One stormy day …

Heath and others at Squidoo are often exhorting lensmasters to make specific recommendations to make the lens more useful and effective. I’ve been attempting to do that and decided to go the whole way and make some lenses that are just about recommendations.
My first is at www.Squidoo.com/pcrecommendations/
 
Since I’m a computer consultant it’s natural that I […]

PC manufacturers insist on inflicting swollen and faulty security suite software on unsuspecting customers. Software to protect you from all evils sounds like a good concept, right? Good idea, bad implementation from Symantec and from MacAfee. One of my first setup acts is to uninstall suite software – generally it’s just a trial anyway. MacAfee […]

Want to know how your PC looks to the outside world? Are you vulnerable? Do you have any back doors open that can give somebody access to your PC?
To test your Internet visibility – Go to Symantec.com and select “Symantec Security Check”, and follow the steps to let them scan your PC. They’ll give you […]

This mornings headlines brought this. The article is a teaser. Sounds like a starting point. Now to find the actual document that they reported on!
Coalition Issue Definitions for ‘Spyware’

Good news - definitions, suggestions of concent controls, cooperation amongst players like Symantec and Microsoft.
How does the saying go? “The devil is in the details”.

Adding wireless capability to your network can add convenience, but it can also increase risk. There are four basic steps to providing minimal security to your wireless network:

Set a unique SSID – each wireless network has a name to identify it. The name is the SSID, for System Set Identifier, or the ESSID for Extended […]

The article below caught my eye because it sets out a major problem with spyware, adware; lack of an agreed upon definition of the name and scope of the problem. An extreme view says that any outside agent that installs even a cookie. Some say it is bad only if it does something destructive. Some […]

Many infected PC’s I see, have been infected after the owner clicked an offer to good to be true. It goes something like this:
- A window pops up informing you that you may have spyware, etc.
- Offers a free scan/clean of your PC.
- You click (free is good isn’t it?).
- Your free offer now infects […]

This is important to me because this product has become my antispyware remover and protection of choice. The answer seems to be a qualified no. Here is an extracted quote that seems to say it will continue to be free:
“…Gates announced the company’s plan for making the personal version of the final Windows AntiSpyware software […]

Unfortunately there isn’t a single answer. For protection my choice is Microsoft Anti-spyware. For troubleshooting and cleanup I use a number of tools, but the top three antispyware removers I use are: Spybot Search and Destroy; Lavasoft’s Adaware, and the MS program.
I currently install Microsoft’s beta anti-spyware on each PC I touch for service, and […]

I’m going to post about techniques and tools to clean systems, but first I thought I better make clear that cleaning is not always a viable option. When I’m faced with a PC that is suffering from a malware attack, I know going in that the chances of complete recovery might be 50/50. Some malware […]

Setting up supporting computer systems and networks used to be about hardware and software. Today it’s about hardware, software, and security.
We spend a large amount of our computer system consulting time on safeguarding systems and users, and in dealing with infected PC’s.
This space will be about some of our experiences, some solutions, and some advise. […]