Triona's Tech Tips

If you’ve ever run into a computer emergency (and who hasn’t?) here are my top five fixes.

1. Reboot
   Yes, you’ve heard it before, but it bears repeating: Rebooting your computer should be your very first troubleshooting step.
2. Try a different program
   This helps to isolate the problem. For example, if you can’t print, is the problem only with your word processor or are you also unable to print from the Web? If you can’t get on the Internet, are both Web and email not working?
3. Scan for viruses
   Virus-writers don’t exactly quality-check their handiwork. Viruses or malware will often cause your computer to slow down or behave in strange ways.
4. Check the Frequently Asked Questions
   Almost every software and hardware vendor has a support area on their web site where you can check for the solutions to common problems.
5. Reboot your network
   For Internet problems, try turning off your cable or DSL router, then your hardware firewall if you have one, and finally your computer. Turn them all back on in the same order waiting about twenty seconds between each one.

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Did you know you can expand your web browser’s functionality? Extensions (also called add-ons or plug-ins) are little programs that run within Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and other web browsers. While extensions offer increased options, they also pose security risks.

Some extensions are probably familiar to you. One of the most popular, Flash, lets you see video content on the Web. Flash also illustrates the risks of extensions. Viruses can enter your computer through malicious Flash content, especially if you’re running an older version of the extension. Most people don’t realize that browser extensions, like all software, need to be updated.

To solve that problem, several months ago Mozilla introduced a check for Firefox to help users find and update their extensions. Mozilla is now offering this free service for other browsers. To maximize your computer security, become familiar with the extensions you’re running. The easiest way to do that is to visit Mozilla’s extensions check page, but you can also find them under Tools>Manage Add-Ons (Internet Explorer), Tools>Add-Ons (Firefox), and Help>Installed Plug-Ins (Safari).

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A recent wave of viruses that propagate via Skype and Yahoo Messenger illustrate the principles of social engineering: how viruses bypass security precautions by tricking you into letting them in.

The Skype and Yahoo Messenger worms distribute themselves via messages like  “Does my new hairstyle look good? bad? perfect?” and “My printer is about to be thrown through a window if this pic won’t come our right. You see anything wrong with it?” The accompanying link appears to point to an innocent jpg, but when you click on it you are actually running the worm.

Don’t confuse social engineering with social networking. Social networking means interactive Web 2.0 sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter. Social engineering is the art of tricking you into installing viruses or malware on your computer. PC and Mac users alike can be drawn in by social engineering scams.

Social engineering is a common tactic used by viruses and malware. The Twitter worm we discussed in February uses direct messages to entice users into visiting a pseudo-Twitter login page that harvests login credentials. Scams like the faux Facebook Update arrive via email, and contain links to malicious web sites. Rogue antivirus software is all about social engineering: make users think their computers are infected with viruses that can only be removed by purchasing the fake software.

How do you avoid social engineering scams?

• Links can look legitimate when they’re not. For example, I can spoof a link that says: http://support.microsoft.com. Now, before you click that, mouse over it without clicking and look at the status bar at the bottom of your web browser. (If you don’t see the status bar, go to the View menu and make sure Status Bar is checked. It may be under the Toolbars sub-menu.) You’ll note that the status bar reveals the true destination. In this case I used a safe example: my Tech Tips blog. But you can see how links can easily be redirected. The status bar trick works in email, too. It’s not foolproof (the status bar contents can be spoofed as well), but it is a good place to start.
• If you get a message from someone, try doing a web search on the text of the message to see if it’s a known scam. For example, with the Skype and Yahoo Messenger trick, a quick search for “Does my new hairstyle look good? bad? perfect?” reveals news of the worm, especially if you pair the search with the word “virus.”
• Don’t let your software protections lull you into a false sense of security. Yes, you need to run good security software and keep it up to date, but the point of social engineering is to get you to click, thus bypassing your protections.
• And, as always: when in doubt, don’t click.

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My column in today’s Northwest Herald is Plenty Of Risks, Rewards With Cloud Computing. I’ve discussed cloud computing before here on Tech Tips, and today I’d like to give you some tips on how you can mitigate potential risks. These rules apply equally well to data that resides on a local server in your office.

Don’t forget, if you subscribe to my Tech Tips email newsletter you’ll receive tips like these, plus tech support tricks and other ways you can get the most out of your PC or Mac computer. Click here to subscribe or send email to techtips-request-at-guidryconsulting-dot-com, subject “subscribe”.

• As with any Internet account, use strong, unique passwords for every member of your group, and make sure those passwords are not shared with anyone.
• Evaluate your cloud computing options and look for one that not only meets your needs, but has clearly defined security policies.
• Establish rules for your employees or project partners. Are there certain kinds of data that should not go in the cloud?
• Configure your cloud computing environment so that access to data is limited to only what is needed for each person. For example, an employee working on a particular project may not need access to every file.
• Be sure to disable cloud computing accounts if a person leaves or is no longer needed on the project.