0 6 More Holiday Shopping Tips

My goal is to not enter a single mall this holiday season. If I can do the majority of my holiday shopping at trusted online retailers, and the rest at Costco, then I’ve done well. To me, malls seem to be places for people with lots of time on their hands to drive around looking for parking spots and then stand in line with other people who apparently all enjoy being annoyed by each other’s pushiness. But maybe that’s just me.

Keep safe and sane this holiday season:

1. Look for indications of online security. Depending on your browser, there may be an icon of a yellow lock at the top of the window, near the address bar, or at the bottom, near the taskbar. If the website is secure, the yellow lock should be closed. Some browsers use a color coding system, displaying red to indicate that a website is not secure and may potentially be infected, or green to indicate that it’s okay.

2. Update your operating system. If your computer’s operating system is out of date, it may invite trouble when heading out to the wild, wild web. Go to your security center to download the latest critical security patches.

3. Update your browser. While your operating system may be up to date, which would mean that Internet Explorer is most likely up to date as well, if you are using Chrome or Firefox, you may need to update manually. Select “About” in your browser’s toolbar to check for updates.

4. Protect your computer with antivirus software. Antivirus protection that includes a firewall will, in most cases, shield you from “drive by downloads” and other malware. Even a major online retailer with a secure website can be vulnerable to criminal hackers.

5. Beware of phantom websites. Criminals love to pull the wool over unsuspecting eyes. One technique is to use “black-hat SEO” to place fake websites at the top of organic search results. Customers who attempt to make purchases via these fake websites are unknowingly transmitting credit card numbers directly to the hackers, and it’s safe to assume they’ll never receive the products they believe they’ve purchased.

6. Check credit card statements often. I still have to search the Internet for the names of unfamiliar retailers that appear on my credit card statements with unauthorized charges. Check your statements online weekly, and refute unauthorized charges within 60 days.

Most major online retailers are already using multiple sophisticated fraud prevention procedures to protect you. Oregon-based iovation Inc. is one hot technology company offering a device reputation service that alerts businesses to suspicious behavior such as someone attempting to hijack your account or use your stolen credentials (and  many others’) to steal from online businesses.

Robert Siciliano, personal security and identity theft expert contributor to iovation, discusses credit and debit card fraud on CNBC.

Processing your request, Please wait....

0 Social Security Number: All-Purpose Identifier

Your Social Security number was never meant to serve the various functions it is used for today. Over the past 70 years, the Social Security number has become our de facto national ID. The numbers were originally issued in the 1930s, to track income for Social Security benefits. But “functionality creep,” which occurs when an item, process, or procedure ends up serving a purpose it was never intended to perform, soon took effect.

Banks, motor vehicle registries, doctors’ offices, insurance companies, and even utilities often require a Social Security number to do business. Why do they need it? Sometimes it’s because your Social Security number is attached to government records like taxes or criminal records, but most often it’s because the number is attached to your credit file.

The IRS adopted our Social Security numbers as identifiers for our tax files about 50 years or so ago. Around the same time, banks began using Social Security numbers to report interest payments, and so on.

All the while, Social Security numbers were required for all workers, so their Social Security benefits could be paid. Most people were assigned a number when they applied, sometime around the age of 16. This was until the 1980s, when the IRS began issuing Social Security numbers to track children and babies who were claimed as dependents. By the late ‘90s, it was standard for most hospitals to provide Social Security number application to new moms.

A federal law enacted in 1996 determined that Social Security numbers should be used for “any applicant for a professional license, driver’s license, occupational license, recreational license or marriage license.” The number can be used and recorded by creditors, the Department of Motor Vehicles, whenever a cash transaction exceeds $10,000, and in military matters.

All this leads up to the unfortunate realization that your Social Security number is out there in hundreds, or even thousands of places. It is most definitely not private, nor can it be adequately protected. It’s just like a credit card number. You give it out, you hope the person or company is responsible with it, you hope it’s not breached, but all you can do is monitor your identity’s health and, if your identity is ever stolen, take the appropriate steps in response.

Be sure you have active, comprehensive protection for all of your devices.  McAfee All Access is the only product that lets individuals and families protect a wide variety of Internet-enabled devices, including PCs, Macs, smartphones, tablets, and netbooks, for one low price.

Robert Siciliano is an Online Security Evangelist for McAfee.   See him discuss the use of Social Security numbers as national identification on Fox News.

Processing your request, Please wait....

0 Security Assets: Is it safe with your processes in key management?

Have you ever met a person who writes down his or her password and posts it everywhere? People like your friend usually find it very hard to memorize different passwords considering passwords nowadays need to be strong and must include special characters. So instead of memorizing it, jotting down the password on paper and puts it in different places where everyone can see it. Most people even post it on their computer screen in order to have easy access.

What would happen if your friend is the one who manages the data of a famous company or even your company? The effect would be disastrous considering anyone can access the company’s data by just reading the post-its.

Different IT professionals who, master in information security, made many ways in order to prevent breach of any information. They made solutions like certificates and encryption keys in order to provide security for different and varying applications, services and platforms. But due to gradually deployments, efficient administration broke down and fallen. Certificates and Keys in applications, business solutions and disparate systems are deployed to be accessible to many administrators without access control.

Overworked professionals in security usually switch to expensive management process in order to cobble together. They usually rely on things like spreadsheets and has lists of certificates and deployed keys. They also contain the dates of expiration of certificates and keys. This is better compared to the writing the password on a pathetic post-it notes. Other people who have masters degree in information security can also do this simple task.

Manual processing usually make you defenseless due to the managers does not apply good practices in security or either that or they nastily make use of their knowledge since at least 50% professionals in IT admitted that they could exploit their knowledge but with a ms information security, you can avoid that. Due to lack of clear policies or management solutions, administrators are forced to expose confidential key security and vulnerabilities. They can expose information by storing keys in keystores which managers have access to it. Reusing once password in order to defend many keystores is another one. Giving out keys in not secure ways like email, FTP servers and USB drives is another way. Another one is to fail rotating keys time to time.

Thinking that the more IT staff you have, your manual management process increases but it isn’t like that. Actually, manual management usually leave vulnerabilities because the managers are unsuccessful to apply good security practices or simply since they choose to exploit the knowledge they have. If there is no workflow controls and automated access, a large staff can really expose different private keys. A survey showed that at least 50% IT employees confessed that if possible, they can hold their previous employees hostages. They could do that by withholding the keys in which they have access.

Management in manual key doesn’t guarantee the keys are distributed, deployed, maintained, securely generated and are rotating since regulations require it.

The punishment of failing to achieve or comply the regulations are to pay a hefty fines or even other things. Service Loss is one of the punishments. Administrators who fail to replenish certificates right before the certificate expires, applications which relies on the certificate will fail without warning at all. Another one is breaches in security. The regulations given to staffs and managers aren’t made to give you headaches but they are made to protect different customers from exposing customer’s identity which leads to identity theft. This may lead on ruining the company’s reputation.

An encryption management, which focuses on enterprise, solution is really required in order to cut across different systems, applications and platforms in order to manage certificates and keys securely. Different solutions could influence the automated processes and solutions depending on your policies on security you have. This includes Distributing, generating and managing the certificates and keys that will fulfill the policies of security of the company. Configuring applications that uses the certificates and keys are another. Enforcing the workflow and controls of access that duties of segment management according to policies of the company and apply dual control over the sensitive keys.

Security breaches surprises IT managers since operational failures and compromised keys happen from neglect which comes from leaving the keys exposed similar to putting passwords on a simple post-it. You shouldn’t really do this and they shouldn’t too. Take many steps in order to protect the encryption assets but you if you don’t, you might see the CEO of the company in the news.

EC-Council University is a licensed university that offers degrees and master’s degrees on Security Science online. The degrees are recognized worldwide and may be used in any employment worldwide as well as the graduate certificates that they offer. With excellence and dedication as the core values, many professionals and degree holders have benefitted from undergoing the programs in this university.

More information about master’s degrees in information security available at http://www.eccuni.us.

Processing your request, Please wait....

0 All about Blade servers and its benefits to an IT business

For Running IT as a Business in an efficient and cost effective manner most of the IT managers are in need for the lower cost and more performance giving servers. In order to do this, they are trying to collect more computing power in correct path. One of the best approaches to do so is forming a computing infrastructure by making use of Blade servers. It is a great revolutionary approach in the field of technology.

Blade servers also referred as server blades or high-density servers and are taken as a good, cost efficientand reduced power consuming servers. This single circuit boardeffective blade server is capable of delivering high performance computing services to its users. A blade server most outstandingly reduces power consumption and perks up power management in a fruitful manner. This excellent server supports many small and middle size companies to earn maximum benefits at an affordable price level.

These high quality servers are designed in such a manner that they allow more processing power in small space and require less power and cooling than traditional servers like box-based servers and rackmount servers. Blade Servers works well for specific purpose like web hosting, cluster computing, and server virtualization. Out of all these, the Server virtualisation is the concept of using a physical server as compound logical servers that helps IT firms to acquire less hardware thereby saving your capital to a great extent.

Using blade server technology brings lots of benefits to the firm including advanced IT efficiency, enhanced server management, provisioning and reduced power consumption as well as operational performance. By seeing the potential of these exceptional servers, majority of the companies are taking initiative to launch websites so that they can make people aware of this great blade server technology and how they are beneficial for an IT business.

Processing your request, Please wait....

0 Creating Your First Ebook

Writing an eBook from afar looks like a seriously daunting task. But it's really not that complicated. Just don't overlook some of the basics and you can be a best seller too.

Most people start with a subject that they're actually familiar with. And this is pretty good advice really. Say you know a little bit about potty training a dog. You could easily turn this knowledge into a "how to" type of eBook explaining the process that you've discovered works.

So let's get into some of the nuts and bolts here. Like anything you plan, you need at least some sort of outline to follow to succeed. Just take some of the highlights of potty training a dog and break them up into chapters. For example, how a dog's diet may affect how often the dog needs to go. That could be one chapter explaining the diets of dogs. Or, the time of day you let your dog out to go potty. That could be another chapter. And so forth.

So once you have a rough outline and the chapters involved to creating this eBook, it's time for an introduction. This introduction is important as this is what captures your readers. Maybe talk about the benefits of a potty trained dog. How much better life is, now that you don't have to come home everyday and clean messes.

The next part is easy since you have your outline for the book. Now it's just a matter of informing the reader about each of your chapters and the steps it takes to potty train a dog. And since most of this is coming from your own personal experiences, you'll find that once you start typing, the words will practically fall out onto the screen. If you get stumped, you may have to do some research. Find some articles on the subject. Of course you don't want to copy anybody's ideas. But you can absolutely use them to inspire your own writing.

Now its time roll everything up in your closing thoughts. And don't worry too much about the length of your eBook. You don't need 200 pages to have a successful eBook. Many great ones are less than 10 pages. So if you've said everything you need to say in 5 pages - stop right there. There's no need to fill in an eBook with words just for the sake of it. And more than likely your readers will get bored if you do. Congratulations, and now rinse and repeat. Happy writing gang.

0 Top 10 Browser Applications

More and more browsers let us more freedom of choice, and as 2011 continues to heat up the application, the browser application also introduce new, changing the pattern of the draw users. Today, let's breakdown what users favorite browser application 10 bar.

Angry bird

It is a classic Chrome App Store applications, this crazy addictive game is a browser-based version developed. And the success of the fire from the PC to the mobile terminal side. I believe many people have installed the browser this section the application now!

Quickly Locate Sites

This application allows users who log on to their highest frequency lock several sites in the browser page, so convenient for the next visit, many browsers are already compatible with this application. Is that a life is very common application.

Morning Coffee

This is a good application, it will be good some day, the daily newspaper habit of reference to the browser, you only need to add a must-see sites every day, one day early in the morning when you open the browser will automatically open your saved pages, this application has been used by many browsers. And received by customers.

Ghostery

You do not have the experience, browsing the Internet, when information is always afraid of insecurity, if related to the privacy of that information is always afraid of a third party to track your footprints in the dark and trying to steal your information, do not worry now a, hostery can help you find out in the end who is tracking you, and tracking cookies, how to, this application sounds right!

Last Pass

This software can help people who often forget the password to easily record the password, simple and more convenient, but the disadvantage is that security compromised, but do not complain, why did not you always forget your password it!

Random Magic

We all know you can throw coins in the two decisions given a random answer, you know? Browser also features a coin toss in your application, you only need to generate a password, and provides a sequence of random numbers and letters can simulate the reality of a coin toss! Want a second election, Check it out!

Speckie

This is a spell check feature, you can write to remind you what the word wrong, or the issuing of e-mail to remind you where the problem is, this is a good error correction procedures.

Super Mario

If you've enjoyed Nintendo games, then you must be super-Mary is no stranger, this program lets you play Super Mario in the side when the side miss the good old days of childhood.

0 Efficient Ways to Increase Your Affiliate Commission

If you need to earn more money without much difficulty then affiliate program will be one of the best options, since it offers many flexible features such as marketing tools, strategies, tips, and much more. However, identifying the best affiliate program is a quite difficult task because there are several affiliate marketing programs in the global marketing arena. Commission, residual income and marketing tools are the key factors that assist you to determine the right affiliate program. Presently, Stephen Pierce CEO of Stephen Pierce International has launched new affiliate program for products OptiMINDzation and passive residual income systems extreme along with many flexible features for the affiliates. His affiliate programs offers affiliates with a vast array of marketing tools from emails, banners, classified ads, keywords, text ads, Google adwords ads, articles, press releases and more to promote products without any difficulties. Moreover, 50 percent commission is also provided according to the selling ratio.

Try to grab the best residual income program because these programs provide you additional money apart from commission. For example, if you promote an online marketing course or training course you would get paid every time the member renews his subscription. This is one of the best ways to generate steady income. After identifying the right affiliate program, the next phase would be to increase the commission within a short span of time. Always remember that depending upon the selling ratio only you would get the commission, so you must you different tactics to grab the attention of customers and must be able to drive them towards the target website to make a purchase.

Some important ways to increase the affiliate commission are listed below:

- Make use of the marketing tools such as emails, banners, classified ads, keywords, text ads, Google adwords ads, articles, press releases and much more to promote the products effectively. Most often these marketing tools are provided for the affiliates through affiliate marketing program.

- If you are promoting a product which has less competition then you might not need new strategies to promote. However, if the affiliate product has more competition then you must use trendy strategies to grab the potential customers. You can write free reports and distribute them from your site to popular social networking sites. This way of promoting your affiliate products would help you to gain an upper hand in the marketing arena.

- Nowadays, almost all the people are hooked up to social networking sites, so promoting in such sites would help you to grab more potential customers.

- You must provide some valuable information in the short reports regarding the affiliate product and attractive discount offers associated with it. This might drive the customers towards the target website to make a purchase.

- You can also make use of blogging sites to promote the products.

These ways might assist you in increasing the affiliate commission within a short span of time.

Stephen Pierce is the CEO of Stephen Pierce International which provides total solutions to new and active small business owners, entrepreneurs and CEO's. The author is an expert and has written many articles regarding Stephen Pierce and affiliate programs in the past.