Today, more and more people are using their computers for everything from communication to online banking and investing to shopping. As we do these things on a more regular basis, we open ourselves up to potential hackers, attackers and crackers. While some may be looking to phish your personal information and identity for resale, others simply just want to use your computer as a platform from which to attack other unknowing targets. Below are a few easy, cost-effective steps you can take to make your computer more secure. 1. Always make backups of important information and store in a safe place separate from your computer. 2. Update and patch your operating system, web browser and software frequently. If you have a Windows operating system, start by going to www.windowsupdate.microsoft.com and running the update wizard. This program will help you find the latest patches for your Windows computer. Also go to www.officeupdate.microsoft.com to locate possible patches for your Office programs. 3. Install a firewall. Without a good firewall, viruses, worms, Trojans, malware and adware can all easily access your computer from the Internet. Consideration should be given to the benefits and differences between hardware and software based firewall programs. 4. Review your browser and email settings for optimum security. Why should you do this? Active-X and JavaScript are often used by hackers to plant malicious programs into your computers. While cookies are relatively harmless in terms of security concerns, they do still track your movements on the Internet to build a profile of you. At a minimum set your security setting for the “internet zone” to High, and your “trusted sites zone” to Medium Low. 5. Install antivirus software and set for automatic updates so that you receive the most current versions. 6. Do not open unknown email attachments. It is simply not enough that you may recognize the address from which it originates because many viruses can spread from a familiar address. 7. Do not run programs from unknown origins. Also, do not send these types of programs to friends and coworkers because they contain funny or amusing stories or jokes. They may contain a Trojans horse waiting to infect a computer. 8. Disable hidden filename extensions. By default, the Windows operating system is set to “hide file extensions for known file types”. Disable this option so that file extensions display in Windows. Some file extensions will, by default, continue to remain hidden, but you are more likely to see any unusual file extensions that do not belong. 9. Turn off your computer and disconnect from the network when not using the computer. A hacker can not attack your computer when you are disconnected from the network or the computer is off. 10. Consider making a boot disk on a floppy disk in case your computer is damaged or compromised by a malicious program. Obviously, you need to take this step before you experience a hostile breach of your system. If you will utilize these tips you can go a long way towards protecting yourself and your family. You may find as you grow in confidence with your computer that you have a need for a special program that will do just what you want and not just what the programmer thought. You may have an idea for the best computer security program but you cannot afford to hire programmers to do it for you. No matter what your idea is there is a solution. A program has been developed that will allow anyone to write their own program that can do just about anything. You will produce instant software. The program is easy to use and very quick. It is literally point and click and you will have your program. You will have your program up and running in just a few minutes. It can be as simple or involved as you want. Then it is your program and you then could sell it to others. What is this fantastic program called? “Wow-It”. Wow-It got its name because when people use it they quickly say: Wow it really is easy, Wow it really is quick, Wow it really works. And I did myself! On top of everything else, it is not expensive! Visit http://www.kwiksoftware.com and find out just exactly what you have been missing.

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software forRandy Shepperd is an author and computer consultant. Having found a simple and easy to use method for anyone to be able to program a solution to their problems, he wants to share it. More information can be found about Wow-It and many other programs at http://www.kwiksoftware.com

Who hasn’t received an email directing them to visit a familiar website where they are being asked to update their personal information? The website needs you to verify or update your passwords, credit card numbers, social security number, or even your bank account number. You recognize the business name as one that you’ve conducted business with in the past. So, you click on the convenient “take me there” link and proceed to provide all the information they have requested. Unfortunately, you find out much later that the website is bogus. It was created with the sole intent to steal your personal information. You, my friend, have just been “phished”. Phishing (pronounced as “fishing”) is defined as the act of sending an email to a recipient falsely claiming to have an established, legitimate business. The intent of the phisher is to scam the recipient into surrendering their private information, and ultimately steal your identity. It is not at easy as you think to spot an email phishing for information. At first glance, the email may look like it is from a legitimate company. The "From" field of the e-mail may have the .com address of the company mentioned in the e-mail. The clickable link even appears to take you to the company's website, when in fact, it is a fake website built to replicate the legitimate site. Many of these people are professional criminals. They have spent a lot of time in creating emails that look authentic. Users need to review all emails requesting personal information carefully. When reviewing your email remember that the "From Field" can be easily changed by the sender. While it may look like it is coming from a .com you do business with, looks can be deceiving. Also keep in mind that the phisher will go all out in trying to make their email look as legitimate as possible. They will even copy logos or images from the official site to use in their emails. Finally, they like to include a clickable link that the recipient can follow to conveniently update their information. A great way to check the legitimacy of the link is to point at the link with your mouse. Then, look in the bottom left hand screen of your computer. The actual website address to which you are being directed will show up for you to view. It is a very quick and easy way to check if you are being directed to a legitimate site. Finally, follow the golden rule. Never, ever, click the links within the text of the e-mail, and always delete the e-mail immediately. Once you have deleted the e-mail, empty the trash box in your e-mail accounts as well. If you are truly concerned that you are missing an important notice regarding one of your accounts, then type the full URL address of the website into your browser. At least then you can be confident that you are, in fact, being directed to the true and legitimate website. If you will utilize these tips you can go a long way towards protecting yourself and your family. You may find as you grow in confidence with your computer that you have a need for a special program that will do just what you want and not just what the programmer thought. You may have an idea for the best computer security program but you cannot afford to hire programmers to do it for you. No matter what your idea is there is a solution. A program has been developed that will allow anyone to write their own program that can do just about anything. You will produce instant software. The program is easy to use and very quick. It is literally point and click and you will have your program. You will have your program up and running in just a few minutes. It can be as simple or involved as you want. Then it is your program and you then could sell it to others. What is this fantastic program called? “Wow-It”. Wow-It got its name because when people use it they quickly say: Wow it really is easy, Wow it really is quick, Wow it really works. And I did myself! On top of everything else, it is not expensive! Visit http://www.kwiksoftware.com and find out just exactly what you have been missing.

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writing softwareRandy Shepperd is an author and computer consultant. Having found a simple and easy to use method for anyone to be able to program a solution to their problems, he wants to share it. More information can be found about Wow-It and many other programs at http://www.kwiksoftware.com

Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the U.S. The U.S. Secret Service has estimated that consumers nationwide lose $745 million to identity theft each year. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, the average victim spends 607 hours and averages $1,000 just to clear their credit records. Identity thieves employ a variety of methods to gain access to your personal information. They may get information from businesses or other institutions by stealing it; by bribing an employee who has access to records; hacking into records; or conning information out of employees. Once identity thieves have your personal information, they may use it to commit a fraud or theft in your name. How can you tell if you have become a victim of identity theft? Some signs include unexplained charges or withdrawals from your financial accounts; bills or other mail stop arriving (the thief may have submitted a change of address); a credit application is denied for no apparent reason, or debt collectors begin calling about merchandise or services you didn’t buy. Your computer can be a goldmine of personal information to an identity thief. To protect yourself and your computer against identity theft consider: * Updating virus protection software frequently. Consider setting your virus protection software to update automatically. The Windows XP operating system also can be set to check for patches automatically and download them to your computer. * Not opening files sent to you by strangers, clicking on hyperlinks, or downloading programs from people or companies you don’t know. * Using a firewall program, especially if you use a high speed Internet connection like cable or DSL that leaves your computer connected to the Internet 24 hours a day. * Providing your personal or financial information through an organization’s secured website only. While not fool proof, a lock icon on the browser’s status bar or a URL for a website that begins “https:” (the “s” stands for secure), may provide additional security. * Not storing your financial information on your laptop, unless absolutely necessary. * Deleting all the personal information stored on a computer before disposing of it. A wipe” utility program to overwrite the entire hard drive is recommended. * Checking with an anti-fraud education organization such as CardCops (www.cardcops.com). Card Cops runs a web site designed to help consumers determine whether their credit card numbers may have been stolen. They monitor Internet "chat rooms" where identity thieves illicitly trade and sell stolen credit card numbers. CardCops turns the information over to law enforcement authorities, but also allows consumers to access their database to see whether individual card numbers may have been stolen. In the first two months of operation, the site identified more than 100,000 stolen credit cards. As with any crime, you can not completely control whether you will become a victim, but you can take steps to minimize your risk by remaining diligent and by minimizing outside access to your personal information. If you will utilize these tips you can go a long way towards protecting yourself and your family. You may find as you grow in confidence with your computer that you have a need for a special program that will do just what you want and not just what the programmer thought. You may have an idea for the best computer security program but you cannot afford to hire programmers to do it for you. No matter what your idea is there is a solution. A program has been developed that will allow anyone to write their own program that can do just about anything. You will produce instant software. The program is easy to use and very quick. It is literally point and click and you will have your program. You will have your program up and running in just a few minutes. It can be as simple or involved as you want. Then it is your program and you then could sell it to others. What is this fantastic program called? “Wow-It”. Wow-It got its name because when people use it they quickly say: Wow it really is easy, Wow it really is quick, Wow it really works. And I did myself! On top of everything else, it is not expensive! Visit http://www.kwiksoftware.com and find out just exactly what you have been missing.

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software forRandy Shepperd is an author and computer consultant. Having found a simple and easy to use method for anyone to be able to program a solution to their problems, he wants to share it. More information can be found about Wow-It and many other programs at http://www.kwiksoftware.com

How prevalent is Spam? According to Scott McAdams, OMA Public Affairs and Communications Department (www.oma.org): “Studies show unsolicited or “junk” e-mail, known as spam, accounts for roughly half of all e-mail messages received. Although once regarded as little more than a nuisance, the prevalence of spam has increased to the point where many users have begun to express a general lack of confidence in the effectiveness of e-mail transmissions, and increased concern over the spread of computer viruses via unsolicited messages.” In 2003, President Bush signed the “Can Spam” bill, in December of 2003 which is the first national standards around bulk unsolicited commercial e-mail. The bill, approved by the Senate by a vote of 97 to 0, prohibits senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail from using false return addresses to disguise their identity (spoofing) and the use of dictionaries to generate such mailers. In addition, it prohibits the use of misleading subject lines and requires that emails include and opt-out mechanism. The legislation also prohibits senders from harvesting addresses off Web sites. Violations constitute a misdemeanor crime subject to up to one year in jail. One major point that needs to be discussed about this: spam is now coming from other countries in ever-greater numbers. These emails are harder to fight, because they come from outside our country’s laws and regulations. Because the Internet opens borders and thinks globally, these laws are fine and good, but do not stop the problem. So what do you do about this? Here are the top 5 things you should do to protect yourself from spam. Number 1: Do what you can to avoid having your email address out on the net. There are products called “spam spiders” that search the Internet for email addresses to send email to. If you are interested, do a search on “spam spider” and you will be amazed at what you get back. Interestingly, there is a site, WebPoison.org, which is an open source project geared to fight Internet "spambots" and "spam spiders", by giving them bogus HTML web pages, which contain bogus email addresses. A couple suggestions for you: a) use form emails, which can hide addresses or also b) use addresses like sales@company.com instead of your full address to help battle the problem. c) There are also programs that encode your email, like jsGuard, which encodes your email address on web pages so that while spam spiders find it difficult or impossible to read your email address. Number 2: Get spam blocking software. There are many programs out there for this. (go to www.cloudmark.com or www.mailwasher.net for example). You may also buy a professional version. Whatever you do, get the software. It will save you time. The software is not foolproof, but they really do help. You usually have to do some manual set up to block certain types of email. Number 3: Use the multiple email address approach. There are a lot of free email addresses to be had. If you must subscribe to newsletters, then have a “back-up” email address. It would be like giving your sell phone number to your best friends and the business number to everyone else. Number 4: Attachments from people you don’t know are BAD, BAD, BAD. A common problem with spam is that they have attachments and attachments can have viruses. Corporations often have filters that don’t let such things pass to you. Personal email is far more “open country” for spamers. General rule of thumb: if you do not know who is sending you something, DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT. Secondly, look for services that offer filtering. Firewall vendors offer this type of service as well. Number 5: Email services now have “bulk-mail” baskets. If what you use currently does not support this, think about moving to a new vender. The concept is simple. If you know someone, they can send you emails. If you don’t know them, put them in the bulk email pile and then “choose” to allow them into your circle. Spam Blocking software has this concept as well, but having extra layers seems critical these days, so it is worth looking into. If you will utilize these tips you can go a long way towards protecting yourself and your family. You may find as you grow in confidence with your computer that you have a need for a special program that will do just what you want and not just what the programmer thought. You may have an idea for the best computer security program but you cannot afford to hire programmers to do it for you. No matter what your idea is there is a solution. A program has been developed that will allow anyone to write their own program that can do just about anything. You will produce instant software. The program is easy to use and very quick. It is literally point and click and you will have your program. You will have your program up and running in just a few minutes. It can be as simple or involved as you want. Then it is your program and you then could sell it to others. What is this fantastic program called? “Wow-It”. Wow-It got its name because when people use it they quickly say: Wow it really is easy, Wow it really is quick, Wow it really works. And I did myself! On top of everything else, it is not expensive! Visit http://www.kwiksoftware.com and find out just exactly what you have been missing.

instant software

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writing softwareRandy Shepperd is an author and computer consultant. Having found a simple and easy to use method for anyone to be able to program a solution to their problems, he wants to share it. More information can be found about Wow-It and many other programs at http://www.kwiksoftware.com

Encryption and cryptographic software has been used in many different ways to make systems more secure. This article discusses only a few ways that such software can make your system more secure, including: 1) Encrypting your email 2) Encrypting your files To programs are mentioned that will help encrypt information. There are many more programs out there that will help, but these programs are good and a good place to start as any. They have the added benefit of both being free with source code available. Will encryption stop people from accessing my information? Encryption simply makes it harder for people to gain access to important information, like passwords or sensitive information in a file. The first thing you should know about encryption is that the algorithm that is used to encrypt can be simple or more complex and that affects how securely what you have encrypted is protected. Encryption systems have been broken when the method of encryption is understood by hackers and is easy to break. Why bother to encrypt my email? It should be noted that email is far less secure than paper mail for two very good reasons: first, electronic data can be accessed easily over an Internet and secondly, electronic data is really simple to copy. There is a very good chance that someone has snooped around in your email despite your best intentions to stop it. How do I go about encrypting my email? There are many programs out there that can help you encrypt your email. A very popular one is PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) or its Gnu offshoot GPG. PGP (http://www.pgpi.org/) self-describes itself this way: This "is a program that gives your electronic mail something that it otherwise doesn't have: Privacy. It does this by encrypting your mail so that nobody but the intended person can read it. When encrypted, the message looks like a meaningless jumble of random characters. PGP has proven itself quite capable of resisting even the most sophisticated forms of analysis aimed at reading the encrypted text." Why bother to encrypt my files? The answer to this boils down to what you store on your computer. If you have financial data with important information like social security numbers, email addresses, account numbers and passwords, then you open yourself up to losing very valuable information. Most corporate Internet security employees will attest to the widespread theft of very valuable information. As long as you are connected to the Internet you are vulnerable. How do I go about encrypting my files? AxCrypt File Encryption Software (http://axcrypt.sourceforge.net/) Self-described as "Free Personal Privacy and Security for Windows 98/ME/NT/2K/XP with AES-128 File Encryption, Compression and transparent Decrypt and Open in the original application." Finally! Fighting Spam How prevalent is Spam? According to Scott McAdams, OMA Public Affairs and Communications Department (www.oma.org): “Studies show unsolicited or “junk” e-mail, known as spam, accounts for roughly half of all e-mail messages received. Although once regarded as little more than a nuisance, the prevalence of spam has increased to the point where many users have begun to express a general lack of confidence in the effectiveness of e-mail transmissions, and increased concern over the spread of computer viruses via unsolicited messages.” In 2003, President Bush signed the “Can Spam” bill, in December of 2003 which is the first national standards around bulk unsolicited commercial e-mail. The bill, approved by the Senate by a vote of 97 to 0, prohibits senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail from using false return addresses to disguise their identity (spoofing) and the use of dictionaries to generate such mailers. In addition, it prohibits the use of misleading subject lines and requires that emails include and opt-out mechanism. The legislation also prohibits senders from harvesting addresses off Web sites. Violations constitute a misdemeanor crime subject to up to one year in jail. One major point that needs to be discussed about this: spam is now coming from other countries in ever-greater numbers. These emails are harder to fight, because they come from outside our country’s laws and regulations. Because the Internet opens borders and thinks globally, these laws are fine and good, but do not stop the problem. So what do you do about this? Her are the top 5 Rules to do to protect from spam. Number 1: Do what you can to avoid having your email address out on the net. There are products called “spam spiders” that search the Internet for email addresses to send email to. If you are interested, do a search on “spam spider” and you will be amazed at what you get back. Interestingly, there is a site, WebPoison.org, which is an open source project geared to fight Internet "spambots" and "spam spiders", by giving them bogus HTML web pages, which contain bogus email addresses A couple suggestions for you: a) use form emails, which can hide addresses or also b) use addresses like sales@company.com instead of your full address to help battle the problem. c) There are also programs that encode your email, like jsGuard, which encodes your email address on web pages so that while spam spiders find it difficult or impossible to read your email address. Number 2: Get spam blocking software. There are many programs out there for this. (go to www.cloudmark.com or www.mailwasher.net for example). You may also buy a professional version. Whatever you do, get the software. It will save you time. The software is not foolproof, but they really do help. You usually have to do some manual set up to block certain types of email. Number 3: Use the multiple email address approach. There are a lot of free email addresses to be had. If you must subscribe to newsletters, then have a “back-up” email address. It would be like giving your sell phone number to your best friends and the business number to everyone else. Number 4: Attachments from people you don’t know are BAD, BAD, BAD. A common problem with spam is that they have attachments and attachments can have viruses. Corporations often have filters that don’t let such things pass to you. Personal email is far more “open country” for spamers. General rule of thumb: if you do not know who is sending you something, DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT. Secondly, look for services that offer filtering. Firewall vendors offer this type of service as well. Number 5: Email services now have “bulk-mail” baskets. If what you use currently does not support this, think about moving to a new vender. The concept is simple. If you know someone, they can send you emails. If you don’t know them, put them in the bulk email pile and then “choose” to allow them into your circle. Spam Blocking software has this concept as well, but having extra layers seems critical these days, so it is worth looking into. If you will utilize these tips you can go a long way towards protecting yourself and your family. You may find as you grow in confidence with your computer that you have a need for a special program that will do just what you want and not just what the programmer thought. You may have an idea for the best computer security program but you cannot afford to hire programmers to do it for you. No matter what your idea is there is a solution. A program has been developed that will allow anyone to write their own program that can do just about anything. You will produce instant software. The program is easy to use and very quick. It is literally point and click and you will have your program. You will have your program up and running in just a few minutes. It can be as simple or involved as you want. Then it is your program and you then could sell it to others. What is this fantastic program called? “Wow-It”. Wow-It got its name because when people use it they quickly say: Wow it really is easy, Wow it really is quick, Wow it really works. And I did myself! On top of everything else, it is not expensive! Visit http://www.kwiksoftware.com and find out just exactly what you have been missing.

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writing software

writing softwareRandy Shepperd is an author and computer consultant. Having found a simple and easy to use method for anyone to be able to program a solution to their problems, he wants to share it. More information can be found about Wow-It and many other programs at http://www.kwiksoftware.com