Your Daily Computer Security Tips

Do you know where your kids are going online, and what they are searching for? Security company Symantec does. It has kept an eye on Web page visits using its parental control software. YouTube was at the top of the list, followed by the search engines Google and Yahoo. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace came next.

However, also among the top ten searches were Sex and Porn. So monitor your teen’s wanderings and searches, or use parental control programs. If you have Vista, you already have what you need, built right in.

Here is a tidbit on another subject, namely a data breach. It seems that a 64-page list of names and Social Security Numbers was found, wait for it, under a jail mattress in a prisoner’s cell, in New Hampshire. I sure hope your info was not on that list!

The theft was found during a routine search. The list was supposed to be shredded at a warehouse across the street from the prison. How it ended up under that mattress is unknown.

What to do? As I have said many times, never give out your Social Security/Insurance Number to anyone unless absolutely necessary.

Boy, you know things are tough when even those Nigerian 419 scammers are complaining. Separating people from their money during this economic meltdown is not easy, they say. It requires hard work, resolve, and a pinch of voodoo.

Some say they used to make $30,000 to $60,000 a month from emails promising great wealth, jewels, true love, etc. But first, of course, you have to pay endless fees, bribes, insurance and travel expenses.

Americans appear to be the easiest prey, and business is booming. The scammers are mostly young men, known as yahoo-yahoo boys, and they learn from each other by sharing tricks and tips. One said his top swindle right now is the work-at-home deal, presumably because of the huge job losses around the world.

Nigerian officials claim to be cracking down on these 419 fraudsters, named for the relevant section of the criminal code. They even say they are using software that filters and blocks the scammers’ emails. But the list of victims just keeps growing.

What to do? Do not open or read spam. Do not open emails with subject lines like URGENT ASSISTANCE. Do not be greedy. You do not have a Nigerian or African relative who died and left you millions. No one is going to send you cash for little or no work. Stay alert, and think before you click, please!

The distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack against Twitter, Facebook, Google and others that occurred last week, appears to have been quite a sophisticated operation. It seems to have involved a botnet, that launched simultaneous attacks against several social networking sites.

Why? Well, it looks to have been aimed at one particular person, a Georgian blogger named Cyxymi, whom the Russians do not like. That’s right, it is bound up in that Russia – Georgia regional conflict.

Twitter was knocked offline for a while, Facebook acted strangely, and even Google struggled to minimize the effects of the attack. All this was to keep Cyxymi from being seen or heard on the Web, which is quite disturbing when you think about it.

Do not allow your computer to become part of a botnet, and used for illegal or unethical purposes like this. Keep all your security programs up to date including Windows. Do your scans on a regular schedule. Follow safe surfing and email practices.

To All My Friends, Visitors and Guests,

I am going to take a summer break for a few days, to spend more time with my family. So you will not see any new posts on this blog for five or six days. However, here are two things before I go:

First, be sure to update your Windows next week, on Aug. 11.

Second, here are a couple of interesting factoids for you. According to Microsoft’s new search engine Bing, there are now more than 1 trillion Web pages online.

And according to Nielson Online, there are almost 1.5 billion of us users wandering around the Internet these days. No wonder it feels crowded!

Please check back here on Aug. 13, for more news, updates and fixes. See you then.

Adobe has repaired 12 bugs in Flash Player. At least one has been exploited for a week now, by the hackers. The flaws could allow a crook to hijack your PC and run his own malicious code on it. Windows, Macs and Linux are affected.

Three of the bugs were really Microsoft’s fault. Adobe’s programmers used a faulty Microsoft code library to build their software. Fixes for Reader and Acrobat should also be available by now.

Go to the Adobe Web site here http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ or here http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/491/cpsid_49166.html to get started updating your programs, or launch the programs and use their update functions.