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PC Security
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Public Service Announcement When did you last back up the data
on your PC hard drive? Your
data is irreplaceable!
Zip drives are old and expensive, tape drives are slow, CDs aren't stable in sunlight - they lose your data! - and memory sticks are too small. Consider an external hard drive, connected to the USB port on your desktop or laptop PC - they're now under $125 for half a terabyte of space. Your time and data is worth far more! |
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Your PC security is far too important to leave to chance. If you do, chances are terrific that your PC contains viruses, trojans, adware, and spyware, and that your PC is being used, without your knowledge, to send both viruses and spam (unsolicited junk e-mail) to hundreds of thousands of people every month. At the same time, your own work is slowed down, interrupted, and worse, your private data is shared publicly, with people and companies you don't know, including banking data, credit cards, and anything you have ever typed into or read on the screen of your PC!
Mac and Linux users have far less to be concerned about. Spyware hasn't generally reached Mac users yet, and you don't need to turn off Windows components, but pay attention to the virus, phishing, firewall, instant messenger, and privacy steps outlined below.
You may have noticed activity on your PC, but you just as easily may not have noticed. Yet. Some spyware shows up as pop-up ads that appear seemingly at random. Viruses may show up as unexpected error messages from your installed virus protection software, or suddenly being unable to run certain programs on your PC, often your virus program itself! But the majority of virus and spyware activity takes place quietly, without your knowledge.
If this sounds scary, it should.
To protect yourself and your PC, follow these (free!) steps on your PC, and every networked PC in your home. If you are dealing with a work PC, talk to your office administrator or PC guru to be certain your office is protected by software in every one of these categories: (in decreasing order of importance, but they're ALL important).
And if you are in Trouble with a capital T, before you do anything else, visit Trend Micro Housecall, and run their free-on-the-web virus and spyware scans right now, First.
Install and run an anti-virus program! Run a full system scan at least weekly.
 | If you're buying an anti-virus program, consider Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security - it's more complete, and less greedy with your system resources than Norton or McAfee Anti-Virus. Or use AVG or McAfee. | ||||
| Be SURE to purchase or upgrade to the new anti-virus program version every year. Each year, the "scanning engine" is updated to protect against new threats; just renewing your subscription is NOT enough (and usually more expensive than buying a new product). | ||||
| Norton users:
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| Can't afford to buy anti-virus software? Use the free version of AVG by Grisoft: free.grisoft.com, and cleans up better than many of the expensive products! Consider paying for the professional version if you can afford it... | ||||
| If at all possible, do NOT run Outlook or Outlook Express. Most viruses are designed to attack your PC through these products, since they are the most commonly used products. Eudora: www.eudora.com is a good, free alternative. | ||||
| If
you must run Outlook or Outlook Express, turn off the "preview pane"
(located under the View menu) for each folder. Just previewing
a virus-laden message can infect your PC. |
Install and run an anti-spyware program... run at least three! You should have one (and only one) memory-resident anti-spyware program and two more scan anti-spyware programs that you run regularly. Do not run more than one memory-resident, as two or more will interfere with each other.
| Microsoft offers a free spyware program that runs all the time - install
Windows
Defender!
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| Two good, free spyware scan programs are AdAware 2007 by Lavasoft:
www.lavasoft.de or
SpyBot Search & Destroy www.safer-networking.org Those who
know security recommend we run BOTH AdAware and Spybot scans regularly. And update your spyware definitions regularly, at least weekly
- if you don't purchase the Plus version of AdAware, running and updating
are
manual processes... do it!
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| Ewido is good Malware scanner, that finds things AdAware doesn't (now part of AVG professional). You can purchase and download a copy, or run a few scan right from your browser - click the big yellow Start button on the left of your screen. Ewido will install an ActiveX control on your PC - say Yes. Ewido found nearly 100 unwanted cookies on my PC after AdAware just ran! | ||||||
| If you are a Comcast customer, consider installing the new Comcast toolbar. I'm not fond of the rest of the toolbar, it's a modified Google search engine, with more and more graphic heavy ads on the search results pages, but the Spyware scan picked up more cookies, and several new Malwares. Comcast also offers McAfee Anti-Virus for free. If you don't run AVG, take advantage of this offer; it's better than a paid version of Norton Anti-Virus. | ||||||
| Consider using
Firefox
instead of Internet Explorer.
Firefox:
www.mozilla.org/products/firefox is a full featured, free
alternative browser, and it works everywhere (except on the
Microsoft site).
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If you run Windows, make sure you install all updates available for your PC.
| Go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com, click Windows updates, and Scan for updates (XP). For Vista users, follow the directions to install the update engine. |
| Install ALL updates, recommended and optional. The bad guys loves PCs without the Windows Updates installed... without having all the updates installed, you leave open the back door into your computer! |
Turn on Wireless Router Security!
| Following your manufacturer's instructions, configure
security on your wireless router (WEP). Be certain to note
and store safely both the pass-phrase and the wireless security
password / encryption key (long hex value). Choose the
highest level of encryption supported by all your devices
(probably 128-bit). Then carefully enter that number into
each of your laptop / wireless PCs. (Voice of experience: be certain you have a wired PC connected to the router before you turn on security - once you do, you will lose access from your wireless devices until you type in the security code... probably twice.) | ||||
| If you do not do this, you are allowing your neighbors as well as passersby on the street, to connect to your network, visit your PCs, and potentially conduct illegal / illicit business through your connection to the Internet! | ||||
| Don't believe me? I visit my grandmother, who has no computer, and sit in her dining room connected to the 'net... through the unsecured wireless router of someone in another apartment; I don't know who. When our cable went down at home, we never lost Internet - why? - we were connecting through our neighbor's wireless router. We've chosen not to examine the neighbor's PC files, but there was nothing to stop us! | ||||
| If
you are on a high speed connection (cable or DSL), you
MUST have a hardware firewall. Windows XP Firewall is NOT enough. Purchase and install a router
or wireless router with built-in firewall - most do.
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The safest way to browse? Use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer (IE)!
| Download and install
Firefox. The first time you run it,
Firefox
will notify you that it is not your default browser... choose to
make it default. Firefox benefits are:
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| Don't be surprised if Microsoft websites still pop up in Internet Explorer... Microsoft tends to ignore the "default" setting, and uses IE regardless. |
Phishing is the latest threat.
| Phishing is a nasty, and very common, form of identity theft by computer. And Phishing is a platform-independent threat - Mac users are NOT safe, either. Phishing is when you get an unsolicited e-mail from a company you do business with (or one you don't) asking you to click on a link to update your personal information. Once you visit their site, you are prompted for your name, id, password, credit card, and perhaps much more. Your social security number can give the thieves total access to your credit identity. Whatever you do, NEVER answer an unsolicited e-mail asking you to click and "update your information." |
| Phishermen can be VERY persuasive. Their e-mails can suck you in with words about how your identity has been compromised, and you must click to restore it, or how there's been excessive activity on your account, or your account is being closed if you don't click. |
| Another new phishing threat (besides eBay and PayPal varieties) is a tax refund offer from tax-refunds@irs.gov. This is NOT a real offer, and uses a flaw in the federal government's benefits web site to make it look like it came from the IRS. Do not click on it's links! |
| ebay.com is not a bad thing - it's a great way to get rid of "stuff" around the house. However, I hit a new phishing scheme yesterday. A potential buyer sent me a question through my ebay sale item, that contained a link to a supposed duplicate item in another auction - but the auction was on a phishing duplicate copy of ebay.com! I did click (a bad idea), but I did not enter my ebay username and password on the very convincing page that appeared! |
| Whatever you do, DO NOT CLICK! |
Phishing / Spyware by popup - a new style of an old trick.
| Phishermen are now sending popup windows to appear under (or over) your browser windows. Previously only innocuous advertisements, these popups are now often contain spyware to be installed, or phishing notices to be filled out. |
| Whatever you do, DO NOT CLICK anywhere on the popup! |
| ONLY use the red X in the upper right corner of the title
bar to close the popup. |
(Optional) Install Google Toolbar (for Internet Explorer and FireFox only). Includes an excellent pop-up blocker - should be run by everyone not running Windows XP Service Pack 2 for pop-up blocking. Also offers great 'net and site searching features - great tool for everyone.
If you run AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), consider switching to Trillian or GAIM. Check regularly for security updates!
| Trillian, from Cerulean Studios - this product replaces ALL your instant messaging software, including AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, IRC, and ICQ in one neat package. |
| GAIM multi-protocol
instant messaging (IM) client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows,
compatible with AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN Messenger, Yahoo!,
IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, GroupWise Messenger, and Zephyr. |
If you run Windows ME or XP at home, turn off Universal Plug and Play, which has little or no value to individual users, but allows someone to remotely install and run software on your PC, with full administrator/system privileges!
Privacy is your responsibility
| Want to find out what can be learned about you on the Internet, and where? Search on yourself at www.ZoomInfo.com and www.Naymz.com - you will be surprised what you find! | ||||||||||||
| You can even find out about your home on the Internet. Neighborhood values for the whole country are posted at www.zillow.com, some more accurate than others... | ||||||||||||
| Check www.ZabaSearch.com to see more details about yourself. Snopes.com seems unconvinced that there's any way to remove personal information from this information aggregator www.snopes.com/computer/internet/zabasearch.asp | ||||||||||||
| Do not click on links in unsolicited e-mails (see Phishing above). Be careful; these are getting more and more elaborate! | ||||||||||||
| Do not give out your e-mail with product warranty information; these do not affect your warranty, but do put you on junk-mailing lists. | ||||||||||||
| Search on your own name regularly - you may be surprised what you find. Talk to the sites that have you listed, and remove your personal information from display on the web. Set up a Google Alert on your name, and each of your husband and children's names, to get new information as it's posted about you. | ||||||||||||
| Repeat the search with your address, and then your phone number - in Google's reverse phone directly, you can opt to remove yourself (it appears this must be done annually) | ||||||||||||
| If you subscribe to any Yahoo groups (mailing lists) or use
Yahoo e-mail or Yahoo messenger, opt out of Yahoo's
third party marketing:
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| Also in Yahoo groups, change your e-mail preferences. Click on My Groups, and then Email Preferences. Make sure that each e-mail address has both "Allow Direct Adds" and "Allow Invitations" are set to No. If they are not set to No, click Edit and change the settings to No. | ||||||||||||
| Teach your children NEVER to give their name, address, school (town, team colors, mascot, etc.), even their age out over the Internet - little details can add up to paint a very accurate picture of where you live and who you are, even without a name. | ||||||||||||
| Visit
NetSmartz for more online
safety information for parents and teachers. | ||||||||||||
| Add your home and mobile phone numbers to the national Do Not
Call registry. Visit www.donotcall.gov and follow the directions for both your home
and cell phone numbers - it's not clear how our cell phone numbers
will be affected by the coming-soon cell phone 411 service, but
registering your cell phone numbers, too, won't hurt. (Though this isn't actually Internet privacy, you may complete
the process on the Internet, so I'm including it here.) |
Safe Browsing. Protecting the PC does protect our children from much of the danger of the Internet. And the value of the Internet is huge, so not allowing Internet access to the children isn't a reasonable option. But how can we keep them safe, and protect them from bad content and predators?
| Many people use some form of internet browsing filtering,
such as
ContentProtect, CYBERSitter,
CyberPatrol and others.
These are the top three Internet filtering products in reviews of function
and usability - if you're going to use one, use one of these. Generally, browser
filtering solutions fall into two categories: inclusive and exclusive. Inclusive software
allows the user to visit sites included on it's "list." Many
perfectly good sites are rejected by inclusive software, for reasons that
may not appeal to you, as a parent. AOL's child-safe setting works
similarly, and AOL has been known to block sites like Hoagies' Kids & Teens for
having "too many links." While it makes sense that it's tough to
constantly monitor a site that has many external links, this kind of policy prevents
kids from many using wonderful and well-maintained collections of kids'
links on the internet.
Exclusive protection software prevents the user only from visiting sites excluded by it's "list." The inherent flaw in either approach is that many sites are not what they first appear to be. A new porn site may use an innocuous site title and description, that initially fools exclusive software into permitting it. And with either inclusive or exclusive protection software, your protection is only as good as the last update of the master "list." You must be responsible for making sure that the latest list is downloaded to your PC, or if the software does the download automatically by subscription, that your subscription remains current. And they are only as good as the "list" itself. What they find objectionable, you may not, or conversely, you may prefer stricter standards. But you have little or no control of the "list." By the time the gifted child reaches middle school age, most have
exceeded the useful life of such electronic babysitters. The research
they are doing for their education may require access to more "excluded"
topics or sites, such as the teen doing research on cancer, including breast
cancer... but of course, any search including the term "breast" is blocked.
Many kids of this age are more familiar with the PC than we are, and have
found ways around the protection software anyway. One easy way around
some versions is to use AOL's free browser (without using AOL for
connectivity) available on CD at practically any computer store, to browse -
most browser protection software excludes AOL's browser. Or kids
access the questionable content at their friend's house, where there is no
protection software running.
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| For these and other reasons, I prefer to use supervision, rather
than a programmatic solution, to watch our kids' PC and Internet usage.
Keep the PC in a "public" area of your home, such as the kitchen or family
room, where you can glance over the child's shoulder to see what she's
doing. Talk about the potentially bad content, and how it sometimes
comes up accidentally, and encourage them to surf smart, by reading the
short description of a page on a search engine before clicking on it, and by
backing out - and telling you - when they do accidentally encounter bad
content. |
| Encourage young children to use a child-safe browser such as
Yahooligans or
Ask for Kids, or set the strict
SafeSearch settings
for Google searches on your PC. |
| Every browser has a History button, that allows you to view the
history of the visits made on this browser. Of course, the child might
delete history, but our house rule is, if you delete your history, you lose
your computer access. And mom checks history randomly... whenever the
mood strikes me, or more likely, when I need to update FireFox, Windows,
AdAware, etc. (all described above). If the child does delete their
history, there are still very easy ways (even for computer novice parents)
to check where they've been visiting. Use your File Explorer to check
the filenames and dates on their temporary internet files. This will
tell you where and when they visited websites. |
| For teens, read Katherine Tarbox's true story with your
teen. It's the story of her internet involvement, and eventually
real-life meeting, with an Internet predator. Originally published as
Katie.com, it's been re-released as
A Girl's Life Online. Although some call it "sensationalism,"
Katie's words resonate with teens, and are a firm warning of the danger, and
how a situation can seem so real when it's not. |
| Talk with your kids about MySpace and other blogs.
Encourage them to use gifted-friendly forums instead, to talk to other
teens, such as Sheroes (mostly teen girls though there are a few boys,
supervised) and Haven (teen boys and girls). See
Gifted Mailing Lists, Message Boards, Blogs
for links to Sheroes and Haven. If they use LiveJournal, encourage
them to set all their posts to "friends only" and to only include people they
know IRL (In Real Life) as their friends, so strangers can't read what
they write. |
| Turn on spam filtering for kids (and your own) e-mail accounts.
It's easier not to get into trouble, if the links to trouble aren't arriving
right in your inbox! The instructions for this vary by e-mail
provider; contact your ISP or e-mail provider for more information. |
| Limit hours spent on PC / Internet. If you have broadband
Internet access (cable, DSL, FIOS), you have a broadband router. In the same place that
you configured Wireless Router Security, you can
configure your router to deny Internet access to specific PCs during
certain times of the day. Our router is set to block the kids' PC access from
10:30
p.m. to 5 a.m. Early morning homework is fine... after 5 a.m.
Late night homework needs to be done by 10:30, or done on Mom's PC.
These settings work well for our middle / high school kids; you might want
different settings. Parents of home-alone kids might want to restrict
after-school access. There is a catch: you need to know the PC's MAC address. This sounds scary, but it doesn't need to be. Just go to the PC you want to limit access to, and follow these steps: 1) click Start, and click Run. 2) type CMD and press <enter> to get a command window (an old-fashioned DOS window). In the command window, type ipconfig /all, and press <enter> (the space between ipconfig and the slash is important - be sure to type it). You'll get a list of stuff, but the item you need is the Physical Address - a set of 6 pairs of hex numbers. Write the Physical Address down. Then go to your router's configuration page (see your router's instruction manual, router configuration is usually reached by pointing your browser at http://192.168.1.1 or something similar) and click on Access Restrictions. Here you can set rules to restrict Internet access by time, then add the MAC address (Physical Address) to the List of PCs affected by these rules. We setup two rules; one for weekdays, and one for weekends. If you're not on broadband, or prefer not to use your router settings, many internet browser filtering solutions offer time limits as well. |
Protect yourself against plagiarizing! Think your articles are safely yours, copyrighted, and posted on your website, or mine? So did I, but I was wrong. And it's not just the "bad guys" - there are two copies of my Gifted 101: A Guide for First Time Visitors article out there, on a school website's gifted identification page, and on a gifted teacher's FAQ page. It's not just a line or two that's copied, or a simple description of the Hoagies' Gifted Education Page. Neither of the pages actually link back to Hoagies' Page at all! These folks are professional educators! I'm certain they don't want their students to plagiarize the work they hand in, but...
| Copyscape allows you to search for copies of your page on the Web. Just type in the URL of the article you're checking, and Copyscape will return a short list of pages with identical pieces of your content. The free version isn't great if your article contains a popular book title, or popular quote, as some of Hoagies' Pages do. But it's great for articles - text - and if you need more careful service, they offer a premium service with automatic monitoring and plagiarism case tracking, for a charge. |
Last updated
April 28, 2008
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resource is a book
