Triona's Tech Tips

My tech column in today’s Northwest Herald is about how to protect your passwords and your privacy on the Internet. Remember, to create strong passwords:

• 6 to 12 characters in length
• Mix of lower- and uppercase letters and numbers
• Symbols if allowed
• Not easily identifiable (your spouse, your kids, your dog)
• Create a passphrase
  • fourscore and seven years ago = 4Score&7Yrs (don’t use this one!)
• Different password for every account
• Change your passwords regularly, at least every 3 months
• Don’t re-use or cycle through the same set of passwords
• You can write them down, but keep them in a safe place

No one is immune to having their accounts compromised, and weak passwords are often the method. So take some time this weekend to secure your world by setting strong, unique passwords for all of your accounts.

Here are links to the resources I mentioned in the article (they’re all free):

• About the Twitter worm
• KeePass password manager, available for Windows, Mac, and smart phones
• ExpandURL for expanding shortened links
• McAfee SiteAdvisor
  • and, in a similar vein, LinkExtend for Firefox

If you found this information helpful, sign up for my free Tech Tips newsletter and continue to learn how to 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”.

Next week I’m offering free previews of my Social Networking and Internet Safety For Kids classes with the Cary Park District. The free preview of Social Networking will be held Thursday, February 4th, 2010 from 9:00am-9:30am at the Park District Community Center, 255 Briargate Rd. in Cary, Illinois. The free preview of Internet Safety For Kids will be held Saturday, February 6th, 2010 from 9:00am-9:30am. Registration is not required for these free previews. For more information or to register for the full classes, contact the Cary Park District at (847) 639-6100 or www.carypark.com.

Click here to see the other computer classes I have available. If you are interested in a class but don’t see it here, contact me. With enough interest I can set up additional sessions of any of my classes. I can also work with you one-on-one.

Social Networking
Sponsored by the Cary Park District
Next session TBA

Have you been asked to get LinkedIn? Can you make business contacts through Facebook or MySpace? Should you Twitter your business? Learn the answers to these questions and more. Computers are not required, but you may bring a laptop for hands-on instruction.

Internet Safety For Kids And Tweens (ages 5 years-adult)
Sponsored by the Cary Park District
Monday, February 15, 2010, 9:30am-10:30am

Learn how kids can use the Internet safely by covering age-appropriate skills and talking about online stranger danger. Review basic skills, talk about ways to use technology with less risk and take a quiz to test your knowledge. Parents are welcome to enroll in this program with their kids. Computers are not required, but you may bring a laptop for hands-on instruction.

You’ve bitten the social networking bullet, and now you’re on sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Concerned about security? You should be.

Social networking sites are designed to share information, not keep it private. Even with changes such as the much-touted Facebook privacy settings, anything you put on the Internet can potentially be seen.

But this can be to your advantage, especially if you’re marketing your business. News about services or products is information you want to share. Be sure that your posts are timely, concise and above all, relevant. Nobody cares if you had cornflakes for breakfast or that you just put your socks on. The more topical and informative your message, the more followers (and business!) you’ll receive.

I strongly recommend that you avoid posting personal information, no matter what your security settings are. That includes pictures of your children or vacation plans. But by all means, post information that you want disseminated. Why not let the Internet’s viral tendencies work for you?

For more information, join me for my class on Social Networking on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010, from 9:30am-11:30am at the Cary Park District.

Your free email subscription to Tech Tips includes bonus tips, tricks and product reviews. Through January 31, 2010, new subscibers will also receive a special gift: my IT Business Continuity Checklist. Click here to subscribe or send email to techtips-request-at-guidryconsulting-dot-com, subject “subscribe”.

The Internet is abuzz with talk of the new Facebook privacy settings. But what does this mean to you, the average Facebook user?

It means you’d better go through your profile and make sure that everything is set the way you want it to be. While Facebook says the new rules increase privacy, you may find more of your settings exposed.

Forget the Transition Tool and go straight to the source. From Facebook, click on Settings in the upper right-hand corner, then Privacy from the pop-up menu. Then go through each section to check your settings. I recommend you set everything to Friends Only unless there are specific things you want to share with the entire Internet, like perhaps your web site if you run a business. You can preview your profile to see how it looks to others. Sophos has some good advice about Facebook security you should take to heart.

This is even more important now that major search engines like Google and Bing are scrambling to include updates from social networking sites including Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. What that means is that anything you put online could end up in a search engine and plastered across the Internet.

If I were you, I would consider social networking sites like cocktail parties. Anybody might overhear what you say, and it could easily end up front-page news tomorrow.

And while you’re at it, for heaven’s sake use different, secure passwords for each of your online profiles. If you don’t, you’re practically begging for someone to compromise your account. Through December 31st, new subscribers to my Tech Tips email list will receive my tip sheet on Creating Strong Passwords. Click here to sign up.

Join me for a free seminar on Social Networking: Marketing Your Business Online, sponsored by the Business Networking Group. The seminar will be held Friday, December 11, 2009 from 7:30am-8:30am at Grandma V’s Restaurant, Routes 176 and 45 in Mundelein, Illinois.

Have you been asked to get LinkedIn? Can you make business contacts through Facebook or MySpace? Should you Twitter your business? We will discuss how these social networking tools can help you develop new referrals and open new markets for your business.

For more information visit the Business Networking Group web site, or see my computer class schedule. Hope to see you there!

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the email version of Tech Tips for bonus tips, tricks and product reviews. Through December 31st, 2009, new subscribers will receive a special gift: my tip sheet on Creating Strong Passwords (PDF). Just click here to sign up.

A lot of “Facebook update” scams are going around. These are emails designed to entice you into clicking links to malicious sites, thus divulging your login credentials and possibly infecting your computer with viruses and malware. I received several of these scams in a batch of legitimate Facebook emails, so I thought I’d dissect one for you so you can tell the difference.

The tactics used here are the same as the ones used by the fake Microsoft security bulletins I mentioned before. Again, the idea is to make you think the message is real when you are really being redirected to a bogus and potentially dangerous site.

First, note the use of the Facebook logo, fonts, and colors. The scam message looks almost identical to a real Facebook announcement, down to the mailing address at the bottom of the message. The trick is to mouse over the link WITHOUT clicking on it, and look in the status bar at the address to which you are being directed. In this case you can see you’re being sent, not to facebook.com, but to a scam site that may be waiting to harvest your login credentials or infect your computer.

If you receive a Facebook update, go directly to the Facebook site by typing www.facebook.com in your Web browser. You’ll be able to see your updates there and respond to them.

Remember, these scams are not limited to Facebook. Every social networking site, including LinkedIn, Twitter, and all the rest, are vulnerable to these sorts of tricks.

A final note of caution: Don’t friend anyone on a social networking site unless you’re certain you know who they are. A good rule of thumb is to view their profile to see if you have any friends in common, or to Google the person to see if they’re real. There are fake profiles out there which exist only to friend you and thus have access to your privately-posted information.

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the email version of Tech Tips for bonus tips, tricks and product reviews. Through December 1st, 2009, new subscribers will receive a special gift: my Ten-Step Computer Troubleshooter (PDF). Just click here to sign up.

Social networking sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook, and MySpace have become wildly popular for both personal and business use. But whether you use Windows or Mac, there are some risks. Social networking sites do not guarantee your safety, so it’s up to you to protect yourself.

Fake profiles are often used to deliver viruses and scareware. They lure you in with a realistic-looking personal profile in order to get you to click links to malicious sites. Don’t accept “friend” invitations unless you actually know the person or can verify who he or she is, and restrict your profile so that only your friends can see it.

Scammers also break into social networking accounts to steal personal information and send spam to your contacts. Use strong passwords (see my PDF tip sheet), encourage your friends to do the same, and check your security protections to make sure they are current and working properly.

Similarly, phishing scams may use information from your social networking profile to send you spam emails. By targeting you with specific information, such emails are harder to detect. Again, use good security practices and practice your anti-phishing skills with tests like this one from SonicWall.

Fake advertising, or malvertizing, uses realistic-looking ads to get you to click on sites that will infect you with viruses. These ads are often served by third parties and not necessarily by the social networking site. We’ve seen this before where news sites are infected with bad ads. Be wary of any advertisement offered to you, even if it’s on a legitimate site.

Real-life criminals are also using social networking sites to their advantage. Burglars are using them to find out more about who you are and where you live, and even when you’ll be on vacation. Be cautious about sharing pictures or information about yourself and your family online.

Another way to avoid problems is to expand short addresses before clicking. Twitter users often abbreviate using services like tinyurl.com or bit.ly, but such abbreviations can hide malicious sites. Use a program like ExpandMyURL or UnTiny to expand those abbreviations, plus McAfee SiteAdvisor or LinkExtend for Firefox to check out the expanded sites before you click on them.

Subscribe FREE to the email version of Tech Tips between now and October 14, 2009 and I’ll send your special gift: a tip sheet on Computer Housekeeping for PC and Mac.