Computer Security

Google Sued for AdSense Fraud

2006-09-04T04:39:00.000-07:00

Hi again

Just a quick post here:

I just read about a woan that sued Google fo $250,000 because after she spent 100 hours to place and review Adsense advertisment on her page , Google removed her account.
Read the full story here

Please understand that I don't have anymore any problem or bad feeling with Google even they removed my account too. I only consider that they could tell me what I did wrong because they never told me .

See you later,
JJ

Anti Google Adwords thoughts

2005-12-20T06:05:00.000-08:00

Hi. I just want you to know that i am giving up with this blog because of Google. I wanted to have my adwords on it and they didn't let me. I think at least I deserve some ads on my site while i offer usefull information for free. Anyway, I know, google is not the only boy in town so I am going to put some ads and banners on my blogs, but I won't continue to blog on google's sites (like blogger.com)

I used the adwords on some sites some time ago. They cut me an account without giving me any explanation. I insisted. they said that Google asumes to cut any account. I insisted again. No result. I made another account that was accepted. when i got around 100$ (in a period of about 6 to 8 months). thay cuted my account again. i contacted them. they did't tell me the reason.

I started to read the Terms of Services again and again to see where did I do wrong.
wel.. i gave up. But, last week when i was publishing the blog, i saw: adwords for your blog...click here to have them on your blog or something. I applied and the ads appeared on my blog instantly. I tried to login into the adwords account and surprise: i got a message that i have to wait untill they review it. After 2 days i got an email saying me that they ca´'t approve my account, but the ads were on my site. I wonder where the money from the clicks goes? Google? heh .. it is just my oppinion.

Anyway. I just finish here by writing articles on blogger.com . I would post on other blog sites (there is tons on internet).

Anyway, I hope the information i have posted here was really helpfull for some of you. save it before they will delete the entire blog heh ...

see you on other blog site

JJ

Make Backups of Important Files and Folders

2005-11-27T14:57:00.001-08:00

Hi again. Woooh. Long time i didn't post. Don't remember why. Maybe I was working too hard to other things. Anyways, I am here, eager to reveal you some new tricks. Today we'll talk about how to make backups of important files and folders.

First of all, since I got a lot of comments from a variety of blog themes, and I see that a lot of people read my posts, i think i can afford to recommend a website that impressed me. It's is a daily updated web site templates one. They just started a discount campaign, so if you need a professional web templates, now is the moment to purchase it, because you can save between $2 to $20 per each template. They also offers, Oscommerce Templates, Free Web Templates, Template Customization Services (and they are really good).

Well, let's back to our theme. Home Computer Security. So, on your computer, you have the things organized in 2 main categories: things that you can replace and things that can NOT be replaced. In your real life, what you would do for things you can't replace? Maybe an insurance or something. Okay, but what about your files, your work( your novel, your web design work for your clients, your blog articles, even your pictures or music files, cecking account records, everything). What happens if your computer is destroyed by a successful intruder? Have you lost those files forever?

When you are deciding backing up your computer files, be sure you analyze the problem first and you are able to ask at the following questions:

1.What exactly are the files you need to backup??? (ie: Your work, pictures, information). This is not the case of your operating system or software that came on CDs with your computer.

2.How often should you do your backups??? The best case you should back up a file every time it changes. Like this you avoid to reintroduce everything from the last backup in case you loose the last version of your file.

3.Where should you put your backup files??? What media should you use? ANYTHING you have in the house :). I am talking about floppy disks, re-writable CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs. I suggest you use larger capacity media types. Another thing to consider is the processing time.

If you don't have a backup device, there are alternatives. There are some Internet services that let you backup your files to another Internet computer. Another services acts like another hard drive attached to your computer. You use the file copy scheme that your computer provides to back up files and recover them from backed up storage. They are called “transparent access” to the backups.

Remember that the information you transfer across the Internet could be viewed and captured by others; that is, the information is in the clear. Be sensitive to that if you use an Internet-based backup computer. In addition, you need to be able to trust the information when you recover a file from that service.

4.Where should you store the media once it contains your backup files? You need to be concerned about where will you put those copies of the backup files. You already know that an intruder will try to brake into your hoe computer to gain access to your files. Another way to gain access to this information is to steal your backups. (yeah, that's a little more difficult because he needs to be phisically where your backup media is and know where you stored them. You also need to be concerned about your backups being destroyed if your living space is damaged. You need to find the compromise between the security and usability.

Continue that good practice by backing up your critical files onto media that you can safely store elsewhere. Do those backups often enough that you can capture the changes you’ve made. With these questions, you have a structured approach to use to back up your critical files. You’ve now planned for the worst.

Like you should have a spire tire attached to your car, or a lock-box for your valuable jewlery you should find the best solutions in backing up your files.
As you computerize the routine aspects of your daily life, making backup copies of important files and folders becomes critical.

Even if you can’t store the backup copies in a fireproof container or somewhere outside your home, make backups anyway. Any backup is better than none. Keep tracking on them.

Since I am trying to don't give you large articles, to keep your interest at the maximum level, i let you now. See you very soon for another Home Computer Security chat.

Regards,
JJ

Make Backups of Important Files and Folders

2005-11-27T14:57:00.000-08:00

web site templates

one. They just started a discount campaign, so if you need a professional web templates, now is the moment to purchase it, because you can save between $2 to $20 per each template. They also offers, Oscommerce Templates, Free Web Templates, Template Customization Services (and they are really good).

Well, let's back to our theme. Home Computer Security. So, on your computer, you have the things organized in 2 main categories: things that you can replace and things that can NOT be replaced. In your real life, what you would do for things you can't replace? Maybe an insurance or something. Okay, but what about your files, your work( your novel, your web design work for your clients, your blog articles, even your pictures or music files, cecking account records, everything). What happens if your computer is destroyed by a successful intruder? Have you lost those files forever?

When you are deciding backing up your computer files, be sure you analyze the problem first and you are able to ask at the following questions:

1.What exactly are the files you need to backup??? (ie: Your work, pictures, information). This is not the case of your operating system or software that came on CDs with your computer.

2.How often should you do your backups??? The best case you should back up a file every time it changes. Like this you avoid to reintroduce everything from the last backup in case you loose the last version of your file.

3.Where should you put your backup files??? What media should you use? ANYTHING you have in the house :). I am talking about floppy disks, re-writable CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs. I suggest you use larger capacity media types. Another thing to consider is the processing time.

If you don't have a backup device, there are alternatives. There are some Internet services that let you backup your files to another Internet computer. Another services acts like another hard drive attached to your computer. You use the file copy scheme that your computer provides to back up files and recover them from backed up storage. They are called “transparent access” to the backups.

Remember that the information you transfer across the Internet could be viewed and captured by others; that is, the information is in the clear. Be sensitive to that if you use an Internet-based backup computer. In addition, you need to be able to trust the information when you recover a file from that service.

4.Where should you store the media once it contains your backup files? You need to be concerned about where will you put those copies of the backup files. You already know that an intruder will try to brake into your hoe computer to gain access to your files. Another way to gain access to this information is to steal your backups. (yeah, that's a little more difficult because he needs to be phisically where your backup media is and know where you stored them. You also need to be concerned about your backups being destroyed if your living space is damaged. You need to find the compromise between the security and usability.

Continue that good practice by backing up your critical files onto media that you can safely store elsewhere. Do those backups often enough that you can capture the changes you’ve made. With these questions, you have a structured approach to use to back up your critical files. You’ve now planned for the worst.

Like you should have a spire tire attached to your car, or a lock-box for your valuable jewlery you should find the best solutions in backing up your files.
As you computerize the routine aspects of your daily life, making backup copies of important files and folders becomes critical.

Even if you can’t store the backup copies in a fireproof container or somewhere outside your home, make backups anyway. Any backup is better than none. Keep tracking on them.

Since I am trying to don't give you large articles, to keep your interest at the maximum level, i let you now. See you very soon for another Home Computer Security chat.

Regards,
JJ

Use care when reading emails with attachements

2005-10-31T13:58:00.000-08:00

There is a lot of people complaining about receiving an item in the email box that in some way caused them harm. These unsolicited items are sent to unsuspecting recipients. They may contain a return address, or something else that encourages its receiver to open it. Because we are trusting and curious, this technique called "social engineering" is often effective.

If you remember, in 2001, the so well known, Anthrax letters addressed to United States senators, the envelopes contained a school’s return address as an inducement to open them. By opening the letter and subsequently spreading its lethal contents, the recipient complied with the wishes of the sender, a key foundation of social engineering. In the pre-Anthrax letter days, a mail handler might have given little thought to the contents of the letter or the validity of the return address. Andlet's admit, this type of social engineering worked very well. So I am expecting to work extremely well in the computer area. I am telling you. A lot of people open a little .zip file or a .scr or a .pif file attached to their emails. THAT'S REALLY BAD!!!

You probably receive lots of mail each day, much of it unsolicited and containing unfamiliar but plausible return addresses. I am getting thousands too. Some of this mail tells me that i am the winner of $5.000.000! Yeah! I wish but i am not that stupid to open it. I was never playing to lotto or poker on the net. Others tells me that i am a winner of a contest with the details of a product that I might like. The sender is trying to encourage me to open the letter, read its contents, and interact with them in some way that is financially beneficial – to them. Even today, many of us open letters to learn what we’ve won or what fantastic deal awaits us. Since there are few consequences, there’s no harm in opening them. Well, it is a little problem here. Think. For example, i am opening an email that comes in HTML format. That means that email contain pictures that are hosted to a server somewhere in internet. When I am open that email, the sender will know i did it, and will continue send bulk emails to my address. But this is commercial purpose of unsolicited email.

Another curious thing is: I got email from ... me .. heheh. Yes. Anyone can send email that apears it comes from any email address she wants. Pay attention to this kind of emails. Don't open email that seems to come from yourself unless if you know for sure that you have sent you an email.

The danger comes when we open email's attachements. Email-borne viruses and worms operate much the same way, except there are consequences, sometimes significant ones. Malicious email often contains a return address of someone we know and often has a provocative Subject line. This is social engineering at its finest – something we want to read from someone we know.

Email viruses and worms are fairly common. If you’ve not received one, you will. For sure. As we like to do tests (remember that we have made some tests earlier in other articles about testing antivirus programs and firewalls), we will do some test here to help you decide what to do with every email message with an attachment that you receive. You should only read a message that passes all of the following tests:

1. The KNOW test: Is the email from someone that you know?

2. The RECEIVED test: Did you receiv email from this sender before?

3. The EXPECTt test: Were you expecting email with an attachment from this sender?

4. The SENSE test: Does email from the sender with the contents as described in the Subject line and the name of the attachments make sense? For example, would you expect the sender – let’s say your Boss – to send you an email message with the Subject line “Here you have the description of the job” that contains a message that probably doesn't make sense, with an attachment – let’s say AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs? In fact, it happens to be an instance of the Anna Kournikova worm, and reading it can damage your home computer.

5. The Virus test: Before you open ANY attachement you should ask yourself: "Does this email contain a virus?" To determine this, you need to install and use an anti-virus program. That task is described in the "Install and Use Anti-Virus Programs" chapter.

Don't forget to do these test to any email you are about to read. If it pass it, very well, go read it! If not, wipe that email. If we take the first letters from every test we will have KRESV. So we and the specialists will call this the KRESV test.

As I am going to finish i'll give you some tips here for the possibility that you will like to start an email conversation with someone that are not your familiare, he/she doesn't know you, so will be very cautious with your email.

So, the recipient doesn't know you. You will have to write an introductory email ONLY with NO ATTACHEMENTS. Basically you are introducing yourself and you are asking his/her permision to send email with attachement. So thell them first, who are you and what do you want to do. Otherwise they will get suspicious with your email.

Hopefully they will respond. If they choose not to receive email with an attachment from you, don’t send them one. If you never hear from them, try your introductory email one more time a little bit later.

If they accept your offer to receive email with an attachment, send it. They will know you and will have received email from you before. They will also expect this email with an attachment, so you’ve satisfied the first three requirements of the KRESV tests.

Whatever you send should make Sense to them. Don’t use a provocative Subject line or any other social engineering practice to encourage them to read your email.

Be sure you scan the files you want to attach first and they are clean.

Well, tell me what you did observe with this little steps? I'll tell you. They follow exactly the KRESV test we have talked about before.

I hope this help you a lot. We will meet probably next week with other hot home computer security subjects. Feel free to let your comments if you don't understand something and i will try to get in touch with you as fast as possible.

Thank you for visiting my computer security blog.

Warmest regards,
J.J.

Install and Use Anti-Spyware Programs

2005-10-13T03:57:00.000-07:00

What are the Spywares?

Spyware is the fastest growing online threat - studies show that 9 out of 10 Internet-connected PCs are infected with spyware. Chances are, your computer is infected, putting your confidential information and your computer's performance at risk.

Spyware is a broad category of malicious software intended to intercept or take partial control of a computer's operation without the user's informed consent. While the term taken literally suggests software that surreptitiously monitors the user, it has come to refer more broadly to software that subverts the computer's operation for the benefit of a third party.

Spyware differs from viruses and worms in that it does not usually self-replicate. Like many recent viruses, spyware is designed to exploit infected computers for commercial gain. Typical tactics furthering this goal include delivery of unsolicited pop-up advertisements; theft of personal information (including financial information such as credit card numbers (we've already discussed this in the Introduction part)); monitoring of Web-browsing activity for marketing purposes; or routing of HTTP requests to advertising sites. In some cases, spyware may be used to verify compliance with a software license agreement (or EULA).

As of 2005, spyware is only a common problem for computers running Microsoft Windows operating systems. Some worms or rootkits able to attack Linux and other Unix platforms include spyware-like functions, and keyloggers or other similar monitoring software exists for nearly every operating system.

The examples can continue. But my purpose is to teach you how to get rid of any spyware or malicious code on your home personal computer.

There are a lot of Anti-Spyware programs available on the internet. I personally really believe and honestly recommend this one:

You know why? First of all because Spy Sweeper is trusted by millions around the world to protect their PCs. It provides:

# MONEY BACK GUARANTEE and FREE customer support
# Easy-to-use interface to make maintaining a spyware-free PC a snap
# Continuous monitoring to stop spyware before it can attack
# Frequent updates to keep you protected from the latest threats

Spy Sweeper safeguards your identity and restores system performance through fast, smart and powerful anti-spyware protection. Spy Sweeper protects against all types of spyware, including system monitors, Trojan horses, and other threats like CoolWebSearch, Look2Me, and more.

You can get it *** DISCOUNTED *** from amazon.com. Just click on the picture below:

You only have to install it and your computer will be automatically protected against spywares. You can manual scan from time to time to ensure that your home computer is 100% spywares free.

There are more anti-spyware programs available. (I am preparing a list for you and I will also post links to them so I make the search easier for you. Maybe some anty spywares reviews . who knows? i told you that I am an extremely busy person.)

Install and Use a Firewall Program

2005-09-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

Hello again. Today I will tell you about controling the traffic to and from your computer. So prepare to find out how to Install and Use a Firewall Program

You probably saw (at least in movies) people that have their houses surrounded by guards. Usually those guards greet every person that wants to enter. They politely ask every person on who want to see and ask for IDs. If all is okay, people pass through the guard’s checkpoint. That guard’s job is to assess everybody who wishes to enter or leave the property to decide if they should continue or be stopped. The guard keeps the unwanted out and permits only appropriate people and objects to enter and leave the business’s premises.

On a computer, the firewall acts much like a guard when it looks at network traffic destined for or received from another computer. The firewall determines if that traffic should continue on to its destination or be stopped. The firewall “guard” is important because it keeps the unwanted out and permits only appropriate traffic to enter and leave the computer. A computer connected to the Internet, without a firewall can be hijacked in just a few minutes by some automated programs (called bots).

To do the “guardian’s” job, the firewall needs to check every piece of information (called packet) that wants to enter or leave your home computer. Each packet is labelled with where it came from and where it wants to go. Some packets are allowed to go anywhere other packets not. It depends of permissions. Like a guard can let pass persons that are familiar with the property owner and can throw out an unknown one. If the firewall allows the packet to proceed, it moves the packet on its way to the destination. Usually, the firewall records where the packet came from, where it’s going, and when it was seen in log files. The guardian does it the same. But the guardian may do some more things before let a person enter. If the person is not on the allowed list, the guardian calls the property owner and asks for permissions. Sometimes the visitor may gain restricted access, so they need to be escorted. If the person has briefcase, the guardian can inspect their stuff before deciding if the person enters or not.

The computer firewall decides if a given packet should pass, allowing the computer’s user to respond to an unsolicited, unanticipated network traffic. The firewall “guard” is important because it keeps the unwanted traffic out and permits only appropriate traffic to enter and leave your home computer. Firewalls can be setup to allow or deny different types of files to access your home computer. Some firewalls have advanced capabilities that make it possible to redirect packets to different destinations and perhaps even have their contents concealed inside other packets (similar to the visitor being escorted). Finally, firewalls can filter packets based not only on their point of origin or destination, but also on their content (inspecting the briefcase of a person before being allowed to pass).

Firewalls can also recognize and record when a computer-to-computer connection ends. If the connection was temporary (like a visitor), the firewall rules can change to deny future similar connections until the system’s user authorizes. Finally, outgoing connections can also be filtered according to content.

Shortly, with a firewall you can control which packets are allowed to enter your computer and which are allowed to leave.

Here comes the hard part of this process. You have to decide the details of the packets that will be allowed to enter or exit to/from your computer. If your firewall supports content filtering, you have to decide which content will be allowed and which not.

You can start by allow NO access in or out. Good strategy this also called deny-all firewall strategy. It is impractical for most home computers. What helps you if nothing can enter/exit your home computer? You will learn very soon that you have to make some changes regarding this home computer security strategy. So you need to allow packets in and out only if they have acceptable identification and possessions using some well defined rules. Add the requirement that if you don’t meet the precise criteria for admittance, you don’t get in.

You can create firewall rules that allow traffic to pass without reviewing each packet each time. For example, you may choose to allow your Internet browsers to visit any web site. This rule would define the source of that traffic to be your browsers (Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, for example) and the destination location to be any web server. This means that anybody using your home computer could visit any Internet website, as long as that web server used the well-known standard locations.

Like in Task 2 - Install and Use Anti-Virus Programs, you have to do some tests before you purchase any firewall program.

You have to take care about some things:

1. To see if your firewall let you set rules to software applications (programs). (Some of them set general rules. This means that all programs are allowed to connect to a network). You need to avoid general rules that turns into unchecked behaviours and security holes. So if you run more programs that make the same type of connection on the same host, be sure you know them and setup rules for each other.

2. Sometimes you might run programs that are allowed to connect to any location in internet on a specific port. For example web browsers are allowed to connect everywhere so you can be able to see any website you like. It is strongly recommended to reduce this type of connections. Your target is to make those programs to only connect to specific locations where possible.

3. Sometimes, you will make a connection to the same location ten times or as much you will need while you use your computer. Your firewall must permit you to make this connection permanent. This means that you will add a rule so your firewall will know to allow your connection all time you intend to do it. If you don’t use this often, you should define it like temporary location and your firewall will ask you every time if you allow it or not.

More of firewall programs allow you to make temporary connections by default by not including it into their rules list. If you need it permanent you have to add a new rule. If possible ALLOW ONLY TEMPORARY RULES.

You don’t need to be a security professional to improve your home computer security. You will learn how every program on your home computer uses the Internet and slowly you will start to build sets of rules that defines what traffic is allowed and which traffic not, into or out of your computer. Our advice: allow in and out ONLY what you agree with and deny EVERYTHING ELSE.

Later you might use exceptions to your rules. For example you might want that everyone that use your home computer to visit any websites except a few that you chose. The exception rules must be placed before the general rules. This means that the connections that are NOT allowed must be placed before the rules that allow all connections to any websites because firewall programs search their rules starting from the first through the last. When the firewall finds a rule that matches the packet being examined, the firewall honors it, does what the rule says, and looks no further. For example, if the firewall finds the general rule allowing any web site connections first, it honors this rule and doesn’t look further for rules that might deny such a connection. So, the order of firewall rules is important.

Many firewalls can be programmed to require a password before changing the rules. This extra level of protection safeguards against unwanted changes no matter their source, that is, you, an intruder, or another user. Before you assign a password to your firewall. Since this is another chapter here, i will explain it very short for the moment: use combinations of symbols and leters from your keyboard. Don't use names, birthdates and stuff like this. your password must have at elast 8 - 10 characters and mean NOTHING.

See you next week. Thank you for your audience so far. Below are some Discounted computer security products that i really recommend.

Install and use anti-virus programs

2005-09-20T04:47:00.000-07:00

Hello again.

Here I am again to bring you usefull information about how to keep your computer clean. I also bring you (as I believe I said that already) Discounted Anti-virus solutions from Amazon.com (just take a look lower on this page... in fact i try to attach a little shortcut to this type of products at the bottom of each article i write here.) So, let's begin with ...

Install and use anti-virus programs

Sometimes there are peoples that come to your house to sell you something or asking you a favour to use your phone or something else. Here you have to make a decision if you let him in or not. Once they are in, they may steal your valuable goods so if you know that person you will let him. But what if you don’t? Usually, peoples look at the person that want to sell them something, analyze them and based on what you see, you decide if they deserve to enter. This is called profiling.

Antivirus programs work in the same way. These programs look at the content of each file on your home computer, searching for specific patterns that match a profile – called virus signature – of something known to be harmful. For each file that matches a virus signature, the anti-virus program offers several options on how to respond to this situation. You can disinfect the file (removing harmful parts from its content), or you can destroy the file.

Remember we have referred to those people that can steal from you once they are into your living space? There are some ways to find out if person like this is in your neighbourhood. (For example: TV or newspaper report) You will start to look for a person like this until you are sure he got caught.

Anti-virus vendors find out about new viruses and provide an updated set of virus signatures. Your anti-virus program checks from time to time for this updates. (The definitions file must be updated at least once per week). Now your home computer automatically learns about this new virus and begins check every file for its signature and for all older viruses. Don’t forget to scan your home computer for viruses at least once a week.

Viruses can change their form (signature) once they are discovered. Same thing like our person that tells us that he wants to sell us something, can molest you in any way once he enters into your space. After a bad person does something bad, they usually change their hair style, colour etc.

If you update your signature file in a regular manner, you might be able to disinfect any new virus that has penetrated your home computer. If not, you might be forced to destroy the infected file and load a new copy from your backups or original distribution media.

At your house, you look at who rings at your door or at what you find into your mailbox. You do that sometimes closely and with caution, sometimes you don’t pay much attention.

Viruses can get into your computer in many ways: floppy disks, CD-ROMs, emails, websites, downloaded files, computer networks. All need to be checked each time you use them. So when you put a floppy disk into your home computer’s disk drive, check it for viruses first. When you receive an email, check it for viruses. I will refer more in the Task 5 – Use Care When Reading Email with Attachments for more info about email. When you download a file from the internet, scan it for viruses first. Your anti-virus program may let you specify all of these as places to check for viruses each time you operate on them. Your anti-virus program may also do this automatically. All you need to do is to open or run the file to cause it to be checked.

Like you walk around in your home just to be sure that everything is okay, you need to “walk” around your home computer to see if any virus appear. With all anti-virus programs you can schedule daily tasks and you can enable real time protection of your system.

Most anti-virus programs let you schedule periodic scans of all your files on your home computer on a regular basis, daily for example. If you let your computer turned on over night, consider scheduling a full system scan during that time.

Sometimes a virus signature doesn’t match any of the known signatures but it may have some of the characteristics of the virus. Good anti-virus programs have more features that extend their recognition capabilities beyond virus signatures. Check out our anti-virus program recommendations. These called heuristic tests help you to keep up with viruses that you don’t have in your definition file yet. It is like somebody rings at your door and after you see him you think: “hmm… something’s fishy with this guy. I am not going to let him in…”

When you buy a new computer, you might have installed a trial version of an anti-virus program on it. After a short period you will need to purchase this program to a full version. To decide if your installed anti-virus deserves to be purchased (or maybe you would like to see other anti-virus products) be sure you will follow these steps:

1. The DEMAND test: you must see if you can scan a particular file in any moment you want, for example, when you want to send an attachment (this is a part of KRESV test – we will talk about this test later)
2. The UPDATE test: Does your antivirus update its signature file automatically? Daily is best
3. The RESPONSE test: When a virus is found what options offers your anti-virus? Can your antivirus program disinfect the infected file?
4. The CHECK test: Can your anti-virus program check every file on your computer? Automated?
5. The HEURISTIC test: Does your anti-virus do heuristic tests?

These tests are called DURCH tests (see the first letter of every bolded word above) and help you to compare anti-virus programs. Once you are decided, install it and use it with all its capabilities enabled.
Intruders are the most successful in attacking all computers – not just home computers – when they use viruses and worms. Installing an anti-virus program and keeping it up to date is among the best defences for your home computer. If your financial resources are limited, they are better spent purchasing a commercial anti-virus program than anything else.

That's it for today. I hope this is another really usefull information. I hope it is not too boring (in fact i am trying to keep my articles as short as possible, but i really want that people understand this kind of things and keep their computers clean.

Thank you very much again for reading it. See you next week.
J.J.

Keep Your System Up To Date

2005-09-13T02:19:00.000-07:00

This is the first step that you have to accomplish to improve your home computer security.

Patch your system. This is a need. We all know that almost every program or operating system has its bugs.

Most vendors provide patches that are supposed to fix bugs in their products. Usually these patches do their job very well. But sometimes they fix a problem and generate another one. It is like you buy new furniture and when people that bring it to you, break you a window by mistake while they put it to its place. So you have to put another patch.

So, when you purchase a product, you need to see if the vendor provides patches and if and how they provide a way to answer to the questions about their products. The vendors must send notices to product owners when problem has been discovered in their product. You only have to do when purchase any software product is to register on your vendor’s website.

Program vendors also provide patch notices by subscribing to their news groups or mailing lists. If you are using this type of services, you can learn about the problems before you discover them by yourself and hopefully before intruders have the chance to exploit the program bugs. You can find how you can receive information about patches on the vendor’s website and this as soon as these patches are available.

More vendors make this work easier for you. They provide programs bundled with little client applications that automatically contacts their websites looking for patches designed for your home computer. This applications, also known as automatic updates tell you when patches are available, download and install them or they can only be set up to tell you when a new patch are available.

Sometimes the vendors don’t talk about the problems that their patches can cause for the simple reason that it is almost impossible to test all possible programs with all possible patches to discover all unexpected side effects. Vendors prefer to tell to their customers that something unexpected has occurred while they installed a patch. If you ever get into this situation, you have to let them know what patch you installed, on which version of program and operating system. Give them as many information you can.

Let’s say that you received a notice about a patch and you have downloaded it from the vendor’s web site. You have to evaluate the patch before you install it. You have to make sure that the patch won’t break something on your computer and it will affect only the target program. If the patch breaks something during its installation, how can you undo the installation and can you restore your computer to the way it was before you installed the patch??? Usually the patches come with an uninstall program that enables you to restore your system if something went wrong with the patch installation.

I assume you remember when I said that you should be a little paranoid. Usually, the patches are provided like programs. So be careful when download and install programs.

Keep tracks of installed patches in categorized datasheets. When you install a new patch, write it down so you will know the exact date you have applied it to your operating system or to any individual program.

Computer Security for home users

2005-09-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Hello all. Usually I am a extremely busy man, but I've decided to put my thought out on a blog site because i don't have time to put my own site up. (Maybe when i will have enough material , how knows...?..). A lot of friends call me every day (windows users especially) and say: "look , i just finished to scan my computer, it is full of trojans , viruses and stuff like that!!! What can I do? How can I improve my computer security?" Well, I've decided to write it down for my friends and anybody that might need it. I will also try to recommend software to use. Enjoy and keep your computer clean.

As far as you know your computer can be a target for intruders . And this, because they want what you have stored on it (for example credit card numbers, bank accounts and anything else they can find.) They steal those information for using your money to buy themselves goods.

Money isn't the whole thing that intruders look for. They might want your computer's resources (your hard disk space, or your fastest processor or internet connection ). You might ask: “why do they need all my computer resources?” Simple: to attack other computers on the internet, or use your hard disk space for storage. Really, the more computers uses an intruder to attack, the harder is to localize that attack and harder to be stopped.

I will tell you why the intruders usually pay attention to home computers: Because home computers are not very secured and easy to break into. Very often, home computers are connected to the internet through high speed connections ( DSL modem s and cable modem s). These are favourite targets because they are connected to the internet almost all the time.

The way the home computers are connected to internet really doesn't count, intruder attacks are often successful. A lot of home computer owners don't realize that they need to pay attention to computer security . This document describes how some parts of internet works and points to some task that you have to complete to improve your home computer security. Your objective: keep the intruders and their tools (programs) off your home computer.

The intruders operate in many ways. They send you an email with a virus program and when you read the email the virus gets activated and opens a gateway for that intruder which can take advantage of your home computer. Other times they take advantage of some weakness of your computer's programs to gain access. We call that weakness: vulnerability . Many times they put downloadable files that contain viruses or Trojans. (For example: drivers, mp3s, and cracks). You can be the one that installs their gateways to your resources.

After they got your computer access, they install some new programs on your computer. These programs let them to continue their black work even you have discovered some vulnerability and you have filled up the security holes. Those programs are called backdoors and they are very clever made programs that use to disguise with other programs that runs on your home computer.

You really need to think about your home computer security. In the next step I will point some (I hope all) of what you need to know and for your good believe about your home computer security's best. It doesn't matter what operating system are you using: Linux, Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, the security principles are the same and they will remain the same even if new versions of your operating system comes up.

Thinking About Securing Your Home Computer

The most of computer security specialists associate a computer with a house. Using their model, let's say that your computer is your house. It has goods in it. Think about what you know about a house security, about what do you do to keep it safe, what you installed to keep it safe and secure.

For example you know that if you talk loud, your neighbours can hear you. So, you close the door and the windows, and don't give the key to anybody you don't know. More than that, you might install something to improve your house security.

How about your home computer? It is the same. Almost ALL your communications go over the internet in clear text mode. That means that anybody that can capture your information can read it. You must be very carefully in picking your password. Don't use weak passwords like your name, or birth date. Use strong passwords (disarranged character combinations formed by letters, digits and special characters). And be sure your password is long enough (it have at least 8 – 10 characters).

If possible use the secured protocols while you are surfing on the net or you are using instant messaging services (http s :// instead of http://).

Running an Anti-Virus program is a need. Usually anti-virus programs run in background checking every single file while you are working or surfing.

Be sure you have installed a firewall and be sure that you keep your system services up to date by using patches .

Finally, if you are using sensitive data be sure you use file encryption to improve the level of your home computer security.

I would like to directly give you the steps that you have to follow to improve your home computer security, but I really need to explain you in a few words how some internet parts works.

Keep this in mind

First you need to know that information goes clearly over the internet. We already referred to this by using our house model. If you are talking with your windows opened, people from outside can hear and understand what you are saying. If you need privacy , you and your conversation partner need to have this conversation in another room with the doors and windows closed and if possible don't speak loud.

The internet works the same. The only difference is that the room is much bigger. When you are chatting with someone, or send an email for example, the information doesn't go directly from your computer to the other person's computer. The information goes through thousands computers maybe until it touch its target. More than that, when your words are delivered, it happens something like this: the transfer protocol asks “who is Alice 's Mom because I have this message for her: Hi mom, If you want to use my credit card number for your shopings, this is the number … ” . Imagine that EVERYONE in our internet room listens and almost everyone understands.

You need to know that the information sent over the internet might be captured by people that understand them and even used in their own benefits. That might be a risk for every internet user. You can use encryption programs to solve this problem. There are many programs available on internet.

Second, you need to know that there are many trusted relationships between computers. These relationships of trust can be spoof ed. The intruders use this spoofing technique very often. They can spoof emails, instant messaging services, they can spoof everything. Spoofing involves trickery that makes you think a message appear as if it from an authorized IP address or trusted email address. More than that, every packet can be spoofed. The packet is a piece of a messages transmitted over a network.

This means that any information that you receive over the internet should not be trusted unconditionally. You need to care about your work files or your sensitive data that you might store on your home computer. Be a little paranoid, don't trust all automatically. In fact is better to don't trust anybody in the internet's world. Think about information you trust with caution.

As I already said, I am a really busy person so I am going to stop here with this first part. I have a lot more to say, but i don't want to get you bored so I promise that I will update my blog at least once a week untill i think i cover all home computer security hot subjects. We will follow some vital steps to increase your computer security . I will ensure that we will do it one by one, slowly, so everybody can understand them.

Oohh. Before I go, let me recommend some antivirus programs and bring some more closer to you. My prefered one in F-Secure Antivirus. There are more, good anti-virus programs like McAfee Antivirus, Symantec Norton Anti-virus, Kaspersky, CA eTrust Anti-virus and more. Feel free to check out the discounted deals from Amazon.com .

See you next week with another usefull information on how to keep your computer clean.
Thank you very much for your time and consideration so far.
J.J.