="youtube"]How To Install or Update Adobe Flash Player[/mc]

Apple released some updates for Mac OS today too.

My understanding is the update is primarily to update Java (the rest of the world updated Java several weeks ago). There were several bulletins by Apple on it so this does fix several problems. Do whatever you do to make sure your Mac OS is updated.

Also, I’m hearing of malware targeting the Mac OS more and more. It’s time to make sure you have some form of anti-virus software on your Mac.

Finally, I’ll end this post with something for you to worry about – the Malware Duku.

Sounding like something that could be fixed by a Jedi, Duku is an information gathering trojan. Initially, it seemed to be targeting specific organizations. This malware is installed in your computer simply by viewing an html document with an embedded infected True-Type font. Yep, a font. This could infect your computer just by viewing a web page with the font embedded in it. It may be possible just viewing an html email with an embedded font could infect a computer.

At the time of this post, there is no patch to fix this. Microsoft does have a work-around Fix-It but the accounts I have read find it is not very good and tends to mess up things on the computer. I will post here as soon as I hear of a patch from Microsoft for Duku. If you not subscribed to this site yet, you may want to sign up for the free email newsletter or subscribe to the RSS feed so you’ll know when there is an update. I expect there will be an out of band update for this one. It is in use on the Internet and infecting computers right now.

That’s all for now. Don’t just surf the Internet, dive.

There’s also been quite a lot of updates over the last month that were released out of schedule. So, what’s up for this month? Again, Apple users will have some downloading too.

Kind of an average number of patches from Microsoft this Patch Tuesday.

I’ve been seeing roughly ten on both Windows 7 and Windows XP systems. One of the more serious patches is for Windows 7 and Vista systems. Updates this month are seen for Silverlight, .NET, and media center with the . NET possible being the most important. Also included in this months patches is an update for Internet Explorer (all versions). I needed to restart the computer on both XP and Windows 7.

Here’s a video on updating Windows if you want to check if your computer is updated.

[mc src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2coTJHY8O-8&feature=related" type="youtube"]How To Update Windows XP Manually[/mc]

Apple users are going to see some updates soon too!

iTunes will be updating. Very likely due to the new iPhone coming out. Also, Mac OS Lion will be seeing an update or two soon. One of the updates is security related.

Over the last month, Microsoft released a couple out of band updates.

Both involved the bad certificates issued as I mention in a previous post. Apparently, not all the bad domains in the bad certificate were revoked in the first try.

Adobe had updates last month too.

Adobe Flash Player

It’s never a bad idea to check Adobe Reader (you can check for updates in the help menu of Reader) for updates. I also suggest checking the Adobe website to check your flash installation too. Linux users got a 64 bit Flash player update (and there was much rejoicing).

Remember, remember the 5th of November?

The hacking group Anonymous did promise to hack Facebook on November 5th. With all the privacy screw ups (including a current one which Facebook denied and apparently did so falsely) and security problems Facebook has, I suspect they will not have too much problem. I am questioning the safely of having an account on Facebook on November 5th. It could be a wise choice to delete a Facebook account unless you want your email and phone and any other personal info shared with the world instead of your friends. I’m not sure if I will or not. Not yet anyways.

That’s all for this month’s Patch Tuesday.

In a recent post, I pointed out how convenient RSS feeds can be and how they can save you time.

This is an RSS Feed Icon Click to Subscribe

I’ve also pointed out that I believe the safest browser to use when surfing the Internet is Google Chrome. Many new browsers, including Google Chrome, seem to be dropping a feature that was really nice to have for RSS feeds. At one time, all the browsers would show the orange RSS icon in the address field whenever you were on a web page that had an RSS subscription available. Now, most (including Chrome) do not or don’t have it activated by default.

Fortunately, Google has an extension to add this feature to Google Chrome.

This post will show you how to add this to your Google Chrome installation. With this extension, you’llsee the orange RSS icon whenever you are on a page with a feed. You will also be able to subscribe to the feed just by clicking the icon. You won’t have to hunt around the page to see if one is available or to subscribe.

Here is a video on installing the Google Chrome RSS extension or you can follow the step-by-step instructions below.

[mc src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAkwGrMS5ds" type="youtube"]How To Install The Google Chrome RSS Extension[/mc]

Installing the RSS extension is very easy.

You can click on this link to go to the RSS Subscription Extension’s page at the Google Chrome Web Store or you can follow the instructions below.

First, go to the Chrome “Web Store.”

Do this the easy way: open a new (blank) tab in Chrome by clicking the “+” next to the last open tab.

Then click on the Web Store app in the app section (you may need to click the arrow to show the app section if the Most Visited or Recently Closed section is extended instead).

At the Web Store, do a search for ” RSS Subscription Extension “.  You will want the one that says “by Google”.

Click on the icon for the app that says “RSS Subcription Extension (by Google)”.

On the app’s page click on the “Add to Chrome” button in the blue box on the right.

You will need to confirm the installation (click “Install”).

Note that this will allow the extension access to data on the browser. This is why we only want the RSS extension from Google. Another extension may not be safe (you don’t want to be sharing any information with an extension your not sure is safe).

It installs and your done!

You can visit the the main page of OnlineITGuide.com and see if it shows up. You might want to subscribe to the RSS feed here if you haven’t already. 

I also have an email subscription if you are not yet into RSS feeds.

The big news this month is not Microsoft’s official monthly patch release. In fact, during the last couple weeks, Windows has not been the main source of security problems. At least not directly. The internet security problems of the last few weeks seem to affect everyone. Linux and Mac OS Lion have had some potentially more serious problems this time. Most browsers have been updated as well recently. Adobe will have an update soon too. Still, it’s time to update Windows.

Here is a video on updating Windows XP

[mc src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2coTJHY8O-8" type="youtube"]Howe To Update Windows XP[/mc]

As far as Patch Tuesday Microsoft releases go, this month is very minor.

This is what Window Update looks like in the start menu

My Windows 7 computers had only 3-4 updates. I saw similar numbers on Windows XP computers except one that had nearly 12 updates (it has a lot of other Microsoft products on it in addition to Microsoft Office). You may have an optional update available for .NET 4.x. The .NET updates took the longest (they often take the longest and also seem to be the updates that fail sometimes).

The important Microsoft Update  was an out of band patch Microsoft pushed out last week.

Last week, Microsoft pushed an out of band patch that updated how Windows (Internet Explorer in particular) handles digital certificates. Mainly, Microsoft has blacklisted all digital certificates from Diginotar. Nearly all other browsers and operating systems have done the same (make sure you have updates on your browsers and operating system this week too!).

This is due to the Diginotar hack discovered recently.

What is a certificate and what does Diginotar have to do with your internet?

Certificates are a way for a site to prove to your computer that it is the real site. When you see the padlock icon in your browser or the https in the address, it means that your browser has check to make sure that you are connected and/or have an encrypted connection to the real site. You can be reasonably safe knowing that you’re connected to your bank’s website and no one can intercept and read the data between you and the bank’s website. The bank sends a code (the certificate) to your browser and your browser compares that certificate to a code it receives from a “trusted certificate authority.” Only certain places are approved to be certificate authorities and can provide a certificate to a website (the site has to purchase it too).

It has been discovered that Diginotar, one of these authorities was compromised and false certificates were issued for several popular sites.

Google.com was the one that caught everyone’s attention but now literally hundreds of false certificates for well know sites were issued including some wildcard “*” certificates.  It is known that some of these were accessed by users thousands of times. Nearly all these users affected were from addresses in Iran leading some to think the Iranian government may be behind it. If you have been to Iran you need to change all your passwords.

This was all due to poor security at Diginotar.

The original compromise was a weak administrator password. That password was also used to gain access to other accounts. This is why you need strong passwords and should not use the same password for another account. Diginotar also had other terrible security problems. For instance, their website was fixed with a backup of the website that had also been hacked back in 2009. Diginotar as a company will probably cease to exist. All due to a weak password. They should have read this site.  Of course, maybe they do and like so many, fail to use the advice.

Because of Diginotar’s bad security all browsers and operating systems have had to cancel or blacklist certificates by Diginotar. This is a big problem for the Netherlands where the government has been using Diginotar’s certificates and working to make personal online digital signatures a reality with them.

Mac OS Lion had some problems.

Some security pros have noted that Mac OS Lion has not correctly cancelled certificates from Diginotar. Apple has released a patch for it late last week.

Adobe is also reading updates related to Diginotar.

Adobe Reader X

Some of Adobe’s products use certificates. Adobe Reader uses digital certificates to prove authenticity of PDF’s. There are updates for Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat out. You can update by downloading from Adobe.com or update from the help menu in Reader.

Now for Linux’s problems.

Kernel.org was hacked. Kernel.org is the home for the heart of Linux, Linux OS kernel. It also looks like a weak password was the problem. I read that the user with the bad (a very obvious one) password may have been Linus Torvalds the creator of Linux himself. That could just be a rumor though. Fortunately, the Linux code itself was not interfered (there was a lot of checking to make sure). Also, linux.org was also hacked. No OS files are distributed from linux.org so no real worries once everything was restored.

So for this month, the Windows part of Patch Tuesday is an easy one. It’s everything else that also needs to be updated.

I’ve talked a lot about using Google Chrome and why you should. Despite the fact that it is both the safest and fastest browser available, I still find people who have not installed Google Chrome on their computers. I often find this out while fixing the computer for malware.

The only explanation I can think of for these people not using Google Chrome is they are not sure how to install Chrome. So here is how to install Google Chrome. All you really need is a reasonably fast internet connection (an unreasonably fast connection is even better  ).

For you Mac OS users, the following directions won’t work but Google Chrome will work for you.

Here is a video on How To Install The Google Chrome browser in Windows 7 (other Windows versions will be similar).

[mc src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3drmKcWVB6Q" type="youtube"]How To Install Google Chrome In Windows 7[/mc]

Start by opening Internet Explorer.

You can find the download page at http://google.com/chrome  or you can do a search for “Google Chrome” to find the right page.

Google Chrome Download Page

Then simply click on the blue “Download Google Chrome” button.

Click the button to download Chrome

In the next pop-up I suggest clearing the “Set Google Chrome as my default browser box.” Then click the blue “Accept and Install” button.

Press the Accept and Install button

Google Chrome will then download and install.

With a reasonably fast connection, this will take less than a minute. Once installed, Chrome will then open up and you are all done.

Yep, it is really that easy. Most people do not need this tutorial. Some may find it a bit encouraging if they are not sure how to download or install a program.

I firmly believe that Chrome is the safest browser available right now. If you have not tried Chrome I hope this will get you to give it a go.

For those of you who think this post was too simple, just remember not everyone is as comfortable using a computer as you.

This month in addition to Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday there is a surprise update for some Adobe products. Also a new malware targeting new Mac OS Lion users recently appeared.

What does Microsoft have this month for updates?

This is what Window Update looks like in the start menu

Probably the most important update in this Patch Tuesday is for Internet Explorer. I’ve been getting about 12 updates on the various Windows computers I’ve updated. Microsoft only lists two of the patches as critical. There is a patch for some Microsoft Office programs (notably Visio).

Not too much but Microsoft updates are always important. I needed a reboot after the updates.

Here is a video on how to manually update Windows in case you are not sure you have automatically updated:

[mc src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2coTJHY8O-8" type="youtube"]How To Update Windows XP Manually[/mc]

Adobe Flash Player

Adobe had a surprise update this week too.

Adobe announced updates to Adobe Flash, Shockwave, and Air. I still always update flash from the Adobe site using Internet Explorer only as the browser. I then follow Flash by updating Shockwave.

You may or may not have installed Adobe Air on your computer, but I have noticed that it seems to be installed when you install the latest versions of Adobe Reader (not updated this time). I suggest you check your add/remove programs list from control panel and see if you have it installed. Make sure you update it if you do – update anyway if your still not sure.

Perhaps sometime soon we will see the end of needing Adobe Flash. Adobe announced their HTML 5 development software. HTML 5 may eventually replace the use of Flash on websites.

Here is a video on updating Adobe Flash for Windows 7

[mc src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL2mmSSfKks" type="youtube"]How To Install or Update Adobe Flash Player[/mc]

Finally, a warning to Mac OS Lion users.

There is malware out pretending to be an Adobe Flash installer. Apple did not include Adobe Flash support in Lion so users visiting a site with Lion that requires Flash will need to install it. The malware pretends to be a Flash installer and uses graphics that resemble an Adobe install.

Just like my recommendation to Windows users, Mac OS Lion users should install Flash from the Adobe website after typing in Adobe.com themselves. Do not follow a link or install programs from a web page.

That’s all for Patch Tuesday this month. I’ll let you know if something big is out there. Make sure you get my email newsletter.

Are USB drives still useful?

Why would you want one? Should you use them at all? Have other devices or methods replaced their usefulness. Probably most importantly, are they safe to use? I’ll try to help you figure out if a USB drive is something you will find useful.

Are USB Flashdrives Still Useful?

What is a USB flash drive?

Flash drive. Jump drive. Thumb drive. USB flash drives go by several names. To be clear, in this post, I am talking about a USB device with built in flash memory. While a USB hard drive can act just like a flash drive, I am just going to be talking about USB devices that use flash memory. Flash memory saves the data electronically instead of mechanically like a hard drive. This makes these devices a bit more durable than a USB hard drive and usually much smaller.

Here is a video all about USB flash drives I made to accompany this post:

[mc src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46z2cDfLli0" type="youtube"]All About USB Flash Drives[/mc]

Let’s look at some advantages of flash drives:

They are small in size.

USB flash drives are very convenient to carry with you. Most flash drives will attach to a key chain and not be very noticeable there. Some drives are barely larger than the USB connector needed to attach them to your computer. Most weight next to nothing.

Flash memory drives can hold a lot of data.

At time I write this, the larger flash drives are 128GB in memory size. Some netbook computers currently come with hard drives that size. While drives that large are very expensive, USB drives in the 8GB – 16GB will are in the $10 – $25 range. I would recommend looking for a drive in this range if you want one. It’s a good price to size ratio and the size is big enough for most uses. Smaller drives can still be useful too. You can fit about 1000 MP3 songs on a 4GB flash drive and they can be found for just a little more than $5.

USB  flash drives are very durable.

While they are not indestructible and few manufacturers make claim to it, good flash drives can take a lot of abuse. You can expect a good drive to withstand the abuse of being on a keychain for some time. You shouldn’t have problems with a drive that you drop. I have read numerous reports of drives going through the clothes washer with no ill effects (I have not read anyone say the opposite either). There are no mechanical parts (some drives do have a slide out mechanism) to break so they are very reliable.

In short, USB flash drives are a convenient. compact, cost-effective method to save and transfer data.

How can a USB flash drive be used?

These drives are great for transferring music, photos, and nearly any other data from one computer to another.

Handy if one or both those computers cannot connect to a network. You can more larger files than you often can using email. It’s less expensive and faster than burning a CD or DVD.

You can backup important data to one.

There is a lot to be said for making digital copies of important paperwork (insurance policies, titles, passports, legal papers, birth certificates, etc..) and saving them on several different drives in different locations (safe deposit box or have a relative in a distant location hold on to one). Files like this should be encrypted so no one without the password can access them. Should your home be destroyed due to a natural disaster or fire, you’ll have a record of all those important papers.

You can run software off them.

For some software, you can take it with you and run it off your USB flash drive. For most software this will not work but it can be convenient for programs that allow it. It lets you do your work (or play your game) on another computer that does not have the software installed.

You can run Portable Apps on your USB flash drive.

While this is running software like just mentioned above, Portable Apps are designed to run off a USB drive without making any changes to the computer you run them on. The Portable Apps programs are a collection of some of the best  and most useful software available and they are all free (and legally free). I’ll be having several posts dedicated to Portable Apps on this site as they have so many advantages they deserve a whole lot of attention just to themselves. Check them out yourself in the meantime at PortableApps.com . Yeah, I’m a bid fan of Portable Apps.

It is even possible to use a USB drive as a key to secure access to your computer.

When the drive is not plugged in, no one can use the computer. There are some obvious disadvantages of doing this.

You can use some drives as additional memory for your Windows computer.

You can expand the memory of your Windows computer with the extra space on your flash drive. This can help speed up some things. Microsoft calls this feature ReadyBoost. There is some debate as to if this is any advantage on later fast computers with lots of RAM.

You can run another operating system off them.

There are several versions of Linux that can be run off a USB drive. There are also “emergency boot” disks that can be run off a USB drive. These can be very useful if Windows will not run and you need to try and get something off the computer or fix the computer. Also, some types of malware are very difficult to remove from inside Windows and using another operating system or emergency boot disk can help make scanning and removal much better.

What are the disadvantages of USB flash drives?

Losing the drive.

Because they are so compact and easy to take with you, they can be easy to leave behind. It is important to be very careful with any personal or important data if you want to put it on a flash drive and take it with you. Consider encryption for anything sensitive you might put on one.

Flash memory wears out.

While physically very durable, it is actually possible to wear out the memory circuits in a flash drive. If you routinely write (or save data) to the drive, especially large files and then erase and write more files to the drive, you can eventually start to get errors. This is not normally a problem for most of us (we tend to lose the drive or need a new larger one first) extremely heavy users may find the drive failing after a period of time. ReadyBoost and running a version of Linux that saves settings on the drive are two uses that would increase the odds of seeing this.

Malware infecting the drive.

Of all the flash drive disadvantages, this is the only one that really concerns me. There is malware that specifically installs itself to USB drives and then infects any computer it is plugged into. It then installs on any drive plugged into those computers, spreading further. The Stuxnet malware that crippled the nuclear plant Iran was building was one of the first widely seen. This software works faster than you can see and hides itself (both on the computer and the flash drive) making it very hard to discover. You can imagine what would happen if one infected flash drive is used at a school and the malware is not detected. Other students use the infected computers and soon large numbers of computers are infected. For this reason, many government agencies and business no longer allow USB drives to be used.

Should you still use a USB drive?

I do. I have several with different uses for each. I have a LaCIE drive which looks very much like a key on my keychain. It has Portable Apps with my password program on it as well as some other software I find handy. I’ll eventually have some of those important documents encrypted and saved on it also. The LaCIE key drive is noticeably slower than some other drives I have but the key shape makes up for it in convenience. I am somewhat careful about the computer I will plug this drive into.

I have a couple of 8GB Patriot flash drives that go along with me if I take a bag of any kind with me. They are extremely fast (for USB 2.0 devices). They have a rubber coating to protect them from extra abuse (although the LaCIE probably sees more abuse on my keychain). These drives I use for Linux and several emergency boot disk systems in case I need to fix a computer (I’m in IT so this is fairly common even when visiting relatives).

I have another cheap drive that is too slow for normal use. I use it when I have a concern a computer could be infected and want to run some malware removal software like the portable version of SUPERAntiSpyware (one of my favorite malware removal tools).

Are USB flash drives still useful? I think so. Online file storage systems like Dropbox may someday take their place, but not yet. Till we reach the day that everyone has access to broadband wi-fi at all times, I think there will be a need for some form of off line data transfer like a USB flash drive.

What should you look for when you buy a USB flash drive?

• Stick with a name brand like Patriot, Corsair, Kingston, Lexar, SandDisk, LaCIE, and Ironkey. While there are some other good manufacturers, these companies are well know for making good drives and many are well known memory manufacturers. There are also cases where free or non-brand name flash drives have come with malware on them.
• The speed of the drive is important. I can tell the difference in speed between my LaCIE key drive and the Patriot drives. Older or cheaper drives are noticeably slower than the LaCIE. Check the reviews (Newegg and Amazon) of the drive you are looking at (or similar models) to see if other users found it fast or slow. A cheap, slow drive will feel like it is sucking your lifetime away.
• I recommend to start looking at drives 8GB – 16GB in size. I think flash drives seem to fill up faster than hard drives. They always seem to be just a bit short of the space you need to move those files. Remember that the memory in your digital video camera may already be larger. If you have some stuff on your drive and suddenly decide you wish to take that video file of junior to the grandparents, you may find it’s not big enough.
• USB 2.0 or 3.0 . Beware of drives that are called 2.0 compatible. A lot of cheap drives will state on the front of a package they are USB 2.0 compatible while they are only USB 1.1. While they are compatible, they do not get the speed advantage a true USB 2.0 drive would have. The name brand drives are usually more clear about this (and promote their speed which needs the faster interface). USB 3.0 is just becoming popular with newer computers. I expect to see the same thing start happening with 2.0 drives claiming 3.0 compatibility. Compatibility does not mean it is USB 2.0 or 3.0.
• Size and shape. There are a lot of gimmicky drives. You can get cartoon and superhero shaped drives. You can find everyday objects with drives in them. I’d suggest staying away from the oddly shaped ones. Sometimes they can be a hassle to fit in some computer USB ports. Sometimes the connections on cheap small drives are a little small to actually make a reliable connection. Again, start with a name brand and read the user reviews. Removable caps get lost easy but this is usually not too much of a problem (maybe over the long run it might allow damage to the connection). A well designed drive with a built in connection cover might be a good idea.
• Durability. Many USB flash drive makers have drives that come in weatherproof or extra durable cases. My Kingston drives have a thick rubber coating. It makes them a bit bulky to go on a keychain and the cover on one disappeared. Except for some of the high end nearly solid metal drives, the standard flash drive is going to be just as durable as many “weatherproof” versions. Also, many of these special cases will be just as bulky as a Spongebob Squarepants drive to try and fit in a crowded computer port. If you feel safer with the extra durability, go ahead. Patriot, LaCIE, and Ironkey make very expensive, metal drives that will withstand extremely harsh conditions. They are also extremely expensive. The Ironkey drives are well respected though – I have yet to see anyone say anything bad about them.
• Built-in encryption. Software encryption that is often included on flash drives can be slow and have compatibly problems (a concern for me as I use Linux for much of my personal computing). It often wastes some of the space on the drive. Ironkey uses hardware encryption built into the drive. Lexar also has drives with hardware encryption. Again, these models are premium priced. Except for the Ironkey drives, I would prefer to use other encryption software to protect data. There is extremely good and free software available to encrypt your data.

• Software. In general, most of the software included with flash drives has a lot of disadvantages. The first thing I do with a new USB drive is scan it for malware, copy any files or software on it from the maker, and reformat the drive erasing anything on it. Many times the included software and formatting will slow the drive down. Also, the included software will leave traces on a computer it is used on after it is removed. The Portable App programs don’t have this problem and there is most likely a Portable App program to do anything you might wish to do. You may see Portable Apps soon being included on drives when you buy them.

A USB flash drive can be very useful.

Eventually, they will be replaced with new technology just like the floppy drive and the Zip drive are no longer used. USB drives need to be used with care as malware is a very serious concern right now.  Be sure to scan any flash drive when you connect it to your computer before you open it. For those in IT, it is an important tool. Buy a decent sized, name brand drive and you’ll find yourself finding all sorts of use for them.

I hope you found this post useful. If you did, please take the time to Google+1, Facebook Like, and share it with your friends.

Passwords were once something most people only heard used in maybe movies, nearly a kind of science fiction.

Not only that, but what defines an acceptable password has changed drastically in the few years since we started to use them.

What you need to know about choosing passwords (and tell your mother too):

Use as long a password as possible.

[mc src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dchqWxsU9XI" type="youtube"]The Ultimate Guide To Passwords[/mc]

Ideally, your password is at least 25 characters. Go as long as you realistically can. The longer it is, the harder to crack. If a maximum character limit is given use all or nearly all the characters you can. It is a good sign a website has poor security if you can only use a short password (8-9 characters). You may want to rethink what information you may be giving that site.

Use random characters.

Use uppercase and lowercase letters with numbers and punctuation characters.

In some cases you can use non-keyboard characters.

In Windows you can hold the “ALT” button down, type “0” and a short number code (like alt+0123) and get characters that do not show on your keyboard. You can find these characters and the alt+0xxx to type for them by using the Character Map program in Windows.

This method comes with the warning that it may not work on a different computer. Also, I am not sure what effect font changes on your computer would have to your password. It does make it nearly impossible to crack a password that uses these characters. I do know people that use them.

Like I said, be cautious with this technique. It is kind of advanced. Using punctuation characters is somewhat just as effective. You can probably type in a password with punctuation on a phone where a non-keyboard character is not possible.

Every password you have needs to be unique to that account.

Don’t try to use a password for more than one account even if they don’t seem like important accounts. Hackers will find out what accounts share passwords and use that to increase their level of attack. The idea of having a few passwords shared between different levels of accounts is one of those ideas from just a few years ago that is a very bad thing to do nowadays.

At one time, you could use this idea. Have one password for your computer. Have another password for your credit card accounts and bank account. Then have another for your email and other “less important” accounts.

If you did this now, it is very likely one of those “less important” accounts would be compromised. It could be by phishing. It could be by malware on a site. An attacker might even just brute force crack the password (have software run a dictionary attack trying to log in to a site as you). Once that password is known, the attacker will quickly find your other accounts with that password.

The attacker would then eventually find your email password (if that is not the account they cracked in the first place). Once your email is cracked, they could request new passwords for your credit card and bank accounts. If they do it right, you won’t even notice. Don’t share passwords with different accounts.

Do not use similar passwords that are variation of a theme.

Don’t try common (or uncommon even) misspellings of words.

Do not use personal information that others would know about you.

There are also a bunch of well known passwords that you need to avoid any form you might thing of using them in.

Things like: Pass, Password, Love and others. Even variations of these popular words are bad. Many times lists of passwords have been stolen and published on the Internet. It is amazing how many people that should know better, all actually use the same passwords on these lists even on the same site.

One of the first “hacker” movies was “War Games” where the boy guessed the password was “God.” It is always at the top of a list of passwords because it is still used too often.

Remember to fix those “secret questions” too.

It doesn’t do much good to use a password the government would have a hard time cracking if a hacker can simply request a new password by guessing the answer to a password reset question. Your answers should not make sense for the question asked.

Answer the question of what city were you born in with a type of car or something like that. Something random and not easily guessed. It does not have to be another random password type of thing (although that might be a good idea).

Just do not use something someone who follows you on Facebook or some other social network might be able to guess. It is very possible that the whole world now can find out your mother’s maiden name and the city you were born in. Also, a hundred of your friends just wished you happy birthday – also in front of the whole world.

Some examples of good and bad passwords:

Take a password like this ***.

Three characters. If they are all lowercase letters, I suspect nearly anyone reading this could make a couple decent guesses and get it right. Give it a try.

It was “cat”.

A password like ************************* is a different story.

It’s going to take a lot of computing power a long expensive super computer time to crack it. It uses random, numbers, letters, and punctuation.

It is “8to5tnz*cH$V[qAC#Tb+ASQC;” No one is going to guess that. I can’t even remember it (they’ll never get it out of me no matter how much they torture me – I’m not sure how good that idea is yet). I use passwords like this on my accounts now. They are also all different. I’ll get to how to keep track of these in a bit.

Some other ideas for passwords.

Use a sentence.

Use a sentence from your favorite book or poem. A quote from a favorite movie. A Bible verse.

In this case, we trade complexity for length. The longer the sentence the better. Add in some random punctuation, capitalization, and numbers and it will be nearly as strong as a complete random set of characters that long and it is easy to remember. Something like “I@have!aBADfeeling9about7this” is not too hard to remember and would be difficult to crack. Even if the hacker knew you took the quote from Star Wars.

Use the first or last letter of each word from a couple sentences.

You may be limited in the length of password you can use. In that case, pick a sentence or two you can remember. Use the first (or last) letter of each word. Again, add a bit of punctuation, numbers, and caps where they don’t belong. This gives you a nearly random series of characters and an easy way to remember them.

Just don’t use something like “j3:16FGsltw”. Random? Maybe. But you might not need to be a Bible reader to figure it out. If I were to know you are a Bible reader, I might try a few variations on the theme. It is still better then most passwords people use. I just wouldn’t choose the first sentence of a reference everyone sees at a basketball game for a password, even if you are just using the first letter of the words.

I admit there are times all this just seems to much of a hassle.

OK, now you have a bunch of really good passwords, how do you remember them all for different accounts?

Simple. Write them down.

Yes, I know every article ever written on passwords says don’t write them down. Before, I go any further, that recommendation comes with it’s own list of rules that must be followed if you are going to write passwords down. It also does not work in many situations. I’ll give you a better solution that works in nearly all situations in a moment.

First, a few cases you should most likely not write down your password.

You probably should not write down passwords at work. You simply cannot store them safely even with a key. Someone can come in at night and find your list of passwords.

You also can’t safely take a written list of passwords with you traveling (with your laptop).

If your going to write down your passwords, you need to store them safely away from your computer. They should not be in a place that would lead someone to think they are your password list. If someone should steal your computer, you don’t want them to be able to find your passwords at the same time.

The reason I recommend writing down passwords is I feel it is better to have good passwords written down and kept somewhere safe, than have bad passwords. Bad passwords are just too dangerous nowadays.

A better choice is a password manager program.

A good password program can make life much easier and is an extremely secure method to store them. Unlike writing passwords on paper, even if someone finds the program containing your passwords, it may be nearly impossible to be able to use the passwords.

Using a password managing program makes handling lots of complicated passwords simple. All you need to remember is the password to log on to your computer and the password to open the password program.

I use a password program called KeePass.

KeePass is an open source program. That means that the code can be checked by anyone to see if there are security problems with it. KeePass is completely free to use. It uses very high encryption to keep the password it hold safe.

I can copy the encrypted file with all the passwords to several places (external hard drives and flash drives) to keep a safe copy in case the computer should crash. Should I discover that file has been stolen, I’ll have time to change all those passwords before anyone would have a chance to break the encryption (including most governments).

Another advantage of KeePass is that it is usable on nearly any computer. There is a version for neally all computer operating systems. That means Windows, Apple, Linux, and Unix can all use it.

It is also available for many different smartphone systems. You can get it for both Android and iPhone. I even have it on my Blackberry. Portable Apps has a version that allows you to take your passwords with you and use KeePass on any computer you can use a USB drive in.

There are other options for password programs too.

There are many other password managing programs. There are both paid and freeware programs available. Roboform for Windows comes in both free and paid versions and has some very nice features. 1Password for Mac is a paid program that has been listed by Lifehacker.

There are online password services like LastPass. In the case of an online password manager, the passwords are (if the service is good) encrypted before they are stored remotely online. Not every service does this right. Also, if there is some problem with your Internet (or the service’s Internet) you won’t be able to retrieve your passwords.

LastPass (one of the most popular online password managers) once had a case where they were forced to change users login passwords (they had a possible security breach). This caused a lot of trouble for people unable to use their account till all was cleared up. This is a possibility with any online service.

Whatever password manager you use, you need to be careful which one and where you get it from. Make sure you stick with well known programs or services. If you download a program, make sure you are downloading it from a trusted source. It would be a safe bet there are infected versions of most software that will infect your computer with malware instead of giving you a secure way to save your passwords.

Choose a trustworthy password manager.

I have written this post as the Ultimate Guide To Passwords.

I will make additions and changes to this post whenever I see a need to improve it. I am also willing to take recommendations if you think I have missed something. For major changes, I’ll make a new post on this site pointing here. If you subscribe to my email newsletter, you’ll get an email when I make a new post to this site.

Please share this post (and the video in it) with your friends and family using Google+ and Facebook “LIke”  it as well as share it on other social media. Passwords are something that do not really get the attention they need, considering how often we all use them on a daily basis.

Please make sure you make a practice of using good passwords online and encourage those you know to do the same. It could be your information that is not secured by someone else’s poor password.