Tag Archives: security

Repairing a Malware-Damaged PC

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Introduction:

The process of malware removal is a seemingly candid one; it is only a matter of two to three clicks and all the defected material goes out of the window in just few minutes, courtesy of a decent antivirus tool. However, it must be noted that even if these few security packages, targeting malware-damage that your PC might have been going through, make your PC seem a bit ‘well-off’, in actuality they might be doing the opposite. Yes you heard that right, these security packages can actually cause some programs to work slower or; in fact, not function at all (Talk about adding insult to..malware-damaged).

Now then, question is what is the way out? We shall come to that in a bit but before that first we need to redeem the PC to a virus-free condition via restoration of a pre-infection full complement backup or re-installation of Windows. Yes it is time-consuming and even a bigger hassle for some of you, but better be safe than sorry, correct?

Antivirus

Second, although a more cumbersome, method is to manually sort and scold all those areas that the malware may well have damaged in the PC. Personally, the former is more preferable and most probably the one you shall choose as you may just be spending loads of time on trying to sort malware-damaged areas of the PC and finally find yourself reinstalling Windows anyway. As evident in the aforementioned paragraphs, repairing a malware-damaged PC can be a nuisance more often than not. However, this post shall guide you on how you may safely resist the temptation of dumping your good ol’ PC pal and help your PC get rid of any malware that decides to stick to it.

Getting Started

There are often times when, upon completion of a brief system scan, the antivirus installed on your PC indicates that there is no malware detected; however, the PC continues to function, unusually strange. No, we will not call it forgery on part of the PC; there are chances of malware stuck in there, afterall. Just to be on the safe side and to make sure that there is no active malware, run a full system scan on the PC with all detection options checked. Of course, it is always advisable to try other solid security packages, like G Data’s antivirus (trial). Otherwise, if you are looking for an efficient giveaway product, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware may well be a good option to try.

Malware Bytes

Do bear in mind that having more than one security packages installed on your PC might as well contribute towards the misbehaviour of your PC. Therefore, you would want to make sure that in an attempt of repairing malware, you do not end up slowing down your PC (Conflict between two antivirus packages tends to do that). You should also have Windows check itself for missing or damaged files within the system: it is easy. If you have Windows XP installed on your PC, click  Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt. On the contrary, in case of Windows 7 Start > All Programs > Accessories. Now, right click a Command Prompt couple and then, Run As Administrator. Following this, a new window will open up, whereby you will be required to type SFC/ SCANNOW and press ENTER.

Restoring Default Settings

How often do we get fooled in our lifetime-aplenty. Well, a malware damage might just be another entry into the records. Why I say that is because what seems like a malware damage could be a corollary of some unapproved tweaks to some key settings in the PC. In such a case, restoration of system default settings easily resolves the issue. It is important to note here that all the customizations applied shall be lost on doing this, so you would want to make sure that these tweaks are applied only to areas that are genuinely causing problems.

Explorer is rather vulnerable to malware, so do not be ruffled if the settigns on your PC’s explorer get messed up as a result of malware or otherwise. The solution is simple: Click Tools > Folder Options > General/View/Search tab > Restore Defaults.

Malware Issues

If a desired program seizes to load while you are, say, trying to send an email, click Start > Default Programs. Choose ”Set program access and computer defaults”  and it will allow you to chose your default web browser, email program, media player and much more. On the contrary, the latter would allow you to make an application a default selection for all file types and protocols, so you won’t have to repeat the process everytime.

In case, Internet Explorer seems to be a cause of concern amidst all the malware-damaged PC speculation, click Start > Control Panel > Network > Internet. If you have the slightest of ideas about what might have gone wrong , try your hand at restoring the settings pertinent to the issue.

If you are sick and tired of going through the motions and would like to go the wham, bam and thank you ma’am way click, Internet Options > Advanced > Reset. This will fully restore all Internet Explorer defaults and clear everything that was previously saved in the IE settings.

Recovery Tools

We understand that you are only just human (No, no puppy faces please) and going through such long PC recovery procedures might just be an exercise too much for your liking. Good news is that there are even more substitutes, free recovery tools. Yes, we treat as somewhat our final resort but trust me they work like a charm if they are really required that is. However, worth-noting here is the fact that these are to be tried only if a full system back up is available with you. If you think you are good to go, Complete Internet Repair is quite a bit of a starter (Yeah, very much like the one that you get for breakfast). Not only will this repair networking issue but repairing Internet Explorer is also a plus involved.

SMART Recovery

 

Moreover, SMART is as smart a tool as the name suggests. It helps reset the Windows services to defaults and allow safe repairs. Moving on, the Windows Repair Tool may be the last but definitely not the least of all Recovery tools that makes repairing  an easy task. Whether it is about solving Registry and file system problems or repairing icons and making changes to proxy settings, it is one utility that surely worth a try.

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Create a USB Password Reset Disk For Windows 7

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You know those times when you act like the character in ‘Memento’ and forget things easily? Maybe even the top-secret password you just set for your PC or Laptop. If you use Windows 7, in addition to being able to create a bootable windows 7 usb and transferring data from your old PC to a new one, it also has a nice option to reset your password with the help of a USB. And I would surely recommend you make a USB Password-Reset disk for the times when you lose your password.

To help you out in this, I have drafted out a simple guide for how-to do it below:

1. Insert your USB into your Laptop or Desktop, and wait for the system to recognize it.

2. After the USB is recognized, back up your files on the USB disk, in case something weird happens.

3. Now go to Control Panel -> User Accounts and Family Safety -> User Accounts. Then click on ‘Create a password reset disk’ in the left panel.

USB Password reset

4. Now you will see a ‘Forget Password’ wizard. Click ‘Next’ on that.

5. Now select your USB disk from the drop-down list, and click ‘Next’.

USB Password reset

6. Click Next to let the process start and proceed to Finish.

USB Password reset

Now you have a USB Password-Rest Disk ready and you can use it whenever you lose your password. You can also check out some of our other recommendations for password recovery tools and recovery of lost data.

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Set Your PC to Lock Automatically When You Are Away

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Sometimes we leave our PC in case of some emergency and forget to lock it. This can be dangerous because someone can misuse it and leak out some data, erase some data or interfere in something important going on. Of course some of the data on our PC is confidential and we don’t want intruders hop in. We thought we should explain the method of locking the PC automatically when you are away, for those who don’t want others to access their PC.

This method is not that complicated or with the help of some software. You can just simply use your ScreenSaver settings to secure your PC from unwanted access.

1. Right Click on the Desktop, and click ‘Personalize’

lock pc automatically

Note: This method is for Windows 7, but for other Window versions, you can easily access the screensaver settings by right clicking on the desktop and clicking Properties.

2. Now in the Personalization settings, Click ‘ScreenSaver’ on the bottom right.

lock pc automatically

3. In the ScreenSaver settings, select a ScreenSaver and check ‘On Resume, Display Logon Screen’, and put in the minutes after which you want to lock the PC, when you leave. Click Apply and Ok after this.

lock pc automatically

Now whenever you leave the PC, the screensaver will come up after the set time, and whoever arrives at the PC and moves the mouse or press a key in the keyboard, the logon screen will appear.

This above method was to make a fool of the intruders. Otherwise to be straightforward and in no need of the screensaver, you can select ‘None’ from the screensaver drop-down list and after that check ‘On Resume, Display Logon Screen’. This will make the PC go straight towards the logon screen after the set time.

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Is Your Child’s Online Safety a Priority?

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Parents often think that to monitor children on the Internet or over social networking sites is like spying on them, making kids feel bad. When you monitor the activities of your children, it is NOT spying; it’s a part of parenting, it’s protection.

According to Family Online Safety Institute, as much as 32% of all teens using internet have been somehow bullied on cyber space. There is only one choice for the parents: being proactive and not showing as if they know less than their kids do. This is the only way for kids, networking sites, and parents to safely live together.

What to do when you as parents (or as older people, generally) want to monitor kids online? Before you prevent, monitor and set the rules, you need to first educate yourself about the Internet and especially about the social networking sites.

Earlier, social networking sites, IMs and group chat room were the most prevalent way of cyber-bullying children. That’s history now. At this age it’s all about social networking sites from where children can go to private chats, porn sites or even face to face meetings without parental permission.

Few tips on how parents should monitor kids online are to:

  • Know the networking sites: Many parents are themselves active users but if you aren’t then at least keep a check on how these sites work.
  • Inform your kids: Like you educate your kids to not accept a candy from any stranger out on the street, also tell them that it’s the same on the Internet. Be friendly with your kids and try to ask them about their online friends. Your children shouldn’t feel bad or shy about telling you about any problems that they might run into on the Internet. Educate them about online behaviors and specifically about cyber bullying.
  • Observe your children: Do you think your child is acting strangely or his/her conversation habits are changing? Does your child seem to be sad or very ecstatic after being online? These are actually very solid indicators. Openly talk to them about what you feel and also give them assurance that they can tell you anything they want to.
  • Check your kid’s online activities: Seriously, it’s NOT spying and it’s also NOT killing your kid’s freedom. It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to monitor kids online or in real life as a parent. Check their online (social networking) activities on a daily basis. You should know their passwords. Yes, it seems like a very tough task but you can make a deal “Use social networking site – Give us your username/password” – Sounds perfect!
  • Don’t Hide: When you monitor kids online, it becomes more effective if your children know that you’re keeping a check on them. That way, they’d actually be following some ground rules and become more careful about their online activity. Don’t threaten, be friendly and tell them why it is necessary for an older person to supervise a child.

How to Monitor / Protect Children on Internet and Social Networking Sites

Remember, porn sites are NOT the number 1 threat for your kids. Cyberbullying and Sexting are at the top. Kids feel bad if you sound too restrictive and like a vampire checking on them. The best way to monitor kids online and protect them online is to get them to work with you and for that part, sharing news does it best. When you share the news of some bad incident that was caused online like this or some good cause like this, kids get motivated and alarmed as well.

When you share news, don’t say things like “See, I warned you too” or “Look, this is what happens” – Share news like you do with people of your age just for the sake of sharing. That way children would themselves get alert.

Remember it’s their time, inform them, educate them, let them explore things and monitor their online activity. Monitoring and protecting your children on the Internet is not difficult, please don’t ban their usage. Let them be, and just keep a check, parenting would be fun then! You can also use some computer surveillance software to use on your child’s computer.

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Recover Your Stolen or Lost Mac with Orbicule

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Yesterday we told you about how to recover your stolen device using Prey. Prey supports almost all the mainstream operating systems including Mac but here we would talk about Orbicule’s Undercover that has been specifically focusing on Mac devices’ recovery if and when they get stolen.

You may not believe it but actually this application has helped many users in getting back their Mac, which is often the life center for many people. UnderCover from Orbicule hides deep inside your Mac and waits until the computer gets listed as stolen. Whenever you have to face this agony of Mac theft, all you need to do is to report your computer as Stolen. When the Mac will go online next time, UC will send IP address to Orbicule’s headquarters which then can be used to track the computer’s location.

This post is intended to give you a review of this application and explain how its tracking system works.

Configuration:

To start using Undercover, download the software from Orbicule’s website. Install it and reboot the system. The installation is pretty much simple and the application will help you in the process.

recover stolen Mac with orbicule

You’re now done with your part of work. Your Mac would be located if it ever gets into the hands of some crooks.

 

Theft Report:

In case you lose your Mac, you need to fill out a form on Orbicule’s website with your Undercover ID code. This will inform the guys over Orbicule center to listen for any information that comes from your dear Mac.

recover stolen lost mac with orbicule

Orbicule Undercover uses Skyhook Wireless triangulation and your machine’s IP address to find out the location of the thief. UnderCover also takes the screenshots of the person who uses your machine using the built-in iSight camera, helping police to identify the guilty.

If Things Don’t Turn Out Well:

What if the thief doesn’t get online? Well, don’t worry, Orbicule is intelligent enough or should we say, eager enough to help you out in tracking. If this happens then after predetermined intervals, UnderCover will begin to cause a hardware failure, making the screen get darker and darker. This may lead the thief to get help from any Apple Store or other repair shop. The machine will start screaming “This is a stolen computer!”, if your Mac shows up at any such locations.

Orbicule Undercover On iPhone and iPod:

It is way too easier to steal an iPhone or iPod than getting hands on a Mac since the frequency of using these small devices in public is more than the notebooks. Orbicule’s Undercover supports these devices too.

recover lost stolen MAc

It disguises itself as a game, and is able to produce triangulation coordinates with WiFi help. The drawback of Undercover on phones is that it cannot run in the background like on Mac. It needs the thief to run this game(application) to update the location.

Recover lost or stolen Mac

The success ratio of Undercover is reported to be as great as 96%. Here is a story that illustrates quite well about how the application would work to recover your machine. It’s a great solution to track your device and includes many features and benefits:

  • iSight capturing
  • WiFi triangulation
  • Network positioning
  • Money back guarantee
  • Cheaper price for students and bulk license buyers

By just paying a onetime fee of $49 and $5.99 for your iPhone, you can save yourself from the worry of your precious machines getting stolen (of course that never means that you leave them resting on some food take away counter). Do let us know about your experience with Orbicule’s Undercover if you have used it to help you recover your stolen Mac or any other applications that have helped you in recovering!

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Use Prey to Keep Track of Your Stolen Laptop or Phone

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Losing a device worth thousands (and even more) like a phone and laptop is always a painful experience for the owner. Not only are these devices valuable and thus give a monetary loss but they also contain huge amounts of personal data ranging from family pictures, pool of contact numbers, email IDs, password files, auto-login web accounts and what not. Today, these devices are working for us just like our heart, brain (say Google) or any other body organ, one needs to have some technology to help in tracking the devices when they’re lost. Prey performs the job of tracking a stolen laptop or phone quite efficiently.

Prey is a lightweight, open source and multi-platform application that is totally free to use. Prey’s approach to tracking a stolen laptop or device is quite simple. The software runs in the background and checks a particular URL at regular intervals, decides if the URL should trigger the missing state, gather traces and sends out a report. The report includes:

  • State of the computer
  • Snapshot of desktop screen
  • List of all the running programs and network connections
  • Network and Wi-Fi report
  • Picture of the user (if the device is equipped with a Webcam)

Configurations

Prey works in almost all the operating systems from Windows, Mac to Ubuntu and Linux. For phones, only Android is supported as yet with the promise of more to come.

There are two ways to use/configure Prey for tracking a stolen device:

1. Prey with Control Panel combination: manage configuration and device state through a web page. This is the recommended, default and easier approach.

2. The other is Prey Standalone mode that is also called the Advanced Mode. Here the tracking reports will directly be sent to your inbox using a web URL (no need to own any domain, any web URL, your blog address would do perfectly). In advanced mode, you would need to set up modules manually.

track missing laptop or phone with Prey

Features

Prey needs an internet connection all the times to keep track of the stolen laptop or phone. Since it is open source, the company offers users the option to check the code to eliminate any privacy trespassing threats. The application has quite good features, including:

  • Lightweight (ideally no effects on the system)
  • Auto Update
  • Stream-lined Report System
  • WiFi auto-connect
  • Geo Location Aware (Absent in the case of desktops)
  • Open Source

 

Download Prey, use the application and let us know about your experience of locating your stolen laptop or phone. Not to exaggerate, it might not be the perfect solution but as they say something is always better than nothing so just give it a try!

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Don’t Bite! They Are Phishing

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What is Phishing

Phishing is the act of acquiring information such as usernames, banking details and other information  by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. It is surprising that a lot of people have fallen victim to phishing scams over the past few years. Fraudsters are getting sophisticated day by day and are coming up with unique ways of duping people. Earlier, they would simply create a fake email which would look like it came from a bank, an auction site, social media site or any other source. The email would ask for the user to confirm their username and password and unsuspecting users would fall for it and give up their details. Some were sophisticated enough to create a replica of the banking website where customers would enter their details only to find out later that fraudsters got all their info. The latest scam is phone phishing, which is basically a new way of social engineering. Phone phishing is when fraudsters call computer users and convince them to give their details. Phone Phishing is currently on the rise and companies have asked their employees to be vigilant and not to give their details to anyone.

Fortunately there is a way to avoid phishing and if there is more training and awareness amongst users, then phishing will go down. The following is a guide on how you can save yourself from being a victim of phishing and what steps you should take to prevent it.

 

Email Scams

I am sure a lot of you have probably received emails from your bank , ISP, Credit card company, financial institution , auction site, gambling site or any other trusted company claiming they lost your record and asking you to click on a link to re-verify your identity. The link usually leads to a good copy of a website and asks the users to enter all their personally identifiable information.   If you have received an email like that then you have just been targeted by a phishing fraudster.

 

How to Protect Yourself

You can avoid this from happening to you by taking the following steps:

  1. If you ever get an email asking you to submit your personal financial information , the first thing you need to do is trash it or you can simply forward the email to the FTC. No one will ever ask you to submit your details on a site or an email. There is no doubt that it is a scam. An important thing to remember is that Phishers don’t send out personalized mail as they are sending them out to millions in the hope that they can trap someone.
  2. If you ever get an email asking you to fill out a form which asks for personal financial information you know that it’s yet another attempt by the phisher to get to you. Important financial information should only be shared over a secure line or website.
  3. No matter what happens no one will ever call you asking you to divulge personal financial information over the phone. If you ever receive a call like that hang up or tell them that you don’t want to give any information.
  4. If you want to make sure that you have not been scammed by a phisher, you can keep checking all your online records to make sure that there is no unusual activity in your bank account, credit and bank accounts.  It really helps over the long run though we don’t advise you to check your statement every 10 minutes as it would be a classic case of paranoia.
  5. Whenever you are checking your financial information online please make sure that the website is secure. It’s easy to tell if you are on a secure website as the browser will show a https:// instead  of a http://.
  6. Make sure that you have the latest web browser which has an anti-phishing plugin to let you know if the website you are on is authentic or not. Try to make sure you have all the patches and updates available to prevent phishing from taking place.
  7. If you ever suspect that you have been targeted by a phisher,  log on to the website by typing the address instead of going via the link. Alternatively you can call up the company and ask them if they have sent out that email.
  8. Make sure you have an anti-virus, anti-spyware and a firewall on at all times. This is a great way of protecting yourself from phishers who can send you emails which have spyware which can spy on you.

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How To Remotely Secure Data on a Stolen Laptop

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Laptop theft affects a lot of us. According to reports,  a laptop is stolen every 8 seconds around the world. The worst part about laptop theft is that the user ends up losing data. Sometimes laptops are stolen so that the data can be compromised for the confidential data it has inside. Fortunately, technology has come a long way to secure data on laptops in the event of theft.

One of the best ways to secure data on laptops is to utilize the Remote Laptop Security option. This is a great solution for people who have a lot of important data in their laptops. The RLS security solution allows users to control access to computers if they have been lost or stolen. Remote Laptop Security requires authenticating the identity of the user after predetermined periods of time. This would work really well for a Government organization or some executive with confidential files on his/her laptop. If the laptop is not authenticated then all the files on the computer are encrypted and the intruder is not allowed to gain access to the files. In some cases it also results in the laptop logging on to the internet and sending off the IP address so that it can be tracked down. In other instances there are newer versions of laptops which utilize mobile phone technology to log on to the internet and broadcast its location. This also means that if the intruder has turned off all access to the internet the information will still be broadcast with the help of built in mobile technology.  It also allows the owner of the laptop to track the laptop down and allows him/her to securely wipe off all the data with a few commands.

There are a few solutions available for users which will allow them to secure their laptops quite easily.

Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess 3500 Nonstop Laptop Guardian

The Alcatel-Lucent solution is simply a Hardware solution but is a bit outdated as it is available in a PCMIA card (they aren’t including PCMIA cards in laptops anymore). It is a simple card which is installed in the PCMIA slot and has a built in GPS, 3G modem and battery. If the card is removed then the laptop will not work.The GPS Is always on and the card will allow the security policies to be implemented easily even if the laptop has not been turned on. The user can easily control his laptop with this feature and prevent the loss of important data.

Lenovo Constant Secure Remote Disable

Lenovo has come up with a great feature which is known as the Lenovo Constant Secure Remote Disable.   It allows for remotely disabling a laptop by sending a simple text message from a pre-assigned mobile phone. For example the user has assigned the kill switch to his office mobile phone and uses that to send a pre-assigned text message which will render the laptop useless.

The only catch is that the laptop needs to have a proper cellular WWAN (Wireless wide-network) card along with a mobile data subscription so that the laptop can receive the command. Once the laptop receives the message it will be disabled. If the laptop is recovered and needs to be restored the user needs to type in a preconfigured text message to bring it back to life.

Intel Anti-Theft PC Protection

Intel also wants a piece of the anti-theft technology as it has come up with the anti-theft PC protection technology which is a combination of both hardware and software to prevent the theft of laptops. The hardware part is linked to the software part. If the user has not logged in to the central server after a predetermined amount of time then the solution will prevent logins to the system. It will also send off a tracking signal and get locked remotely. The hardware will also be bricked after the software triggers off the alert that the system has been compromised.  So far, Lenovo has implemented this technology and NTT DOCOMO has teamed up with Symantec to implement Intel’s technology in Japan.

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