Articles in Category: Security

How Do I Keep My Kids Safe from Internet Garbage?

There’s a lot of garbage on the internet, and it’s difficult to prevent your children from seeing it. There are tools to help and steps to take.

Use BitLocker to Bypass Potential Self-Encrypting Drive Vulnerabilities

Headlines to the contrary, it’s BitLocker to the rescue to protect yourself from some vulnerabilities discovered in drives providing hardware-based encryption.

How Can I Use a Password Manager for My Security Questions?

Password vaults are good at keeping track of passwords, but not answers to security questions. There is a technique you can use to help.

Don’t Lose Your Phone: Here’s What Can Happen (and How to Prepare)

Given how much we’ve come to rely on them, are you prepared to lose your mobile device?

BoxCryptor: Secure Your Data in the Cloud

Many online cloud storage providers encrypt your data — which means they can decrypt it themselves. BoxCryptor is a great solution to ensure that your online data remains private, regardless of how it’s stored.

How Can I Send a Document to Someone Securely?

Email is a fairly insecure media. There are many things that can go wrong when email gets delivered, and protecting yourself can be difficult.

What Can a Website I Visit Tell About Me?

Websites can collect a fair amount of information about you. Let’s look at what every website sees.

Can My ISP See What I’m Doing If I Use a Virtual Machine (VM)?

A VM doesn’t get you any additional privacy from your ISP… although it might be a convenience as part of a more complete solution.

VeraCrypt: Free Open Source Industrial Strength Encryption

VeraCrypt provides a solution for encrypting sensitive data — everything from portable, mountable volumes to entire hard disks.

How to Tell if Your Email, Computer, or Facebook Has Been Hacked

Unless a password’s been changed, it’s difficult for a typical user to tell if their computer or account has been hacked.

Download Your Facebook and Google Data

It’s a worthwhile exercise to download the data made available by Google and Facebook, if only to realize exactly what information is being kept.

I’ve Lost All My Passwords, What Do I Do?

Losing access to your password vault can be a major inconvenience. Fortunately, that’s all it needs to be, and there are ways to prevent even that.

How Do Websites Store Passwords Securely?

Effective website security is difficult, and often an afterthought. Not all sites or services store passwords securely.

How Did I Get Advertising About the Contents of an Email?

Sophisticated targeted ads can sometimes seem creepy. Here I explore how a few techniques work, and one I can’t explain at all.

What Is “Privilege Escalation” on a CPU?

Privilege is a fundamental concept in modern operating system design. We’ll explore what privilege means as used by the CPU when software runs.

What Do I Need to Do About Spectre and Meltdown?

Spectre and Meltdown sound scary. Here’s what you need to do, which is hopefully what you’re doing anyway, along with an attempt at an analogy.

How Do I Back Up LastPass?

It’s important to back up LastPass, because unexpected things happen. What you do with that backup, however, is critical.

Enable Two-Factor Authentication in LastPass

Your LastPass password vault is full of exceptionally important data. Add additional security with two-factor authentication.

Why Do Password-strength Meters Give Different Results?

Password-strength meters don’t always agree. My take is to avoid them completely.

What the Equifax Breach Means to You

One of the largest data breaches in history has left many wondering what to do next.

Why Don’t Anti-malware Tools Work Better?

It’s possible to get malware, even with anti-malware tools installed. Why the heck is that true?

Does a Lapsed Anti-malware Tool Leave an Open Door for Malware?

Letting your anti-malware subscription lapse is never a good idea. I’ll look at why that is, and available alternatives.

How Do I Know If My Computer Has Been Compromised?

You can’t rely on yourself as a malware detector. Learn how to be a malware avoider.

I’ve Been Told My Computer Has a Virus, But My Anti-Malware Program Doesn’t Remove It. What Do I Do?

Making sure your anti-virus program and its definition database are up-to-date is the best way to make sure it can recognize and remove viruses.

What’s the Difference Between a “Trojan Horse”, a “Worm”, and a “Virus”?

There are many different terms that relate to software with malicious intent. Ultimately, however, there’s only one you really need to know, and several things you need to do.

Google Remembers More than You Realize

Wherein we consider how much information we “give away” in our daily lives online.

Why Microsoft’s Response to the Windows Defender Zero Day was Spot-On

Microsoft’s response to the recent Windows Defender zero-day vulnerability was an example of how the system is supposed to work.

Sometimes the Threat Is in the Hardware

We spend a lot of time on software-related issues, but malicious activities and privacy violations can happen via hardware as well.

How Do I Encrypt a Hard Drive Using VeraCrypt?

VeraCrypt makes is easy to encrypt whole drives, making it safer to travel with your data. Here’s how to safely encrypt and then access your data.

How Do I Protect Myself from My ISP?

If you’re using an internet connection from a source you don’t trust, there are a few alternatives.

Offline Anti-Malware Tools

Sometimes, the best way to remove malware is to reboot your system and run a completely separate tool. I’ll list some of the most popular.

Windows Defender Offline in Windows 10

When malware prevents your anti-malware tools from working, the built-in Windows Defender Offline is your first line of defense.

What if My Security Software Vendor Gets Hacked?

It’s important to consciously choose which software and online services to trust – whether they are directly related to security or not.

Should I Accept My Security Software’s Recommendation of What to Remove?

Should you trust your security software to make the right recommendations? Typically, yes, as long as you’re using reputable software.

How Do I Encrypt a Disk?

Worried about your data if your computer goes missing? Whole-disk encryption can keep prying eyes out. I’ll show you simple, practical ways to encrypt your entire drive so your information stays safe even if your computer doesn’t.

Do I Need this Add-on Recommended by this Software Installation?

Many installers include offers of additional software packages. If you don’t pay attention, you could end up with software you don’t need or want.

Possible LastPass Phishing Vulnerability

News broke over the weekend regarding a potential phishing vulnerability that could lead you to give a hacker your Lastpass master password.

Is My ISP Calling Me to Clear Up My Problems with Windows?

In a brazen scam attempt, you may get a phone call from someone claiming to be your ISP or other service provider to “help” you with your Windows problems. Don’t fall for it.

How do I change my LastPass master password?

It’s not something we do often, but occasionally it’s important to be able to change your LastPass master password.

Removing a Redirect Virus

A redirect virus can fool your browser into going to malicious web sites without your knowledge. I’ll outline my experience detecting and removing one.

How Do I Give Someone a Laptop Without Including Access to My Accounts?

It’s not easy to give someone a laptop without giving them access to your personal accounts. Depending on intent and trust, there are steps you can take.

How Do I Remove a Website from My Computer?

How to remove a website from a computer is a common question, yet it actually doesn’t make sense – websites aren’t on your computer. I’ll look at what is.

How Do I Disable Remembered Passwords in My Browser?

Web browsers aren’t necessarily the most secure approach to saving your login passwords. I’ll show you how to disable the feature and clear out any previously remembered passwords in IE, Firefox and Chrome.

Do privacy apps really keep me private?

Privacy on the internet means different things to different people. I discuss three different privacy applications out there, explain what exactly each does, and offer some of my own thoughts.

Is anti-virus dead?

Anti-malware tools have never been 100% solutions – but, despite what we hear on the news, they are far from dead!

Can spyware see what you did before the spyware was installed?

When a hacker gets ahold of your computer they can do anything. Keeping them off is the best plan.

Is there software that allows someone to track my emails and texts?

The bad guys can do anything they want to your computer if they can gain access.

If we login to a site securely will our other activities be secure?

Once you are out of https pages you are out of encryption. But there is one good way to secure all your online activities.