DFW Computer Integration

From time to time I do presentations for local groups and as such I cover a lot of topics regarding staying safe on the Internet and in real life.  am posting my notes from these events here with useful links and additional information. Computer Performance With Windows computers, a certain amount of slowing-down is normal. If it is more than about 20%, this is not normal and can be caused by viruses, low hard drive space, inadequate memory, hardware failure or an abundance of “helper” applications loading when it starts up.  Many programs you download and install with add little “helper” functions that load at startup.  This makes their program look good, because it loads quickly.  This is because a substantial portion of it is loaded into memory at all times.  This does NOT benefit YOU.  It just makes them look good.  We remove all of these unnecessary startups when working on a computer so that you actually get the performance you expect and are paying for. Computer Security Identity theft is a rapidly growing problem. Everyplace you go on the internet, someone is tracking what you look at and order online. There are browser settings that will curtail this and software products that can make your online activity anonymous. See our blog for a discussion of this topic.  The Tor Project offers a browser that will anonymize your online activity and keep you from being pummeled by advertising for all the things you search for.  Unfortunately, everyone is collecting your search statistics to send you advertising.  Tor will stop that, but it does slow down your searches while your traffic is routed through their servers. Internet Safety There are probably more bogus web pages online than legit ones at this point in time. When searching for anything, never click on the first listing. Always hover your cursor over the listing and look at the bottom of the window (in the status bar) to see where it will take you. If the address does not match the product or service you are searching for, keep looking. It has gotten to the point where a VPN is almost mandatory.  Nord is the best and the price is reasonable.  This anonymizes your browsing and we recommend Nord.

Popup Hijackers / Toll Free Tech Support Scam

If you are browsing the web and and your computer locks up with a scary message telling you there are dozens of horrible infections – and to call their toll free number fore help.  DO NOT DO THIS.  It is always a scam. We have seen numerous occurrences from Aol, Yahoo, Ebay, Facebook, MSN and other websites. These are all due to fake ad popups on these sites. Never call these people.  Once you allow them into your computer, they will ruin your life. We have case histories of people losing thousands of dollars to these clever scammers.

No legit entity will do this.  EVER.

Reboot your computer and you will probably be OK. You may not be able to get to the controls to reboot. If so,

In Windows:

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del simultaneously
2. This will bring up a multi line menu.
3. At the bottom will be Task Manger.  Click on it.
4. You will then see a listing of all the running programs.
5. Select the browser you were using when this happened.  In the lower right corner is a button that says End Task.  Click on it.
6. Close Task Manager by clicking the X in the upper right-hand corner.
7. Now you can close all running apps and reboot.

On a Mac:

1. Click on Finder – the blue and white smiling face in the lower left-hand corner of your dock.
2. Now click on the Apple logo in the upper left-hand corner of your screen.
3. Select Force Quit
4. A dialog box will come up showing all the running applications.
5. Select the problem browser.
6. Click on the blue Force Quit Button.
7. This will bring up another question with a Force Quit button.
8. Click on that one.
9. Now your computer is un-frozen.
10. Now you can close all running apps and reboot.

Identity Theft Given the rise in instances of Identity Theft, we recommend LifeLock. I use it myself because I had my identity stolen in 2014 and a fake tax return was filed with my credentials. At a minimum, you should freeze your accounts at all 3 credit reporting agencies.

Phone Scams

Neither the IRS nor Microsoft will call you. In fact, no name brand will ever call you.  They don’t know who you  are and they don’t care. The IRS will send you one of those conspicuous envelopes many, many times before they will pick up the phone as a last resort – after you have made arrangements for a phone call.  Microsoft on the other hand, knows nothing about you and could not possibly care less about the condition of your computer. If you receive a call from either one, ask for a number to call them back. Most scammers will hang up very quickly and move onto the next mark. Don’t ever give money to anyone who calls you soliciting donations. Check the Better Business Bureau for recommendations.

Phishing scams

There is another email phishing scam about every 13 seconds.  Or at least it certainly seems that way.  They take many shapes and forms.  There are certain characteristics that make them fairly easy to avoid.

One common variety is the very high price order / software subscription scam. You receive an email that indicates you have been billed an exorbitant amount of money for something you did not order. Most are poorly crafted text-only emails with no graphics or company logos. When addressing you, it will almost always be by your email address or “customer”, “valued customer” or something similar. Legitimate invoices will address you by name. The From email address will always be a gmail, yahoo, aol, hotmail, outlook or onmicrosoft account. Any legit receipt will be from an email with the company domain like lifelock.com, mcafee.com, norton.com, etc.  Always check the FROM address first. The text sill always be something to the effect of “we have received payment for $399.99 to renew your Norton subscription”. If you disagree with this charge, call our toll free number.

These are always fake.

Never call these numbers.  They will convince you to give them your financial information so they can “refund” the amount.  They will actually empty your account and steal your identity. Never click on any buttons or links in these phishing scam emails.  They will always redirect you to a dangerous website that will lock up your computer and / or infect it with malware. Malware Malware is comprised of computer Viruses, Trojans, Hijackers and assorted other pests that can ruin your day and harvest more personal information than you can imagine. Cookies are not generally a big concern. These are used to keep track of you when you go to sites that require you to log in for access. They save you from having to write down all your passwords. There are malicious cookies and any decent AntiVirus software should protect you against these cookies. Malware / phishing scam protection is another story entirely.  Read on: Virus / Malware Protection Most people fall into two categories. Those who have been infected – and those who are going to be infected. People generally choose a virus protection program on the recommendation of someone they know – or they just accept whatever came on their computer when they bought it. They assume in the absence of their antivirus software warning them of a problem – that everything is fine. This is not necessarily true. With more than 40 years in the computer business, I have installed, removed and tested every brand of malware protection on the planet. Most of them work marginally well. Our recommendation is Bitdefender Endpoint Security. This is a cloud monitored corporate solution that has been 100% effective in preventing infections on PCs and Macs for all our clients. This is NOT the same product you can buy in a store or online.  The consumer version is not nearly as effective. We customize the installation of this product for ironclad protection. Contact us for a quote and installation.

Some Popular Misconceptions regarding Antivirus products and Utilities:

1: A popular belief is that more is better.

I have seen computers with 5 or 6 different antivirus software products installed.  This is a very bad idea.  When a virus tries to infect the computer, all antivirus products that recognize it attempt to capture and subdue the invader.  A battle ensues and frequently the virus escapes in the frenzy.  More that one AV product causes a significant performance loss which enables an infection to slip past the defenses.  It’s like running through molasses while trying to catch a home invader.

2: As in #1, More utilities to “clean” the computer and improve performance the better.

WRONG again.  None of these tools are safe to use in the hands of the typical user.  In addition to this part of the problem, many “free” software products piggyback on some very annoying add-ons that steal your information and slow down your computer.  I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but Nothing is free.  The wrong application of some computer utilities can render your computer un-bootable.  There are a few utilities we use when fine tuning a computer’s performance.  I remove them when I am finished to keep you out of trouble.  I would never leave a tool in your hands that you could potentially do harm to your computer with.

3: All Antivirus products are created equal. 

This is very simply not true.  Over the last 20+ years, I have removed quite literally hundreds of thousands of infections from computers that were “protected” by McAfee, Norton, Trend Micro, ESET Nod32. Malwarebytes, Webroot, AVG, Spybot, Kaspersky, Avast, Sophos, F-Secure, Panda, Check Point, Gdata, IObit,  Windows Defender and every other product on the market.  I have sold and installed some of these over the years but abandoned them after finding their algorithms or performance crippling code to be more trouble than they were worth.  We use and recommend ONLY Bitdefender Endpoint Security.  It very simply does a better job at protecting your computer.  Our installation also protects your web searches and simply will not allow you to go to a site that could infect your computer. You cannot buy this product online.  You can only get it from MSPs like us.  Contact us for pricing and installation.

4: In the absence of an alert from your AV product, your computer is safe and clean.

Also not true.  In the absence of third party validation, do not know for sure if your computer is clean.  If 2 or more high end tools verify you are infection free, you can breathe easy.  I have cleaned substantial numbers of viruses from computers protected by a variety of competing tools which reported no problems of any kind.  This is why we use Bitdefender Endpoint Security. There are a great many bogus AV products on the market which are not only bogus, but far worse that some of the garden variety viruses.  Many of these exist only to steal your personal information and banking information.

Ransomware is the very worst problem you can have.

If you see a message on your screen demanding money for the return of your now-encrypted files, shut off the computer immediately.  By doing this you can possibly save at least some of your data.  These infections encrypt all the files on your computer and demand payment via Crypto of several hundred dollars.  There is NO guarantee you will get your data back after the first payment.  There is NO way to recover your data once it is encrypted.  I can recount several horror stories regarding this problem. You need a backup for anything you cannot easily replace.  This includes photos, tax documents and legal documents.  There are many choices for backup software and we offer two of them to our clients that we feel are the best options.  You need a local hard drive for quick restoration of unintentionally deleted files and a Cloud-based backup for disaster recovery.  Unless you have a ridiculous amount of data to back up, this is very cost-effective.

Data Storage Location

NEVER store your data on the Desktop.  Your desktop is a volatile location.  When your computer crashes and your profile is corrupted, you will most likely lose all your precious data that was stored there.  Also, everything stored on the desktop is loaded into memory when the computer boots. This can really slow down your system. So store NOTHING on the desktop. Create a folder on your hard drive or in the My Documents folder and put a shortcut to that folder on your Desktop.  This will reduce clutter and better protect your data in the eventuality of a crash.  It will also speed up your system.  Remember this:  It is not a question of IF your computer will crash – it is a matter of WHEN it will crash and how much you will lose when this happens. Non-computer scams If you get in your car and see a twenty dollar bill (or other denomination) stuck under your windshield wiper, LOCK YOUR DOORS and drive away immediately. It is a scam. The same goes for a large piece of paper or a note stuck to a window. Drive to a safe, public location far away from where you discovered this and then remove anything obscuring your visibility. A fire station or police station is an excellent choice. These are scams to get you out of your car and carjack you – or worse.

If you are selling something online via Facebook or NextDoor

• Arrange to meet in the parking lot of the closest police station.
• Go to the desk when you get there to let them know what you are doing.
• if the buyer tells you they are out of town and their son, niece, pet rat, anyone else will be picking up the item.  It IS A SCAM.
• If they tell you they will Zelle or Venmo the money.  Those are both safe.  BUT. If they say they have a business account and need your email to send you confirmation – THAT IS A SCAM.
• Always check your APP to make sure the funds have arrived before agreeing to meet them.
• Never deliver to a buyer.  Make them come to you . If they have a problem with that THEY ARE A SCAMMER.

Passwords

Passwords need to be complicated ( C0mPL1C4t3D* as an example )  Recommendations are:

1. 10 +  characters
2. Combination of letters, numbers and special characters (*&^%$#@!)
3. NEVER use a word that can be found in a dictionary
4. Never use a pet’s name, your address, phone number or Social Security Number
5. If you can remember the password, it is not secure

Read our blog entry on how to combine both letters and numbers and be able to remember the password.  There are several numbers that look similar to certain letters and you can substitute these numbers for their respective letters and make cracking your password very difficult. If you have any questions about any of these items, feel free to Contact Us. I am available to solve your computer / smart phone problems at any reasonable hour.