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Choose a password that's hard to crack
When choosing a password, try to make it by writing a sentence that you can easily remember. For example: "Los Angeles Lakers will win the NBA tournament this year". Then pick up the first letters of each word and also add at the beginning or at the end (or at both parts) some special characters and numbers. For example, with the last sentence you could get the password: =3LALwwtNtty$. This method lets you come up with easy-to-remember passwords that are also hard to crack. And you avoid the need to write such a long password down in order to remember it.

Be careful with cybercafé computers
Cybercafés offer a convenient way to use a networked computer when you are away from home or office, but be careful. It's impossible for an ordinary user to tell what the state of their security might be. Since anyone can use them for anything, they have probably been exposed to viruses, worms, Trojans, keyloggers, and other nasty malware. Should you use them at all? They're okay for casual web browsing, but they're NOT okay for connecting to your email, which may contain personal information; to any secure system, like the network or server at your office, bank or credit union; or for shopping online. 

Lock it when you leave it
Never leave your computer logged in when you walk away, not even for a minute. Make it a habit to log off your workstation whenever you get up. Remember to always leave your Windows computer by pressing the keyboard shortcut combination of the Windows logo key and the letter "L" on a Microsoft natural keyboard. Get it? Leave Windows by pressing the Windows logo + L keys together to lock it up.

Secure your Wireless Router
When setting up a wireless network at home, I was surprised to be able to connect to my neighbor's unsecured wireless router. Not only could I have used his bandwidth for free, but had I been so inclined, I could have used the connection for illegal activities. If the police came looking, he may not have been able to prove the activity didn't come from one of his computers. Properly securing wireless is not hard. Look in the manual for changing the SSID to something unique, turning on WPA (avoid WEP) for authentication and TKIP for encryption, and using MAC address filtering.

You’ve heard about Bluetooth, but how about Bluejacking, Bluesnarfing, and Bluebugging?
A study by research firm InsightExpress has revealed that 73% of mobile device users are not acquainted with security issues that could put at risk mobile devices such as cellphones and Bluetooth-equipped notebooks. To these users, terms such as bluejacking, bluesnarfing or even bluebugging would probably be unfamiliar. Bluejacking, also known as bluespamming, is a technique used to send anonymous text messages to mobile users via Bluetooth. Bluesnarfing, a more dangerous technique, can allow a hacker to access information stored on a mobile device without its user's knowledge. Possibly the most serious of the three risks is bluebugging. This technique allows attackers to access mobile-phone commands using Bluetooth technology, without notifying or alerting the device owner, and initiate phone calls, send and receive text messages, read and write phonebook contacts, eavesdrop on phone conversations, and connect to the Internet.  More information:

“You have 92 e-mail messages.”  
Would you like to stop this? Have you seen something like this in your inbox recently? If you have, you are not alone. 85% of business communicators said that e-mail overload is having a significant negative impact on their productivity.

We don’t like it any more than you do, maybe even less. That’s why we’ve done something about it and you can too!  Introducing SPAM-A-SIDE© powered by Postini. For just $3.92 per month per workstation (price decreases with additional workstations), state of the art, Spam-a-side© process each e-mail, eliminating virus and spam in conjunction with ten defense layers providing maximum protection that is virtually seamless to the user and very effective.

Take back your employees productive time and eliminate this time waster and blight on your business for virtually pennies per day (19 cents per working day to be exact). We would like to provide you with more information. No obligation, of course.

Please call me, Dave Sahl at 209-338-3576 for all the information you need to stop spam in its tracks!

A Perfect Virus for Imperfect Users
Getting back to the basics

The ecard virus is just another example of why one mission of IT Solutions is to provide you ongoing advice on protecting your network. The awful reality is the bad guys are always a step ahead and this little baby, which can take you out at the knees, is an example.

This latest e-mail attack is part of a recent increase in "greetings" that encourage users to click on a link in the body of the e-mail to view an apparently legitimate site but, instead, links to malicious code or malware. The latest version of this type of blended threat includes the subject line "Movie-quality ecard" and provides an e-mail address of the sender to trick the recipient into clicking on the harmful link.

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