TIPS TO PREVENT IDENTIY THEFT AND SPOOFING/SPAM

[Clyde9]

From: Im-still-Lefty  (Original Message)   
Sent: 1/18/2006 10:11 PM

Total chaos can quickly evolve whenever an attacker hijacks a username or password  and the person who is victimized may or may not even be aware that their security has been compromised until it is too late.   There are however a few very simple steps that you can take to prevent an unwanted individual from gaining control over your information.

1:  Change your passwords at least once every 2 weeks. And if you write them down, please put them in a secure location!

2:  As another member suggested, use passwords that are a random mix of letters,lower and upper case,numbers,and symbols. At least 8 characters long. this will cause most password stealing programs to take so long to decipher, that an attacker will give up.

3:  When using a public computer :ie libraries, dont just log out, also go to the internet settings and clear the history and cache.Who knows who might log on right after you walk away? Watch to be sure that somebody isn't observing you as well, thieves have been known to hide and watch as people enter pin # and passwords. Be aware of your surroundings.

4:  Use different passwords for each site. If a hacker manages to get one password, it will minimize the damage if the others are different.

4:  Install a good anti-virus program and firewall on your computer. While Norton and McAfee are both good, AGV offers free anti-virus protection that works just as well, and is a full featured program. A very popular free fire-wall is put out by ZoneLabs.

5:  Run a virus and trojan scan at least every week. Update the anti-virus definitions before every scan.

6:  Use at least two good anti-spyware programs. It is not unusual for one program to find something the other did not detect. Personally, I use Lavasoft's Ad-Aware, and Safer-networking's Spybot Search & Destroy. Both are well known free utilities that complement each other quite well.

7:  Change your internet settings. depending on which browser you use, you can disable various permissions that are open gateways to potential hackers. One of the most exploited is Active-X controls, this archaic control was used by websites way back in the mid-90's before more secure multimedia programs were available. It was used to make web page graphics animate. It was discontinued when Shockwave and Macromedia Flash were developed. yet Microsoft still has Active-X enabled by default. It can in most cases be disabled with no problems. A few game sites still require it though.

8:  Get a more secure browser. I ditched IE long ago, in favor of Mozilla. A free linux based browser that, due to it's Linux basis, is totally immune to viruses,trojans, and Active-X control break-ins.

9:  Consider getting a router to run your internet connection through. Most have built-in protections like proxy servers, and firewalls, among other features that will minimize attacks.

10:  Purchase a program that will hide your computer while you surf. It basically routes your DNS and IP address through a series of anonomous servers, usually several. this keeps your true location and DNS hidden. With a high quality one, there is usually no loss of speed while you surf.

There, 10 easy, and in most cases free steps that you can take to protect yourself from hackers. I am sure that other members have their own favorites, and encourage them to post them here. I intend this to be a new archive of useful tips that we, as members, can share with each other. Lefty

links:
Avg Antivirus  http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

Spybot Search and Destroy  http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

AdAware  http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

ZoneLabs  http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/trial_zaFamily/trial_zafamily.jsp?lid=home_freedownloads

Mozilla Firefox  http://www.mozilla.com



From: cooneytunes   
Sent: 1/21/2006 11:22 AM

Great TIP Lefty....
I had Norton for the Past 3 years ansd they are Good, but the Program will dratically slow down even a clean tweeked computer, and when your subcription is 30 days from the end Symantic will start notifing you everytime you sign on and then evey time you update your definitions..you will be redirected to the Symantic Store to renew your subcription.....and if you renew 30 days out you will losse thirty days on your Subcription....so for 30 days everytime you sign on and update you get the message and when you hit skip renewal in update.....you have to do it 7 times before you get the update....That is the reason I jumped from Norton to AGV 7.1 Pro....Symantic was worse than a Coney Island or Carnival Hawker.....Had sell tring to get you to buy....AGV 7.1 Pro gives you a two year licence and is only $39 for the two years as Norton is 69 for 1 year.....Plus there is no slow down of the computer.....It your running XP with Service Pack 2 the firewall now automatically stops active x and you can deceide if you want to install it or not.....Also another good program is WinPatrol
it will not let your browser get redirected without your permission, and even if you install a new program it catches it on Start UP the first time and asks if you want the program to run...so if anyone hacks in and puts something there...You know the first time you boot up.

Security Should not be taken lightly these days,   Metal Detector
Do all you can......Better BE SAFE than SORRY.....

Timmy



From: 70winnie   
Sent: 1/24/2006 11:06 PM

The scariest thing I see people do with their PCs is to perform all of their other day-to-day computing (especially Internet access) using an account/username with full "administrator" privileges.  In older versions of Windows you can't help it, but with Windows XP (and other NT-based versions), you're much safer if you create one password-protected administrator account that you ONLY use for administrative tasks (install new software and updates THAT YOU TRUST COMPLETELY, add and remove users, etc.).  Create a second "limited user" account for all general-purpose computing tasks.  The golden rule of safe computing is:

ANYTHING THAT DOESN'T NEED TO BE DONE AS AN ADMINISTRATOR SHOULD NEVER BE DONE AS AN ADMINISTRATOR.

Most trojans, viruses, etc. can only install themselves if you download them using an administrator account.  If you download them as a limited user, Windows won't let them install themselves on your computer.  It's that easy.

I spent many years as a UNIX system administrator. On UNIX, there is a single account named "root" that has full administrative access to the system.  When I had to do something administrative, I would log in as root, do what I had to do, and then log out as quickly as possible.  Today, on Windows XP, I'm the same way.

When my computer-illiterate mother had problems with her computer, I fixed the problems, then created an administrator account.  I didn't tell her the admin password, and her computer worked fine after that.  Then one day she asked me what the password was.  I told her that she could make a choice:  I could tell her the password and I'd never fix her computer problems again, or I would continue to help her with computer problems.  She opted for the password.  Within a month, she was having problems again.  Now someone else helps her.  I tell you this because THAT is how serious I am about admin accounts.



From: Slantsixness   
Sent: 1/26/2006 9:27 AM

LOL Andrew!
I did the same thing with my Dad's computer, but he opted to leave the admin side alone so I would still fix it (some times I wish he hadn't...).

I'm still glad I left the Admin account off limits to him. He has had no real problems for more than a year. (except for pesky updates that I had to do)

USE LINUX

Solve all your woes! and it's FREE, it's all FREE.
One of the most powerful operating systems out there and,  no it's not windows, it's FREE.
http://www.opensuse.org/Welcome_to_openSUSE.org

I want a T-shirt that looks like those Milk ads  that says "Got Root?"

Tom



From: immolate5   
Sent: 1/29/2006 5:06 PM

I use linux, best descision of my life. My computer has been running straight for about 85 days and not a problem. Suse is ok, but I like slackware.



From: MSN NicknamePhÃ¥rÃ¥oh   
Sent: 2/15/2006 10:24 AM

Here's another tip using a simple e-mail address confounding format:

Spammers send out web-spiders which read the HTML code of web-sites searching for valid e-mail addresses and then compile them into a data base and mass spam the victims.

These programs aren't very sophisticated... yet... so they look for a couple key components to e-mail addresses:  "@", ( . ), and "net or com".

To confound these spiders, you can change the format of your address in many ways so that it doesn't match your true address when posting it.  Here's a couple examples:

mm (omit) sobyak *at* msn DOT com,
*mm sobyak* AT (MSN) dot com....  (omit the *s)

You get the idea...

- Sob



From: MSN NicknameIm-still-Lefty
Sent: 2/27/2006 11:09 AM

I found this posted at a forum I visit, I felt that I should share it with all of you. You can never be too careful nowadays. (Thanks to NeedZ forum for permission to copy this, www.needz.org)

Lefty