Most websites will ask you to choose from a set of secret questions to answer when you set up an account. If you ever need your password reset or get locked out, most of the time it’s a cut-and-dried process where you answer that specific question, type in a CAPTCHA scrambled-text phrase to verify you are a real human, and then change the password for the website to whatever you want.

Easy enough, right?

Don’t ever pick your high school name as the secret answer.

Here’s why – all someone has to do to reset a password of yours with the high school name as the answer is to search Facebook. 99% of the time, everyone’s high school information is in their public profile.

I’ve tested it. It works.

A good practice is to choose your own personal question if a website gives you that option. That adds just a little more security to your website activities and keeps you just a hair ahead of the bad guys.

Microsoft just released their own antivirus application, ( EDIT 02/18/18 : new link ) and based on my use so far, I have to say it’s not bad. Microsoft Security Essentials is a antivirus, antimalware and anti-trojan application. Pretty much the only thing it doesn’t try to be is a firewall.

When you install the application, the first thing it tells you to do is remove your existing antivirus application. You can usually do this for any antivirus application by going to START and then PROGRAMS and then to the antivirus’ folder. In that folder should be a REMOVE icon that will start the process. If you’ve paid for a subscription for your previous antivirus, be sure to check the option to save any settings during the uninstall process if you are prompted.

In my case, I had to uninstall VIPRE. One reboot later, the Microsoft Security Essentials setup was ready to go.

After double clicking the setup icon, the first thing it will do is download some extra components. Once it completes getting the necessary components online, the application will ask you to click a button to validate your PC (this is to make sure you don’t have a pirated copy of Windows). After that last part, it’s all progress bars and “installing this and that” dialog boxes.

When the install is complete, the application will ask you if you want to scan your computer after it grabs the latest updates. You should check that option to see if anything was missed by your previous antivirus application.

The definitions update process was faster than most antivirus applications I have seen. But since this application is only a few days old, the real test will come in a few months when a larger update is required.

Configuring Microsoft Security Essentials is pretty straightforward. This is what the main window looks like…

MS Security Essentials 1

Your status, would you like to scan now, and when the next scan will be. Simple and a very basic overview. The UPDATE tab is similar in style…

MS Security Essentials 2

When your next update is, what update you have and a giant UPDATE button so you can do it manually. The next tab in the application is HISTORY.

MS Security Essentials 3

Here is shows you what it detected, what’s been quarantined and what you allowed. My initial scan picked up that I had a remote-access application installed, which I’ll go over in a few paragraphs.

The next selection is the SETTINGS tab.

MS Security Essentials 4

Here you can configure some fairly basic settings. Scan time, what to do when it finds a virus, and if you want it to not scan certain file types or applications on your PC.

This is also the only location where you can turn Microsoft Security Essentials off. You have to go to the “Real-time protection” option and un-check the “Turn on Real-Time protection”. There is not a way to turn off Microsoft Security Essentials for a set period of time though. And there also is no option on a right click of Microsoft Security Essentials on the system tray icon to disable it. Very inconvenient.

The big thing that got me was the Microsoft SpyNet option.

MS Security Essentials 5

There is no way to turn this off.

You have the option of Basic or Advanced membership, and a link to their privacy policy, but there is no way to disable it. This application will always send any problems it finds to Microsoft’s SpyNet service. Microsoft says this is to help them make better antivirus definitions, and your information will remain anonymous. But the specific name of every infected file, every hacked program, every trojan horse, every false positive, and the locations they came from will be sent with your anonymous ID tag on it.

Speaking of false positives, when I first ran the scan, Microsoft Security Essentials found this on my PC…

MS Security Essentials 6

TightVNC is a remote access application. I use it to get back to my PC when I am in another part of the building and need a quick file or server tweak. It’s not the most secure software out there, but it serves my purposes. Microsoft Security Essentials didn’t say it was a virus or a threat, but a “potential” threat. But the big honkin’ red banner and X of death would probably make someone new to PCs remove the “potential” threat instead of allowing it to remain. Admins beware!

I also didn’t see a way to roll this out on a enterprise-wide scale. I’m not a fan of dump-and-forget applications, especially when I know that most corporate employees are far too busy to do technical maintenance on their PCs in addition to their everyday jobs.

Even though this is Microsoft’s first entry into the antivirus field, they have nothing but time and money to improve on it. And since there is no motivation to play nice with others who were in the field first, I would expect the next version of Security Essentials to be a vast improvement on this one. And from there to just get exponentially better.

PROS: Free. Fast. Easy updates. Fully integrated into your operating system. Already on par with “free” and “lite” antivirus applications that have been on the market for years.

CONS: No way to turn off application for a specific amount of time. No right-click disable option for taskbar icon. No way to turn off SpyNet option. No advanced settings to configure. No apparent server/management option for enterprise. Fully integrated into your operating system.

You can download a copy for XP or Vista directly from Microsoft here.

EDIT 02/18/18 : Thanks to comparitech.com for finding the new link Microsoft Security Essentials link! Comparitech.com also has a good jargon-free guide to computer and internet security you can download from their website.

Fair warning: visiting Wefeelfine or Twistori will severely lower your productivity for the day.

Wefeelfine is my favorite of the two. Hundreds of multicolored particles fly across the screen, and you can click on any one of them to expand it. Each particle represents a single specific “feeling” that was just posted somewhere. According to the Wefeelfine’s mission page, “…the system searches the world’s newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases “I feel” and “I am feeling”. When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence… and identifies the “feeling” expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.). The result is a database of several million human feelings, increasing by 15,000 – 20,000 new feelings per day.” You can also organize and change how and what the particles present by using the small menu in the lower left corner.

Twistori is the simpler of the two websites and is much more focused, just pulling all instances of “I” and either LOVE, HATE, THINK, BELIEVE, FEEL or WISH from recent Twitter posts. The site is a very clean design, and if you leave the site alone, it will randomly pick an emotion and scroll through each sentiment. Mac users can even download a twistori screensaver that pulls live material from the site.

My only complaint is that websites like this should have a “estimated time wasted” banner before they let you enter.

Back in the 90’s, electronics was the new plastics, and CompUSA was deep in the game with other big-box supercenters like Incredible Universe, Circuit City, Best Buy, and Frys. Everybody wanted a piece of the dot com pie, and CompUSA was no exception. Every CompUSA I visited back in Dallas was always busy, and not too surprisingly, always overpriced. But since reliable websites specifically selling computer parts and supplies were still a few years away, the supercenters dominated all the shopping plazas along the freeways.

Then the juggernauts tripped. Dot com went dot gone. CompUSA stopped opening new stores, then cut off some underperforming stores, and eventually went bankrupt. But that wasn’t the end of CompUSA. A small number of stores were resurrected, and now CompUSA has 25 locations still open across the United States.

I live near one of them.

I stopped by the local CompUSA because I was curious. Had they changed? Were they the same overly-expensive mega store from Dallas?

As I pulled up, the store’s logo and white product badge displays on the glass looked familiar. I didn’t notice any NO PHOTOGRAPHY signs, and besides, it is a public location. But I made it a point not photograph any customers in the store with me just to be nice.

Check out the slideshow below to see the photos and click on any of them to enlarge.

Right off, things were different than I remembered from Dallas. There was an actual “greeter” at the door who handed me a sales flier and welcomed me to the store. This same person doubled as the “mark your receipt with a yellow marker as you leave” person at no extra charge.

Walking down the isles, there were more products for the build-your-own computer group than the original CompUSA ever had. Gone were the gaudy blue strobe lights and laser-cut chrome frag-u skulls. Instead, there were dozens of specialized, functional products that I am used to seeing on websites specifically catering to the PC do it yourself crowd.  There were a good range of power supplies, video cards ranging from the too-cheap “hope it works” to the “I need a second mortgage” variety, and tons of blank media stacked everywhere.

For the most part, everything was priced very reasonably.

Near the checkout, there were boxes and boxes of miscallaenous product, stacked 3 or 4 high, with the top box cut open for you to peruse. Some items were no-name brand, but most items were quality brands that I had heard of. Every stack of boxes had a sheet with price comparisons to their previous commercial sparring partners.

The biggest sign of improvement I saw was their game selection. It was very sparse and only had a few popular games to choose from. I think that’s brilliant. You can’t compete with a mega-superstore that buys product by the warehouse. They can outprice, outperform and outstock you without even knowing you are trying to compete with them. Plus the multitude of videogame trade-and-sell and even rent-and-sell stores have the gaming market pretty much sealed off to newcomers. So why fight the goliaths if you can go around them?

The laptop selection was decent and the perhiperal accessories had two retail-rows more to offer than WalMart, BestBuy or Target. In the back of the store was a wall of TVs that were setup much like you see at every BestBuy, Target, WalMart and Sears stores. There must be a high markup on TVs for everyone and their Aunt Petunia to have the same setup going.

I have to admit, I was impressed at the overall change. I still think Fry’s is the king of brick and mortar tech stores, but this CompUSA was lean, sharp and focused. It was miles better than the Dallas supercenters that tried to be everything to everybody. And I do think they finally got the right idea. Carry a few things, a few specialized things, and focus on what gets people into your store. Focus on a specific consumer type and let the multipurpose juggernauts go on their way.

I did hear that in the process of rebirth, CompUSA is really affiliated with Tiger Direct now, and even their sales fliers are identical in how they look. Apparently that was not just a superficial change.

Will I be back to CompUSA? Maybe. Having purchased most computer gear online for the last few years, the feeling of walking into a computer-specific store seems pretty old fashioned. But in a pinch, when I cant wait for FedEx or UPS, this reborn CompUSA isn’t bad.

This faded from the mainstream news pretty quick, but I thought it was important enough to mention again.

Back in 2008, an appeals court held up the legality of searching and impounding laptops at airports.  Wired and other major websites reported on this, and even the EFF posted an article about it.

Not content with just the old “just open the lid and make sure it’s not a bomb” procedure of the last decade, the hillbilly idiots working at most airports now get to keep and search everything on your laptop any time they feel like it.

Let me say that again. Keep. And search. Everything.

Every email. Every website in your cache file. Every document you have written. Every image your friends have sent you. Every PDF. Every ad that displayed on your computer screen while you were web browsing. Every email you have sent. Every inappropriate joke sent from your co-workers. Every password you have saved.

Everything.

Are you comfortable with a full audit of your laptop? Of having a complete stranger who thinks they themselves are the law go through your entire personal life as they see fit?

I know I’m not. Not because I have committed any crime or have anything to hide, but because it’s absolutely none of their damn business what I do. And since they can not and will not offer any guarantee my information will remain safely in their possession at all times, who is to say my personal information won’t eventually wind up in criminally unscrupulous hands?

To get around this, I made a secure remote-access system to take on the road with me. You can make the same thing  so you can remote control your work (or home) machine securely, and without any technical hassle. The best part is that it will be 100% expendable.

It’s surprisingly easy to do.

All you will need is…

* A machine (PC or Mac) at work (or home) that’s always connected to the internet through Cable, DSL, or satellite.

* A cheap laptop with built in wifi from Ebay or a local pawn shop.

Step one is to get a cheap laptop. Anything that runs XP (or Vista) and has built in WiFi should be fine. Once you get it, clean out any files it may still have on it. If the laptop came with the original factory restore CD/DVD, go ahead and use them to erase and restore the laptop to its’ original configuration. Then follow the directions in this previous post to scrub the laptop’s free space.

After scrubbing the laptop, put a few files on the laptop you wouldn’t mind your worst enemy seeing. A PDF of a popular website. A grocery list. A to do list. A game or puzzle you have. Maybe even install a copy of Open Office (It’s an open source (free) copy of Microsoft Office). You want just a few things on there to make it look like you were really using this laptop.

Step two is to set up your work (or home) machine so that the laptop can access it from remote. I’ve been using logmein.com for about a year now, and their free service is outstanding, so I’ll use them in this example.

Go to logmein.com on the work (or home) machine you want to access from remote and click on the CREATE AN ACCOUNT link. From the SELECT PRODUCT GROUP, choose the LOGMEIN ACCESS, MANAGEMENT AND NETWORKING option. From there, choose the FREE package and complete their signup procedure.

Once you have signed up for their free service, it should take you to a page to set up your work (or home) machine. Follow their instructions to get the service up and running on your machine.

The last step is to go to the secure.logmein.com website from the laptop. This time, you just need to sign in with the credentials you used on the work (or home) machine.  There’s nothing to install this time. VERY VERY IMPORTANT PART: When you sign in, if the web browser on the laptop asks if you want it to remember the password for logmein.com, say NO.

After you sign in on the laptop, you will see under MY COMPUTERS the home machine you just installed their software on. Click the REMOTE CONTROL icon, and in a few moments you should see your work (or home) machine appear in the laptop’s screen.

That’s all there is to it.

You can now work through your laptop just like you were sitting directly in front of your work (or home) machine from any available wifi connection.

When you are ready to travel, just leave your work (or home) machine powered on. Logmein.com will automatically do all the technical work in the background. All you need to do to get back to your home machine is to go to logmein.com from your laptop or any public wifi spot that has free internet access.

Just remember, that laptop’s middle name is “gone”. Don’t download or save anything on there. Don’t even surf the internet on it.

In the worst case, if that laptop does get impounded, they can’t access your home PC because they don’t know your password to logmein.com. And it looks like that laptop was the real deal because of the files you put on there earlier. But there’s no history in the web browsers, no emails to read, and nothing for them to tie you up with.

You probably have heard if you put files and folders in the trash that it does not mean the files are really gone. Even emptying the trash doesn’t get rid of files permanently.

To prevent most anyone from recovering the files you have deleted, you need to securely delete your files as you remove them and occasionally wipe your machine’s free space.

They are both very easy to do.

To start with, we first need to set up the secure deletion of files and folders.

If you have a PC, you will need to download a open source (free) program called ERASER from here. I’ve used this program for years, and it has never given me any trouble in Vista, XP or even the new Windows 7.

Once you have ERASER downloaded, double click the program and let it install.

After it has installed, the first extra option ERASER has put on your PC will appear whenever you right click on any file. You should see a new ERASE option. If you choose ERASE, that file or folder you clicked on will be securely shredded beyond recovery!

If you want to be ultra secure, after you click on ERASE, the pop-up menu that appears has an OPTIONS button. You can click it and choose other options that are more secure than the basic setting, but each higher setting will take around triple the amount of time as the one before it. The first setting is secure enough, so leave it at “1 Passes” (or “3 passes”) and click OK.

If you are on a Mac, you don’t need to install anything to securely shred your files. When the folders and files you want to get rid of are in the trash, click on the FINDER icon in your dock, then go to the FINDER menu on the top menubar and choose SECURE EMPTY TRASH. This second setting, under the regular “empty trash” command, will securely shred your documents beyond recovery, just like ERASER did for the PC.

Wiping space on your hard drive is the second step in basic data security. Wiping the free space on your hard drive will delete any stray files that were previously on your system that were moved but still recoverable, as well as any temporary files that have yet to be overwritten. The only problem is that wiping the free space on your Mac or PC will tie up your machine for a few hours. I usually set up the process for once a month on a random Sunday, start it in the morning, and by midday it is done.

ERASER has the ability to wipe the free space on a PC’s hard drive, while Mac users have this feature built in.

To wipe the free space on a PC after you have installed ERASER, go to MY COMPUTER. Now right click on the C drive and go to ERASE UNUSED SPACE in the pop up menu. A dialog box will appear asking you “are you sure you want to erase unused space on drive C:\?” Say YES and that’s it!

Just like on the single file and folder erasing, after you click on ERASE UNUSED SPACE the pop-up menu that appears has an OPTIONS button. You can click it and choose other options that are more secure than the basic setting, but each higher setting will take around triple the amount of time as the one before it. The first setting is secure enough, so leave it at “1 Passes” (or “3 passes”) and click OK. That’s it!

To wipe the free space on a Mac, you need to open your hard drive, open the APPLICATIONS folder and open the UTILITIES folder.

Once you are in the UTILITIES folder, look for DISK UTILITY and open that application. Once DISK UTILITY is open, click on your hard drive’s icon on the left column. Now on the right area, choose the ERASE tab.

Near the bottom of the ERASE tab, there is a button that says ERASE FREE SPACE. Once you click on it you will have three options on how securely you want to erase your free space. Each option is more secure than the other, but each higher setting will take either 7 or 32 times the amount of time as the one before it. The first setting is secure enough, so leave it at the top setting and click OK. That’s it!

Experiment a little to see how much time higher settings take to wipe the free space on your hard drive. I have mine set for 7 passes if I am going to be gone for the weekend and even higher when I actually get vacation time and can leave them running for prolonged periods.

Deleting your files securely and wiping free space on your hard drives is a great way to stay safe on your daily work and/or home machines. And even if you trash files normally on a day to day basis, wiping the free space on your hard drive will clean up all those regularly deleted files and keep you just as secure as if you has chosen to securely delete each file or folder individually.

If you have a MacBook or Ibook or any other Apple product that has one of those little white remote control things, you should take a moment to electronically lock the two together.

The reason for doing this is to keep your presentations and Mac under your own control. I’ve heard (in theory of course!) some pranksters carry their own Apple white remote with them into presentations. A few clicks of their own remote will send your Mac’s presentation (or Itunes, or any other application for that matter) into a complete state of chaos.

To lock down your Mac so that it only obeys commands from your Apple remote…

Go to SYSTEM PREFERENCES
then SECURITY
choose GENERAL

From here you do have the option to completely disable any remote control by checking the DISABLE REMOTE CONTROL INFRARED RECEIVER option. However, if you click the PAIR button, the Mac will ask you to hold your Apple white remote a few inches from the computer while pressing the remote’s MENU and NEXT buttons at the same time.

After holding the buttons for a few minutes, a white graphic of the remote will appear on your screen, with two chain links above it. This indicates the paring was successful!

Now only that one remote control will control your mac. Any other remote commands from other remotes will be completely ignored.

If you ever want to un-pair the assigned remote with the computer, just go back to the same preference pane and click on the UNPAIR button. Then the mac will go back to being accessible by any remote.