Your Daily Computer Security Tips

If you are one of the many Windows XP users who have been rather underwhelmed by Vista, you may now be thinking of what you should do next. Microsoft appears to be rapidly preparing Vista’s successor, Windows 7, for a January 2010 release. Can you keep your XP healthy and going strong till then? Yes you can, with just a little effort and planning.

XP has evolved into a good, stable operating system, perhaps the best yet for the home user. Microsoft will continue technical and security support for XP until April, 2014, when Windows XP will be an incredible 13 years old. So you are OK on that front. To keep your computer in tiptop shape, follow these steps on a regular schedule:

1. As always, update your antivirus program every day before you start surfing the Net. Update and run your antispyware programs at least once a week. Go to the Windows or Microsoft Update site once or twice a month and check for updates. Keep all your other software and applications up to date as well. Avoid Beta (or test) versions of everything.

2. Think twice, or more, before installing new hardware or software. Make very sure it is compatible with XP. What about your drivers? If your hardware and computer are playing nicely together, you probably do not need a driver update. If you do update a driver, note the button “Roll Back Driver” (or similar). If something goes wrong, click this button to go back to your old driver. Make a Restore Point before you begin.

3. You may eventually need to install more RAM. XP needs 500MB to run well; 1GB is better. You may need even more if you do a lot of photo or video editing. If you do the upgrade yourself, make sure you are using the correct components and that they are XP-compatible.

4. Do not let your hard disk become more than about 80% full, or you may have problems defragmenting it. Get rid of old, useless files, or get one of those new, humongous drives. They are not expensive these days. Or get an external hard drive or thumb drive for files you do not use very often. You can also use an online storage service, of which many are fr e e.

As part of your regular schedule, run Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter by clicking Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools. Before defragging, click “Analyze” and Windows will tell you if you really need to defrag.

5. Many programs that you install will autostart with Windows, without even bothering to ask your permission. As evidence of this misbehavior, you will gradually see more and more icons on the bottom right corner of your screen. Each icon represents a program that fires up when Windows starts, slowing down your computer and hogging resources. To control this situation, read my recent article here:
http://mypcsecurityblog.com/featured/when-starting-up-slows-you-down

Make yourself a maintenance schedule from the above information, and stick it up on the wall beside your computer. It will only take a few minutes a day to keep XP happy and healthy for years to come!

Syd Tash is a longtime computer security consultant and author, and founder of The SaferSurfing Project. Keep yourself safe online. Become a SaferSurfer now, and do your part for a better, more secure Internet. Find out how you do it right here: http://SaferSurfingProject.com

You may include these Tips in your Web sites and publications provided they remain unchanged and include the above paragraph, with the author’s name and Web site. You can also get a direct URL to this post. Click the title, then copy the URL in the browser address bar.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

There are two iPods in my family, and we get our music from Apple’s iTunes Store. I have resisted the call of free music from those Peer to Peer (P2P) networks, partly out of concern for viruses and other malware. Sure enough, security company McAfee recently reported that up to half a million of its subscribers were infected with a Trojan disguised as an MP3 file.

The malware was mostly picked up from file-sharing sites such as eDonkey and Limewire (as of this writing, the eDonkey site is not available). A Trojan, generally speaking, is a program which you expect to perform a certain action, but which actually does something else entirely, usually malicious – remember your Greek mythology!

This latest Trojan is known as Downloader-UA.h, and can have many different file names. The MP3 or media file containing the malware is worthless, and has no music or video. When you try to play it, the file PLAY_MP3.exe is downloaded to your computer.

If you try to run or install it, you will be greeted with a long, tiresome End User License Agreement (EULA). When you read it (and most people don’t, unfortunately), you will see a line saying that Third Party Software will/may be installed.

Any time you see that in an EULA, it is time to head for the exits quick, and delete the whole mess. But note that some versions of this malicious file contain no EULA at all. Once infected, your computer will throw ads at you. The Trojan also instructs some media players to go to a certain URL, often fastmp3player.com, which appears to be the actual adware installer.

If you have fallen victim to this type of malware, your security programs should now be able to clean it right up. Update your antivirus and antispyware programs, and then run them all, one at a time of course. If problems persist, reboot Windows into Safe Mode, and run all the scans again. Safe Mode is Windows in its bare bones, minimalist state, so it will look odd. But it therefore leaves malware more vulnerable to attack and cleaning. Having trouble getting into Safe Mode in Windows XP? Read my blog post here: http://mypcsecurityblog.com/featured/safe-mode-revisited

Ultimately, where you get your music from is up to you. At least, be aware of the dangers free music can bring you.

Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with five layers of protection right here: = > http://MyPCSecuritySite.com

You may include these Tips in your Web sites and publications provided they remain unchanged and include the above paragraph, with the author’s name and Web site. You can also get a direct URL to this post. Click the title, then copy the URL in the browser address bar.

It can be argued that the two main functions of the Internet for most people are email and finding information. The first is fairly straightforward; you sign up for an email account with your ISP or with a Web-based client such as Yahoo, Hotmail (Windows Live) or Gmail. The second can make you crazy and waste a lot of time.

Most human knowledge and information now seems to be on the Web. Searching for it is easy. But finding exactly what you are looking for can be quite a challenge. Here are a few tips that should help. But first, as you conduct your searches and visit Web sites, pay careful attention to any popup boxes or alerts you may receive. If you download something, proceed carefully. Make sure you are actually downloading the software that you want. It is easy to be lured into clicking on the “wrong” link.

Read every End User License Agreement (EULA) from, well, end to end! If it says something like “The publisher may include third party software”, then your download may include adware or spyware, or worse. Hit that Cancel or Delete button quick. Or at least scan your computer with all your security programs right after the download.

Now let’s get to searching. You probably use Google almost automatically for all your searches. Try other search engines or directories occasionally, and you may get different, hopefully better results. You may know that you need to make your search as specific as possible. Try putting quotation marks around the search terms. For example, if you search on “early Web development” without quotes, you will get all sorts of results containing the words early, and Web, and development.

Not exactly what you had in mind. But if you search with the quotes, you will only get results containing all three words, in the order you wrote them. Somewhat better. Another lesser-known trick is to use inurl. Say you want to find all the URLs that contain the word security. Just enter this in Google: inurl:security

Some Web sites are so big, you could get lost inside them for days. Your spouse may have to send out a search party to find you! To avoid this, use the search within feature. The syntax is site:URL “keywords”. For example, if you want to rummage around on Microsoft’s site for information on Windows 98, enter this: site:http://www.microsoft.com “Windows 98” And if you actually have Windows 98 on your computer, it is time to upgrade.

Want to keep others from seeing where you have wandered and searched on the Net? Start by deleting your tracks in Internet Explorer. Click Tools, Internet Options, General tab. Click Delete Cookies, Delete Files and Clear History. In Firefox, click Tools, Options, Privacy.

You can also search for search engines (search+engines) or for Google or Yahoo Cheat Sheets for a lot more tricks. Be patient and have fun!

Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with five layers of protection right here: = > http://MyPCSecuritySite.com

You may include these Tips in your Web sites and publications provided they remain unchanged and include the above paragraph, with the author’s name and Web site. You can also get a direct URL to this post. Click the title, then copy the URL in the browser address bar.

Your documents, spreadsheets, databases, and emails are some of the most important information stored on your computer. This data can be lost due to many different types of problems. Some of the most common causes of these problems are:

Computer freeze problems.
User error.
Registry errors.
Malware infections.
Natural calamities, such as flood and earthquake.
Unavoidable disasters, such as fire.

To ensure that your data is safe in any situation, it is essential that you make regular data backups. There are many different ways, strategies, and methods you can use to make data backups. This article explains the main steps that are involved in developing a backup strategy and then performing the data backup.

Step 1: Identify the data you want to backup.

Different types of information are stored on a computer hard disk. This information includes operating system, applications, system configuration information, and your data. Therefore, the first step in developing a backup strategy is to decide what you want to backup.

For example, if you want to back up a server computer, you may want to backup everything that is on it, including the operating system and programs, and if you are trying to back up a user computer, you may want to create user data backups.

If you just need to make a backup of user data, it is recommended that you develop a scheme in which all user data to be backed up is stored in a single location. For instance, you may choose to save all your data in the My Documents folder.

Step 2: Identify the location or media on which you want to store the backup.

After deciding what to backup, identify the location where you want to store the backup. There are many backup options available today and you need to choose the option that is right for you and that can store all your required data.

For example, if your data is not too large, you may just opt for a pen drive to store the backup. If you need more space, you may go in for an external hard drive, high storage DVD disk or a Zip drive. You may also choose to store the backup on a secure network or Internet location, if possible.

Step 3: Identify the method to backup the data.

If you just want to backup your data, you can simply use the copy-paste option to copy your data to the medium you chose to store backups.

However, if you want to make backups on a regular basis, it is best that you opt for a reliable tool to perform the backups. For example, most of the Windows Server computers and Windows XP professional computers comprise the NTBACKUP utility to help you perform the backups. On Windows Vista, depending on your operating system edition, you may choose between the Automatic Backup and Complete PC Backup utilities. You may also search for and obtain a tool that may comprise the features that best suits your needs. For instance, if you want to make a registry backup, you may opt for a registry cleaner tool that enables you to easily perform the task.

In the case that your data is very critical, it is recommended that you choose to save it to an offsite location. The best way to do this is to sign up to an online backup service. There are many different types of third-party online backup services available today. You can opt for the service that best fits your needs.

I have often mentioned that you need to be careful where you click on the Wild Wild Web. When you click on a link that looks like this http://yahoo.com you may expect to land at a Yahoo Web site. Almost always, that is what happens. However, what you see is not necessarily what you get.

The link can be hijacked, and you could end up anywhere. This is because the underlying link, or address that is attached to http://yahoo.com can in fact be anything at all. It could even be a malicious site. So what to do?

There are one or two precautions you can take, and other tricks as well if you get stuck at a site you cannot or perhaps should not close. Before clicking on a link, slide your mouse over it. Now look at the bottom left of your screen. You will usually see a Web address. It should be the same as the link you just slid your mouse over, or it should be the address you were expecting. You can also right-click the link and click Properties. You will see the address the link should take you to, among other things.

Now click the link. If you land on a strange or unexpected site, or get a bunch of pop-ups, be careful. I just said you might get a site or pop-up you should not close. Why? You may see a few buttons to click, such as OK, No, Cancel, or of course the little red “X” in the upper right to supposedly close the window. But clicking any of the buttons, or even the little “X” may actually initiate a scan of your computer, or a download.

So you should close the window by right-clicking its tab in the Taskbar at the bottom of your screen, then click “X Close”. Sometimes this will not work, or you will not even see a tab. In that case, right-click a blank area of the Taskbar and click Task Manager. In the list, click on the offending program to highlight it, and click “End Task”.

How is a hyperlink hijacked or misrepresented? Let us count the ways. It can be very simple. When you see a link on a Web page, you are looking at a few words of text that the webmaster has linked to a Web address for you, behind the scenes so to speak. This makes a clickable link. But that address can be anything he pleases. It does not have to be the address you actually see, which is why you should check it as above, before clicking.

A les frequent, more complicated method is to break into a Domain Name System (DNS) server and alter the domain name records. When you request that Yahoo site, for example, your computer goes to a large DNS computer on the Internet to translate http://yahoo.com into an IP address, or string of numbers. Then it uses the numbers to find the site for you.

Recently, a large American ISP suffered a DNS attack. Hackers associated a different IP address with the ISP. So requests for the ISP’s Web site were redirected to the hacker’s own server and Web site. The lesson for all of us? Think before you click!

Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with five layers of protection right here: = > http://MyPCSecuritySite.com

You may include these Tips in your Web sites and publications provided they remain unchanged and include the above paragraph, with the author’s name and Web site. You can also get a direct URL to this post. Click the title, then copy the URL in the browser address bar.

One of the most basic functions we do on the Internet is to log in to our programs, email and accounts at various Web sites. We usually do not give it much thought, until we have problems with the process. Then it can be very frustrating.

To avoid any potential headaches, here are a few guidelines and best practices to keep in mind when logging in and out of your programs and applications.

Do not copy and paste your passwords. The contents of your Clipboard (memory) can be seen by a hacker. Avoid similar letters and numbers in your passwords, such as zero (0) and the letter O, and the number one (1) and lower case L – (l). Sooner or later we all mix them up and are unable to log in to our favorite Web site.

Many passwords are case sEnsItiVe! Be careful when entering the information to ensure you use upper and lower case where appropriate. If your login fails, check that the Caps Lock key is not pressed (a light will usually come on when you press Caps Lock, in the upper or right part of your keyboard).

It is a good idea to make all your passwords entirely lower case; this way, you eliminate a potential problem. In any event, upper case is not permitted in some passwords.

You can use the Tab key to quickly jump from field to field, where you have to enter data. Just be sure you are in the correct field. Use the dropdown box for your ID if it is available.

To check this, click the ID or Username field twice, and see if a list of suggestions appears. If it does and the correct ID is listed, click it. This saves time and more importantly, avoids errors. It should not work for the password field.

After you enter your login info, click Submit, Login or press Enter, just once. Do not do anything else at all until you are logged in. Do not touch your mouse or move it.

If you repeatedly fail to log in, check the spelling of your ID and password very carefully, character by character. Try logging in a little later; the site might be busy, or down for maintenance.

A common error is to use valid login info, but for the wrong program. Check that you really are using the right ID and password. If you are not sure, use the “Recover Password” function in the program.

Be sure to log out properly when you are done. Do not simply close the window. In some email and other programs, your account will remain active even if you close the window. Someone else could sit down at your computer and get right back into your application or program with just a click or two.

Finally, if you have surfed the Net for a while, you have probably joined quite a number of programs and Web sites, and have many IDs and passwords. Keep track of them carefully. To minimize the spread of your personal data, cancel your account at sites and programs you no longer need or use.

Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with five layers of protection right here: = > http://MyPCSecuritySite.com

You may include these Tips in your Web sites and publications provided they remain unchanged and include the above paragraph, with the author’s name and Web site. You can also get a direct URL to this post. Click the title, then copy the URL in the browser address bar.

If your computer is more than a year or two old, you may notice that it is running much slower than it did in the days of its youth. The first culprit we think of in such a situation is spyware and adware. You can easily pick up a lot of this junk as you surf the Web, and it can significantly slow down your PC, or even cause it to crash. Update all your security programs and run them. If the situation does not improve, you may have too many programs starting with Windows, and hogging your system’s resources.

So the usual next step is to go into the msconfig utility and look through the programs that fire up with Windows. We do this by clicking Start, Run, enter “msconfig” (without the quotes) and click OK. Click the Startup tab, and look through the programs, applications, etc.

However, Microsoft has a much better, more comprehensive tool to help with this problem. It is called AutoRuns, and you can get it fr ee here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

Download it to your computer. It is a zip file, so right-click it and click Extract All to launch the Extraction Wizard, and follow the steps. In the extracted folder, click autoruns.exe and click Run. Click the Everything tab, and you may be shocked at how many processes run with Windows. To begin with, you can click Options, Hide Microsoft Entries. This will allow you to focus on third party startups. Click on the various tabs to see what is going on.

Most entries are confusing and unclear. To find out what they are, right-click an entry and click Search Online. This usually brings up a Windows Live Search. Go through the results. If they are not too helpful either, repeat the search using Google. For your keyword, use the information in the Autorun Entry column.

If the program is unnecessary or in fact a piece of malware, you can uncheck it. Keep a list of processes you uncheck, in case anything goes wrong. Do not uncheck an entry unless you know what it is. Remember, when you uncheck an item, you are not deleting it. You merely prevent it from starting automatically when Windows starts. You can delete an entry, of course, but I do not recommend this unless you are absolutely sure you do not need or want it.

If you have more than one User account, click User. Select another account and you will see the auto-starting processes for it.

Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with five layers of protection right here: = > http://MyPCSecuritySite.com

You may include these Tips in your Web sites and publications provided they remain unchanged and include the above paragraph, with the author’s name and Web site. You can also get a direct URL to this post. Click the title, then copy the URL in the browser address bar.

It is not very difficult to avoid PC problems. With a small amount of vigilance and some preventive maintenance, you can easily do the job. If you find that your PC is running slow, perform the following steps to speed it up and improve its performance:

Step 1: Run Antivirus and Antispyware Scans: Virus and spyware infections are known to eat up system resources, infect your application files, and generate several computer errors. For instance, Rundll errors and Agrsmmsg errors are known to occur due to virus and spyware infections. If you notice such error messages or feel that your PC has slowed down suddenly, it is quite likely that the system is infected. In this case, your first step to fix your PC would be to update your antivirus and antispyware software and then perform a thorough full system scan of the PC.

Step 2: Scan and clean your registry: If your registry is filled up with a large amount of unwanted data, it may bloat up to a very large size. A large, bloated registry easily gets damaged and starts generating computer errors. What’s more, larger registry files take a long time to answer queries from the computer and thus deteriorate the system performance. To prevent and fix registry problems, you may use a reliable registry cleaner tool to perform a thorough scan of the registry and then remove all unwanted information from it.

Step 3: Clean and defrag the hard disk: Hard disk problems usually occur due to too many unwanted programs installed on the system, orphan files left behind by uninstalled applications, and loads of other junk data in the form of cookies, temporary files and program setup files. You can easily remove this unwanted digital junk from the hard disk by using the Disk Cleanup tool that is shipped with your Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems. After the clean up, run the Disk Defragmenter tool to analyze and repair fragmented files stored on the hard disk.

Step 4: Update your operating system, software programs, and device drivers: Operating system, software programs, and device driver manufacturers regularly release software updates, service packs and patches that help in resolving security and other issues in their programs. If you fail to install these updates, you may not only expose your system to various security threats, but may also encounter several errors, such as driver errors and DLL errors that occur due to outdated files on the system. This is the reason why, to prevent all these problems from occurring on your PC, you must update it on regular basis.

Step 5: Physically clean the computer hardware components. You must keep your computer clean and dust free. It is recommended that you periodically open up the computer and vacuum clean its components to remove any dust deposits on them. This is important because dust deposits on computer components cause overheating that may eventually cause physical damage to your computer. When you open up the system, you must also ensure that all the computer components, such as adaptors, CPU, connectors, and memory chips are properly seated in their slots. Any loose connections may generate unnecessary computer errors.

I have written periodically about flash drives, also known as thumb or USB drives. These wonderful little gizmos can easily be used to back up your data, transfer files between computers, or even carry your office in your pocket. But like most things, some care and thought is required when handling these little gems, so that you get the best performance and longest life out of them.

A common question is, how long will these drives last? They have only been around for a few years now, so no one really knows for sure. A good quality drive from a reputable manufacturer should last for tens of thousands of write cycles or more. Some parts, or cells of the flash memory may go bad, but the rest of the drive should still be usable. In fact, some drives have programs that distribute files to different cells with each write cycle, to prevent one area of memory from wearing out.

Do you plug and unplug the device a lot? You should; do not leave it plugged into your computer when not in use. If you pick up a virus, so will the USB drive. However, take care not to damage the connector. Do not remove it while the computer is writing to it. If you are transfering or sharing files between computers, you could easily transfer viruses as well, just as we did in the bad “old” days with those 3.5” floppies. Make sure all the PCs have up to date antivirus protection. Remember also that the parental controls you set up in your browser can easily be circumvented with a flash drive equipped with its own browser, as some are these days.

Of course, one of the greatest dangers with these devices is simply losing them, along with all the data on it. Keep them in your pocket or a secure place, and be careful who you lend them to.

Do you want to work on your documents from any computer while travelling, without lugging your laptop around? Just take a flash drive loaded with your files and Portable OpenOffice.org. It contains a word processor, spreadsheet, a slide presentation program and more, all compatible with Microsoft Office documents from Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Get it free here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/portableoo/

If you have a drive that you cannot seem to read or write to, or it appears to have other problems, try formatting it before you toss it. Plug it in to your computer and click My Computer. Right-click the drive and click Format. Click Format or Quick Format and click Start. Follow the steps.

Once you see how handy and versatile these drives are, you may quickly find yourself with a substantial collection. To manage and keep track of them, get Microsoft’s free Flash Drive Manager here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads

Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with five layers of protection right here:
= > http://MyPCSecuritySite.com

You may include these Tips in your Web sites and publications provided they remain unchanged and include the above paragraph, with the author’s name and Web site. You can also get a direct URL to this post. Click the title, then copy the URL in the browser address bar.

You probably have heard this often, but you really should back up all your important files and data. Do it on a regular schedule, such as every Sunday morning, or the first Monday of the month (at least). Bad things happen in this world, and you must be prepared. A common voltage spike could damage or fry your computer, even if you have a surge protector.

Or a power failure could cause you to lose everything since your last save. Your computer may break down or get stolen (it happened to me), or in a moment of inattention you delete a file. Yes, it goes to the Recycle Bin from where you can recover it if you notice what happened and you do not empty the Bin. This is why I recommend you never skip this Recycle Bin step and delete stuff directly.

Did I mention you should always back up your important or main files? And do not forget those priceless photos, favorite music and videos.

You can make the process fairly quick and painless. Here is how I have set things up on one of my computers. On the Desktop, I have a folder called Master. Inside this folder are dozens of sub-folders containing all my main or important files, programs and data. To make a backup, all I have to do is plug in a little thumb drive and copy the one single Master folder. It takes 5 – 10 minutes, while I enjoy a well-earned coffee break!

You can back up your data on CDs or DVDs, but these deteriorate with time, and may not be suitable for long term storage. I suggest a thumb or USB drive, external hard drive or an online storage service, of which many are free.

You may even want to use two different backup methods for the really critical stuff you simply cannot lose. If you use a drive or disk, keep them in another house or building in case of fire, floods or other natural disasters. Bank safety deposit boxes are good.

A big advantage of the online storage services is of course that your data is off-site, far from your computer and potential dangers. A disadvantage is that the files and data are out of your control. Most of these services have redundant disk arrays, mirrored data in a second site, etc. Even so, data can get lost, corrupted, deleted, copied or stolen.

Here is another reason to back up your files. You may be working on a large document, make a mess of it and then save the mess. Microsoft Office has tools to help you recover an earlier version of your file. But your own actual backup is like a warm security blanket that will preserve your sanity, and maybe your job and marriage as well.

Backing up your files and folders is even more important for laptop users, because of the risk of loss or theft of the entire computer. Do not keep your backup media or drive in your laptop bag, in case it is stolen or lost along with the laptop. This is where your thumb drive proves its worth; just slip it into your pocket!

Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with five layers of protection right here:
= > http://MyPCSecuritySite.com

You may include these Tips in your Web sites and publications provided they remain unchanged and include the above paragraph, with the author’s name and Web site. You can also get a direct URL to this post. Click the title, then copy the URL in the browser address bar.