Home Computer Talk

Or… He should have read my last post!!!
It hasn’t happened for a long time but Mr JM got his computer infected yesterday. Given we use Symantec Antivirus, Spybot – Search & Destroy and Adaware as protection, I was curious as to how it happened.

As explained in Save Money on Movies there are Torrent sites that provide access to software and movies. Given the prices of both as well as the (more…)

Spyware can be hard to spot and the effects are many and varied. Spyware sounds like all it does is spy on us, but it can do much more.

It doesn’t restrict itself to watching what we do, although that is a big part of why it gets installed. Spyware watches what is done and tracks website visits, but it goes further.
Spyware can install other software, can (more…)

Sesame Street knew more than they thought when they created the Cookie Monster. Cookies are truly a monster when it comes to personal privacy and computer security.

What are Cookies? They are small files that web sites create to track you. Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing – if you’re on (say) Amazon and you choose your items and then want to pay for them and get them delivered, Amazon uses cookies to track your choices so when you arrive at Checkout, the site knows what you want to buy.

Other cookies might keep track of your preferences for your favorite sites, so when you visit, things are as you left them.

But cookies can also tell the world out there all about your (more…)

Failing to have a password on the Administrator account makes your computer very vulnerable. Hackers have ways to access your computer and use the Administrator account to give them permission to do all kinds of things – if there is no password.

So, you must have a password on your Administrator account. How do you do this?

The easiest way is if you are an Administrator already. Click {Start} then right-click on {My Computer} and choose {Manage}
Click the + to expand {Local Users and Groups} then click on Users. Right-click on Administrator in the right panel and choose {Set Password}
Type in a password THAT YOU WILL REMEMBER, and type it again to confirm it.

If you aren’t allowed to do this, (you will get a warning when you open the Computer Management box) make a note of the following then log off your computer.
Note: choose {Start} then {Log Off}, not {Turn Off Computer}
In the {Log Off Windows} box, click on {Log Off}

Now press {Ctrl}+{Alt}+{Delete} - twice! This should bring up a dialog allowing you to log in as Administrator.

Make a note of the name that appears (more…)

As the technology of the Internet has spread across the world, the number of targets has grown for hackers, along with the nefarious uses to which illegally gained information can be put. Police forces have entire sections now devoted to what was once almost a misdemeanor, a ‘white collar crime’ that earned a slap on the wrist.

The first step to protecting your computer is to stop people from getting access to your system. There are various levels of this. People on the Internet, using what are known as ‘Exploits’ can reach across your connection and get hold of your system. Once in, they can strip your private information, read your private files and more commonly, use your computer to pass on spam, porn and, more significantly, launch attacks on other systems.

You’ve seen movies about hackers or people doing crime using the Internet. Do you want your computer to be one of those on the path the FBI trace back to the criminal? At best it will mean a visit from Law Enforcement as they make sure you aren’t connected to the case.

Your ISP is conscious of this and (more…)

One of the major tools in the grab-bag of a hacker is what is known as Social Engineering. There are formal definitions but it is all about how people will, unless given a reason to be suspicious, be open and unsuspecting and can be led into giving away information.

In other words, hackers quite often and successfully walk into a building, posing as (say) an inspector or even a cleaner and find supposed-to-be secure information that allows them to access the company computers.

A part of this is knowing about people. There are sites that list the most common things people use for passwords. Network security can insist on a regular change of login password from users and prevent them from using the same one for a set number of times.

This seems like good security but in practice, (more…)

In Are you Safe? Part 1 I talked about whether or not our home computer is secure. Talking to Mr JM it seems even I had a false sense of security about the subject.
For example, I thought my physical computer kept my data pretty safe and my main concern was having internet sites do things to my computer. Not so…

The process of installing Windows involves setting up a user account. Most people simply walk through the install process clicking {next} on the default settings. This usually results in the creation of a named user, say ‘John’ and an Administrator account.

The problem is, while some people will provide a password for the John account, they totally ignore the Administrator account – after all, they aren’t going to be using it.

Hackers know this. Most people (more…)

Gmail has been hacked and the capcha program subverted. What is a capcha program? You’ve seen them, when you try to sign up for a site and they ask you to type in some numbers displayed as a picture or against some background pattern.

The idea of it is to make sure you’re a human.

They do this to capture ‘bots’ – programs that try to log in to sites to get access to user information and accounts. Gmail has had their spam numbers double already, so if you have a gmail account and you’ve been seeing more adult spam recently, that’s why.

But it brings up the question of how safe we are on our home PC’s. (more…)

You’re sitting in front of the glowing screen, slaving over the latest epic, designing the perfect spreadsheet, perfecting the genetic path of your ancestors. or just composed the perfect response to the emotional wasteland of a young person in crisis.

Like all conscientious computer users, you Save your work regularly. Then you go for dinner, come back & try to open your document & it’s not there!
It might be an older version, it may have corruption in it or you may even start getting Windows errors.

You search and investigate and suddenly get the dreaded Blue Screen of Death!

There’re other symptoms; printers can suddenly be unusable, the computer may not start at all or your friends may start asking why you enquiring about whether they’re happy with their penis size. They can all point to the same cause – you’ve got virus!

(more…)

It can be a complex question at the best of times.

So many people trying in so many ways to make you pay for the evil intentions of some little programming nerd in a back room whose social contact consists of ordering pizza on the web, & briefly ‘not-looking’ at the delivery guy from the supermarket as he drops off the ordered groceries.

First, best & cheapest method… Don’t be an administrator on your own PC!

What does that mean? When Windows installs it asks for a user name & then installs that user with Administrator privileges – which means that default user can do ANYTHING! So, any piece of code that comes funneling back from the internet into your sacred citadel of data will have the Power of the Administrator to do anything the little backroom boy can think of – delete files, hide itself, re-write the Master Boot Record.

So, create yourself a user-level user; Give it a name & click Followed by If you use this account to log in & do your daily computing & Internet browsing, you immediately nuke any malware – it can’t actually do anything damaging to your PC.

There is a negative to this – if you want to install software, mostly you will need administrator rights to do so. This can be done by either right-click on a program installation file & choose & enter your Administrator account & password, or choosing that option when a CD or DVD pops up the Run As dialog box.

Note that you can still download software, music & video – also updates for official programs (for example the Windows Media player codecs) will still install, but to run your download programs you will need to Run As or log in as the Administrator account.

Feel free to ask questions or for more explanation. I will cover using protective software & Security Updates in posts to come.