I know this because so many of you have given me your passwords so that I can do my work.

But, ta-dah!  I’m here to save you from those crooks trying to hack your online bank account or credit card.   Here are the requirements for a safe password:

• At least 8 characters. Twelve is better.  Twenty is fabulous!
• A combination of upper case and lower case letters
• At least one number
• A character, if the site allows it, like # or $
• No string of letters that has any meaning, such as “AcE” or “pIn”
• Especially, no numbers or letters that have anything to do with you.  If your name is George and you live at 4162 Smith St., don’t create a password like “gEo4162#”     Too easy!

Do what I do.  I have an Excel spread sheet (my cheat sheet) that I keep my passwords on.  And that spread sheet is on a jump drive that doesn’t go in my computer unless I need to add a new login or change something.  Then, and only then, it’s in my computer just long enough to make changes and print a new cheat sheet. 

On my computers I use Norton Internet Security, and I’ve set up the Identity Safe and Browser Protection and the master password is a ridiculously long combination of numbers, letters and characters that have no meaning at all.   It took me 2 months of entering it, over and over, every time I opened my browser, to finally remember it, but having to refer to that cheat sheet for a couple of months was a lot easier than having to deal with identity theft.

Don’t you agree?

I use Norton Internet Security and I decided to check the scan reports one day and found that my scheduled scans weren’t running.   It seems the Windows’ scheduling program interferes on occasion with Norton’s scheduling and for a week Norton was running only the built-in Quick Scan.  Yikes!  

I immediately ran a full system scan and then started researching why this would happen.   Norton, of course, blames Microsoft for the problem but whoever is at fault, the fix is to open the Windows Control Panel and then Scheduled Tasks and then delete the scheduled scan.   Then open Norton and reschedule the scan.  

Since I learned of this issue, it’s happened on my husband’s computer twice.  It hasn’t happened to me again so who knows what triggers the situation. 

Computers.  Gotta hate ‘em.  

Stay safe!

Hello,
How are you doing? I hope all is well with you. I know this might be a
surprise to you but I’m writing this email to you in an hurry and in a
confused state of mind. I want to say I’m really sorry that I didn’t inform
you about my traveling to Scotland for a Seminar. It was something urgent
and i didn’t even inform anyone about this traveling. But I just got myself
in serious mess here. I got my wallet misplaced on my way to the hotel and
all my money, phone, bank cards, diary, my return ticket and other vital 
documents are all in the wallet.
(ALL HIS VITAL DOCUMENTS ARE IN THE WALLET -EXCEPT HIS PASSPORT??)
I’m so confused right now as I have lost all contacts.
(FUNNY HOW HE DIDN’T LOSE MINE SINCE HE NEVER HAD MINE TO BEGIN WITH)

I need to get out of this mess. Please I need $1,500 USD to sort myself out
and to pay for the hotel bills but I will appreciate any amount you could
afford. I will pay you back as soon as I get back home.
(IF HE HAS HIS PASSPORT, WHY NOT GO TO THE EMBASSY AND THEY’LL HELP HIM WIRE MONEY FROM HIS BANK TO HIMSELF??)
Let me know if you will be able to help me with any amount and you can help me send the money with my details below at any western union money transfer office and i will get the money over here within an hour.

*Name: Christian Entwistle
Address:  14 Porteous pend, Edinburgh, EH1 2HP Scotland
Country: United Kingdom*

Kindly help me to make the transfer as soon as you receive this email and
you should get back to me with the 10 Digit Money Transfer Control Number,
exact Amount sent with details used in sending it. I still have my passport
to prove my identity at Western union here when receiving the money, and I
will email you with the return flight details immediately I receive the
money.
Your reply will be appreciated.
Thanks so much
–
Christian Entwistle
(NOTE: No one in Winnsboro has ever heard of Christian Entwistle)
Winnsboro Area Chamber of Commerce
GNTX Gun Show & Outdoors EXPO
Marketing/Promotions Staff
(He gave some website addresses that are legit, but I’ve removed them)

So, the moral is – if you feel the urge to help anyone, help your webmaster (me).  I’d love to go to Scotland and I promise not to lose my important documents.

If you receive an offer via email from someone claiming to need your help getting money out of Nigeria — or any other country, for that matter — forward it to the FTC at spam@uce.gov per the government’s website:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt117.shtm

I use Norton Internet Security and it has a “Norton Safe Search” feature that I can use and it will put a little green icon by sites that Norton found safe when it visited them.  

But if it’s too late or you’re curious about this “virus/trojan/rogue program”, then visit this blog by a Symantec employee  for more information and instructions on removing the fake program.

But what about your name if you’re a sole proprietorship?  Ideally, you would provide your name, but what if you’re a woman, living alone, working from home?  Maybe you want to protect your privacy a little more.

That can be hard, however, if you’re shipping product.   I suppose Post Office boxes are an option, but I’m always suspicious if the only address on a website is a P.O. Box and there’s no person’s name on an About page.

And then there’s the whole Facebook and other social networking sites thing.   According to a Wired article I read, just because you make your Facebook page private doesn’t mean someone can’t find out tons about you.

But then, I’ve thought for years that privacy was largely a myth. The minute you give a doctor’s office your credit card and social security #, your privacy pretty much goes out the window.

My one piece of advice is to never give anyone your real email address, the one your ISP assigns you, unless absolutely necessary. That way, you can at least control your email. I always give my Google email address to doctor’s offices or any other company that requests/requires one.

I’d love to know what y’all think about this issue.

Yes, I – the person who constant nags you to backup, have lost my backup.

I keep all that info on a flash drive which I only put in my computer when I need to update something or print a copy. It’s the print copy I use daily. Oh, and of course I shred hard old copies when I print out new ones – and that’s “diamond” shredding, not simple strips. I’m careful with your information.

I intentionally have never had all that information anywhere but on that jump drive because I don’t want it to accidentally get in the wrong hands – which would be pretty hard since no one comes in my office except family and the very, very occasional client. But, again, I’m extra cautious.

So, how did I make this stupid mistake?

I needed to make a backup of another sensitive file – my credit card processing software database. That particular program always warns that it’s going to erase whatever’s currently on the drive you’re backing up to, but I have backed it up to external hard drives numerous times without a problem. I just create a folder for it and then tell it to back up. But this was the first time I’ve gone through that procedure using the little jump drive instead of my big external hard drive.

Apparently, there’s a difference, because this time, when I went to remove the flash drive, I saw that there was nothing on it except what I had just backed up.

Whimper, whimper…

So, while I wouldn’t and won’t do anything differently relative to my cheatsheets – I’ll still keep one electronic copy on my jump drive – I have learned that a computer sees a jump drive very differently than it sees an external hard drive. It obviously sees it more like an old floppy drive which is the medium that the credit card software was designed to backup to.

More whimpering… But things could be worse. Right?  Things can always be worse. At least I’m able to sit here with all 10 fingers and type this. That’s something to be happy about.

7-28-09 An addendum sent to me by Jerry K, one of my favorite wits.

One thing you didn’t mention was the proper method of removing the thumb drive from the USB port. Most people will just grab it and yank it from it’s hole. Wrong.

While it’s installed, look down there on the lower right corner of your desktop in the tray. You should see a little doodad with a little green arrow pointing to the left. That’s the “Safely Remove Hardware” button. Most of the time if you just yank the thumb drive out you’ll be safe. But you run the risk of damaging it internally and you’ll never see the files on your thumb drive again.

Click the little green arrow to “safely remove”.