Get that iPhone Updated Before It's Too Late

Apple has faced numerous challenges over the last year in relation to software errors and flaws on its flagship iPhone.

Now a new exploit has been discovered that allows a user to bypass the lock screen on the iOS6.1 platform. The flaw is relatively easy to exploit and allows you to bypass the security code with full phone access.

Luckily, as of this morning, Apple has released iOS6.1.1 to address this bug and patch the security flaw. 

Make sure to apply the patch right away to protect yourself from this latest exploit. 

All product and company names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.

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How to Remove Those Embarrassing Facebook Photos

Still haunted by that picture your Aunt Clara posted of you on Facebook? Many of us have pictures we wish never seen the light of day. With the new privacy updates that Facebook has issued, you now have the option to make that happen.

This new feature can untag multiple photos at once and quickly request the removal of posts from friends' profiles. 

Ready to make those bad pics finally disappear? Here's how.

• Click the Activity Log button found on your profile page.
• Click Photos from the menu on the left side of the page.
• Once you click Photos the option Photos of You will appear. Select that.
• Select the photos you want removed by clicking the check box to the left of each photo.
• Once you have selected the photos, you will see a Report/Remove Tags button at the top of the page.
• Once you click that, you will be presented with the following 2 options

Untagging the photos will remove them from your timeline immediately. To be untagged and taken down, Fabebook will send a notification to the person who posted the photo with a request to remove it. They will have the option to remove it or send you a response.

Facebook still advises you to contact people directly about removing embarrassing photos. With either option, hopefully you will finally make that photo disappear for good!

All product and company names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.

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Don't Get Love Sick on Valentine's Day

With Valentine's Day approaching, many will be struck with the love bug. As romantic as that sounds, it's actually a bad thing. The "love bug" is a computer virus.

SophosLabs is warning users about a widespread worm posing as a Valentine's Day greeting that is spreading quickly. 

Sophos reports the W32/Dref-AB worm started spreading via e-mail in many subject variations. Some of the ones spotted include: "A Valentine Love Song," "Be My Valentine," "Fly Away Valentine," "Happy Valentine's Day" and "The Valentine Love Bug." The worm is hidden in files that are attached to the e-mail. They're often called postcard.exe, greeting postcard.exe, greeting card.exe, or postcard.exe.

The worm is designed to download a Trojan that will set up on the infected computer and leave it open to remote control. Hackers often do this to create zombie armies or botnets, which are then used to send out spam or even launch denial-of-service attacks. 

The new Valentine attack is spreading hard and fast across the net. Be cautious and don't open any attachments in suspicious emails such as these. This is the one time you will not want to get love sick on Valentine's Day!

All product and company names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.

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How Does My Search Engine Know Me So Well?

How is it that Google knows where you live when you do a search for "pizza"? Or knows you just can't seem to get enough PajamaJeans? Or why do those ads seem to be things I've searched for before? Well, it's time to expose the 'wizard behind the curtain' and explain how your search engine knows you so well.

Major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing all strive to create a personalized user-experience when searching. Just like any other business, they want to please their customers. The way that they collect your personal data is broken down into 3 categories.


Location
Type “pizza” into Google; what does your results look like? Most likely the first results Google pulled are pizza places near your town. National brands like Dominos and Papa John’s will usually appear at the top of the search. But how does Google know where you live? Easy, it uses the IP address from computer to determine your location. If using a smart phone, your GPS location is used. Google knows that when most people search for things like “pizza” or “dry cleaner” they are looking for local results, even if they didn’t search using localized keywords.

Search History
As referenced in my earlier article, Spyware and Lawn Gnomes, what you do on the Internet is tracked for marketing purposes. They know where you’ve been, how you search, and what you look at online. It may sound a lot like 'Big Brother', but knowing your search history means that Google, Yahoo, and Bing can deliver results that you are more likely to find useful and interesting.

Social Media Information
In 2011, Bing and Facebook teamed up to enhance Bing’s search results. The Bing-Facebook integration allowed users, who were signed into Facebook, to see what websites their social connections had Liked and Shared in Facebook. Some pages would actually rank better when a user was logged in to Facebook than they would normally, just because that person’s social network had 'Liked' it. 

Google has created their version of the Like button with the +1 for Google+. When a user is logged into their Google account, they can publicly +1 a webpage they like. The +1 will show up in their Google profile, and their profile image will be placed next to the +1 button.

Facebook has now decided to take on Google with their new search engine, Facebook Graph Search. With Facebook Graph Search, the objects we search for aren’t Web pages, but instead virtual representations of real world objects: people, places and things. The connections are primarily Facebook Likes. Did such-and-such a person like a particular photo? A particular doctor? A particular restaurant? Those likes are the ties that bind the information in Facebook together. Although still in beta, it has taken social trend data to a whole new level. 

How to Get Your Privacy Back
Perhaps you don't want your search history tracked. There are options. CNET has a great article on opting-out from Google tracking.

How to Prevent Google From Tracking You  

Reputation.com also has a great article on online privacy.

Blocking Internet Ad Tracking and Maintaining Your Online Privacy 
 

Some might debate this technology is taking the "fun" out of searching online because it narrows the search results drastically. In many ways choosing what you do and do not see. Others say personalized search results provide more valuable information to users. It reduces the clutter and focuses on what the user really wants. Either way, it's all about YOU now. What you want, need, or will need. Now it's time for me to continue my search for PajamaJeans for men!

All product and company names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.

Have a computer topic you would like see covered? Leave a comment below or send me an email.

 

The Art of Creating Secure Passwords That You Can Remember

“Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don’t let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months” – Clifford Stoll

Back in 2004, at the RSA Security Conference, Bill Gates proclaimed the password is dead. His statement may have been premature but his assessment is accurate. He told his audience that the password can't meet the challenge of keeping sensitive information protected, saying "People use the same password on different systems, they write them down and they just don't meet the challenge for anything you really want to secure."

The art of creating secure passwords can be quite easy.  Any sysadmin will tell you, the challenge comes in getting people to use secure passwords. Even the most protected networks can be thwarted by someone using simplistic credentials. Put into proper perspective, the only barrier between you and your data, is your password. Isn't it worth the time to make sure it's secure?

Here are a few simple steps to make sure you're protected.

1. Don't Use Personal Information -  Any novice can easily figure out your full name, names of your spouse or children, your pet cat "Mr. Whiskers", or your favorite sports teams. Never use a password that has anything associated to you.
2. No Dictionary Words - In addition to not using personal information, it's important not to use any words found in the dictionary. Passwords like that can be easily cracked by password software.
3. Mixed Characters - Passwords are usually case-sensitive, so mix both upper and lower case letters to make it more difficult. Just capitalizing the first letter is not sufficient. For example, use "paSswoRd" to make it more complex. Better yet, throw in some numbers and special characters to substitute for letters, and do "p@Ssw0Rd".
4. Don't Use the Same Password for Everything - It's common for most people to use the same password for all accounts. It does make it easier to remember. But what if your password was compromised? Then ALL of your accounts would be vulnerable.
5. Use a Passphrase - Take your favorite line from a movie, song, or something memorable to you and convert it to a passphrase. "PinkFluffyBunny" is a pretty cool passphrase but consider this better example: ##1PinkFluffyBUNNY##
   The above example has the following:
   • It meets common password strength criteria  to include upper and lowercase letters, a number and a symbol
   • It combines multiple words, numbers and symbols to create a unique phrase
   • It is memorable for the user
6. Use a Password Management Tool - Use a password management tool to store complex passwords. This enables you to use stronger passwords for various web sites, accounts, and applications without having to remember them all. Windows has included a Credential Manager utility since Windows XP that lets users save passwords and provides a single sign-on solution. Logging in to Windows unlocks the vault and automatically applies the credentials from the vault as needed to access sites and applications.

The Time is Now

The sheer volume of attacks proliferating the Internet and business headlines should be a wake-up call to anyone using a weak password. Now is the time to practice vigilance, both professionally and personally, to secure your accounts.

Have a computer topic you would like see covered? Leave a comment below or send me an email.

Free Programs to Ensure Computer Nirvana

We have all heard the expression "nothing in this world is free", but cyberspace can be the exception. And while these offerings might not be as feature-rich as their paid counterparts, you might just be surprised at the scope and quality of the selection that’s out there today. So it's time to put away your wallet and take advantage of free advice on getting these freebies!

Before I get into this list, I want to mention one important thing. Many new computers come pre-loaded with lots of software. Usually some type of anti-virus program is included. What many fail to realize is that it's all trial software. I have many clients bring their systems to me infected with viruses, all because they didn't know their trial expired. This leads to my first category . . .

Anti-Virus Programs

AVG Free 2013 has just been optimized for Microsoft Windows 8. AVG delivers security features usually only found in paid-for products.

AVG also goes beyond detecting and removing viruses on your PC. Its 'AVG Do Not Track' feature gives you control over which websites can collect and use your data (available if you take AVG Security Toolbar as part of your installation). This feature joins Anti-Spyware and WiFi hacker-defeating technology to deliver powerful personal protection at home or on the move. 

Avast Free Antivirus is a full-featured product, with the same anti-virus and anti-spyware scanning engine used in their premium products. 

The free version of Avast has arguably the most comprehensive set of freely available security features on the market. There's a reason these guys have more than 150 million active users (at the time this article was written). 

Anti-Malware Program

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware combines powerful new technologies designed to seek out, destroy, and prevent malware infections. 

Malwarebytes is an easy-to-use anti-malware application available in both a Free and PRO version. This free version is well-known for its detection and removal capabilities. You might recall my blog Spyware Protection and Garden Gnomes, which references this program. When installing, make sure to uncheck the 'trial' of the PRO software unless you want to try it out.

Performance Boosting Utility

Advanced SystemCare Free is a comprehensive PC care utility that takes a one-click approach to help protect, repair and optimize your computer. 

This software utility focuses on the performance of your PC. It helps to repair your registry and clean up what most programs fail to find. It also repairs the parts that are missing and makes the PC complete to run optimally.

Bringing It All Together

Just by utilizing these free resources, you can ensure your computer performs at its best. I personally use these programs to not only protect my own systems, but to also clean up the infections of my client's computers. 

Not only will you save money by taking advantage of these programs, you will save even more from unnecessary computer repairs. To add another layer of protection, see my article on Don't Let Your Data be the Next Tragic Love Story.

All product and company names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.

Have a computer topic you would like see covered? Leave a comment below or send me an email.

Coursera: How to Take Ivy League Classes for Free

How often do we find ourselves needing to further our education? Whether it's to expand our job skills or broaden our mind, finding a good educational resource is difficult. There is a multitude of choices and the costs can be astronomical!

What if I told you there was a way to take online courses from Stanford, Princeton, Brown, or 33 other universities for FREE? Yes, FREE! Lucky for you it won't take hacking the admissions site or forging your transcripts to make this happen. All it takes is a site called Coursera.

Stanford professors Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng launched Coursera earlier this year to provide a platform to host courses, via the Web, for an elite education for free. With over 200 courses being offered, from 33 prestigious universities, they have already reached over 1.3 million students.

Will this bolster your job resume? Absolutely! Many have reported that completion of these courses has opened up more job opportunities. And employers are starting to watch for students completing some of these courses. Coursera is even exploring career placement opportunities to further help students.

Will it enhance your degree? Not exactly. The courses being offered currently are not accredited but that is also in future development. With accreditation, surely there will be some type of cost structure put in place. Nothing has been formally announced as of yet.

You won't exactly get your letterman's sweater from your favorite Ivy league school, but you can get the bragging rights to say you took Cryptography from Stanford University!

All product and company names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.

Have a computer topic you would like see covered? Leave a comment below or send me an email.