Here’s what it looked like,

It’s much like the windows Scareware, it’ll ask you for money to remove non existent viruses

What to look out for is a popup much like this one, you’ll be surfing the web and this will popup full screen

and look like a normal finder window with links on the left hand side

If you do get such a message pop up on your Mac , don’t panic, don’t press OK.

Take your cursor straight up to the Apple icon on the top left and select Force Quit – Your browser, Safari Chrome Firefox whatever your using.

In doing this you’ll have not inadvertently installed anything by clicking a close box that a link or something along those lines.

Another good precaution to take if you’re a Safari user is to go into the preferences and disable ‘Open Safe files after downloading’

A good idea also is to get some Mac Antivirus (pains me to say it)

Sophos do a free one for Apple Mac which seems quite light on resources, it also detects windows viruses (windows viruses do not effect macs) which is handy.

Sophos Mac Antivirus

Unfortunately viruses on Mac are set to increase so we need to be bit more careful as Mac users these days.

DialaGeek Apple Mac Support Bristol

We discussed various topics, including the subjects covered on the blog here, this is a slightly cut down version (due to You Tube and it’s 15 Minute Limit).

Many thanks to Steve for inviting me in and making the the interview go well, I never realised what a skillful job interviewing is.

The topics covered are:

Password security

How to securely store your passwords

Dangers of open WiFi

What is backup?

How to setup a free safe surfing system

There is a great piece of software you can use that will securely remember all you passwords for your, allowing you to use longer passwords and different passwords on different sites.

The software is the aptly named LastPass

This small piece of software works in Windows and Apple Mac it also works on your iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android or Windows smartphone and keep them all synced up with each other.

I’ve been using this for around a year now and it it is very good, it means you can have long secure passwords, without having to remember them.

From a security standpoint is is secure, as long as you use a long master password, see here for a guide to making long secure passwords it is secure.

Another tip if you using it on a laptop, make sure you close Internet Explorer/Firefox/Chrome when you’ve finished using it and tick this checkbox below in the Lastpass preferences

If you interested (which you should be really) here’s what Lastpass has to say on security, this has also been verified by a well know security researcher.

1. All encryption and decryption happens on your computer.

When you use free WiFi without a password (find the network and just connect without asking for a password)

such as in coffee shops and other public places there are a few dangers that are good to be aware of.

If you are not on a secure website, anyone else with a bit of computer knowledge can see what you are looking at

When I say secure website this is one that uses https:// at the start. Banks use this all the time, Gmail uses this, when your checking out and entering your credit card details you should always see this. This means you have an encrypted SSL connection, which cannot be read by anyone else.

There currently is a problem that many sites such as Facebook, Hotmail (they now have an option to force https), Twitter and most other social networking sites many others are using https: when you login, then going back to http:// afterwards

This means that everything you do, all the pictures you look at or upload, details you write ect.. are in the air for anyone with some computer knowledge to look at. They could also login as you to your Facebook account.

When I say computer knowledge, this was true up to last week when now things have changed.

Last week some security researchers released a Firefox plugin called Firesheep, this plugin which is free to download (just Google ‘Firesheep’)

This plugin makes it very easy to login to other peoples accounts through an exploit known as Sidejacking

Sidejacking works in this way:

When you connect to Facebook for example you put in your username and password and Facebook issues you with a session Cookie. (a Cookie is a small file stored on your computer)

That cookie being on your computer tells Facebook who you are and that you logged in and authenticated.

The trouble is if you use a non secure http:// connection, that Cookie is going through the network unencrypted, so anyone else on that open WiFi can see it and copy it.

Once they have a copy of that Cookie on their computer, they can do all the things that you can do on your Facebook account, change your pictures, update your status or change your privacy settings.

Firesheep does this sidejacking automatically

The screenshot below (courtesy of the Firesheep author) shows what it looks like and how easy it is to use, just clicking on the profile picture logs you in to the Facebook page or Twitter account

How to protect yourself

1. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (an internet privacy advocate) have released a plugin for Firefox, called HTTPS Everywhere

This does as it says on the tin and enforces (where possible) https connections.

Other methods are to use a VPN, which encrypts all your connections.

If you currently run open WiFi network

If you have a coffee shop and run some open WiFi or WEP Encrypted (that’s not safe either), and you want to keep it open, my advice would be to change the encryption settings to WPA and make the password the same as the network name.

This would protect the users from this type of vulnerability as WPA stops this from happening.

Another good suggestion I heard was to make the SSID (network name) The Password is Watershed then nobody would need to ask what the password is.

And just to be clear this applies to open WiFi networks and WEP Encrypted networks,

Hope this helps,

Kind regards

Gildas Jones – www.dialageek.co.uk Computer Support for Bristol Call 0800 955 78 78

Apple Mac or PC, we come to your business or home and make your computers work.

Firefox is a web browser, the same as internet explorer the one that comes with your PC or laptop (the blue e icon above above)
Firefox has many advantages over Internet Explorer the two most prominent being

1. Firefox is more secure, by that I mean there is less chance of of a website installing malicious software on your computer when using Firefox.
2. Firefox is faster than internet explorer, web sites will load faster

What are the differences in terms of using it?

There are a couple of small differences, one being your Favourites are called Bookmarks and it looks slightly different

What does it cost?

It’s 100% free of charge it won’t cost you a penny.

Is it just for Geeks?

No, for everyone it’s very easy to use I promise, also if you don’t like it you can go right back to clicking on the blue e above.

How do i get it?

You can get it here

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

Tip on installing: It will ask you if you want to import you settings from internet explorer, select yes and then import your favorites and passwords.

The problem with letting the kids use the computer, apart from the sticky fingers is making sure they don’t see anything that is not age appropriate.

You’re sat with them looking at bmx videos or cartoons on YouTube, then the phone rings/door goes/sibling falls over,  you come back and he’s clicked on the handy next video suggestion….

Here’s where this great little piece of software comes in, it is called Kido’z, not a great name but a really good program,

It is a free program you install on your computer (works on Mac and PC) and creates a method for viewing only pre screened child friendly websites and YouTube videos.

To start off with you visit the Kido’z website (see the Kidoz link at the bottom of this page) and click the download link

Next you will be prompted to install Adobe Air and the program, Adobe Air is safe it’s a bit like flash player.

There wil be a pop up box asking if you want to open or install Kidoz, just click Install or open (install on PC, Open on a Mac)

Once running you will get a screen like this

Click continue and you’ll have to fill in some details, this will create your parental control account, I personally use the free account. there is a premium paid for version, which has some extra games etc.

Once the account has been created, you can login and you child can start using the program, it has a large number of websites already on there, all of which have been carefully checked so you can relax.

They also have YouTube videos these are arranged in channels, there is a classic cartoons channel also a Sesame St channel

One of the best points for me is the ability to add websites or YouTube content that know or have pre checked, this is good for 6 year olds to keep them interested and also add sites like CBBC game. To do this you’ll need to click on the login at the top left hand corner with the program

The next screen you’ll need to select ‘add a new website’

You’ll need to give it a title, and then copy and paste the web address into the next box, choose if you want to share it, then press save.

When you return to the childs screen there will be a button for my websites

There are loads of other features in the parental control such as password protecting the exit button, blocking any approved sites ect

It works on a Mac or PC,

I would say this is aimed at the under 10′s market, though a version for teenagers would be useful.

With all internet usage by children my general advice is to have the computer situated downstairs in a communal space, so you can keep an eye on it.

www.kidoz.net

November 2011: An Update on this post, recently Kidoz have changed their policy with the free edition after the trial, the cost is now £25 a year or £37.50 for a lifetime licence 

Gildas Jones

Computer support for Mac or PC, Business or Home in the Bristol area 0800 955 78 78

www.dialageek.co.uk

I often get asked questions on basic Internet security, so I thought I’d
offer a few bite size tips to make security simpler.

One area you can improve security greatly is by the use of secure passwords.

A secure password is a string of random characters such as ‘H)n%yLf]0Ht”‘
that includes symbols, uppercase and lowercase letters, and numbers.

Trying to remember separate random passwords or even one for all your online
accounts is virtually impossible.

HOW TO CREATE LONG MEMORABLE PASSWORDS

-Creating Passphrases-

This is a method I’ve found to be very effective which uses a sentence
instead of random characters.

Instead  of  ‘beano123′  (the  dogs  name  and  a  few  numbers),  try
‘takingbeanoforawalktoday123′

or even better, ‘longerpasswordthantheoldBeano123′

This method can be extended to other phrases. Maybe you have some goals
you’d like to attain in the near future for example:

‘Giveupsmokingafternewyear2009′ or ‘100%Fitterthanlastyear’

To increase the security of this method you can use bad spelling or made up
words. You can also add in other characters such as % ” ? @…

You won’t be asked to repeat it so you can put what you like for a phrase,
song lyrics, quotes.

The funnier or more outrageous, the more likely you are to remember it.

-Best practise with Passphrases-

To  be  fully  secure a Passphrase needs to be more than 4 words long,
preferably at least 6, and include uppercase letters, numbers and symbols.

I hope you find this useful

Kind Regards

Gildas Jones

www.dialageek.co.uk