Secure your e-mail

We all use anti-virus and anti-spyware programs to help fight online threats but what about those we willfully let in with our e-mail clients. Here are a few tips you can use to make incoming and outgoing e-mail a little safer.

1. Don't allow your e-mail client to completely render HTML e-mails.
It is much safer to have your e-mail client render your incoming e-mails with limited HTML or better yet as plain text. Allowing full HTML rendering of your e-mail leaves you open as a valid recipient of spam or the risk of getting successfully phished by some malicious security cracker or identity thief.

2. Avoid free e-mail services.
Your POP3 account from your ISP is more secure than free e-mail services such as YahooMail, GMail and other free e-mail providers. ISP's usually require encryption to send and recieve e-mail and they do not sell or share your information.

3. Don't Access your e-mail account from an unsecured network.
We all want to check e-mail or banking while we're away on vacation. Often internet cafe's and free wireless access points are unsecure leaving your data open to the public.

4. Safe guard your address book users.
Address books are handy to send e-mail to all your friends and family with a simple click, however many trojans are designed to use your stored address book to send malicious code to all your users.

5. Use BBC when sending e-mail to multiple recipients.
Using BBC when sending e-mail to everyone in your address book ensures that each
user sees only his or her own e-mail address. Other recipients e-mail addresses are
hidden.

Netbooks. Are they worth it?

Dell, HP, Acer are all selling the new Netbooks. I'll review them from 2 points of view.

As a computer user I find the netbooks small, extemely low end, and usually running a low end obsolete operating system. The screen size is difficult to read, the keyboard smaller still. With no cd or dvd rom, limited usb ports or the power to properly power external hardware at 299.00 its no bargin.

As a computer repair technician they are horrible to work on.

Conclusion:
Buy a Netbook, external powered DVD burner, external powered external hard drive or

Buy a low end laptop. Most laptops today start at 399.00 and include a current operating system, DVD burner, ample usb ports and a screen you can see.

I would love to see some feedback on this subject.

Is your Website Infected?

This week a new round of javascript injections are infecting legitimate websites. The active exploit site uses a name similar to the Google Analytics domain (google-analytics.com), which provides website stat services to webmasters.

If a user loads the site with the injection code they get passed onto a site that tries to exploit Internet Explorer or Firefox vulnerabilities to infect the users computer with malware. If the false site can't find a browser vulnerability, it tries to trick the user into downloading a Trojan.

All Webmasters should check their site regularly for any code they know shouldn't be there.
Most injection exploits can be found in the head section or just before the ending Body tag in your web pages.

They are almost always javascript and can contain an iframe.
If your using any scripts that accept user input in forms, guestbooks ect, be sure to secure them. Escaping characters is essential.

There are always going to be new exploits. Anti-virus companies, software developers and Microsoft, Apple and the rest all try to patch these exploits but it's really up to the user to be sure they are secure.

What is the Safest P2P Program?

Morning Folks,

It amazes me how many people ask this question and others much like it. P2P programs don't give you viruses and spyware, the files you download do. Everyone wants something for nothing.

Now I'm not saying all p2p users are sending out viruses and spyware, that just wouldn't be true.
And p2p programs are nice for sharing legitimate files with others, however there will always be someone writing bad code just because they can.

I could just say go buy the software you need but of course I'm not here to judge anyone. To each his/her own so I'll tell you how to be a little safer.

Make sure the anti-virus your using can scan incoming files. If it can't get a new one. Set the scanner to scan all incoming files from p2p. Avast anti-virus has this option and it works well.

Compare file sizes.. You want a program and its 50mb on the manufacturer's site, you look it up in your p2p program and its 52.6mb, does that tell you any thing?

You virus scanner warns you about a possible virus and you contiune any way... This is plain dumb. If any scanner flags a file its most likley infected.

What if your not using a p2p program but instead use a torrent client built into your browser?
99.9% of Adult sites, Warez Sites, and Torrent Sites have either been hijacked or purposly infect your machine.

If you must surf these sites set your browser to block all pop's ups, disable all scripting, and disable iframes. While your surfing may be somewhat limited you will be much safer and those sites that won't load at all.... well your better off.

Users give these hijackers the ability to spread more and more infections. Maybe this will help some of you avoide that.

60% Of Computer Users Still Use Windows XP

It is estimated that over 60% of us still use Windows XP.

Microsoft ended Mainstream support for Windows XP in April 2009.
This means customers will no longer receive complimentary support, be able to request design changes, and other kinds of updates for the product, but it doesn't mean we can't contiune to use it.

XP is still available for purchase at some online retailers. I have downgraded many clients machines from Windows Vista to Windows XP HOME and PRO alike in the last 6 months.
All of our office machines and home machines still use XP and will continue to do so.

As for those who like Windows Vista, more power to you. I truly gave that operating system a chance and it failed miserably. Not to mention having to upgrade hardware and purchase all new programs just to conduct my business.

Microsoft will offer customer extended support until 2014. This will include security updates and paid customer supportuntil April 2014.

I for one am glad to hear this. I understand that XP is well past its prime as far as Microsoft is concerned. 8 years is a longtime for an operating system to be around. However if my choice is Windows Vista over XP there is no contest. I'd run XP without patches and security updates for the stability and compatibility alone.
Maybe Microsoft can convince us Windows 7 will be the New XP (a reliable operating system with good compatibility) but I'll reserve my opinion on that for now.

Is it a Virus, Spyware or Malware??

I thought I'd take a moment to clarify many misconceptions users face when their computer is affected by some form of malware. Today the term Malware is used to lump all computer infections together.

I get many calls daily asking what it costs to remove a virus. 99.9% of the time the user has spyware or grayware, many users aren't awareof the different terms related to computer infections. Maybe these will help.

Malware: Malware is the term used to describe any form of unwanted software.

Grayware: Grayware or greyware is the term used to describe borderline malware. Such as many tool bars include, like user surfing tracking.

Virus: A virus is the very worse malware. It replicates itself, can stay well hidden, changes or replaces system files and can often not be removed. A true virus always has a payload of some type. Most often leaving your computer useless.

Spyware: Spyware is pretty much self explanatory. It adds code to track your activities and attempts to send sensitive information back to the author. It is also able to disable your anti-virus software.

Worms: Worms are dangerous and hard to detect. These forms of malware hide well and are used for several purposes. They can steal your private information, make your computer a bot, server, or worse. They allow the author complete backdoor access to your computer.

Trojans: Trojans usually appear to be useful legitimate programs. For instance, video codecs, a content player, a game crack. When installed they add malicious code that may take the form of any of the types of malware. Most Trojans are easily detected by anti-virus and anti-spyware programs.

Scareware: These programs are usually more of an annoyance then anything. They install a fake anti-virus that informs the user he or she is infected with some type of malware and to remove it they must purchase the software. These programs are able to disable your anti-virus, anti-malware programs and your firewall. Often they can contain a Trojan horse as well.

No computer infection should be ignored. Many have the ability to phone home and download additional copies, making data loss quite likely. A good virus scanner, anti-spyware scanner, and regular updates are essential. Please note however, not any one scanner can find everything.

Hope this helps you understand some of the online threats you face every day.