Computer Repair Services
Posts tagged Website
How to prevent “Scareware” (Rogue Antivirus)
Jan 19th
Practically all my service calls the last two months have been due to Scareware related issues. Rogue anti-virus programs that claim every program is infected and that for some amount of money your computer can be secured. Unfortunately, the scareware program IS the infection and your money is sent immediately to some far off country while little if any relief is provided for your payment. It is a scam. And the worst part of it is you no longer have to be surfing the seedier side of the Internet to become a victim!
The authors are actually paying people to infect you, which means it is being included in blogs, forums, even websites you actually pay to use. Typically they rely on your trust of a website to open up the security of your web-browser, to drop your guard, to OK a download.
They operate primarily by using Javascript Code. Javascript is very common and the internet would be a horribly bland place without it, which makes it the perfect vehicle. Javascript are little snippets of code that are included in websites to generate dynamic content, like time stamps and the like. They allow a website to offload some of the heavy lifting and More >
Are you using one of the Top Ten most common passwords?
May 26th
PC Magazine has compiled a list of the 10 most commonly used passwords by computer users today. Some are understandable – like numbers 1, 2 and 3 (see below) – while others (such as 6 and 9) are just plain odd.
Here’s the Top 10 list of most commonly used computer passwords:
1. password
2. 123456
3. qwerty
4. abc123
5. letmein
6. monkey
7. myspace 1
8. password 1
9. blink182
10. (your first name)
If you have any of these, change them immediately.
Computer experts agree you shouldn’t use the same password for everything. Ff a malicious type figures it out, they can do some serious damage, especially when it comes to online banking (uploading a picture of a pig wearing a fedora as your Facebook profile, however, is relatively harmless).
It’s also recommended to use a combination of letters and numbers that would be virtually impossible to guess, such as “w8llpap6r” and refrain from writing these down on pieces of paper or in a document on your PC (e.g. mypasswords.doc).