Laptop Service - Online Security Tips Best Practices

Keeping your laptop safe from online threats requires some preventative and active controls. Follow these general tips to keep your laptop and the valuable data safe and secure.

1. Install Anti-virus Software

Anti-virus software is designed to identify, neutralize and eradicate viruses that can harm your laptop, destroy your data, or exploit vulnerabilities that give spammers and fraudsters access to your accounts and personal data. Choose a good quality, anti-virus program such (Norton Security, Karspersky Security, or Webroot Security. Be careful when you download a program and make sure it is from a reputable site that you trust or go to the manufacturer's website. To be effective, update the anti-virus software regularly to get the latest virus definitions (best practice is to set it up for automatic updates-this way you will not forget and always will be protected). Most commercial anti-virus programs have the automatic update feature and we recommend that you use it. For your convenience, schedule scans to run when you are not using the laptop, because the resources it takes to run a scan can slow you down your system.

2. Step: Turn on the Firewall

A firewall protects your notebook from Internet traffic entering in or information leaking out. You can use two firewalls (Hardware) and stack them up to increase the security level. Also the level of traffic allowed should be set to "recommended" or HIGH if you so please. There are software firewalls that can be also used such ZoneAlarm and Webroot Firewall, but while anti-virus software scans emails and files, a firewall acts as a guard dog, keeping your system safe from unauthorized entry. It also blocks communications to and from your laptop. To ensure the highest protection, it's best to use both a firewall and anti-virus/spyware software.

3. Install Anti-spyware Software

Spyware and adware can cause a variety of things like annoying pop-ups and browser crashes, the installation of unexpected toolbars or icons, redirects to inappropriate sites, keys that don't function, random error messages, browser freezing and sluggish performance. These types of malware are installed on your computer without your consent, and can monitor and in some cases control your laptop. To lower the risk of infection, use anti-spyware and adware software such Norton Security, Karspersky Security or Webroot Security Essentials. We recommend using at least two different programs for broader security and coverage.

Tips for safer surfing the WWW:


•Use a firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware software and keep it up-to-date
•Keep your operating system, browser and other software up-to-date and patched
•Don’t open email attachments or click on an email link from unknown senders ("Use Common Sense")
•Scan all email attachments and downloads with anti-virus software
•Don’t download and install programs of unknown origin or innapropriate sites
•Disable Java, JavaScript, and ActiveX if possible
•Scan and Backup critical data often to CD/DVD or External Hard Drive (USB-SATA)
•Perform regular maintenance on your computer like disk cleanup, defragmentation, and system scans
•Create a boot disk in case your computer is damaged or compromised
•Protect your PC-Host file with security essential software or by editing policies correctly.

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Concise of Lake Orion has Computer Trouble Shooting Skills that Includes Fixing the Client as Well

by Concise Computer

As the computer repair center for Oakland, Wayne and Macomb Counties, Concise maintains a client list that resembles the “who’s who” in the Michigan small business community. They are good, and they are growing out of their digs in Bloomfield Hills.

One of the reasons that Concise is so well respected in their industry is because they take the time to explain and teach at the same time. Let’s face it, the information highway has its own language today. Computer techies have always had a vernacular that tended to exclude the rest of the non-techie world. Making things worse for us non-techies today, is the next layer of computer- speak: abbreviations of all the words that we had no clue about from the beginning.

The staff at Concise will now lead the pc tech support field by offering a series of articles with those definitions of words from the computer tech support world. This is the first offering in what Concise hopes will be a long series of definitions from the computer tech speaker.

HONEYPOT

Wikipedia defines a HONEYPOT in computer speak, as a trap set to detect, deflect, or in some manner counteract unauthorized attempts to obtain use of information systems.

A HONEYPOT consists of a computer, data, or a network site that appears to be part of a network. But, the Honeypot is actually an isolated and unprotected deadend which appears to a hacker as valuable information.

Simply put, a HONEYPOT is a seductive decoy. It lures the attacker into a harmless area of your system where it could be isolated, detected, and hopefully discovered by cyber police.

Another use of the Honeypot is to isolate spam. Spammers abuse vulnerable resources such as open mail relays. Some system administrators have created honeypot programs that masquerade as these decoy resources to discover spammer activity. There are several capabilities that honeypots provide to the administrators and the existence of such seductive bait systems makes abuse more difficult or risky for the spammer. Honeypots can be a powerful countermeasure to abuse from those who rely on very high volume abuse (e.g., spammers). These honeypots can reveal the apparent IP address of the abuse and provide bulk spam capture (which enables operators to determine spammer's URLs and response mechanisms).

HONEYNETS

Two or more honeypots on a network form a HONEYNET. Typically, a HONEYNET is used for monitoring a larger and/or more diverse network in which one honeypot may not be sufficient. Honeynets and honeypots are usually implemented as parts of a larger computer trouble shooting system. A HONEYFARM is a centralized collection of honeypots and analysis tools.

The next visit from a Concise Computer Consulting technician should go smoother. And, when the topic turns to setting up a Honeyfarm for your small business’s computer system, you will immediately understand that you are not about to purchase a bunch of bee hives.

Concise Computer Consulting services the small and medium sized business community as well as residential homeowners. Concise offers every kind of on site computer service: laptop repair service, online pc repair, pc tech support and computer trouble shooting. Concise also offers Remote access configuration, Virtual Private Networks (VPN), Web site design, Server Administration, and Preventive maintenance in the metropolitan Detroit area. In addition, Concise diagnoses, installs, and manages both wired and wireless Local Area Networks, and even resells computers, laptops, and servers for Dell and IBM.


When you are experiencing computer problems, the time and money lost in productivity grows by the minute. Give us a call if you are having technology troubles and let us get you back up and running ...often within hours.

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