September 30, 2010

Your Facebook Status Can Come Back to Bite You.

Your Facebook Status Can Come Back to Bite You.

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, your blog… these and countless other websites and social networking hubs share one thing in common, and that is each one of them lets it’s users write and promote their current status. That status is usually something relatively innocuous: What a person is having for lunch, what they did the night before, or maybe even some LOLcat links.

These kind of status updates aren’t a problem, but as we become more used to posting the details of our daily lives there’s an inherent danger in over-exposing ourselves, our family, or our jobs to the public. From something as simple TMI to talkin’ trash, there are many degrees of “you shouldn’t post that online”. Here are a few standouts:

  • Zip your lip about work.

    Nothing online gets you fired faster or in hot water easier than leaking sensitive company information, trash talkin’ about your boss, or revealing co-worker secrets. Leave work stuff at work, and keep personal stuff personal.

  • Keep kids out of sight!

    Keep any info about your kids as much out of the public view as possible. Don’t use Foursquare from their school (do you really want the mayorship of a school, anyhow?!), don’t use their last names in blog posts, and make sure that pictures of them don’t have identifiable info in the background like street addresses and things of that nature.

  • Travel first, tweet later.

    Going on a vacation? Great! Just be sure to blog, tweet, or leave a comment online about it after the fact. Online criminals are looking for empty houses from the comfort of their homes instead of casing neighborhoods, so don’t blog yourself into an empty house. Do a post-trip post if you must, so that you’re not dangling fresh bait in front of the bad guys.

  • Who’s looking at your stuff?

    You constantly hear about how some online service is having troubles with their privacy settings, or is changing how things work. Make it a point to re-check your viewing permissions and be sure to set them so that only people who you want to see your profile can see you.

Bottom line? Be careful what you post. What your write as your Facebook (Twitter, blog, etc.) status can come back to bite you in a big way.

Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/rishibando/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

If you're looking for great anti-virus software that won't break the bank, try StopSign. You don't pay extra for tech support for difficult malware, and our web protection software just works. Download & install StopSign to find out why our members choose us over the other options.

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September 16, 2010

Internet Safety Tips from Someone Else.

Internet Safety Tips from Someone Else.

I was having a lovely morning on the StopSign Twitter account yesterday, checking out tweets, when I ran across the link to a great blog post over at MamaKatsLosinIt.com about Internet safety and how a simple email really shook up the site owner, Kathy, and made her reevaluate how much information she shares online.

I won’t ruin any surprises for you by giving you specifics (you really should read her blog post), but suffice to say that even the best of us slip up and let personally identifiable information slip out of our hands and onto the Web. They key, however, is not to live in a world of fear and never post again. In fact, in the post she says “I refuse to live in fear of what could happen.”, which is a great attitude to have. Instead, Kathy’s post reminds us to be ever-vigilant about keeping things like our full names, home addresses, and other places would-be bad guys may be interested in off the web. Make it hard for them to track you down.

At the end of the post, Kathy said she was going to use the weekend to look for anything with her last name, her address (even in pictures, as we’ve mentioned in our blog post “Staying Safe Online (and Offline)”), and anything else that might identify her or her family. I really loved this idea, and I went home and did the same thing myself that night. I suggest you take Kathy’s suggestion and do the same.

Image used with permission by mamakatslosinit.com

If you're looking for great anti-virus software that won't break the bank, try StopSign. You don't pay extra for tech support for difficult malware, and our web protection software just works. Download & install StopSign to find out why our members choose us over the other options.

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July 1, 2010

Internet Facts (Take Them with a Grain of Salt)

Internet Facts (Take Them with a Grain of Salt)

The best thing about the Internet is that anyone can write anything on any topic and be heard around the world at the click of a button. Of course, that’s arguably also the worst thing about the Internet. 🙂

The “Wild West” nature of the web can make it challenging to find unbiased information on a variety of subjects. Your friends on Twitter say one thing, Facebook friends maybe another. And that guy on that forum? He thinks they’re both wacky. Add a few Google searches on top of it and who knows what to think?! That’s the Internet, for better or for worse. But at least we’ve got options, right?

If you’re having problems navigating through your research online, try a few of these ideas. They just might help you uncover a treasure trove of information.

  • Use multiple sources:

    Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket by only reading one website for information. Find 2, 3, maybe even 20 sources… whatever it takes to get as many angles as possible. From there you can make up your own mind based on everything you read.

  • Do offline research:

    Newspapers, trade magazines, encyclopedias; sometimes in our digital world we forget that reference books and periodicals exist. (Or dare we say, the library!) They may seem like a a dying breed, but you can still find them all around your town, and they’ve got lots of information you can use. And most of the time they’ve been edited, unlike the Internet. (Haha)

  • Ask an expert:

    Local colleges, professional organizations, and government offices usually have an information desk of some kind. If you’re looking for information on something in a particular field, see if you can find a human expert who will help you out, or at least point you in the right direction. It’s better than going it alone.

Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/stlbites/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

If you're looking for great anti-virus software that won't break the bank, try StopSign. You don't pay extra for tech support for difficult malware, and our web protection software just works. Download & install StopSign to find out why our members choose us over the other options.

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February 2, 2010

Bionic Passwords: Better, Stronger, and Faster.

Bionic Passwords: Better, Stronger, and Faster.

OK, we can’t get your passwords to become faster, but certainly we can give you tips on how to make them better and stronger (read: harder to break). Our last post on passwords gave a lot of information on how good passwords can be easily created, and we’ve come up with more ideas for you to secure your passwords.

A strong password is the first line of defense against anyone who would want to break into your account, so the tougher you make it on them, the less likely it will be that they get what they want. Use these tips to create a bionic password that will make it tougher to crack.

  • Get creative with words:

    You can get a lot of traction out of one word if you can figure out different ways to use it in your password. For example the word “crystal” is pretty clear (pun intended), but you can muddy it up a bit by doing things like removing all vowels, changing how it’s spelled, or reversing certain letters. Examples include “crstl”, “krYs+al”, and “ltsrc” (the first one, only backwards). Mix that up with another word to increase the length of the password and you’ll be good to go.

  • The same word, only different:

    Maybe you like birds, and your favorite bird is the Pine Grosbeak bullfinch. Well, as we all know (sarcasm) the genus for those birds is “Pinicola”. Maybe you also happen to love Coca-Cola. You take out the “cola”, insert “Coke”, and now you have a 2-word password that’s easy to remember: “PiniCoke”. Substitute some of the characters to something like this: “p1niCok3” and you’re good to go.

  • Don’t use common number patterns:

    Your phone number, street address, even your jersey number from the high school football team… these are all very bad things to use in a password as they are. If you plan on using one of them, be sure to mix things up. If you live on 1313 Mockingbird Lane (Quick… what TV show is that address from? The first person to comment on the blog with the right answer gets a free year of StopSign.), you could use the street number like this: “+h1rT3en13”.

  • Mix it up:

    Using only alpha-characters or only numbers isn’t a very good idea for a password at all. Your password is a digital cocktail. Mix. It. Up. If a decent password is made up of 8 or more characters, you should try to use at least 2 numbers and one non-alphanumeric character (a hash symbol “#”, an exclamation mark “!”, etc.).

  • Use multiple passwords:

    Ideally you should have a unique password for every account that you have. Your home email, work email, computer login, bank account, Twitter… any account you have that requires a user name and password should have its own unique password.

These suggestions are not the end-all, be-all and we don’t necessarily advocate using every single password tip listed. But they can be food for thought when devising a new password. You’ve seen my repeated suggestion to mix things up, and that’s a big thing. Keep things fresh, get creative, and you’ll be far and away ahead of the pack when it comes to creating a strong (and difficult to crack) password.

Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/jase_n_tonic/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

If you're looking for great anti-virus software that won't break the bank, try StopSign. You don't pay extra for tech support for difficult malware, and our web protection software just works. Download & install StopSign to find out why our members choose us over the other options.

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January 29, 2010

The Week in Review for 01-29-2010.

Here are a few selected RT‘s and assorted information from the StopSign Twitter account you may have missed this week. Did we miss anything? Please let us know by leaving a comment below.

And here’s a StopSign blog post we talked about on Twitter, too…

  • We released a new blog article titled “7 Tips for Better Email Etiquette“. In it you’ll find ways to not only be courteous, but also to make sure that your point gets across.

Thanks for taking the time to check out our blog! We want to hear from you on the @stopsigntweets Twitter account and here on our blog, so don’t be afraid to ask us a question, give us some feedback or just say “Hi”.

If you're looking for great anti-virus software that won't break the bank, try StopSign. You don't pay extra for tech support for difficult malware, and our web protection software just works. Download & install StopSign to find out why our members choose us over the other options.

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January 22, 2010

The Week in Review for 01-22-2010.

Here are a few selected RT‘s and assorted information from the StopSign Twitter account you may have missed this week. Did we miss anything? Please let us know by leaving a comment below.

And here are a couple of StopSign blog posts we talked about on Twitter, too…

Have a great weekend, and keep those tweets coming! We’d love to hear from you on the @stopsigntweets Twitter account and here on our blog.

If you're looking for great anti-virus software that won't break the bank, try StopSign. You don't pay extra for tech support for difficult malware, and our web protection software just works. Download & install StopSign to find out why our members choose us over the other options.

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