Brian Jay Harris's Blog

Simple rules to be hack free and malware safe and Protect your Data!

Passwords:

1. Passwords should be 8 to 20 plus characters. Should be one upper case and one accent symbol at least. Should have nothing to do with your personal life, area, city, area code you live in. Brute for password attack which used to take weeks and years ago it took years to hack a 8 character password. Today a 8 character password with symbols can take minutes. A phrase 22 characters in length can take weeks. A phrase with symbols characters and upper case letters can take months. Years ago this would have taken years to decades for a processor to figure a password out. Today the average processor  with the highest Instructions per Cycle currently available in the modern CPU … 3.5 *3.5 Ghz= 12,250,000,000 Instructions per Second. Brute force password hack programs come with the entire dictionary can run through the words in every combination you can imagine in short.

Backups and Backup Services:

Most online backup services are easy to use and very cheep. Their safe and backups are done immediately after the first initial backup. Every change or addition to your computer in Photos, Music, Emails, Documents are done as their added or changed. Since these services only do the 5 stay alive is what I call it. Photos, Documents, Emails, Music, Contacts. You cannot restore your computer completely from these services because they don’t backup your programs. But they will protect the most valuable stuff and easy to restore those after you restore windows. Removable hard drives like Western Digital My Book will do the same. But also create a disk image of the Entire Hard Drive if you choose and restore a computer in whole programs and files. With the recent addition of the Free Cloud services like One Drive for Windows. You get 1TB of space and can purchase more if needed. The integration into windows is great I recommend everyone use it as the place to store your documents and photos etc.

It shows up in Explorer as the normal My documents – My pictures – My music -My Videos. The only time I store something on my Computer anymore is if it’s really large file. Most backup programs include One Drive folders in their backups now also. It’s also nice because no matter what device or computer your using the files are all their off the cloud. I do not recommend getting the personal cloud devices. A hard drive that is allowed access to the internet and has a IP address to that drive. That’s just a easy way to get hacked and if setup wrong not maintained can be disastrous. I don’t like Googles Cloud either because googles data mining practices are monstrous. Apple is better bet for cloud storage of personal stuff. But lets also not forget both services were compromised and hacked this year. There was also some question to what was Encrypted and what wasn’t on the Apple cloud.

Hacking And Password Security programs and Updating:

Most hacks are simple because you generally use a personal piece of information. Most of everyone’s information is on their social media pages ! dogs, cats, kids, ex wives, birthdates , cities you have lived in area codes you have etc. I use 3 passwords that have absolutely nothing to do with me not related to my past, friends, kids , area etc. 1 is banking and it’s used only for that and never written or emailed even to family. 2 is for social media sites, blogs. 3 is for email, cable, electric and pharmacy etc. Use a different password for each Bank. Banks have all been hacked in the last year. BOFA, Citibank, PNC, JP Morgan the list is huge google it. The ones not listed just haven’t admitted. Change Bank passwords every 3 months make a calendar note.

Have a password program that encrypts and automatically fills them in when you go to a website ( Roboform ) Just because you have a MAC don’t think your Hack Proof google virus for MAC and you’ll. I have more people come to me and say but I thought Macintosh was Virus and Hack Proof but can you fix it. Have a complete internet security application and pay the yearly fee for updates. Leave your computer on overnight at least 2 nights out of the week. If the Computer is off you cant get manufacturer and virus updates with it off. When you see the Windows update icon in the task bar install them ! Microsoft comes out with security patches immediately and weekly when found. There are many good internet security programs out there. The free ones are better then nothing but wont give you the most protection.

Wi-Fi Security And Practices:

Make sure your Wi-Fi is secure and don’t enable the quest radio if you don’t have too. Make sure you passwords for your Wi-Fi are a long phrase that follow my above rules. Be carful when you give people access to your Wi-Fi ? if there computer is full of Virus’s and they connect to your home network might as well give them your bank book. Most routers today will allow Wi-Fi but block Network access to your home computers. Check your Routers manufacturer website for settings. Also get a new router every couple of years ! for 60-140 it’s worth the extra protection. The security and updated hardware is mostly features and security. Don’t just use your Modem from the Cable company that has little to no security and often puts you at direct risk. Download updates for your router most routers have had may updates and easy to install.

Email Best Practices:

Those emails you get that are jokes that have been cycled around a ton of people are a huge risk if you have no Anti virus suite. Don’t open any Emails that have attachments ending in bin, exe, bat. Many virus’ now can be hidden in JPG’s and Gif’s complete programs can be hidden inside the picture. Java programs and applications at websites are risky also there’s allot of sites that give free games and have hidden apps in there. Nothing is for free you can bet there collecting data on you mining your emails. Have a junk email account to register websites with. With all the free email services there’s no reason not too have multiple accounts. If it looks wrong it most likely is wrong and you’ll never be asked for a password in a legitimate email. Many spoof emails look like from a bank or a cable company or your cell phone carrier.

Cellphones And Security:

Cell phones ! These are the biggest problem to your security then anything. Android and Java has made them easy to attack and load up with Virus’s. If your phone locks up or is slow. Most likely it has something on there Data mining all your info or a free app you downloaded not written to well. There are security and Virus programs for phones also so I suggest you use them. Most people problem comes when they use Public wifi ! Some Hackers go into Business districts and setup phony hot spots, and you thing your connecting to a legitimate site. IPhone and Windows Mobile are just as much at risk also so don’t think Your Apple product is safer then anyone else everyone is at risk.

The DOD and the Government also 20 of the biggest banks have been hacked. Do you think your safer then they are ? and they spend millions. Recently a ATM breach cost 45 million and a bank just got hit for 900k recently. Banks lose 500 million a year from hackers and Virus’s and it’s only going to get worse. America just starting with the chips in Credit cards and most of the world is already using them. Simple Tip if you most use a public Wifi don’t go to any of your personal websites. Turn on the ask to connect to public sites in your phone if you have that setting. Buy a wallet that is also scanner safe to prevent some one scanning your cards. If you go to a ATM and the Card insert looks large don’t use it. Typically if you can pull the plastic insert out then it’s a card scanner attached. Same thing at Gas stations only sometimes they add a chip into the back inside the pump.

If you think you have been hacked:

If you think you have been hacked download a internet virus program and run a complete scan. There is Fix my PC that is a very good program and service and can straighten most problems. Microsoft makes a Malicious program remover that easy to use and free also updated frequently. Disconnect the Effected PC from the internet until the scans are clean and all is removed. Google, Bing, Yahoo yourself !If anyone has opened something or started a website in your name it will show up in the results. So if you don’t remember joining that website etc. You at least have an idea were to start looking and joining a credit monitoring service is cheep and easy. The technology age comes with many Advantages and also many Pitfalls. This is the price we have to pay for this convenience or in-convenience in most cases.

Monitoring and checking Be proactive:

Check your name and your kids names google them often. Because thieves are going after the kids and teens now. It is typically easier to get enough information from there social Media to apply for cards, Id’s, fake websites from kids information. How bad has it gotten now ? how about they are now taking the affluent kids names and registering them in domains. Then they ransom them back when there needed or starting a business early in life. It cost 5 bucks a year to park a website not hard to hold onto a name for a decade. How much money could you get if you owned Ivanca or Donald Trumps name in a domain ?Or a business that’s just applied or doing a LLC application. Crooks are already registering them waiting to sell them back for tens of thousands. Make sure your kids aren’t posting information that could get you in danger. See what information you can come up with by looking your name up. There are services now that will clean up and remove information for you.

This was long and I tried to cover most bases and the most sensible approaches to being safe. I tried to make it easy to understand and not real technical. Below are some Websites and Programs that will help you if you need or want more information.

Windows Defender: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download

Malicious Program Remover:  http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/malware-removal.aspx

Microsoft Security:  http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/default.aspx

Symantec:  http://www.symantec.com/index.jsp

My Clean PC:  http://www.mycleanpc.com/?sc=mcp_sem_036&pr=PCO&cid=cov203p31397&refcd=MS444T19319120667p

MY PC Bakup:  http://www.mypcbackup.com/

Norton Mobile Security:  http://www.mypcbackup.com/

Lookout:  https://www.lookout.com/features/security

Geek Squad:  http://www.geeksquad.com/btsppcb/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=paidsearch&utm_campaign=brand&ref=21&loc=KW-4328&ksid=52d4e5d5-9cd2-fec9-da34-000025ce2ca5&ksprof_id=21&ksaffcode=51291&ksdevice=c

Hackers Online Website be careful if you download or install programs from here. Some if miss used can be dangerous. Included this so you can see how easy it is to get programs to hack into and all phones as easy as a click.
Hack Tools:  http://www.hackersonlineclub.com/hacking-tools

Password Recovery Programs you though it’s hard to reveal your windows, word, pdf, webmail, excel, messenger passwords. There programs a click away to uncover those Passwords:  https://www.elcomsoft.com/

Think your spouse is cheating or your kids are doing wrong install this they’ll never know and you’ll see it all.
Key loggers and Screen Capture:  https://www.webwatcher.com/pc-monitoring

Wi-Fi Security Best Practices simple easy PDF on point:  https://www.webwatcher.com/pc-monitoring

Recent Hacks On Banks and Financial Institutions some articles I had bookmarked from 2012 to now.
Chase Hacked Money Safe:  http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/04/23/bank-accounts-hacked-chase-global-payments/
JP Morgan Hack:  http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/08/27/reports-jpmorgan-hack-attack/14706545/
45 Million ATM Breech– http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/05/09/hackers-atm-branch/2148069/
Euro 2012 Hacks:  http://news.sky.com/story/952931/fraud-ring-in-hacking-attack-on-60-banks
Banking Watchdog Warns:  http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2014/04/03/Banking-watchdog-warns-about-possible-hacking-of-ATMs/8641396551345/