Category: Tips

Computer Security : How not to get Infected.

Paul

In my [intlink id=”3999″ type=”post”]previous blog post[/intlink] we talked about how the computer would get infected with Malware. Now on this blog post we will discuss how you can prevent most to all of these from ever happening again on your system.

Now let’s face it we are more and more going to be on the internet.   This is almost a necessity for a business or individuals.  You see Businesses have built there product around the internet and that is why it is necessary to be on the internet.

What program not to use to Surf the web

You should consider getting away from Internet Explorer,  I don’t say this lightly.   It may take Microsoft Months to fix a hole in something that involves [intlink id=”2301″ type=”post”]ActiveX or Something like that[/intlink].  We know how Microsoft will only[intlink id=”1951″ type=”post”] push out the really big security holes[/intlink] out of Cycle but keep the minor ones in Cycle.   [intlink id=”2301″ type=”post”]Hackers have jumped on exploits[/intlink] before when it comes Internet Explorer and use them on Black Wednesday, not less than 24 hours after the patches have been released.

Although these examples I showing doesn’t mean that they haven’t been fixed they are showing you how long it takes sometimes to fix them.

What you should use to Surf the web

One of te ways to prevent getting infected is keeping your browser up to date as quickly as possible, and I believe Mozzila Browser which is called FireFox is the answer.   One reason I recommend this to anything else is it is a community based browser and that means there is no waiting for a fix to come out when you know about it they have been working to fix the security hole.

They don’t wait till next month to send out a patch they usually only take a week or two to come up plugging the hole.   So that is why I always recommend to my clients to use FireFox instead of Internet Explorer.

I have 3 Addons that I would recommend along with FireFox, these addons help stop some of the most common ways to exploit your system.   The first one is called NOSCRIPT it is good to prevent scripts from being used on the web or on your system.  The next Addon I would recommend is Bit.ly Preview this is good for any shorten URL that is out there and will show you where it is really going.    It will also work well with Twitter web interface really well and let you know were a url is actually going to easily. Finally the last on I would recommend to my customers is AdBlocker Plus, this one is really good to use for like Facebook or other social sits where there might be a scareware redirect advertisement.  This will prevent some of those Notorious attempts at getting you to click a fake ad.

Also you may want to consider also installing some [intlink id=”2205″ type=”page”]Firewall and Antivirus[/intlink] software to better protect your system from getting a virus in the first place.

On my next post I will talk about some common ways to trick you into installing a virus or scareware on your system. So stay tuned.

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5 ways to get more followers in Twitter

Paul

I’ve been doing something different in Twitter and I would like to talk about it.   I have learned so much today it and yet after the end of the day I’ve gotten even more followers.   I’ve gained over 123 so far today alone and I want to share with you some ways to increase your followers.

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  1. Provide Great Value — This one I learned today finding some great articles and retweeting the good articles.  This is essential Twitter tactics.   If you don’t do this your just going to be keep who you have and not grow.

  2. Be Funny — Don’t be funny just to be a class clown, that will draw followers but it can also hinder your likely hood of engaging in good conversation.   Twitter is a stream of Conversations that doesn’t do well with constant funniness  and if your always being the class clown, you will have a hard time keeping a conversation.   Now that being said it doesn’t mean to not be funny but to be funny in your way.  People like to laugh people are drawn to people who want to communicate about the topics at hand.

  3. Ask Others question — This is important because if you ask people question that means you want to start a dialog and will grow to understand how people react.   Sometimes it is good just to ask something provocative and see what your followers have to say about it.  This gives your followers a chance to feel like they are important and gives you a chance to learn something new today.

  4. Retweet Other’s People stuff —  This is sometimes the most obvious but if you retweet others stuff they will reciprocate and thank you.  In turn their followers will see what you did and maybe want to start receiving your updates.  All you have to do is add “RT @Username” and then the message.  This makes those users feel important and helps provide great value to others.

  5. Answer people questions — Just like asking if you know something that will provide value to a user this will get them to notice you and follow you.   I have some search terms up and running in Tweetdeck in case someone tweets something that I can answer.  This will provide those followers who are interested in stuff you are interested in.  Also it helps create a connection with that user and also opens up a dialog for even more great stuff.

This isn’t even hitting the mark but is a good starting point.   Now I want to talk about some good tools to help you manage your newly joined followers.   These tools will help trim and help you find those who might be of interest to you:

  • Huitter — Is good for following everyone or unfollowing those who aren’t following you back.  You can also unfollow all if you like.   This is good for those accounts that aren’t following you back or if you have a bunch of people who are following you and you don’t have time to go through and follow them manually.  This little tool will help automate the follow process for you.

  • FriendOrFollow — This is good to sort through the number of followers who you aren’t followering.  This little will show the number of Fans, Friends and Followers.  You can use this to find those inactive accounts by sorting through there last tweet.   You can also figure out who you want to follower or who your want to unfollow.   There are so many good uses for this that you will just have to play with it to find all the good stuff.

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  • Mr. Tweet — This one is one of my favorites because it will find those recommendations based on your friends response to people in there group.   If you have someone who you talk to alot this will help you find out who else talks to this someone and gives you a chance to follow them.  This will help you find relavant Twitter users to follow and gives you a chance to offer recommendations to your followers.  This is great for the power user because it shows who has recommended who and why.   You can do so much with little tool.

  • We Follow —  This isn’t really a tool you can use but is one of those you should put your name in because it allows people to find other people who are interested in what they are interested.  You only can put up 3 tags but this is really to allow people to find you so they can follow you.

I am sure someone else can come up with others but these tips and tools will help you develop those followers who have so much in common with your ways.  If you follow these suggestions you will start to grow you Twitter account to even more.  I am going to keep doing what I am have done today to see how fast this will grow my account but only time will tell.   If you like what you’ve seen hear please tell people about this post and encourage them to visit.

And the Oscar goes to . . . Not these guys!

Paul

Sans Internet Storm is reporting on Anti-virus Scareware tactic. I’ll quote from them:

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ISC reader Gary wrote in to let us know that searching for “oscar presenters” and “oscar winners” with Google brings up a prominently ranked result on a web server in Poland, on a subdomain of “beepl”, which – surprise, surprise – includes a malicious JavaScript. The end result currently seems to reside on stabilitytracewebcom, and is yet another incarnation of the “Fake Anti-Virus Program” malware that we have covered repeatedly. Watch out, the EXE has a meager 6/39 on Virustotal.
[Via Sans]

I did my own research and it is true they are at least 3 sites with the .pl Domain that are used to send you to these fake sites. You should consider checking your system for possible viruses if you been to these sites and are worried. You should also report any site like this to Phishtank to fight this type of scare tactics. Please remember if you are worried about your system this is the best time to install software to prevent these types of scare tactics. Remember you don’t always have to buy software to be safe. There are free anti-virus and Firewall solutions at your fingertips, use them well. It is also a good idea to make sure you have the latest updates from Microsoft while your at it.

Facebook: Virus Variant comes back from the dead!

Paul

In my recent post, I talked about a Virus that is circulating around on Facebook.  It is know as the Koobface virus and has been changed a little by the programers.   So I what is Techworld saying, just this:

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In fact, Koobface is now using one of Facebook’s own features against it, Lovet said. The latest variant uses Facebook’s ability to redirect web links to drive users to malicious websites, often hosted on Geocities.com, Lovet said.

[Via Techworld]

If you have been victim to this little virus, you should check out my Virus removal page and download the programs that should fix this little virus for good on your system.  You should also check out my Previous post I also have some good tips and tricks to prevent the user(YOU) from getting hit by this virus in the first place. This virus is a Good social engineered virus, so please be careful.