It’s no secret that social networking platforms have taken this world by storm, and chances are you utilize at least one of them to connect with friends, family, or those “friends” you don’t actually know but are still on your friends’ list. Facebook, the most popular social networking medium by far, can be a great way of keeping up with people close to us (or those others), but can also be a great way to get us in a lot of trouble. The general rule of social networking is to never post anything you wouldn’t want your grandparents to see – which is good advice because a lot of us are Facebook friends with our grandparents. It has also become somewhat common knowledge that pictures posted on the internet will never truly be deleted. This is not absolute truth, but for safety reasons we should assume it to be.

Remember last Saturday? Of course not, you were tanked! But I bet your employer and family remember it clearly with all the pictures your friend courteously uploaded without your permission. Luckily Facebook has features that allow us to limit the damage done by our inconsiderate friends, or even by us. There is nothing that prevents someone from uploading a picture of you, but you sure can keep them from tagging you in it! It’s actually fairly easy and only takes a few steps:

First you’re going to want to log into your Facebook account. In the top right corner, you will see a few buttons that are all related to your account. You will want to click on the settings button, which looks like a little gear.

Click on privacy settings. Playing around with the settings in this menu can really open your eyes to who can see what you post. You may be surprised if you haven’t done any maintenance here previously.

The most important item on this menu is the “who can see your future posts” section. This basically controls who is allowed to see what is posted on your own profile. By default, it’s set to “friends,” but if you’re like me, you don’t want everyone on your friends list to see everything on your timeline. You can easily add either groups or individuals by pressing the “edit” button to the right of it. This feature comes in handy when you want to filter someone from your profile, but feel bad denying the person’s friend request , and we all know the “I never got a friend request” excuse only works once. The rest of this menu is pretty self-explanatory, so if you know how to get to it, changing settings isn’t that bad.

Now to take care of that problem with your Facebook-obsessed friend who found it necessary to post your Saturday night shenanigans for the world to see. First, you’ll need to click on the “Timeline and Tagging” tab on the left side of the screen. You will be presented with a screen that looks very similar to the last:

There’s a lot in this menu, so let’s stick to what we came here for first. You’ll want to click the “edit” button I have highlighted, and then switch the option to “enabled.” From this point on, every time someone tags you in a photo, you will be notified and asked to approve the photo to be posted on your profile. However, you will still be tagged in the photo even though it’s not shown on your profile. The second edit button that’s highlighted controls the actual tagging of the photo. Enable this option, and you’ll be in full control over what pictures you’re tagged in regardless of their appearance on your profile.  

Taking these few steps to secure your profile is a great start, but far from a complete solution. The only way to be sure your profile isn’t the subject of misuse is to simply not misuse it. Remember – it’s your life and you can live the way you want, but not everyone needs (or wants) to see what you choose to do privately.

For the typical home user, these three terms can be very confusing. What is the difference between them? Are they different at all? Yes they are, but to you they are all the same thing – a pit, full of time and money. Since this is the case for most of us, we will use them as interchangeable terms. When they infect your computer, they can make your PC run incredibly slow, sometimes to the point of being unusable. They can block internet access, hack your email, track what you’re doing, and in some cases take full control of your computer for whatever their programmers’ malicious intent is. So how can you prevent against these infections? Cue the singing angels, because you’re about to find out.

Prevention:

Here at CompuType, we hear some form of this phrase at least once a day: How did my computer become infected when I pay for antivirus?” I hate to say it, but antivirus is merely a first line of defense. Not to lessen the importance of a good antivirus program, but it’s not everything. The biggest part of prevention is your browsing habits. You must be careful of what you click on; always know where a link is going to take you before you click on it. If you don’t trust it, don’t click on it. This, however, can be easier said than done. I went to download CCleaner, a program very useful for cleaning out the temp files on your computer. Once at the free download page, I was presented with this:

This is a typical (even conservative) example of download link confusion. With three different download links, and only one being legitimate, people are understandably confused as to which button to click on. While this site doesn’t seem to have any malicious links, many other free download sites can have upwards of five or six different download buttons. Pressing on the wrong one can open the flood gates for malware, and your antivirus chance of catching it after it’s downloaded is spotty at best.

Here is another tricky one:

If you have seen something that looks like this, you were most likely somewhere on the internet you should not have been. If you have seen this more than once, you are most likely a teenage boy. The key to identifying this as an illegitimate message is the title bar. It is a message from Internet Explorer, in this case meaning it is no more than another internet window (pop-up). Had this been a legitimate message, your antivirus (avast, AVG, Norton, etc.) would be the one telling you that you need to run a scan, and would not ask you to download anything more than virus definitions. You should NEVER click on this window, as it gives the infected files permission to download onto your computer, most of the time bypassing your antivirus program. Out of all the different computers we service for virus infections, this is the most common means of infection.

There are, of course, other means of infection: email hoaxes, ads that promise you you’ll lose weight by using just this “one little trick” and so many more that it would be impossible to cover in this article. But luckily most of these can be thwarted by using a little common sense. If you know your grandma doesn’t know how to work her email program, don’t open the attachment she sent you from her account; it most likely wasn’t her. Don’t click on an advertisement that promises a free iPad, because anything that looks too good to be true probably is. And if you have a teenager, it may be best to invest in some sort of parental control software (here is a link to a PC Magazine article detailing several different programs), because he/she will most likely be the cause of your next virus infection. It’s nothing against anyone of that age, but teenagers (especially boys) are quick to click on ads that interest them without thinking about the consequences.

But wait, nothing about antivirus software was mentioned, how can that be? Simply put, it doesn’t really matter what antivirus software you have. There’s no doubt that some are better than others, but the determining factor of your computer’s safety is you.

Now that you’re armed with this new knowledge, keep in mind that internet trickery is everywhere. If you do happen to fall for any of these tricks, it is important that you get it fixed right away. The longer an infection is on your computer, the more information they can gather about you, or even worse, your bank account. If this ends up being the case, CompuType’s trained technicians will be happy to help you out of the extremely annoying and stressful situation that is a virus infection.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Monday is not “Internet Doomsday”. There will be no cataclysmic shutdown, no Al Gore pulling the plug with a demonic laugh, no sudden termination like the TomKat split. July 9, 2012 on the Mayan calendar does not say “Adios Internet”. What is happening is described in detail here.

Essentially, the FBI is shutting down some servers on Monday that have been allowing PCs infected with the DNSChanger virus to use the internet as if nothing is wrong. Once these servers are shutdown, PCs with the virus will not be able to access the web.

Yes, that sounds horrible, but it is easily avoided. Before Monday, July 9, please visit http://www.dns-ok.us from every PC you own to see if you have the virus. If you see green, do a happy dance because your machine is clean. If you see red, then don a hazmat suit – you need to start cleanup procedures immediately.

If your antivirus program isn’t correcting the problem, then be sure to contact professional help, or even that 29-year-old “kid” that lives in your neighbor’s basement. If you don’t get it cleaned up this weekend, you won’t be able to check fantasy baseball stats and upcoming summer sales access important work related websites.

Experts currently estimate the number of infected PCs is down to 250,000 or less, so you’ve got a .02% chance of being infected. Much better chances than winning a lottery jackpot though so be sure to get your PC checked out soon!

LinkedIn has verified that almost 6 million of their user account passwords have been compromised as of June 6, 2012.

The file containing nearly 6 million of the SHA-1 unsalted password hashes was posted on the internet, and hackers began to successfully crack the passwords almost immediately.

A class action lawsuit has been filed with the U.S. District Court inNorthern California against LinkedIn for “failing to properly safeguard its users” digitally stored personally identifiable information. Had the password file been “salted”, the decryption needed to crack the passwords would have been much more complicated and time consuming.

In response, LinkedIn has salted their password hash file and disabled all of the known affected passwords. These users have been contacted via email with instructions on changing their passwords. The notification email from LinkedIn does not include any links to their site. If you receive an email instructing you to click a link to reset your password, do not respond to it. To change your password, you should go directly to the site in question. CompuType IT Solutions recommends this for all emails that you may receive regarding password changes.

As a general precaution, CompuType recommends that you use secure passwords, using a combination of characters, numbers and upper and lower-case letters. Your passwords should be a minimum or eight characters long. You should not use the same password on multiple sites or accounts. To be safe we also recommend that you change your LinkedIn password at this time.

CompuType encourages you to share this information with anyone you know that may be affected.

Click here for source information. LinkedIn

According to the American Automobile Association, an estimated 30.7 million Americans will make a road trip this Memorial Day weekend.  And for many, that road trip will involve many hours in the car watching rural America whiz by.

Of course your smartphone will be at your side, so why not use it to make your trip a little less Griswold and a little more Cannonball Run?  Of course, don’t use your smartphone while driving.

TomTom for iPhone – $36.99 (Apple iOS 4.0 or later)

“Are we there yet?”

This app brings the software of TomTom International’s GPS devices to your iPhone, for much less than a full-blown TomTom GPS. It means one less device to carry with you, plus you’ll receive the latest map data with every update (additional charge for updates). But if you’re considering purchasing a GPS and you have an iPhone, this is worth trying. TomTom has a free app for Android with some of this functionality, it isn’t a GPS replacement.

SitOrSquat Restoom Finder Free (Apple iOS 4.0 or later, Android)

Mommy! I need to go to the bathroom

Presented by Charmin, this app shows you a map of nearby public restrooms, as well as ratings provided by fellow users. You can post your own reviews with pictures (just be sure to flush first), and even bookmark your favorite lavatories. A very handy app for those with young children, IBS, a weak bladder or a pulse.

GasBuddy Free (Apple iOS 3.0 or later, Android)

$4.39 a gallon! I’m not paying that!

The GasBuddy Organization released this free app into the marketplace several years ago with the tagline “never overpay for gas again” and it has really caught on. I think we are all overpaying now, but this app really can help you save money. Just launch the app, and within a few taps you have a list (or map) of nearby gas stations with their prices. The community is responsible for uploading price changes, and the app shows how recently the price was updated. Find your lowest price, see it on the map, and use your GPS function to direct you there. See something cheaper? Be somebody else’s “gas buddy” and update the price.

Marathon Travel Games Free (Apple iOS 3.2 or later, Android)

“OMG! Alaska! I win!!”

Remember when your parents drove you and your little brother to Disneyland? You’d play the license plate game for at least an hour or two, until you both realized that no one was keeping score, and you swore you had already called Vermont when your brother tried to claim it for his own. Well if you only had this app to help you track your progress, your parents might still be married.

Designed by DigiKnow, this simple app lets you calculate scores, tracking which plates have been already seen, and which are still available. You can take a break to annoy your sister for a while, then get right back into the game without losing progress. The app doesn’t require network or Wi-Fi access so you won’t miss out when you see that elusive Hawaii plate in the remote salt flats of Nevada.

Safe Travels and enjoy the holiday!

After July 9, you may lose internet access on your PC thanks to the FBI. Not because of something they will do on July 9, but because of something they will stop doing. Confused yet? Let me explain.

Most of you have been a victim of mal-ware at some point in the past few years. It goes by many different names (Trojans, junk ware, ad-ware, that crap that screwed my computer, etc.). One of the recent variants has been particular nasty. It has been most commonly called TDSS, but also goes by Alureon, TidServ & TDL4. This malicious code changed your DNS settings and disabled your anti-virus programs, making you susceptible to further problems.

So what if they change my DNS settings? you may ask. DNS (Domain Name Services) is a critical function to your internet access. Every server, website and device on the internet is identified by an IP Address. DNS translates a domain name into that address (www.compu-type.net = 199.217.139.204). Without DNS, your PC cant find www.youtube.com (74.125.227.130) or www.facebook.com (69.171.224.53).

So what this international band of hackers did with the TDSS virus was tell your PC to use their DNS servers instead of those specified by your ISP, therefore controlling which servers you connected to when browsing the internet. You may have intended to go to www.google.com, but they could redirect you www.EstoniaRulez.com or virtually anywhere. And that anywhere usually involved pushing more malware on your PC, making your PC slower and slower, and risking the security and privacy of your data.

How does the FBI fit in? In November 2011, the FBI along with Estonian police, arrested these cyber crooks in Operation Ghost Click. Once the criminals were in custody, the FBI realized that shutting down those DNS servers would create havoc for potentially millions of internet users worldwide because those DNS requests would go unanswered. So under a court order, they have been operating safe DNS servers in the place of the malicious servers so that PCs infected with TDSS can function almost normally (aside from the slow internet, disabled anti-virus, annoying pop-ups, etc).

On July 9, 2012, that court order expires and those servers will go silent. If you have TDSS, you will not be able to use the internet at all after those servers are shut down. It is crucial that you get your PC tested and cleaned before that date. The FBI has setup a website that will tell you if your PC is infected with this malware (http://www.dns-ok.us). If you get this result:

Then congratulations your machine is clean. If not, call us and well take it from there. But just be sure to do this before July 9, before the FBI shuts down your internet for good.