Roboform – Paul's Tech Talk

Why Norton users do it wrong with Passwords

PaulMay 16, 2009

I just read this blog post Phishing attacks on Facebook users point to efforts to mine login data for profit. After reading one of the suggestions on how to create a good password and I’ll quote:
< [ad]blockquote>1. Use complex passwords and unique ones for each site. My method? Pick one string of letters and numbers and then add the first letter from the website’s name. For example: if my password “string” were “abc123$” then my Facebook password would be “Fabc123$”.
Now I can see where this can be used to figure the password? If people use this method they would still be able to figure it out over time. Let’s say you use the same sequence of numbers and letters after each site you go to. This would make it much easier for a hacker to figure out the other passwords.

I will keep saying this time and time again, remembering passwords for me is the past. I’ve been using [intlink id=”2646″ type=”post”]Roboform[/intlink] for the past few months and haven’t had any problems. I’ve also have them backed up to Mozy to help protect my passwords. As long as you back them up with Mozy and Keep save a copy of it off your hard drive you will be much safer than trying to remember a good password.

If you would like to find ways to help backup your passwords or your valuable information please [intlink id=”3171″ type=”post”]check this out[/intlink].

Remember your Roboform passwords are stored at :

C:\Users\(your username)\Documents\My RoboForm Data\Default Profile (Windows Vista and Windows 7).

C:\documents and settings\(your username)\My Documents\My RoboForm Data\Default Profile (Windows XP).

Although Norton’s suggestions does help keep your a little more safer this can be easily used to brute force attacks because they probably have tried letters from the website just because they do think about these things. You should always have a really good password and [intlink id=”2646″ type=”post”]Roboform[/intlink] can do that for you and keep it safe.

Using Roboforms On Screen Keyboard

PaulMay 12, 20094 Replies

I’ve had someone ask about the On Screen Keyboard, and I thought I would show you how to use it:

As you can see with Roboform, you have a option to use for on screen keyboard. Just clicking the button on the right will do this:

As you can see you can use the On screen keyboard to put in your master password, this is great for those who have the portable Roboform and use on several different systems. Although the on screen keyboard is available on all versions of Roboform. I’ve got the Pro version of Roboform but have the unregistered version of the Portable app and can only have 10 passwords a time, it at least lets me use on the road.

Roboform now has an option to back up your passwords on there website. It is however requires you to have a Pro account this helps let you have your passwords on the road. If you want to learn more about the specials that Roboform has just go check it out yourself. If you would like to see other screenshots by all means see if it is right for you.

See my [intlink id=”2646″ type=”post”]review of Roboform[/intlink] to read it or download it directly.

Facebook Phish : “Look at this!”

PaulMay 1, 2009

Facebook seems to be coming the most widely used Social Website around right now, I went to Alexa to see what it said about how many users go there a day and I find this:

So No wonder there are a lot of people who want to get your personal information. Yesterday there was a new email that was spreading with the Subject “Look at this!” and it points to fbstarter.com. When you go there you will find it looks really like Facebook but your not really at facebook sign in page. They want to use your Facebook account to gather information about your email account, or who your friends with. They also might try doing the old Scam of asking for Money because they are someplace and can’t get home without your help. They could also want to spread a [intlink id=”2249″ type=”post”]virus through your account[/intlink], or [intlink id=”2958″ type=”post”]steal your identity[/intlink].

[ad#cricket-right-ez]At the time of writing this the site is active and looks like Facebook but really isn’t. You should always login in to Facebook the right way by going to:

http://www.Facebook.com

https://www.facebook.com

If you have went to that site and entered your password in there, I know it happens to even Journalists. You can reset your password. This way you can make sure the people behind that site don’t have your password. I do suggest however you start using a more secure password. You should always use both Numbers and letters in your password. Use a different password for each place your signup for. I suggest [intlink id=”2646″ type=”post”]Roboform[/intlink] to better help you protect your password and it helps make up a secure password for you. The nice thing about Roboform is that you don’t have to write down your password on a piece of paper, but you do have to remember to [intlink id=”3171″ type=”post”]backup your passwords[/intlink] from time to time. Facebook is looking to be more and more a targeted for the criminals activity, and you should watch what you do online.

Free Syncronization and Backup programs

PaulMarch 18, 2009

So I talked about finding some free backup utilities on the Mike Tech Show Listener Roundtable Show # 234.

I said I would publish some good free ones programs to backup your system files and I think I have done it. Here’s are some great ones that I recommend for anyone who doesn’t want to pay for a backup program:

Allway Sync — Works with Windows Vista/XP. It supports : Hard Drives, Removable Hard Drives, Network Drives, Amazon S3, FTP Server, Offsitebox.com, and WEBDAV Folder. This program is also quite portable and can be used on more than one computer with the portable version.[ad#text-broadband2]

ViceVersa — Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, Vista. Vice Verse FREE will compare files in two folders (source and target) and synchronize file differences. There isn’t much else you can do with this but It does look to be good for small backups and older system.

Acebackups — is a powerful tool to create completely secure backups of your data. Store your data on any local storage device, on CD, DVD or on your remote FTP server!

The one I have been using that is the most useful for me is Allway Sync. I have it set up to use my [intlink id=”3059″ type=”post”]A600 Cricket Modem w/the 4 Gig Mini SD card[/intlink] to back up my [intlink id=”2646″ type=”post”]Roboform[/intlink] Passwords. I could buy the Roboform portable version and use this to keep backup’s on my hard drive. Allway Sync also has a portable version for multiple computers. I think this is the most versatile, for the needs of backup. Something that I have done is backing up my important data to a portable Harddrive, Flash drive and backing up to a ftp server to make sure I don’t loose any data. I have it set up to have redundancy. You should always have more than one backup.

In the coming Miketechshow Listener Round Table Discussion, we will be talking about backing up and the need to back. I encourage everyone to join on that discussion. I would like to know what you do with how you back up and if you back up. I’ll post the time and Date when I find out!!

Careless Facebook profiling can lead to Identity Theft!

PaulFebruary 19, 2009

I just got in contact with a old friend from High school and another friend of mine suggest the new friend. I was looking at her profile and couldn’t believe what I saw:

As you can see this is not good I was amazed at how many people are giving out there birthdays and who they are married to to friends and family. So we heard about how people are claiming they need help or are in need of desperate money. This is nothing new, as you know people are having hard economy times and people are using the social engineering to scam people out of money.

I feel that I should warn people the important necessity. You shouldn’t be broadcasting your DOB and who your married to to your friends, just in case they get hacked.

Recent activity indicates that identity thieves are hacking into trustworthy profiles before selling on the login details to interested parties. This information is used by spammers to target legitimate users, posting misleading links on their “walls” – personalized message boards.

[Via Computing.Co.UK]

This deservese a little mind and a lot of understanding. By the spammers hacking into facebook accounts they have the chance to scam or spam people with links to possibly have a virus or trojan installer.

[ad#ad2-right]For example This one blog talks about the Virus:

Symantec’s Norton Antivirus software has flagged this as a “high risk” Infostealer.Gampass virus. More info on this particular Trojan vius is here. (Note: Symantec warns the risk level is “low,” since it originated in 2006, but this new Facebook email is a new iteration of the same virus.)

You might be inclined to click on this link because it’s from a friend, but they did not intentionally send it to you — and yes, their Facebook photo is attached, too.

[Via Sync-blog]

Now I went searching through my friends list and also found this little bit of information. As you can see this one is asking for people to use there account to scam people out of money. They could use this to find out even more information of the Other partner and make you believe your talking to the real deal. Saying they need money because they are stuck over seas or something like that. I’ve seen this on other blogs where people have sent money to “friends” but are actually people who are the scammers. Then if you send the money you are out of luck with your money and possibly your friends to. I am sure there are more but this is prime examples of what you shouldn’t do and why.

So what can you do to prevent Identity Theft and/or being scammed?

Roboform Review — A Password Manager that will help protect your passwords from key loggers and other such phishing sites. I strongly recommend it to to all who are security minded. (Never use the same password for all your accounts)

Are you worried about your identity? — This is good information in checking out sites that might be questionable. You can find out what type of site it by using your brains.

Old Phish Become New again — This is blog post about twitter and what may happen if you did give out your password. This is a good example of why you never should give out your password to third party websites.

Twitter Spammers a getting more smarter — This is also good example of what happens when you see become friends with someone who isn’t real. You could be the next to be spammed and/or impersonated.

If you follow some common steps you to could prevent from being the victim or getting your Identitiy stolen. Some things to remember is Never tell anyone your Birthday the whole date like someone did on twitter a few days ago. It’s nice that they are growing older but that gives people that much more information to use to steal your money or your idenitiy. Think before you give out any personal information like Age, Married, who your married to and anything that might be used to be able to access your account or your impersonate you. Remember only you can prevent from being scammed or lossing your identity, you wouldn’t want to have to pay for your mistakes.