When you set up your Wifi network, you are told that you have to secure it to make sure that no one is able to steal your information.

You are able to do that through different means but one of the ways is to set up encryption on the network.

You will usually have a couple of options that you can set up when you are dealing with encryption on your wireless network – these options are WEP, WPA, and WPA 2.

For years people have been asked to switch to WPA or WPA2 because WEP was easily cracked.

Now there seems to be a hole in the WPA2 standard that we need to worry about too.

In this article I will show you what encryption is and talk about the hole that is in the WPA2 standard.

What Is Encryption?

When we talk about encryption on the network we are talking about the ability to mix up the signal so that anyone who is able to tap into it will not be able to understand the data that they get.

All three of these standards are encryption-based but with encryption there are different levels of security.

When it came to network security, the WPA 2 was considered to be the best.

When hackers would try a brute force attack on the standard they would have to wait a long time for the attack to work.

But now there has been another way found to attack WPA2.

How WPA 2 Was Breached

The attack on WPA 2 is not a brute force style of attack; it is a man in the middle attack.

This means that someone is able to intercept the traffic that is going to another party even though that traffic is encrypted with WPA 2.

The person in the middle can decrypt the data that is being transferred while it is in the air.

They can read the data or just change the data and then finish the transfer to the other person.

The breach is more of a work around than actually cracking the system but that is enough for it to be effective.

The work around is good enough that your data is at risk.

And this is something that you should be worried about.

There are always going to be holes in security systems.

Nothing is safe as long as there is one person that is good and they are working on the problem as their main focus.

All systems are able to be cracked; we just have to be aware in what ways the system can be compromised.

With this knowledge, you can do what you can to keep that from happening.

Having a secured system is very important and relying on technology to solve the problem is only half the battle.

Is Your WiFi In Danger From A New WPA2 Vulnerability? is a post from: Security FAQs

Microsoft Windows has, arguably, had an image problem for the last couple of years.

For a long time it was known as the least secured operating system that was out on the market.

While some of the rumors may have been true, a big part of the problem was the fact that so many people used the operating system.

It was the number one most installed system in the world and this was by a very large margin.

windows 7 security

Now, with Windows 7, you are looking at a more secure and solid operating system and with this more secured operating system you should also be sure that you have the right programs installed on it.

These programs should be able to keep it secured and running like the first time that you booted it up.

Protect Yourself Against Adware And Spyware

Part of keeping your computer secure is the fact that you must keep it well maintained.

Part of doing this is by keeping all of the invaders off of your system.

While you mostly hear about viruses and other malware, you rarely hear about the other threats to your computer.

These are threats such as spyware and adware.

These are programs that are put onto your computer without you knowing.

They do not cause damage but they can violate your privacy.

The software watches what you are doing when you surf the internet and then sends the data back home to the server of the person or company who created the program.

There are a bunch of programs out there that will stop this from happening – one of the most popular is a program called Ad-Aware and it is able to find all of the most recent spyware that might be on your system.

If you want to make sure that your system is secured then this is a good place to start.

The Fight Against Malware

After you have the spyware issue taken care of now it is time to start worrying about the other infections that can creep onto your computer.

You are going to have to install some sort of antivirus on your system.

Antivirus will help you stop not only viruses but also Trojans, Worms, and anything else that the modern day hacker can come up with.

There are many antivirus solutions that you can choose from so make sure that you read about what they have to offer so that you can make an informed decision.

If you are not sure about some of the tech talk that may be in the explanation then you can go online and look it up on Wikipedia.

When you pick the antivirus solution that you are going to use, make sure that you keep it updated.

If you do not then you will find that all new viruses will be able to get past your security.

Windows 7 is a very secure operating system but that does not mean that it cannot use some help.

With the security of the system, and the downloading of the right programs, you will be able to surf the internet worry free for a long time.

Read more on Windows 7 Security

Which Applications Do I Need To Keep My Windows 7 Installation Secure? is a post from: Security FAQs

Today, as I continue my series on what I believe could be the best free antivirus programs you can install this year, I am looking at the free version of Avast antivirus.

Avast free Antivirus

After choosing the free antivirus program through the official site I was taken to cnet.com to complete the download.

From there, the whole process of downloading and installing Avast antivirus was so quick that I missed the opportunity to grab any screenshots!

After installation I left my laptop alone for a couple of minutes to start writing this article on my desktop and then almost jumped – the program notified me that it had automatically updated itself with a voice message!

Avast Free Antivirus

Being a free antivirus program means that this offering from Avast misses out on some of the features that can be found in either the paid version or the internet security suite offered by the company, namely -

• the sandbox technology
• firewall
• anti-spam
• protection for 3 pcs

- so the program you end up with is slightly limited in comparison to some of the competition.

That said, it runs very well indeed and does have some nice features.

One of the things I like here is the gaming mode which prevents Avast antivirus from popping up when you are in the middle of trying to blow someone away in your favourite first person shooter.

This is something that is missing from many other av programs I’ve tried, including the one I use all the time on my desktop.

Scanning Performance

As ever, I ran a scan with this antivirus program to see how it performed in terms of memory and CPU usage and whether that affected the usability of my machine.

Avast is light on system resources

Memory-wise, the program used about 9 megs of memory.

As for CPU, usage was only around 10-15% on both cores which is the best I’ve seen from a free antivirus program thus far.

Using other programs whilst Avast was running a scan showed no slowdown whatsoever.

Final Thoughts

The main page when you open up the antivirus program has a large advert on it for the paid version but I have become accustomed to that now – these security vendors all look to make the upssell off of their free products and that is to be expected.

Most free antivirus programs seem to encourage upgrades to the paid versions

Avast is quick to download, very quick to install and incredibly simple to use.

It doesn’t have all the features that I see in the program I use on my desktop – F-Secure Internet Security 2010 – but it does what it says it will very well indeed.

Of the free antivirus programs I’ve tried so far, this is the best.

Read about the other contenders for the top 10 free antivirus programs 2010.

The Top 10 Free Antivirus 2010 – Avast Free Antivirus is a post from: Security FAQs

The world of the internet can be a dangerous place.

You can visit a web site a thousand times and it will be completely safe and then the next time a single page view can lead to disaster.

If someone has penetrated it and messed with the code then you can be in for a world of hurt.

Black hat hackers are able to sneak their wares onto an unsuspecting web site in a hundred different ways so it might not be entirely fair to blame a web site that takes pretty good security measures to ensure a quality visiting experience for their visitors.

But in cases where the owners don’t care about security and it is very relaxed then you might want to look at those types of owners and blame them.

This is especially true if you use a credit card or Paypal to purchase services on the web site.

So when it comes to who to blame when your computer becomes infected there are several factors that you must look at.

who are you going to blame when you pick up malware from a web site?

Should You Blame Yourself?

The first person that you should look at is yourself.

Were you surfing the internet with an antivirus program turned on?

Did you go and visit a web site that can be considered sketchy at best?

These are all questions that you should be honest when asking yourself.

There are so many ways to protect yourself from an infection when you are online but people still will not do what is necessary to protect their computers.

If you do not do what is necessary to protect your system then an infection is bound to happen and the web site should be the last place that you blame.

Should You Blame The Web Site?

But if you do keep yourself relatively secure, then the web site should be the first place that you take a look at.

The first thing that you want to do is to look up in Google and see how many instances of security breaches this web site has.

Almost every web site will be compromised in some way in their lifetime.

The best that the webmaster behind the site can do is to try to take the steps that are needed in order to prevent that from happening but if they are being breached on a fairly regular basis, then that means they are not doing their jobs.

It means that someone on their end is not taking the necessary steps to keep their customers data safe.

If that is the case then the web site could be considered liable.

When a web site holds someone’s important data in their database they must guarantee at least to have a certain level of security.

If they are not able to meet that standard then that means they are liable for what happens but if they are able to comply with the security standards and they are still infiltrated then no-one is considered at fault.

Security failures happen, both on home and work networks, but if the company gives a good faith effort to keep your data safe, then there is not much blame to go around.

Of course you could always minimise the risk even more by reading your favourite web sites in an RSS reader.

If Your Computer Becomes Infected With Malware On A Web Site Then Who Is To Blame? is a post from: Security FAQs

If you’ve ever felt the need to encrypt your data in order to keep it safe, secure and private then SafeHouse Explorer Encryption could be just what you are looking for.

SafeHouse Explorer will work on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 and is a very small 4MB download.

As far as encryption programs go, this one is very easy to get to grips with.

SafeHouse Explorer Encryption

When you install the program it will create an encrypted ‘vault’ in a location of your choosing which could be a hard drive or USB stick for example.

Each ‘vault’ that you create can be up to 2 terrabytes in size which is absolutely massive in comparison to other rival services.

protect your data with encryption

Once you have created your vaults you can then protect them with 256-bit encryption and a password.

When you wish to view the contents of your encrypted volume you simply need to enter the password and browse away, either though the SafeHouse Explorer application itself or via Windows Explorer, much like you would view any drive attached to your computer.

Peter Avritch does a great job of explaining this in far more detail in the video below -

Overall I really like SafeHouse Explorer as it does the job, allows you to encrypt huge amounts of data, is free! and doesn’t go all technical on you.

Click here to download the free version yourself.

Protect And Secure Your Data Free With SafeHouse Explorer Encryption is a post from: Security FAQs

There is no doubt about the fact that at some point you have experienced at least some minor computer related issues and you had to look for help in solving these issues.

One thing nobody wants is to start experiencing any of these issues while working on an important project or when trying to meet a deadline.

Most problems concerning computers can easily be fixed if you have basic knowledge about computers and are able to identify the exact cause that made your computer stop working.

If you are not exactly prepared to deal with such problems it is always good to know someone who is and contact him as soon as the problem occurs.

Timing is crucial when it comes to computer repair because you wouldn’t want your computer to be out of action for long, especially if your work relies on it.

repairing common computer problems

The Expert Computer Repair Technician

An expert computer repair technician can easily solve most computer related issues in a very short time.

You shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that repairing computers doesn’t require any knowledge or skills – some tasks really are easy and can be done yourself, but many require a higher level of expertise.

The time needed to repair your computer by an expert is relative to the level of expertise he possesses and the abilities he has formed in years of working with computers.

Frozen Computer

Freezing of the computer while working with a program is one of the most commonly encountered problems.

This is usually caused by the incorrect order of access of another program that is running at the same time with the one you were using.

An expert will be able to fix this problem in no time by connecting to your computer from a remote location and check all the settings to find out which ones need to be adjusted in order to have your computer running again.

BSOD

The “blue screen” (BSOD) is another issue that many computer users face and usually they tend to panic once they encounter it.

Even if you might think this is the beginning of the end for your computer it is actually a warning screen that signals that a certain file needs to be either deleted or renamed.

In the case of blue screen guessing about the cause of the problem can only make matters worse because there are lots of variables that need to be considered.

The blue screen is also something you don’t want to ignore because their main purpose is to warn you about an important problem with your computer.

Viruses

Another thing that causes lots of trouble are viruses.

They can take control of some programs and create quite a mess on your hard drive.

The good news about viruses is that they can easily be removed if you find out about their existence fast and get professional help before it is too late for some of your data or, better yet, take proactive action and buy a good antivirus program in the first instance.

It doesn’t really matter that much how your computer related problems began appearing, you should know that they can easily be fixed with proper timing, knowledge or professional help.

What Are Some Of The Most Frequent Issues In Computer Repair? is a post from: Security FAQs

When the internet was first created it was not expected to be a place that you would have to worry about items such as security.

It was thought that the openness of the web would lead to people being able to learn from each other and so far that has been true.

This is why on any browser, if you want to see how a web page is built, all you have to do is hit the view source button and you will be able to see the source code for yourself.

Viewing Javascript On A Page Is Easy

The same thing is true with the JavaScript on the web page.

If you want to see how a web designer is able to do a neat trick on the web page you can openly view the source code for JavaScript as well.

But this openness has lead to security problems too.

So, before you release your web page to the public, you should check the JavaScript on the site and make sure that it is secured.

On a normal program or on web sites that has most of their business logic on the server portion of the site it takes an attacker a long time to be able to find an exploit.

They either have to reverse engineer the program or run a lot of tests to see where the weak spots are.

When it comes to JavaScript on a web page, it is a lot easier to find a weakness.

The source code is right on the page so any skilled person can just take that and read it.

Plug The Javascript Security Hole

There are a couple of ways that you can stop your JavaScript from being the hole in your web site security.

None of these techniques are fool proof but at least it will make it a lot harder for someone to be able to exploit your web page.

The first thing that you can do to make sure that someone is not able to exploit your JavaScript code on the page is to place all important business logic on the server.

You can have the parts of the JavaScript that interact with the design of the web page still in the normal spot but anything that relates to business logic and security should be written in a different language.

With the power of Ajax you are able to use the JavaScript and interact with a server language such as PHP.

This will help fill a lot of the holes.

Also, another way that you can make sure that your JavaScript is the not the weak point in your web page is to use obfuscation techniques.

There are programs that will take your JavaScript and make it so that the source code is hard to read but you are still able to run it on a web page.

Again, this is not a surefire method for security but it is able to keep most of the bad guys from being able to exploit your code.

When it comes to JavaScript on the web page, you must be careful.

You do not want it to be the reason why your web site is hacked.

How Protected Is The JavaScript On Your Web Page? is a post from: Security FAQs

The most powerful thing in the world right now is information.

In the past the thing that made a nation mighty was the size of its army and the devastation that the weapons at its disposal could cause.

Now that is no longer the case.

The ability to be able to get information from another country and also to be able to control their data stream is the thing that makes a country powerful these days.

This is why there are certain governments that are growing uneasy with using products in their government complex that was made on foreign shores.

do electronics from China pose a security risk?

There has been a move by the US government to move away from the electronic products that were made by China that are in use in government buildings.

There is a renewed fear of spying and espionage that is running through Washington DC right now.

Spies Amongst Us

When people talk about spies on foreign soil they usually talk about them in the past tense as if it is something that we do not see anymore.

Events over the past few weeks have proved that theory wrong.

There were a group of spies that were caught by the FBI that made the world feel like it was going back into the cold war era.

The United States and other countries around the world are now worried about the same spy games that are being played by countries like China which do not involve sending people over; its the electronics they export that are of concern as there is a fear that they may have back doors in them.

Unfounded Fear

To be fair, most of the paranoia surrounding Washington and the use of computers from China are not based in reality.

There has been no proof shown to the public that China is putting informational back doors into their computers.

This is just something that they think could happen in the future.

Also, America ships a lot of electronic products overseas as well.

There is a good chance that we could be doing the same thing and that is why we are so scared of the possibility of it happening to us!

Should You Worry?

Right now there is no proof that you should worry about any of this affecting your computer experience.

There are many people that analyze the computers and other components that come over here and they have found nothing worth noting.

Occasionally, some hardware is shipped that will have a virus pre-installed but that has been happening for years.

As far as any informational back door, that has not been seen yet.

Do not worry about the computer that you get, it pays for the government to be extra paranoid, and for you the risk is not that extreme.

Information is a very big deal in this day and age so governments are going to go through more and more precautions to make sure that it is protected from enemy invaders.

Does Your Computer Pose A Security Risk Because It Comes From China? is a post from: Security FAQs

Most of the time when you are being attacked by a hacker they like to stay in the background; they want as little interaction with you as possible.

They want to be able to take the data that they came for and for you to never hear from them again.

Unfortunately that is not always the case.

There are several reports where hackers, or just plain cyber thieves, have taken their attacks to the next level and threatened their victims even after the attacks were over.

The hackers received some sort of cheap thrill that came along with feeling as if they were in control of this person’s life.

There have been many ways that this type of attack has happened.

I will show you a few and then tell you how you can avoid them.

Cases Of Online Extortion

The cases of online extortion there have been seen so far have been varied.

Most of the time when you see a case of online extortion the attacker has the victim’s computer in their control and they tell them that they have to send a certain amount of money for the software to be taken off of the computer.

There was an online crew of hackers that made millions of dollars a year with an attack like this.

Most of the time, however, the people didn’t have to pay because they took it to an expert to get the malware off.

When a person did decide to pay they would never hear back from the attackers and they would have to take their computer in to be repaired anyway.

There have also been recent cases of what you would call Sextortion.

watch out for sexploitation scams

This is when a black hat hacker threatens a person by telling them they have revealing photos of the victim and that unless they give in to their demands they would send the pictures to the victim’s family.

Sometimes the hacker would want money; other times the hacker would want the person to send them more explicit dirty pictures of themselves.

This is a relatively new phenomenon but one that has happened a few times already.

What To Do If You Are In This Situation

If you find out that someone is trying to extort you then there are several options that you can choose.

You can either choose to give in to their demands and hope that they will take it easy on you or you can do the right thing and contact the authorities.

Most of the time this is the right decision.

The attackers are not just going to give you back control that easily once they see that they have it they will continue to try and extort you until you get tired of it and call the authorities anyway.

It is best to just cut out the dance of going back and forth with the attacker and just contact the authorities right away.

Online extortion can be pretty serious and can lead to a lot of problems in your offline life.

If you want to avoid this happening to you there are several steps that you can take.

Make sure that your computer is protected by the latest antivirus and firewall protection.

Also be careful who you talk to online.

It is not always safe.

How Can I Protect Myself From Online Extortion By Hackers? is a post from: Security FAQs

If you surf on over to the BitDefender site you can download one of two free antivirus programs – BitDefender 10 Free Edition or the full version of BitDefender Antivirus 2010.

The latter is free too but you have to complete a TrialPay offer to get it.

I’m not one to jump through hoops as I have little time on my hands so this review will be about the former of the two products.

BitDefender 10 Free Edition

On clicking the download button I was taken to a page that asked for my email address so that the download link could be sent to me which was a bit of a pain as I haven’t set any email accounts up on the machine I use for these reviews.

Oh well, thankfully I have Gmail for times like these and 155kB later I was ready to install my new free BitDefender antivirus product.

Interestingly, during setup, BitDefender recommended removing any other security products that may be on my system – sound advice – and the first time I’ve seen an antivirus program suggest it.

BitDefender free antivirus offers good security advice

Moving on, the first screen you will see after you’ve run setup will be one that gives you the option to upgrade.

Having run through a few free antivirus programs now I guess I’m getting used to the vendors looking for the up-sell and it has to be expected really as, like all businesses, they need to make some dollars somewhere.

BitDefender offers upgrade early on

Why Do I Need To Create An Account???

Next up you have to create an account on BitDefender.com, and then verify your email address, which seems like an unnecessary task to me as none of the other free antivirus programs I’ve tried thus far have needed to know my email address in order to serve me with updates to the program.

You can opt out of receiving updates from BitDefender though and so I did just that.

why does BitDefender do this?

Interestingly, after all that, I then ran the program and was able to update it anyway, before verifying my email address.

Strange.

Whats more, after my BitDefender account was confirmed it said I could use the product free for 399 days whilst the antivirus program itself said 365 days.

Confused?

I am.

Anyway, running a scan showed that BitDefender 10 Free Edition which, incidentally, is called BitDefender 2009 on my installation(??) uses about 11 megs of memory which isn’t too bad.

CPU usage, which I have found to be both important and extremely variable between other antivirus programs, was all over the place, ranging from 10% on both cores up to about 80% on both.

BitDefender CPU usage

Despite those sometimes high figures the scan did not have a noticeably negative impact on me running other programs at the same time so thats a plus.

Overall I found BitDefender 10 Free Edition to be… confusing I guess.

I couldn’t see why I needed to create an account on BitDefender.com in order to receive updates and the program seems a little unsure as to it’s own identity.

Furthermore, there is some confusion as to how long it can be used for as well.

BitDefender 10 Free Edition identity crisis?

It runs ok, though the available options for scanning are very scarce.

If I was looking for a free antivirus program I doubt I would choose this one.

Read about the other contenders for the top 10 free antivirus programs 2010.

The Top 10 Free Antivirus 2010 – BitDefender 10 Free Edition is a post from: Security FAQs