Category Archives: Security

Free Software, Keep Safe Online, Malware, Security

Xilisoft, Freecorder and Malware – Beware!

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We’ve run into a bad situation lately regarding malware and free software. Last week we installed a ‘free’ program from Xilisoft, hoping to create a BluRay DVD using multiple avi videos. First, the program wasn’t free. The download was free, not the software. Watch out for anything that says  ‘Free Download’. It’s almost always a lie. Anyway, that software installed a really bad bit of malware that spread across one of our computers. It took us a whole day to eliminate it.

Next, we re-installed Freecorder. We’ve used Freecorder in the past, hell, we’ve even recommended it. Forget what we said before, don’t install Freecorder now. Yes, we’ll change our previous post but, for now, stay away from it.

How do we know when malware is installed? Basically, things change. Search engines look different, even if you are left with your original search source. Freecorder installed its own ad feeder so, even though we could still use Google, there were ads at the top of the search window. Initially we thought that Google had changed their system but then we realized that Freecorder had installed their own bit of malware.

With the Xilisoft malware, our home pages changed, to the point where we can’t find a way to change them back. We’ll figure it out and describe it here. Search engines changed, too. All in all, there was much gnashing of teeth around the office.

TIP: When you’re installing free software, or even pay software sometimes, don’t accept the default settings. Go through each screen and read the words carefully. You don’t have to accept everything. Either uncheck anything you don’t agree with or ‘decline’ when asked if you also want to install such and such. This decline or accept part is new. You’d think that you can’t use the software if you decline but you can. What you are declining is the additional software that is bundled with the ‘free’ material.

Software such as Burnaware and Irfanview are completely safe, free of ad or malware and work perfectly. For downloading videos from Youtube or Daily Motion, we would recommend using Firefox and installing the Flashgot plugin. We’ve had luck with the Real Downloader too but it seems to have stopped working. Flashgot works for videos and whole pages of photos, too.

Photo of Flashgot Icon
Install Flashgot with Firefox and you can download videos and photos quickly.

 

We used to use Freecorder for downloading music but now we wholeheartedly recommend the OffLiberty site: http://offliberty.com/  We wrote about how to use it here: Using OffLiberty to download MP3s. 

 

Thanks for reading! Let us know if you’ve had problems with malware in the past. Tell us how you got it and, hopefully, how you got rid of it.

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Phishing Scams, Scam, Security

What is Phishing

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Phishing is a new word but it’s very popular these days. What does it mean? Phishing is an attempt to trick people out of their social network or email passwords. Here’s now it works.

This morning, a company that we follow on Twitter sent us a direct message. A direct message on Twitter is much like an email between two Twitter users. Here is what the message looked like:

Photo of a phishing direct message on Twitter.
Check the spelling. Pretty obvious that this isn’t something that a company sent.

 

How would you know this is a phishing attempt? This direct message has a link in it, that’s a key give-away. Also, check how Lick’s used ‘u’ instead of ‘you’. Would a company send out a message with bad grammar in it? That is a second clue. Third, this message was received on Twitter. Why would Lick’s include a link to Facebook in a direct message on Twitter?

Don’t EVER click on a link in a message like this. What happens if you do? If you do click on a link in a phishing email, you will be taken to a page that looks very much like a Facebook or Twitter page. That page, which isn’t a real Facebook or Twitter page, will ask you to log in to your account. Because the page is extremely well made and looks identical to a Facebook/Twitter log in page, people often log in. At that point, the fake page steals your account, changing the password as it does, and starts sending out messages or posts using your name.

Since it seems that these messages are coming from you, your friends click on the link in the message and the fake site gets even more passwords. The circle gets much larger with each click.

Sometimes these links lead to sites that install software on your computer that will steal your personal information, your banking passwords, things like that. Everyday there are new phishing emails sent out, new phishing posts on Facebook and Twitter and, unfortunately, new users who are tricked into clicking on the links. Watch out for this trickery, folks.

Thanks for reading!

Back ups, Backing up your computer, Computers, Security, Undelete a file or folder, Windows, Windows Secrets

How to Undelete a File – even if you’ve permanently deleted it.

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Even if you have never heard of it, Windows System Recovery works silently in the background as you use your computer. It’s a small but very powerful tool that you can use to rescue a file that you have accidentally deleted, even if you have permanently deleted it. Here’s how it works:

1. Windows System Recovery is turned on by default when you install Windows. Unless you have specifically turned it off, it’s running now. Check this by clicking Start then right clicking Computer and choosing Properties. Click on System Protection and you will very likely see that System Restore is on.

2. Next, you must know the exact name of the file that you deleted. It doesn’t matter what kind of file it is, Windows can recover it. However, you must know the exact name of the file, including what kind of file it was. The last three letters, whether they be .txt or .avi or .jpg, etc.,  are important here.

3. The file can’t be something that you just saved and then deleted. There has to be a restore point in between the time you created the file and the time that you deleted it. Go back to Computer and check how often Windows creates a restore point. Restore points can be created manually but won’t be any good after you have accidentally deleted a file.

4. Here’s the fun part. Windows Notepad can save a file as anything, it doesn’t have to save something as a .txt file. What we’re going to do is create a phony file then ask Windows to find an older version of that file.

5. Go to the folder where the file was when you deleted it. In this example, we will use a file that was accidentally deleted from our desktop.

6. Open Notepad and type a couple of letters in the window that opens up. Next, click up on the top left to bring down the Save As menu:

Photo of Windows Restore menu
Click on Save As.

 

7. Once the next menu comes up, click on the line at the bottom to get to ‘All files’. Like this:

Photo of Windows Restore Menu 2
Make sure that All Files is highlighted.

 

8. We don’t want to save the file we just created as a text file, unless it was a text file that you accidentally deleted, right? Let’s make this file a Word document. We will type in the name and the file type, separated by a period, in the slot. This is what you want to see:

Photo of Windows Restore Menu 3
We used ‘resume.docx’ for this example.

 

9. We saved that file to our desktop as a .docx file, even though it is really a simple .txt file. Here’s how it looks on our desktop, complete with the Word icon:

Photo of Windows Restore Menu 4
Although the file is a text file, Windows thinks it is a Word document.

 

10. The file that you create doesn’t have to be a word or text based file. With Notepad, you can create any type of file that you want. Of course, the file you create isn’t a real version of that file type, it’s just identified or named as that. In other words, if you create a video or photo file, let’s say an ‘.avi’ file, Windows will think it is an .avi file but it won’t be able to open it. We made an .avi file, just to show you that it can be done:

Photo of Windows Restore Menu 5
We told Windows that this is an an .avi video file, even though it isn’t.

Here is how this phony .avi file looks on our desktop:

Photo of Windows Restore 6
We use the VLC player for our videos, hence the icon.

 

11. Now for the trick. If we had deleted that hawaii.avi file, all we have to do to get it back again is right click it and choose ‘Restore previous versions’. Right click the file and you’ll see this:

Photo of Windows Restore Menue 7
We just want one old version but Windows might have a few available.

Depending on how old the file is and how often Windows has created a restore point, you may have a few version of the same file available for restoration. No problem. You can copy any file in the vault to any place on your computer. Once you click ‘Restore previous version’, this menu pops up:

Photo of Windows Restore Menu 8
There is only one version of this particular file available.

In this case, the file hasn’t been changed since August 13, 2012. If it had been changed, there would be several other versions of the same file available. All you’d have to do is to copy the one with the correct date and paste it into any folder on your computer. If you aren’t sure of what the correct date is, copy each file and put each one in a different folder. Remember that you can’t have two files with the same name in the same folder.

 

12. Highlight the file you want. You can open it to see if it’s the right one, copy it to another folder or ‘Restore’ it to the folder where we created the phony file.  In this example, we would choose “Restore’ and Windows would then replace the file we created with the version of that file which was stored in its System Recovery folder.

 

TIP: This procedure will work for files or folders. If you have deleted just about anything, and you have a restore point between the date the file was created and the date you deleted the file, you can get it back…even if you permanently deleted that file.

 

This exercise is relatively simple but it’s worth trying out before you get stuck. Sometimes if you accidentally delete something, you panic. If you’ve run through this demo step by step, there will be no need to panic when things go bad. We hope this helps you someday. Questions and comments are welcome.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

 

Internet, Keep Safe Online, Security, VPN/VOIP

Changes and Updates – VPN/VOIP and other funny acronyms

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We recently updated our Internet Service Provider (ISP). Worldline set us up with unlimited 6 Meg DSL Internet plus phone plus Canada long-distance service for $50.00 a month. Yes, you read that correctly. If you take the link and decide to sign-up, tell them that Brian Mahoney sent you. We’ll get a discount for that just as you will when you refer people to them. Today was our first day and, touch wood, so far so good. The phone service is crystal clear and the Internet is super fast! We’ll let you know if anything changes over time.

Before you dive into this, we should let you know that your phone won’t work if the power goes off. Everything goes through a Thomson router, both Internet and phone, so if the power is gone, so is your phone. You can get a UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) and plug the router into it for complete protection but if your electricity goes off for long periods of time, this may not be the option for you.

Secondly, the 911 service cannot locate you as it can with a regular phone. Sure, you can keep your old number, but you have to tell the 911 operator your location. Again, this may not be for everyone. If you have some chronic condition that limits you from speaking in an emergency, stick with your normal landline.

Photo of Worldline Website
Try it if you are in Canada.

In the last month, we’ve also switched to using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) on some of our computers and entertainment consoles. We like to kick back with a movie during downtime and Netflix is our main choice for that. But, since we are in Canada, we are in awe of the superb offerings on the American version of Netflix. In order to connect to the U.S. Netflix, we have to use a VPN which shows us as coming from inside the U.S. instead of from Canada.

This is not illegal, by the way. Once you have a Netflix account, you can access any Netflix offering in any country where they operate. This is convenient if you travel, for instance. If you have a U.S. or Canadian account, you can access Netflix in Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, England as well as in the U.S. and Canada. We pay $5  a month for this service, using a VPN provider right here in Canada.

The process is simple and explained on the provider’s site. You can either set up each computer or entertainment console individually or you can change the settings on your router which feeds out the Internet to all of your various computers/consoles. Each situation is different but they are all explained on the provider’s site. Here’s the link: http://www.unblock-us.com/  In this case, we don’t get any referral fees but it’s only $5 a month anyway.

Photo of Unblock-us website
VPNs can be used to mask where you are really coming from.

Lastly, we are not connected in any way to either of these two companies. With Worldline we get a $5 kickback if you mention Brian’s name and for Unblock-us, we get nothing. But we like to give credit where credit is due and both of these companies provide good service at a very decent price. If any service problems crop up, we’ll let you know.

Thanks for reading!

 

Internet, Keep Safe Online, Safe Surfing, Security

Stay Safe Online – Avoid being bullied/stalked/blackmailed

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Here in Canada, we’ve all been shocked by the story of a 15 year old girl who committed suicide after being bullied at her high school as well as being blackmailed online. When this girl was 12, she made a mistake while using her webcam with a man and paid for that mistake for three years, until her suicide in October of 2012. We will not publish this girl’s name but you can search for her incredibly touching video on Youtube. Here are some tips to stay safe online, most of these apply to girls but parents should take note of these tips, as well.

1. As we told you in our Facebook posts, anything you do online can be traced back to you. If you make a mistake, there is no delete button that will make it all better. Before you do something that you wouldn’t normally do, something that might go against your parent’s normal sense of decency, think about it before you do it. Is it worth ruining your immediate future for a silly, seemingly harmless moment online?

2. Recording your webcam sessions is much easier than you might think. Read this post and see if you don’t agree: Video Screen Capture Using CamStudio  CamStudio is free and very easy to use. It records both video and sound. When someone is recording your webcam feed, there is no way that you will know it. Remember that. There is no notification that you are being recorded.

Photo of CamStudio menu
It’s very easy to capture video and sound using CamStudio.

 

3. If you are chatting with someone, how do you know that this person is who they say they are? If you are webcamming with someone, how do you know that the person on the screen is real? Well, as far as chatting goes, have them send you an email. Using our guide, here is the link: Email Detective: Is your email buddy really who they say there are?  , you can figure out if they are where they pretend to be.

If you are using your webcam, and you should only use your webcam if the other person also uses theirs, have them wave at you or, better yet, have them hold up a piece of paper with your name on it. Many unscrupulous people play a recorded video to make you think that the person you see is real. They will often stop the video suddenly or say that their camera is broken. Make a rule for yourself: No webcam without a real person on the other screen.

4. Remember that screen captures work two ways. While someone can record you, you can also record them. This way, should something bad happen, then you have proof of who you were chatting with.

5. If you are on a chat site and you’re feeling a little frisky, don’t show your face. Don’t have anything in the background that people can trace back to you. Wear a mask, if you get carried away. Don’t listen to the people who ask you to show your face, show your this or that. They are the ones who are recording you, most likely. Whole websites have been built up around these videos that they record so don’t play into their game. Common sense will keep you out of trouble.

6. If you use sites such as Stickam or Chatroulette, don’t get tricked into showing anything that you wouldn’t show on the street or while your parents are watching. These sites can be fun but don’t do anything on them that you wouldn’t do normally. Just be yourself and have clean, safe fun.

7. Lastly, don’t get drunk and do crazy things online. Not only will you regret it the next day, one of those things may very well come back to haunt you. One silly flash online could change your whole life. Have fun with your friends, stay away from strangers until you get to know them, and keep your wits about you. If someone seems too forceful or belligerent, block them.

Computers Made Simple advocates safe and fun computing. All of the chat tools are both educational and entertaining but they can be dangerous, too. Young people think they know everything. We know that we felt the same way back in our teens. If you’re concerned about what your children do online, talk to them about it. Let them know that you know about sites like Stickam, Chatroullette and others. If you don’t know, check them out. You’d be very surprised about what goes on there. You don’t have to sneak around behind your kid’s backs, just talk to them openly. Sugar gets better results than salt, right?

Thanks for reading! Comments, questions, opinions are welcome.