Ask the Geek

Our computers have become a mainstay in our homes and offices, and we rely on them to perform well to keep the rest of our lives motoring along at peak efficiency as well. One of the most common problems people encounter with their computers has to do with their drivers. These tiny bits of software are responsible for many of the communication connections within our computer systems. When communication is hindered, the entire system can be affected. We have some tips to keep your computer in top health by keeping your drivers in top form.

Click Here To Download Your Drive Analyzer Report

First, make sure you perform periodic updates on your drivers. Just like the rest of your system, drivers need to be equipped with the latest and greatest technology to allow them to communicate effectively with the rest of your updated system. In some cases, you will know your driver is due for an update because your computer will slow down or a particular piece of hardware no longer works as well. However, it is best to perform updates before these types of problems arise, so maintaining a regular update schedule may be the best approach.

Next, make sure your system remains clean by removing unused and outdated drivers as necessary. Just like any other excess files cluttering your system, unused drivers can take up valuable computer space, which can slow down the performance of your system. If you have an automated driver program, this software will often remove these unwanted drivers automatically for you. For more about these programs, click here:

Click Here To Download Your Drive Analyzer Report

Keeping your drivers working at top capacity makes a big difference in the performance of your PC. You can handle these tasks manually or invest in an automated driver software program that can take care of these jobs for you. Check out this automated program here:

Click Here To Download Your Drive Analyzer Report

One of the things I come across all the time is the XP forgotten password problem. Running a close second is the router forgotten password. Well, there’s a handy password card you can get that will allow you to remember your passwords in the future.

Thanks to “A password reminder to carry with you” on the IT Trenches blog letting me know about this great little tool. This thing is a real winner for all those XP forgotten password issues. Now, when you get those calls like “I forgot my password for my ____,” you can give them something that allows them to write down password clues that are secure and also easily remembered.

You visit? http://passwordcard.org and it generates an unique credit card sized matrix like the one in the picture. Just pick a symbol, a color and a number of characters and you have a secure password. You have the option of creating a numbers-only area as well as including symbols into the mix, depending on the type of passwords or PINs you require. The default is upper/lowercase and numbers. If you lose your card you can get a duplicate by going to the site and entering the number that appears on the bottom of the card, so you might want to write that down and keep it in a safe place just in case.

There are several ways you can use the password card. The simplest way is to pick a symbol, color and sequence of characters from left to right as in the illustration. You would remember this, or write it down, as “spade green 8.” But notice that there are eight rows under each symbol. You could could choose the column under the diamond symbol and use the password JwdC4aGt. You’d write that down as “diamond down.” Reverse the order, and you might write it down as “diamond up.” In this case, the password would be tGa4CdwJ.

Have fun!

The Register – John Leyden
Posted in Malware, 6th April 2010 13:37 GMT

The security perils of PDF files have been further highlighted by new research illustrating how a manipulated file might be used to infect other PDF files on a system.

Jeremy Conway, an application security researcher at NitroSecurity, said the attack scenario he has discovered shows PDFs are “wormable”. Computer viruses are capable, by definition, of overwriting other files to spread. Conway’s research is chiefly notable for illustrating how a benign PDF file might become infected using features supported by PDF specification, not a software vulnerability as such, and without the use of external binaries or JavaScript. [Read more]

Now this is a cool Geek gadget!

From Popular Science:

A new electronic notepad may be lifelike, cheap and energy-efficient enough to replace those wasteful paper slips we still use for memos and grocery lists. The four-ounce Boogie Board runs for years on a single watch battery and, thanks to a novel use of the material inside ordinary computer screens, even mimics the feel of putting pen to paper.

[ Read Full Story ]

I’m going to get one, for sure!

You know how I preach about passwords? Well, here’s a password joke:

During a recent password audit at Bank Of Ireland it was found that Paddy O’Toole was using the following password:

MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofyBerlin

When asked why he had such a long password he replied: “Oi was told it had to be at least 8 characters long and include one capital!”

Cheers!

The Geek

P.S. See the post below this one to get your Geek Toolkit!

I want to take this opportunity to thank you once again for your generous support of Ask the Geek in 2009 and wish you a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Cheers!
The Geek

First of all, I want to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday season. I also want to thank you for being a loyal Ask the Geek subscriber. I hope you continue to find the site useful. You’ll be happy to know that in 2010, I’ll be making some major improvements to both the layout and the content, so stay tuned.

As you know, I cover all the costs to bring you Ask the Geek. My hosting, domain names and my mailing list management services aren’t free. Your generous donations have kept me going for the better part of five years and for that I am truly thankful. So, I want to give you a special opportunity.

Everyone who makes a donation of $20 or more to Ask the Geek between now and December 31st, 2009 will receive a 2GB flash drive loaded with literally hundreds of security, system maintenance and productivity tools that have been part of my Geek arsenal for more than five years. All of them are safe, proven, and malware-free. It would literally take you hundreds of hours to research and compile this collection on your own and I won’t be making this offer again, so jump on board while you can. Just hit that “Donate” button over there to the right and follow the instructions.

And don’t forget, “14 Golden Rules of Computer Security” will be released in January and will be free to my subscribers, so be sure to sign up to my list, whether or not you decide to donate.

Again, Happy Holidays and best wishes for a Safe, Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Cheers!

Ken “The Geek” Harthun

It isn’t getting any better on the Wild, Wild Web, despite state and federal government attempts to arrest and prosecute those responsible for electronically-perpetrated criminal acts. Spyware and malware of all kinds are increasingly more stealthy and difficult to remove thanks to rootkit technology. With the advent of Web 2.0 and its emphasis on sharing and collaboration through such social networking websites and services as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and the like, web-based attacks are more prevalent than ever. These sites are based on active, dynamic content and rely on special programs that run in your web browser to perform their magic. These programs can be modified by malicious hackers to steal your passwords, bank account information and virtually anything stored on your computer.

New laws have done little to deter or eliminate spammers, largely because many of them aren’t located in the United States. Despite the few high profile cases in the news, the truth is that few spammers are ever caught. Considering studies that show some spam campaigns can produce as much as $3.5 million in a year, it’s easy to see why today the spam problem is worse than ever–some estimates place the amount of spam email at 80% to 90% of all emails sent.

These days, everyone is at risk of falling victim to cyber-crime, even those of us who know and practice computer security on a daily basis. The average person who goes to the local big box electronics store and buys a PC or laptop for use at home is often lulled into a false sense of security because their purchase is bundled with some “security suite” by some big-name company. They go home, take everything out of the box, plug it all in and usually end up getting infected with all kinds of nasty things in very short order.

I put this book together in hopes that it will make a difference, however small, in how people look at computing and the Internet. Maybe it will save someone from the hardships of financial loss caused by using a compromised PC to access their bank and credit card accounts. Maybe it will save someone from having to pay a big bill to a technician to clean up a severely infected computer. Maybe, just maybe, it will help take some of the profit out of spam and malware. One can always hope.

At the very least, I hope that you, Dear Reader, find this information useful and that it helps make your computing experience more enjoyable.

Ken Harthun

Note: Any discussion of security, cyber- or otherwise, must be based on the concept of a security baseline – the bare security essentials without which all else is futile. The articles that follow assume that a good baseline already exists, whether the computer is just out of the box, or has been running for awhile What’s a good PC security baseline? I propose these four bare security essentials: “a NAT router; a good antivirus program; a good anti-malware program; and, a good software firewall.” These days antivirus, antimalware and a software firewall are usually combined into a single suite. I choose to align with Windows Secrets’ Security Baseline page: “a hardware firewall that’s built into your [NAT] router, security software that guards against all types of malware threats, a software-update service to ensure that your applications are patched against the latest exploits, and a secure browser.”–KH

I reported on Panda Cloud Antivirus back in June and July in my Security Corner posts, Panda’s Cloud Antivirus (Beta) is a Winner! and Panda’s CloudAntivirus Update.

I tested Panda Cloud Antivirus extensively on my systems while it was in beta and only recently switched to Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) for evaluation. Today, I’ll switch back to Panda on my older, slower system to compare performance of each one. I have noticed a slight performance degradation with MSE that was all but non-existent with Panda. Now that Panda Cloud Antivirus is out of beta, I can make a fair comparison which I will report on later. Check out the full report in this Security Corner post.