Safe browsing habits
If you spend a lot of time browsing the web or have ever gotten a virus, you may have heard someone mention the term safe browsing habits. We mention this term often to our clients, but most people don’t really have an idea as to what these are. So below are some tips on just how to keep you safe while on the web. Once you’ve mastered them, you can feel far safer while surfing.
Visiting Safe Websites – This is one of the most important tools in your arsenal against viruses and attempts to steal your information. With the incredible amount of information out there on the web, it’s easy to get caught up by clicking on link after link to cruise around. This is a very dangerous practice to do, because along the way you will almost certainly click on some website that used to be one thing, but now is owned by someone less scrupulous. It’s important to try and stay to well-known sites with a good reputation. Places like Amazon.ca, Wikipedia.org, or even CBC.ca are well moderated and protected by their administrators, and can find you virtually any information you may need on a day to day basis. If what you’re looking for can’t be found in these places, try to limit the amount of independent sites you visit for your info. Do a little research into a company’s background before purchasing from them. All these extra little steps are extremely important in protecting yourself.
Use a proper, and fully updated antivirus – One of the most important components of the average user’s computer is an efficient and well rated antivirus solution. From our own tests and research, we recommend ESET’s NOD32. You can download a 30 day trial for free from our main page. Antivirus software is a very important, pro-active step towards protecting yourself from a large variety of threats. Of course, no antivirus solution will give you perfect, blanket protection. This is why it’s important to use the rest of these tips as well.
Never download anything that isn’t well vetted and documented – The internet is a haven for helpful, useful, and sometimes free software. There are millions of great programs and utilities out there that can make your life a lot easier. The problem is however, there are a lot of software packages out there that are more dangerous than helpful. If a program is offering you any kind of free content or services that most companies would make you pay for, it is more than likely a virus or some sort of malware. The best way to be sure what your downloading is safe is to download it from a reputable site. The two best places for this is FileHippo.com & CNET.com. Both these companies are pretty good about keeping the bad stuff away, while offering the good stuff with decent download speeds. Stay away from little unknown sites, or sites that offer free programs that claim to do incredible or even illegal stuff. If a program offers you free movies or games for instance, it’s probably a virus, spyware, or other form of malware.
Keep your computer up to date! And then keep it even MORE up to date! – I mentioned this in our last article as well, but I feel it is so important that we’re going to say it again. One of the biggest vulnerabilities to the average user is an out of date computer. Microsoft and Apple often release updates to their systems to protect against flaws that viruses take advantage of. This is especially important when it comes to web browsers like Internet Explorer or Safari. Update your system each and every time an update is released.
These are just a few of the things you can do to stay safe. Want to know more? Feel free to research it yourself, or drop us an email with our contact form. We’d be happy to answer any questions or concerns you have. And if you think some baddies have already gotten on your machine, we can help you get that cleaned up as well.
Vectors of infection
Viruses, Malware, Trojans; no matter what you call them, they seem to be everywhere. They get on your computer without you knowing, making it difficult to use. They drastically slow down your computer’s performance, steal your personal information, or stop you from being able to use your computer entirely.
In short, they are a huge pain! But how do they get there? There are the obvious answers of course; unsafe adult sites and attachments on emails from infected friends. But these malicious programs aren’t just limited to these vectors of infection.
Unfortunately, there are many ways that these infections get into your system. From security holes and glitches in common software, to secretly infected popular sites. Below are only a few examples of how they get on your system, but it should help paint a clearer picture for you.
Adobe Flash Player – Many websites today use Flash as part of their website design. From animated banners that go through a sites popular topics, to embedded videos, flash is everywhere. On sites with malicious intent, or even just a banner advertisement that make it onto another trustworthy website, Flash can be implemented to attack your machine. This delivery method is rare of course, and as soon as Adobe is aware that their flash player is being used in such a way, they patch and fix the bug. But usually such exploits in their software aren’t known about until at least a few people are already infected.
Clicking on popups that say your computer is infected – Some of the sneakiest malware programs out there are a category known as Rogue Scanners. They are fake antivirus messages that popup on some websites, claiming that your computer is infected. You are given the options of usually clicking something like OK or Fix Now. The moment you do, your computer gets infected, as you are being tricked into installing the malware onto your computer.
Not applying every patch for your computer when it’s released – Especially patches released by Microsoft or Apple. This isn’t so much a vector for infection as it is a reason these infections actually work. It is extremely important to keep your computer up to date. The updates sent out by companies are usually fixes for security holes discovered that malware creators take advantage of. Moreover, they also contain important system tweaks and enhancements to make your computer run more smoothly.
Pirated software, and software cracks – We’ve all been tempted by it. You need Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop, but can’t really afford the rather high price tag for the software. You go to your favourite Bit Torrent or pirated software website and download a copy for free. But once you install it, you find yourself swimming in popups and your computer is slowed down to a crawl. This scenario is more common than people realize. Pre-infecting a piece of paid software, or distributing this software with a virus infected “crack” is a win/win for malware producers. Distributing viruses this way is cost effective, and you can’t even go to the software company for assistance.
Like I previously said, these are only examples and there are other exploits out there. So what can you do to protect yourself? Make sure you have the best antivirus protection you can get, and practice safe browsing habits. We recommend ESET’s NOD32 for instance, as it is one of the best on the market and has very little impact on your computer’s overall performance. Nothing guarantees your security 100%, but there are many steps you can take to keep yourself safe. Stay tuned here for next time, when we discuss some of those safe browsing habits.
Firewalls: Myths & Truths
There are a lot of myths and facts that most non-technical oriented people get wrong about how exactly viruses work, what they do, and how to protect yourself from them. So in this article, we are going to try and dispel a few of these falsehoods to give you a better understanding of what you’re up against in the internet wild.
We will try to address one of the most common misconceptions I see when speaking to clients about their infected computers; the Firewall. It seems to be widely believed that firewall software is some sort of blanket protection against being infected, when in actuality, nothing could be further from the truth.
Firewall software does NOT and never will protect you from a virus. To put it in a more easy to understand way, you can think of a Firewall as more of a lock on your door. Viruses themselves are simply packages in the form of files that can be delivered to your computer unsolicited. A locked door isn’t going to stop a package from being delivered to your mailbox; it will simply stop the person delivering the package from entering your home.
What a Firewall actually does, is blocks communication to your computer from an outside source, by denying access to your home computer. Viruses however, are very rarely delivered to a home computer in this way. They are usually embedded in websites or sent in emails to cleverly trick you into opening the package. Firewalls stop people from getting to your computer, but if you actively go out to find something and accidentally access a virus, no Firewall in the world is going to assist you.
Another thing to keep in mind with software Firewalls, is that in most homes, they cause more issues then they solve. If you, like many other people out there, have a router in your home, there is absolutely no need for you to also have a Firewall. Why? Well because your router IS a Firewall in itself. Almost all routers these days have built in Firewall capabilities that protect your home network very efficiently from outside attacks without any inherent risks to your system security at all.
To make matters worse, having a Firewall on your home computer AND a router with a Firewall built into it can actually cause more problems than it solves. The two layers of security will make communication from your computer to the internet more difficult, and can result in lower connection speeds, and the inability to access certain types of services on the internet.
Now, there are those out there that connect their desktop computers directly to their internet modem. While this is an unsafe practice, this is the type of situation that a software Firewall can come in handy, but only if properly configured and setup. If you’re this type of person we strongly suggest having professionals like us do this for you.
Hopefully this helps make things a little clearer for everyone out there, stay tuned here for the next article where I will discuss the most common ways that viruses spread.
Encryption
The following is Tech Squad’s standpoint on encryption in the article from CTV.
http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20101209/CGY_missing_computers_101209/20101209/
An excerpt from the article
“Ben Haack with Tech-Squad in northwest Calgary says encryption will prevent a thief from stealing financial information or people’s identities.
“If they manage to even pull the information off the hard drive, it’s scrambled,” he said. “It’s like the Germans in World War II with the enigma machines. That was an early form of encryption.”
Unless the thieves obtain the password to the digital key, they won’t be able to access this information.
Calgary Stampede
The Calgary Stampede is coming, is your computer ready? If not bring it in or call 403-276-TECH and we will send an on site technician to you.
THIRD CALGARY LOCATION OPEN!!
For your convenience, Tech Squad has opened a third Calgary location at the corner of 17th Avenue and Macleod Trail SE, right beside the Casino and across Macleod from the Stampede!
Take advantage of our same day to bench while it lasts!!
NEW CENTRAL LOCATION OPENING SOON!!
In late summer we will be opening up our new Central Depot located at 1705 Macleod Trail SE!!!
For further information contact us at 403-276-8324 (TECH)
NO MORE EVENING AND WEEKEND SURCHARGES!
Ask and you shall receive!
We have had numerous calls and e-mails requesting evening and weekend work lately due to most people working during the week days. In the past we charged a surcharge for this just like all other known IT service organizations…. But NO MORE!!
We are proud to announce, for your convenience, we have discontinued charging an extra fee for evening and weekend service calls. Between the hours of 7:00 am to 8:00 pm anyone can book any service call without any extra fees for after or before hours!
Just another reason Tech Squad is continually Calgary’s Consumers Choice Award winner!
We do Websites and Marketing!!
Tech Squad is proud to announce it’s new division Tech Squad Interactive Studios.
http://www.techsquad.ca/Services.php
Darren Northcott of Thoughtbox Creative fame has partnered with Tech Squad to bring this exciting new division to life. Darren is the designing genius behind Tech Squad’s new website, marketing materials, viral videos, web banners and much more.
We now offer his incredible talent to you our clients. Please call us at 1-866-4BOOTUP to find out how Tech Squad Interactive Services can help you and or your business.
The Conficker C computer worm is expected to activate on April Fool’s Day
The malicious program already is thought to have infected between 5 million and 10 million computers. Those infections haven’t spawned many symptoms, but on April 1 a master computer is scheduled to gain control of these zombie machines, said Don DeBolt, director of threat research for CA, a New York-based IT and software company. What happens on April Fool’s Day is anyone’s guess. The program could delete all of the files on a person’s computer, use zombie PCs — those controlled by a master — to overwhelm and shut down Web sites or monitor a person’s keyboard strokes to collect private information like passwords or bank account information, experts said. More likely, though, said DeBolt, the virus may try to get computer users to buy fake software or spend money on other phony products. DeBolt said Conficker C imbeds itself deep in the computer where it is difficult to track. The program, for instance, stops Windows from conducting automatic updates that could prevent the malware from causing damage. *Source-CNN.com, by: John D. Suter Please call 1-866-4BOOTUP to ensure your safe!
