This is so true. Ask anyone who has ever had to fish a VGA (or serial/parallel/NIC/SCSI cable out of a rat’s nest of wires. One of Murphy’s laws of cable management.

Ever read “Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell? “Nineteen Eighty-Four” is the story of a society marked by overarching “Big Brother” government control of the masses using various means of surveillance, propaganda, and oppression. This post is by no means a subtle commentary on the current state of affairs here in the United States, but you should read on.

This article outlines just how technology has eroded some of the privacy that we enjoy here in America. If you have a smartphone…you can EASILY be tracked by police, government agencies, and private business (Google, Apple, etc.) by GPS.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/11/15/will-gps-tracking-concerns-lead-to-smartphone-website-changes/?test=faces

I personally don’t think that there is a conspiracy afoot, but I certainly do think that there is a HUGE potential for abuse. Whether used for criminal investigation or marketing purposes, access to your location and movements are easily accessible by others.

Just sayin’.

It is always interesting to me when people create silly things. A pizza box laptop. Hmmm. However it does help me make a point.

Laptops are comprised of many replaceable parts. Simple fixes like broken keys, faulty power supply connectors, bad power supplies, broken LCD backlights, these are all things that can be inexpensively fixed to extend the life (and value) of your laptop.

NelsonTek specializes in broken laptop repair, PC or Mac. I can help you spend as little as needed to get your machine back where it needs to be. Please call me today at 757-870-9431 to talk about yours.

I wish I had thought of this. The following LifeHacker article describes a practice of naming your wireless router something that will discourage anyone outside your home from wanting to connect to it. Would you connect to someone else’s router if it was named:

c:\virus.exe

Me neither. Wow. Sometimes things are so simple.

http://lifehacker.com/5829089/discourage-neighbors-from-using-your-wi+fi-by-naming-your-network-something-scary

Android users (Droid, Evo, Incredible, Thunderbolt, Galaxy, etc.) need to step up their efforts to protect themselves from malware attacks. A study just published by Lookout Mobile Security says that malware designed specifically for the Android platform has increased by 400% over the first six months of 2011. Wow!!!

malware

[mal-wair]
noun

Computer software intended to damage a computer, computer system, or computer network, or to take partial control over its operation.

“malware.” Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 06 Aug. 2011. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/malware>.

Malware comes through various sources on the Internet. Even the Android App Market has had to remove dozens of apps from its offerings because they were actually malware. This is an area where Apple has taken great pains to keep watch over the iPhone apps it allows in its Apple App Store.  Google doesn’t seem to take the same cautious approach and lets much more malware slip through the cracks in the Android App Market.

If you have an Android phone, there are several things you can do to keep your personal information safe:

• Download from the Android App Market whenever possible. Downloading apps from 3rd-party web sites can be dangerous if you are not sure who you are downloading from.
• Use a security product on your phone. There are several out there, but I personally use the free product from Lookout. You can find it easily in the Android App Store by searching for Lookout Mobile Security. Not only does it protect against malware, the free version also supports automatic data backup and missing phone location. I have used it for 9 months now and am quite happy with its performance.
• Don’t use unencrypted public WiFi connections. They are ripe to be hacked.

One of the latest trends in new car technology is being able to remotely unlock and start your car with your cell phone. While this sounds very cool, in reality it creates a HUGE potential security threat. The technology is already in place to hack these type of systems. As a matter of fact, security researchers have already studied and found that this is just a problem waiting to happen. If you have one of these cars…it might be a good idea to regularly check with your dealer for any software updates that might be available to tighten holes in your car’s security system. For more information, read on:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/236678/war_texting_lets_hackers_unlock_car_doors_via_sms.html

This is very interesting. Cybercrimes do happen, and they can happen to anyone. Small businesses, large corporations, Joe and Josephine Normal (you and I). Anyone using the Internet is a possible victim. The link below has a map that shows the location, amount, and most of the time the name of the organization. In a few instances the money was recovered, but the vast majority of the crimes are unsolved.

http://www.knowbe4.com/resources/cyberheist-map/

If you haven’t got the message by now, please make sure you practice safe Internet browsing habits. Here are a few important ones:

• Use a secure password (no user names, dog, family names, birthdates, addresses,  ”password”, etc.) with numbers, both lower and uppercase letters, non-alphanumeric characters ( . , $ # ! : ~ and the like).
• Don’t connect your laptop or smartphone to an unencrypted public WIFI to do anything that involves personal information (logging in, using account numbers, etc.). Even if you use HTTPS (secure http) to login, often times web sites will switch over to unencrypted mode after the login process. If that happens, you still are at risk.
• Don’t ever reply to an email asking for any personal information from someone you do not ABSOLUTELY know. Even then, a phone call to confirm is always a good idea. Legitimate organizations will never ask you for personal information or login credentials through email.

Apparently thieves never sleep. Some scumbag is always thinking up new ways to separate you from your hard earned money. Technology is making the job easier. I guess it was only a matter of time before someone developed a device like this that can transmit your credit card information wirelessly as you swipe your card in the pump card reader.

The detective quoted in the article says that Newport News has the dubious distinction of being the first reported case in Virginia. Nice.

The link below explains it all. The takeaway from it is to BE CAREFUL…and always check your monthly credit/debit card statements!

http://www.dailypress.com/news/crime/dp-credit-card-promo,0,261158.story

If you are running your wireless network with no encryption, you are simply uninformed or just plain crazy. Things are to the point that even the older wireless encryption standard known as Wired Equivalency Protocol (WEP) is easily cracked with readily available tools on the Internet. What follows in the link below is the story of one man (or better stated…scumbag) set out to destroy a family by hacking their wireless home network. This story involves the worst of the worst…child pornography planted on the hacking victim’s computer.

Minnesota Wi-Fi hacker gets 18 years in prison for terrorizing neighbors

Moral of the story…use good encryption (WPA, or WiFi Protected Access) on your wireless router! Don’t know how? NelsonTek can help!

Over the years the Virus and Malware landscape has changed dramatically. The fact is that seemingly everything (except perhaps the “kitchen sink”) is now connected to the Internet. This plethora of potential targets is just too great for the virus/malware developing community to pass up.

Early in the history of personal computing, someone figured out how easy it was to write a program that could be transferred from computer to computer by infecting files or the system areas of a floppy disk. Next were email attachment viruses and then macro viruses infecting Microsoft Office documents. The evolution goes on and on, and it seems that there is always a new type of malware threat on the horizon.

If you are confused by the different terms (virus, trojan horse, malware, adware, etc.) you are not alone. The differences are sometimes subtle, and some threats have the characteristics of more than one type of malware. There are lots of good information sources that explain these differences in detail. One such site is Microsoft’s Safety & Security Center. Another more comprehensive guide can be found at the Microsoft Malware Protection Center. There is even a nice glossary here.

To get away from sounding like a Microsoft hack, another good page is the Wikipedia article on Malware. Read it here.