Amazing

More information on the clock

On Facebook?  Watch what you click and don’t fall for scams.  Recently I saw Facebook Security had posted to my wall.   But I knew a friend was hacked.  How?  When you use Facebook, you will see associated friends in the top right corner.  In fact Facebook Security and I had 24 mutual friends.  So I knew instantly.

If you see an email or a name on your wall that says Facebook Security, hover your mouse DON’T CLICK on the name Facebook Security (this is the fake name they will be using and not just in email). If you look in the lower left corner of your screen you will see your real friend’s name that has been hacked. Call them and let them know. Do NOT Communicate with them on Facebook! You can be talking to the hacker…

Here’s some rules and tips!

• Don’t list your phone number and personal information
• Don’t take pictures of valuables (they may be in the background of your pictures)
• Don’t announce vacations or trips
• Don’t check in at coffee shops, theaters, or other places (you are telling whoever that you are not home)
• Set your profile to private
• Don’t leave your account logged on
• Don’t accept anyone as a friend
• Don’t post pictures that may embarrass you later
• Don’t give information about what school you attend or the hours (limit the information)
• Don’t let your license plate appear in pictures
• Only let true friends post to your wall (limit it under privacy settings)
• Don’t post questionable materials  or other articles that may be considered offensive (use common sense)
• Keep your antivirus up-to-date
• Don’t click on any link you don’t know where it goes -including tagged  pictures
• Use a complex password
• Don’t vent your feelings on Facebook
• Don’t allow public search engines to index you (under privacy settings)
• Use two part authentication
• Don’t talk about work unless it is positive and public information
• Avoid games that may be from a malicious programmer – games that ask about favorite characters or quiz you and reveal information about you

There are tons of other privacy items you have to worry about.  Think about it this way.  You meet someone in the mall and you have never met them before.  Do you give them all of your information?  Are they your friend after one meeting?  Would you give them your cell number?

Do you have a tip?

The REAL Facebook Security

“When you begin college, you are probably on your own for the first time. You are taking on new responsibilities, making your own decisions, and becoming part of the campus community. There is an important role that you can play in your college’s cybersecurity efforts that combines these elements of responsibility, decision-making, and community.”  StaySafeOnline

TTC Shelbyville supports the National Cyber Security Alliance and has once again submitted to be a partner (2011 NCSAM Champions) under the National Cyber Security Alliance.

Get Involved!

Ever wanted to visit the inside of your computer but you were too scared?  Link This virtual computer tour not only takes you through your computer, but gives you a small video on what the inner workings do.  Go check it out.

Rick over at What’s on My PC  has found a great link for everyone that show’s an animated guide to building a computer.  This GEM will be used in class. Excellent Find!  The graphics are just unreal.   If you select a processor, it zooms to the case, into the case, removes the heatsink and fan and shows the processor flipping out.   Awesome.

Earlier this year I showed you how to convert your blog into a pdf that could be printed as a book or downloaded as a pdf.  By using BlogBooker, you can export your WordPress blog as an xml and BlogBooker converts it to a pdf where self publishing companies can publish it.

Now you can use BlogBooker and make your blog into a pdf and upload it to Epub2Go and convert it to an Epub.  Why Epub? So that iPhones, iPads, Kindles and others can read your blog as a book. (PDF files must be <30 mb.)

To read an ePub with an iPhone.  Simple, download Stanza for free.

or try 2EPUB if the file is complex (supports up to 20 mb files)

ePub format checker

Want to read it with Windows, Mac or Linux?  Try Calibre.

Want to read ePub books on your iPad, iPhone or iPod?  Use Stanza.

Lenovo’s new ThinkPad Tablet flips the “consumerization of IT” paradigm by adding business-class capabilities, says eWEEK Labs analysts. Features include management software, full-size peripheral connectors and an optional digitizer pen. The 10.1-inch Android device offers an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core chip, and applications are bright and clear.  Read more on eWeek

While not necessarily a surprise, secure email is a huge problem for enterprises. In a survey of how people use email shows that employees may be a bit too loose with their email use when it comes to sensitive and protected information, according to secure messaging service provider VaporStream. Of course, the results play into the services the messaging provider offers, but the results are nonetheless scary for any business–especially those in regulated industries.Users Still Careless With Email – security Blog.

 

 

Android took over the smartphone landscape several months ago, and since then, it is like the platform has kicked in the turbo chargers. During the last three months, Google’s mobile darling captured 56% of the market on its own, with Apple’s iOS coming in a distant second with 28%.Android Adoption Twice That Of iOS – mobility Blog.

Thanks Rick for this great tip!

Rick at What’s On My PC explains how to use your browser to check a website for maleware….read more.

How much energy is your computer using?  Is your power supply adequate?

|MG| Universal USB Installer 1.8.6.4 Download.

What is UEFI? Here’s an excellent article on what to expect and what UEFI does and how it works.  Extremetech

The new piece of malware hides inside a PDF file and delivers a backdoor that hides on the user’s machine once the malicious file is opened. Once the user executes the malware, it puts the malicious PDF on the user’s machine and then opens it as a way to hide the malicious activity that’s going on in the background, according to an analysis by researchers at F-Secure. The Trojan then installs the backdoor, which is named Imuler.A, which attempts to communicate with a command-and-control server. Read more (Shared) 

New Mac OS X Trojan Imuler Hides Inside Malicious PDF.

After reading all of the negative comments on Windows 8, I too began to believe the media and coverage of how Windows 8 was too little too late.   Working in education, I am exposed to the latest in technology with mobile computing.   Our recent article “Motorola Xoom, iPads, Google Docs and Microsoft Office“ discusses who should be using mobile computing and the insanity of finding applications that are equivalent to programs we use in business and industry.   Mobile computing in its present form is more of a toy that you can check email and end users struggle to find ways (applications or developing applications) to use the devices in a production environment.   (The learn programming in 5 minutes sites and books have been around forever and no you can’t truly create applications in 5 minutes – sounds negative but is the truth.)

Last week we downloaded Windows 8 to a computer with a touch screen to see how tablet computing would be with Windows 8.   The metro menu we could see would be no different than iPad or Android’s application icons.   You HAVE TO VISUALIZE it being on a tablet.    So we decided to experiment.   We laid out an iPad, a Xoom and had Windows 8 available.   Users loved Windows 8.    After they saw they could instantly touch the desktop icon and get a desktop that looked like Windows 7 and Office was available, their network, email and their programs they used on a daily basis,  they asked when it would be available in a tablet form.   When asked if they would prefer it to their iPad or Android, they said yes.

So is this a anti-iPad or anti-Android post.   No- Windows 8 will keep IT from reinventing the wheel and can save users and managers time from developing applications (apps) or finding applications that are truly useful.   The part I like about Windows 8?  The native environment you are working in will remain the same (actually better when Windows 8 tablets are added to the work environment).   We are using iPads throughout or organization along with Xooms.   We love the technology and the use of these tablets have saved time in certain situations.

We will be adding pictures and a how to on Windows 8 over the next week.

Heard of Server 8?

Read Write Web has an excellent series on this new server and how the cloud will be implemented into this OS.

“When you begin college, you are probably on your own for the first time. You are taking on new responsibilities, making your own decisions, and becoming part of the campus community. There is an important role that you can play in your college’s cybersecurity efforts that combines these elements of responsibility, decision-making, and community.

You use your computer almost daily, for homework, research, social networking, online purchases, and more…”   Read More

TTC Shelbyville supports the National Cyber Security Alliance and has once again submitted to be a partner (2011 NCSAM Champions) under the National Cyber Security Alliance.

Get Involved!

• Businesses
• College Administrators
• Community-Based Organizations
• K-12 Educators and Administrators
• Faith-Based Organizations
• Home Users
• Libraries
• Local Government
• Local Law Enforcement
• Victims’ Services Organizations

Resources for students

Stay safe online videos

Department of Homeland Security Information

Stop – Think – Connect

Tips – Resources and Documents

Check your computer for viruses or malware:

AOL Computer Checkup

Audit My PC

BitDefender

CA Technologies

ESET Online Scanner

Kaspersky Virus Scanner

McAfee Security Scan

Panda Security Antivirus Scan

Qualys Browser Check

QualysGuard Malware Detection

Symantec Security Check

TrendMicro HouseCall Virus Scan

Webroot Spy Sweeper

Windows Live

With Facebook’s latest changes, many people are experiencing bandwidth issues and their page has become slow because of the ‘live’ ticker. If you want to hide the ticker, download Google Chrome and apply this extension to Chrome.

With the live feed of comments and having all of your friends subscribed to you, every like or comment is bouncing through your Facebook and on other friends’ pages.   You can go through one by one after clicking on the link below and slowly work your way down from friend to friend and slowly uncheck likes and comments.

Subscriber information

So with larger pictures and a live feed, many users are complaining about bandwidth.   Where I live (rural) we only have 1 meg down.   Even friends with 3 and 6 meg down, are reporting extreme hesitations and latency problems.    A simple solution for Facebook programmers.   Options to view thumbnails only on picture postings and a simple enable or disable for the live feed.     Problem solved.

Some links that may be helpful -

Help Center

Mobile Troubleshooting

Safety

Known Issues (Lost photos, login problems, etc.)

Computer hardware and memory charts can be found on Geekologie. An excellent resource for identifying computer hardware.

D. Babian, GSAE

When tweaking your computer, you can use typical utilities found in one of our most active posts or you can use Winsat.   Winsat will not give you fancy graphs but it will give a Windows rating and a time to complete specific tests.  This can be a way of measuring your drives between tweaks.

At a command prompt run the following tweak as an administrator:

winsat disk -drive c                 (you can substitute c with the drive letter of your choice)