Continue reading ‘Why do I need Encryption?’ »]]> When most people think about encryption, they think about secret agents and spy’s and state secrets. Most people never think about using encryption for themselves. I don’t have anything to hide, is a common thought.

The question is, ‘Do you have something to hide?’ If all you do on your computer is to check email and Facebook, then you may not have anything to hide. Do you do online banking? Do you have your banks username and password saved so you can login to your account with one click? Do you have income taxs returns on your computer?

OK, I do online banking and I have tax returns on my computer. Yes there is that picture I would not want my boss to see, but my computer is password protected, so I am safe. Right? Not really! People forget their passwords all of the time. Computer professionals, computer repair technicians, thief’s, and yes even curious teenagers know how to get around the Windows login password. Its not that hard to find a way around the password.

Then there is the professional that has a customer database on their computer. If your laptop is lost or stolen, and that database becomes public, the results could bankrupt the company and destroy many life’s. Who wants to do businesses with a company that has security leaks and looses its databases.

So how do I encrypt? It sounds scary! Modern day encryption has been made easy through a number of programs that are available. (See the list after this article) You can encrypt a folder, a partition or even an entire system drive. The program I used when I first started to encrypt my data about 8 years ago, could only encrypt a folder or a partition. I encrypted an entire partition on my hard drive and put all of my data into it.

About 4 years ago, Truecrypt allowed for complete system encryption. You may ask why do you need to encrypt the entire operating system? Did you know that the web page of your bank account is saved on your hard drive for a period of time? Anyone that knows where to look for this can see your account balances without even logging in to your account. With the entire system encrypted, all of your history, temp files and swap page files are protected from snoopy eyes. I have been using full disk encryption ever since. You need it in the mortgage industry and many other business as well.

The most important thing to remember with encryption, is to pick a STRONG password. See my article on passwords HERE. I would recommend a password of at least 20+ characters. When I encrypt a complete system I have always used 40+ characters. Truecrypt only allows up to 80 characters, which I think is a little weak. But as I have said before, I am a proud password freak. Hopefully Truecrypt will change this soon.

Remember, Do Not Loose Your Password. Truecrypt clearly states that if you do loose your password, your data is lost. There is NO back door to their system. The good news is that NO ONE will get your data. Some of the other programs have a way to recover your data if you loose your password. Do your research if you want that feature.

One last thing to remember. Be sure to properly shut down your computer so that the hard drive or folder is re-encrypted. If you just close the lid on your laptop, the system will go to sleep and will not properly protect your data. If you do not have to put in your big long password when you reopen your computer, than your data is at risk.

As with all things in life, there are pluses and minuses in everything. I have always used Truecrypt because it has an excellent reputation of being one of the best programs on the market. There if no excuse for not having an encrypted hard drive as Truecrypt is a free download. Be sure to look into the other programs listed below, and please purchase from my links and support the information you are receiving.

Until next time, be safe.

Ron

Truecrypt

Easy Folder Look – Ultimate Data Protection Tool

Protect the confidential files on your existing USB Flash Drive

Cypherix PE Data Security Software

docLock 2012

SanDisk Cruzer 64 GB USB drive with built in encryption

Continue reading ‘What Anti-Virus should I use?’ »]]> The one issue that takes most of my time working with computers is virus removal. In the real estate and mortgage industries, most of the agents and loan officers use their own computers. I was amazed at how many of these computers did not have any anti-virus software on them. It should be no surprise that their computer was infected and they wanted me to get rid of their computer viruses.

I know there are plenty of articles on the internet that talk about how to remove viruses. There is one step that is left out of most of them, so I am going to start with that. The first thing I always do when someone brings me their computer to me, is to check to see if they have all of their Windows updates. Always keep your Windows system, (XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8), internet browser, (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera), and plugins ( Adobe Flash, Java) up to date.

Although this will not keep you from getting a virus, it is your first line of defense. You can set Windows to automatically download and install the updates. To check if your computer is set to download automatically, click on your ‘Start’ button, then ‘All Programs’ and look for ‘Microsoft Update’. Usually on the right hand side it will tell you that ‘Automatic Updates turned on’ and give you a link to set the time and day that your operating system will look for updates. Microsoft pushes their updates once a month, on the second Tuesday of the month, unless they find something really important and then they will push it out at any time. You should be OK if you set it to check once a week. I usually set it to check on Wednesday or Thursday.

There is no excuse not to have a anti-virus program on your computer. There are free programs offered, like AVG and Avast. I used the free version of AVG for a while and it is a great program. I have often been asked why would anyone pay for anti-virus protection if there are free ones out there? The answer is simple. The free versions are an ‘on demand’ scan of your computer. My free AVG, did a scan automatically on boot up and then it was done.

My paid version of AVG AntiVirus 2013 will do a complete scan of my computer and then continually look for suspicious activity on my computer. It also scans for root kit viruses. It has a firewall built into it, and it will scan my emails for suspicious emails. It monitors me while I am on the internet. If a program looks like it is searching my computer for information, like a identity theft, it will be shut down.

The real difference is, the free version will look to see if anything is already on my computer, while the paid version will try to keep viruses from getting onto my computer. Do you want active protection, or passive protection? I think that active protection is the best if you can afford it. If anyone that tells me they cannot afford it, I would ask which is cheaper? Anti-virus software or paying me to remove the viruses?

If you would like to add Anti-Virus software to your computer, here is the program that I like and use myself:

AVG Internet Security 2013 - 3 Users 1 Year

Here are some other anti-virus programs you can use

Until next time, be safe.

Ron

Continue reading ‘Emergency Java Update’ »]]> I was working on my next post for this blog and I ran across an article about an emergency Java update. In that post (probably the next post) I will be talking about how important it is to keep your operating system and web browsers up to date. I felt that this Java update is important enough, to put that post on hold to get this information out to you. I crashed this out, so you can take quick action to protect yourself.

This is how to update Java on your computer. Look in the notification area of your tool bar at the bottom right hand corner of screen, next to the clock. You will probably have to expand it to see the Java notification icon.

Click on this icon and follow the instructions to install the update. Be sure to uncheck the box if you do not want the Ask toolbar automatically installed in the web browsers on your computer.

You can also access the Java control panel by clicking on the ‘Start’ button and clicking on the ‘Control Panel’. Once in the control panel, look for ‘Java’. The control panel on my XP machine had a ‘Update’ tab in the control panel, but my Windows 7 machine did not. You may or may not be able to update from there.

I hope this was helpful.

Until next time, be safe.

Ron

Continue reading ‘What is a good password?’ »]]> I was recently asked what I thought a strong password is. My reply was rather long as I believe that passwords are more important than most people think. After all, a password is your first line of security. Please give me a break and do not use something easy to guess, like your child’s name, or your child’s name and year of birth. I have seen too many of these. Microsoft Windows Server 2003 has the default settings requiring a minimum of 8 characters with upper and lower case letters, with at least one number and / or special characters. You have probably had to use a password like this at work, school or any place you need to use passwords.

I ran across ‘how long it takes to break a password’ on the internet a while back. I thought it was cool so I copied and pasted it to my computer. I do not know where it came from originally, but here it is:

A good password today at a minimum of 8 characters, and can consist of any one of 95 keypresses on the keyboard. 95^8 = 6.6e15 combinations.
If you don’t use special characters, that 8 character password is only 62^8 = 2.2^14 combinations.
If you don’t use numbers, that 8 character password is only 52^8 = 5.3^13 combinations.
And If you don’t even bother to change cases, that 8 character password is 26^8 = 2.1e11 combinations.

Those numbers don’t tell the real story. Old Windows XP passwords could be cracked on average 2011 hardware at about 10 million (1e7) combinations / second. The “good” password above would be cracked in 21 years (max). No special characters would be cracked in 8 months. No numbers in 2 months. And single-case only in 6 hours.

But today we have GPU password cracking, and much better hardware. A Radeon 5770 could crack the “good password”, 8 characters long in a mere 28 hours. That was hardware from 2 years ago.

With that in mind, the real question is; what information are you protecting? If all you do with your computer is to check email and Facebook, then the 8 character password will be fine. If you do online banking and have tax returns on your computer, then you may want to consider a 12 or 15 character password with upper and lower case letters as well as numbers and special characters. When it comes to passwords, bigger is better, and using everything possible to create the password.

I started my IT career in the mortgage industry, so security is important to me. I not only use long passwords, but I also encrypt my sensitive data. (Look forward to another post about encryption later) If I am encrypting a folder or a partition, I would suggest a minimum of 20+ characters. When encrypting a system drive, I have been known to use 40+ or even 60+ characters for my passwords. But then I am a proud password freak.

I can hear you all now, because I have heard it before. But Ron, but Ron, how do you remember those long passwords? Use a passphrase or use short story. Mix it up by using text speak and misspelling words. Lets look at the passphrase, ‘to be or not to be’.

To – 2 or Two, tWo, twO, TWO or Too, tOo, toO, TOO or To, tO, To. There are even more combinations you can think of.
Be: B, b or Be, bE, be, BE
Or: Or, oR, OR, or – @r, @R
Not: Not, nOt, noT, NOt, nOT, NOT, not etc.
To: 2 or Two, tWo, twO, TWO or Too, tOo, toO, TOO or To, tO, To
Be: B, b or Be, bE, be, BE

As you can see, it will take you a while to break through this password even if you know what the password is. Let your imagination run wild. Here are some more ideas.

I can be: I or i or even 1 or !
A can be: A or a or even @
H can be: H or h or even #
O can be: O or o or even @
V can be: V or v or even ^
M can be: M or m or even ^^
N can be: N or n or even ^
At can be: At, aT, AT, at, or even @
And can be: And, aNd, anD, or even &
Star can be: Star, sTar, staR, or even *

I am sure you can think of many more combinations. The key to remembering the password is to use it regularly. If you do write it down, do not have it anywhere near where the computer is. A strong password is worthless if it is taped on the bottom of the keyboard or under the desktop calendar or blotter. It reminds me of a lot of lame movies and how easy it is for someone to find a password.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you should change your passwords regularly. Once you have found yourself a good strong password, and started to use it, it is time to start looking for another password to use. I always choose poor passwords when the server tells me it is time to change my password and I have not planned ahead. I am also more likely to forget a password that I came up with in less than a minute. The longer it takes you to create the password, the harder it will be to break the password.

Passwords are a very important part of personal security. How do you manage your passwords if you have a lot of sites that you log into on the internet. Do you use one password and change them monthly? Do you use different passwords and keep a ‘password’ list on your computer? (I can search ‘password’ on your computer and find your list, no matter how well you hide it.) Maybe you use a password safe like Keepass. I may have to follow up with another post talking about passwords on the internet.

Until then, be safe.

Ron

Continue reading ‘Welcome to the IT Cyber Security Blog’ »]]> Welcome to the IT Cyber Security Blog. As time goes on, this blog will discuss many issues on computer security, virus removal, and maybe even new computers and hardware and other related products that are coming out. In this first post I will give you a tour of the website.

The ‘RSS Feed’ tab takes you to the page with three different computer security related RSS feeds. Please note that these feeds run on JavaScript. JavaScript is known to be buggy and full of security holes. For each of the RSS feeds, you will be asked if you want to allow the script to run. The feeds were built by ultra security people, so they want you to be sure you know your security risks. Most sites do not ask if you want the risk and open you up to these security risks just so they can look real cool. IT Cyber Security does not do this.

These feeds are updated from over 4300 news sources every 20 minutes. If you work in the industry or you are just interested in having your computer safe, then you need to check this page at least daily.

Use the ‘Contact Us’ page if you have questions that you would like answered in a future post. You can also contact us if you have a product or service that you would like us to talk about in a future post. Webmasters that want to exchange links to us are welcome to ask in the contact page.

The ‘This Weeks Hot Deals’ page is a collection of items that readers of this blog will find interesting. These products are sold through Amazon, so you will not be sending your money to some guy named Ron that you only know from reading a few posts. Purchasing products through the links on my blog helps to support the content you will be reading. After you click on the link, you can go and purchase luggage for all I care. It all helps to support this content. I thank you in advance for supporting the blog.

Another page that is not up, at the time of this post, will be ‘How to Remove Viruses and Spyware’ from your computer. I am currently working on the content and how to deliver this information, so that those that need it can get it. Keep an eye out for this as it will be very valuable.

I hope you check back on a regular basis and keep up on the newest and latest. Please feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of any post that you would like to. Comments always make the blog a better read.