Is This Website Safe?

Hi All,

Symantec is a very, very large computer security company that provides computer security individuals and corporations.  Its a large, large company which bought another company called Norton several years ago.

Norton provides computer security to regular folks and their computers. They use a product called Safe Web - of which you can read about more by clicking here. 

The interesting thing about Norton Safe Web is that users can look up a site and get Norton's rating of the site with respect to security and safety of the site.  Click here to use Norton Safe Web.  Nothing is downloaded or installed onto your computer. 

Information about the site users type in includes: website location, Norton Rating, Summary and Total Threats from the site. 

Norton uses icons to let the viewer know whether or not the site is 'safe' to use.  A green box with an ok in it is the top rating.  An orange box with an exclamation point is the next rating.  A red box with an 'x' is the lowest rating.

Users can also tap into Norton Safe Search community rating by viewing the table for community ratings on the right side of the screen.  Users can also review sites with a brief narrative.  Date of the review is also included.

Finally, click on this link for Norton's Community Buzz page.  Viewers can see sites like Google, Facebook,  YouTube and many others and there Norton Safe Search scores.  Interesting!

To some extent the site is an free advertisement for Norton's Safe Web software - which they (Norton) are trying to sell to customers...Buyer/web viewer beware. 

But its still a somewhat interesting and useful website!  Enjoy the site and the reviews!

Regards,
Stu

Have I Been Pwned?

Hi All,

Yet another computer/technology/internet related blog entry. A short one to be sure...but its valuable and helpful.

Have you been pwned?  Check to see if you have an account that has been compromised in a data breach. 

Just enter your email address or your username and a new page comes up telling you whether or not you're email has been compromised. 

Users can get notified with updates about future pwnings...

The site has a list of the top 10 breaches.  The first three on the list (MySpace, LinkedIn and Adobe) have a total of over 676 million accounts compromised.  That's more than twice the population of the United States!!!

In any event, click on this link which explains the 'background on the who, the what and the why of Have I been pwned?  Basically its a very helpful FAQ for the site.

Okay...so now that you know you've been pwned...how do you protect yourself?  Click on the next several links that will help you after you've been pwned.

10 Steps to Protect Yourself From Data Breaches - CreditCards.com

How to Deal with a Security Breach? - Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

Worried About Data Breaches? 7 Steps to Protect Yourself - Forbes.com

More About How to Protect Yourself From Data Breaches - FDIC.gov
 
5 Ways to Protect Yourself From Data Breaches - USAToday.com

Enjoy the site - and I hope you don't have to use the other 5 links to fix a data breach problem!

Regards,

Stu

Password Managers For All Your Devices

Hi All,

A quick summary of an article entitled 'Review: The Best Password Managers for PCs, Macs, and Mobile Devices' from InfoWorld back in June of 2015.  '10 local and cloud-based contenders make passwords stronger and online life easier for Windows, OS X, iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone users.'

Password managers are good ways to securing your online identity.  They also help you increase the strength of your passwords that protect your online accounts by remembering the passwords for you.

Seriously - what are the odds of you remembering a random string of numbers, digits and characters for one account - let alone multiple accounts?  You won't - its that simple.

But wait, there's more...read this article titled, '10 Surprising Cyber Security Facts That May Affect Your Online Safety'.

Read on for the 6 best password managers to help protect you against id theft, online account security and privacy.

You might also want to read this article from NetIQ title, '84 Fascinating & Scary IT Security Statistics'.

In any event, the password managers that are covered in the initial article from InfoWorld include: 
1Password - Agile Bits
Dashlane
KeePass
LastPass
PasswordBox
SplashID Safe

The above links go to each vendors' website - in many cases there are free versions which don't offer the same level of security as the pay version....

Good luck protecting your passwords and staying secure online!

Regards,
Stu

Ten Things...from TechRepublic

Hi All,

TechRepublic is an information technology news aggregator for computer and technology users.  TechRepublic features blogs, community forums, webcasts, research and more for information technology enthusiasts, professionals and others to utilize.

Okay..with all that jargon out of the way, TechRepublic covers cloud computing, big data, computer and network security and much, much more for computer users and professionals.

For the purpose of this blog entry though, I want to focus on an entry called '10 Things'.  Basically these are key facts on a wide range of technologies, techniques, strategies, and skills in the form of a  concise, easy-to-read, lists.   Read on for more examples!

10 Cost-effective ways to quickly beef up your company security.
10 tips for spotting a phishing email
10 legal areas that IT managers should know about 
10 ways Microsoft Office 2016 could improve your productivity
10 of the best pieces of IT advice I ever heard
10 things you should never do on your resume
10 ways to get the most bang for your buck with an Android device
10 easy ways to punch up your presentations
10 web-based tools to maximize productivity
10 free Android apps that are worth checking out 

Enjoy the links!

Regards,
Stu

More Computer Security - Why? Because It's Important!

Hi All,

I just came across an interesting New York Times article on the web titled, 'How Many Times Has Your Personal Information Been Exposed To Hackers?'

Indeed...using the interactive features on the site, readers can find out how many times your information has been exposed to hackers in categories like:

address information,
birthday,
credit/debit card,
email,
employment history,
financial history,
fingerprints,
health history,
password,
phone number,
social security number

Users are asked to answer basic questions and check off which of the various services they used - then the numbers in the various categories change based on which the user checks off.

The United States Government, AOL, Ebay, Twitter, Anthem, Kmart, Home Depot, Target and UPS are among the larger companies listed in the article as to whether or no users had any affiliation to the organization.

The article goes on to explain what readers should do now, why this keeps happening to websites and how you can protect yourself in the future....

Click on these links to learn more about how you can protect yourself online so you are less likely to become hacked, spoofed or have your identity compromised.

Online Safety - USA.gov
Tips For Online Safety
Secure Your Computer
FCC - How to Protect Yourself Online
FBI - How to Protect Your Computer
US Department of Justice - Protecting Yourself While Using the Internet

Hope the links help protect you while you are online!

Regards,
Stu

Kaspersky Cyberthreat Real-Time - Get Your Computer Geek On!!!

Hi All,

This very short blog post is was written for the inner-geek in all of us.  Yes, you've probably read a bunch of my posts talking about computer security, spam, viruses and other privacy issues...well...this post is similar to that....

Check out Kaspersky Cyberthreat Real-Time Map (KCRTM hereafter in the post) to get your inner geek-on - and you might even learn a thing or two about cybersecurity. 

KCRTM is a way of visualizing cyberthreats on a country-wide level. 

Why is this important you ask?  Well, to the regular web-user it isn't that interesting.  But to professionals who deal with cybersecurity (think CIO or CTO - Chief Information Officers or Chief Technology Officers - of corporations) this is a vitally important topic.  Viruses, cyberattacks and the like are proliferating at a geometric rate....(just do a simple Google search for 'number of cyber attacks' and you'll find hundreds of links and articles and websites...) and that can slow down or cripple an organizations website and/or operations....

Okay...back to the KCRTM site...users can rotate and manipulate a globe on the screen to focus in on a particular country.  Users are treated to a bevy of computer security acronyms like OAS (on-access scan), ODS (on-demand scan), WAV (web anti-virus), MAV (mail anti-virus), IDS (intrusion detection scan), VUL (vulnerability scan) and KAS (Kaspersky Anti-spam) which are all Kaspersky security products and services that they sell.   Basically the site is showing the user the number and location of various types of cyberthreats all over the world - in real time.  That is the unique part of the site - the real-time nature of the information!

And of course, the graphics are just way cool.  Check it out.

Finally, click on this link which goes to the US Cyber Security Command entry on Wikipedia.  The formal US Cyber Command website is restricted, so, while I have the link to the site here, users won't be able to get in since the domain has restricted access....

Enjoy the links!
Stu