A mobile phone is a very handy thing to have. You can use it to do your work—talking to your fellow staff members and clients or going online to do research for your business or conduct an order. Or you can use it for entertainment—playing games, talking to friends, listening to music, watching videos, or simply browsing the web for interesting information. All of this on a device that is small enough to fit into your pocket.

But this small device can be the source of big trouble for you if you are not careful. Like any machine that has Internet access, a smartphone can be the target of malicious software that can be used to steal your identity. The thief can then gain access to your social security number and open up a credit card account in your name, subsequently running up huge bills and leaving you holding the … Read the rest

No one argues that blogs and blogging are in fashion lately. It’s very easy to have your own space to write especially when there are such platforms like WordPress. To have a successful blog is not only about a layout, catching title or interacting text. You should also think of your blog security to avoid huge problems with hackers and scammers. It’s not as hard as it might seem. I will list several main points that will help you to sleep calm at night.

• Don‘t be lazy to reset your default login name. A set login name for WordPress is Admin. Change it to something else but not the name you use when blogging. This simple advice will make hacker‘s work twice more difficult.
• Reset your password on regular basis. It is a very well known advice, alas, not everybody follows it. Use a complex password, do not … Read the rest

All this talk about data security, privacy, malware, encryption, online threats, and whatnot must have a person wondering where it all ends. As of late, it ended once your privacy was violated and once your data was gone. This potentially meant there were no real methods of recovery, but what you could do was start figuring out ways to block the security hole that all your precious data/information is siphoning out of and erect walls to protect yourself from future threats.

Don’t Fret, Figure out What’s Happened

And in the meanwhile, you would be crying over spoiled milk. Or stolen and pilfered milk to be more accurate. But the latest data retrieval solutions are hoping to mop up the mess in your cyber kitchen. The new concept is being touted as a “virtual lost and found”, something that security experts like Dan Clements feel will be something many companies who … Read the rest

Over three years ago my web developer at Refresh Creations wrote an article which I published dealing with the question of formatting a hard drive so that the contents were completely unrecoverable. Whether you plan to sell your computer on at the end of its life, recycle it, give it to charity or even chuck it at the tip, it is imperative that you dispose of any potentially sensitive data on the hard drive.

I try not to recycle articles however meeting people on a weekly basis who would more than happily sell a computer on eBay after having simply used Windows to delete their old data has convinced me that in this instance it is necessary.

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With data security becoming a greater issue on a daily basis it’s important to make sure that you securely remove all your data from your hard drives before you decide to sell … Read the rest

Regular readers will no doubt be aware of the fact that I recommend AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition over popular paid for rivals time and time again.Ignoring the obvious “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” scepticism that I usually encounter whenever I mention this application I’m usually also asked about the features absent; most notably a firewall.

Fortunately AVG are aware that their free anti-virus package doesn’t cover the needs of all users so they have also produced a security suite going by the name of AVG Internet Security. To save recapping I am simply going to focus on the differences between the two applications so if you’ve missed my review of the free edition it can be located at www.computerarticles.co.uk.

Potentially the most important issue, it’s worth noting that the free edition of AVG Anti-Virus is not licensed for business use or for use on multiple machines; … Read the rest

News was released this week regarding a potentially serious flaw present in Internet Explorer which potentially allows a hacker to gain control of a computer that has visited a website infected with malicious code.The scary thing about this particular bug is that the user doesn’t need to download or click anything to become infected as simply visiting an infected website is sufficient.

In all reality the chance of the average user becoming infected is extremely remote but the official line by security experts is that until Microsoft have issued a patch that users should either up their security settings from within Internet Explorer or switch to an alternative browser such as Firefox or Opera.

Most people that read my column know that they should either run a half decent browser such as Firefox or if they insist on using Internet Explorer that they should keep Windows updated at all times.Whilst … Read the rest

Last week we spoke about the need for Wireless Network security and we follow on this week by covering the different standards available.To set up or alter your wireless security settings you will require the manual for your router as the configuration process varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.This should have been provided in the box in either paper format or on a CD-ROM but if you don’t have either to hand then a copy should be freely available from the manufacturers website.

WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) – Introduced back in 1999, WEP is still one of the most popular encryption protocols.Despite the fact it has several serious weaknesses and can be readily cracked in minutes with freely available software, it is the default choice presented to a user when setting up security on a wireless network which probably explains its continued popularity.

The standard is so weak because it relies … Read the rest

This week I was in a moral dilemma; we have just moved in to the new house and haven’t yet got a phone line or broadband connection.Writing and sending my Click article does require a certain amount of Internet access and so resigned myself to travelling back to the office at ten o’clock on this Tuesday evening unless someone out there was kind enough to be broadcasting a wireless signal that I could hitch on to.

Whilst I theoretically know how to crack a wireless network with minimal encryption, I decided that this could be considered a little un-neighbourly and so drew a line by saying I would only make a connection in the unlikely event that there was someone broadcasting with absolutely no security installed whatsoever.It turns out that what I assumed would be an unlikely possibility was actually surprisingly obtainable; as I sat in my conservatory I quickly … Read the rest

Something that I haven’t given a huge amount of thought to in the past is the subject of encryption.This was until the subject was bought up today by a customer of mine who was considering the purchase of a USB Flash Drive but explained it was to replace one that he had mislaid which unfortunately contained a number of confidential files.

USB Flash Drives aren’t really like floppy discs of days gone by; with a floppy disc you were limited to the amount of data you could possibly lose if you misplaced it.A modern day 32GB drive would equate to the equivalent of almost 23,000 floppy discs worth of information precariously stored on a keyring sized device; this represents a huge amount of data which could easily end up in the wrong hands.

The need for encryption doesn’t stop with flash pens; those that hold particularly sensitive information on their … Read the rest