Posts Tagged ‘secure’

Hurricane Preparedness – Scanning and Saving Important Documents – Part 2

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

In our last article (Hurricane Preparedness – Scanning and Saving Important Documents), we helped you you put together a list of your important documents and, with any luck, you have already located them.  Our next steps will be to scan these documents and save the files in a storage/filing method that meets your needs.  There are quite a few variables at this point (from hardware to learning curve) but the time and effort you put into this project will pay off in the event of a natural disaster, like a hurricane.

Before We Get Started: Once more, I would like to warn everyone that your personal documents should be protected at all costs.  This applies to the originals and the scanned images from here on out.  Identity theft is very real and very possible with the proper information.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Protect Yourself – Strong Password Tips and Tricks

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Passwords are a necessary evil that we cannot escape and, as we have pointed out again and again, you are responsible for creating and remembering/storing all of the passwords you use.  As recently as March 31, in the article Online Security Begins or Ends With Your Choice of Password, we provided readers with some frightening data about “consumer password worst practices” and explained the idea of strong passwords.  In that post, and several others before it, we provided some tips on creating strong passwords, but only skimmed the surface of possibilities.

Today, sparked by a recent article on Lifehacker.com, I will share with you a list of methods that you can use to create strong passwords.  These methods are taken from sites all over the web and are merely suggestions on how you can protect yourself from crimes like identity theft.  Before you jump down to the list, remember that EVERY password you use should follow these rules:

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Posted in Security, Tips and Tricks | 5 Comments »

Online Security Begins or Ends With Your Choice of Password

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Dunce CapThis article was originally posted in January of this year (here on JumpstartMyPC.com) but, as I pointed out in the article the first time, some topics need to be revisited regularly.  Several recent events, including a comment from a reader and some trouble with my own credit card prompted me to post this article once more.

A strong password, by definition, is a password that is both complex AND secure (contains numbers, letters, and special characters that do not include personal information such as name or birth date).   We should all be using these types of passwords to protect ourselves from potential hackers and thieves, but the sad truth is that most of us are still taking the easy way out.  These easy passwords are about as effective as NBC’s late night talk show programming strategy.

Although we like to cover a different topic almost every day, there are some topics that are worth covering again and again.  Of course, our favorite is PC maintenance, but we do have a few others up our sleeve.  Today, thanks to a recent white paper released by Imperva, we find ourselves once again talking about strong passwords and why you should use them.

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Posted in Security, Tips and Tricks | 4 Comments »

How To Properly Dispose of that Old Hard Drive

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

That old computer has made it’s final stand.  You’ve tried everything to speed it up and exhausted yourself in the process.  The day has come to upgrade to a shiny, new PC with all of the bells-n-whistles that will (hopefully) keep you chugging along the information super highway for the next few years.  When you get that new desktop/laptop computer up and running and transfer all of your data over, you’ll have another big decision to make… What do you do with your old computer?

A quick search of the internet will provide you with tens, maybe even hundreds, of ideas for re-purposing an old PC, but time, space and/or a limited budget will lead most to the final decision of trashing that old PC.  If you’ve come to this decision, then you have most likely asked yourself (and others) “what should I do with the hard drive?”  No doubt you have heard the horror stories and rumors of information stolen from discarded drives and are aware of the potential dangers of simply tossing that hard drive out on the curb.  Just in case you haven’t, you should know that throwing an old drive out is the equivalent of tossing out your wallet, with all of your credit cards and ID still in it.

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Posted in PC Support, Security, Tips and Tricks | 8 Comments »

Take Back Your Browser with JumpstartMyFirefox

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Browsing the internet should be easy!  Unfortunately, with all of the toolbars, icons, labels and preloaded bookmarks of the most used internet browsers (IE, Firefox) your viewable space can get a bit messy.  If you have found yourself a bit overwhelmed by the “clutter” that has accumulated within your browser or simply want to see more of the web pages you are browsing, we have something for you.  Welcome to JumpstartMyFirefox!  We’re going to show you how to take your browser from A to B.

Over the past few years, Firefox add-ons have grabbed my attention more and more.  Each time I found myself with a browsing need or problem, a quick Google search led me to a solution using add-ons, which are basically mini-programs that work within Firefox to customize some part of the browsing experience.  I have installed and tested many add-ons during that time and today I bring you my own collection, titled JumpstartMyFirefox, to help you take back your browser.

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Posted in Firefox, Free Programs, Security, Tips and Tricks | 3 Comments »