Looking for a Cheat code? Read the TOS!

So you bought your kids that new gaming console and a few games to go with it for Christmas.  They play better than you can, right?  Well you're thinking you need to find a couple of cheats to get ahead of them. 

You know how good Google is so you look for "cheat codes" and a bunch of sites pop up.  You pick one and it asks for your cell phone number.  You say to yourself, "They can't do much with my number except call me".  Wrong! 

There you are with your cheat codes and your kids are wondering how you do it.  All is fine and fun, (I'm beating the kids), until you get your phone bill.  What is this? $19.99 for what?  Cheat codes, that's what.  You forgot to click on that little link that shows you the Terms of Service (TOS).

Several cheat sites have a TOS that reads like this:

This service provides users with access to the latest cheat codes, ..... By signing up for this service and by entering your personal Password which will be sent to the mobile phone number supplied by you on this website, you acknowledge that you are subscribing to our service. ....By opting in, you agree to joining a subscription service for $19.99 per month. You must be the owner of this device and either be at least fourteen years old or have the permission of your parent or guardian and agree to the Terms of Service. Standard/other text messaging rates may apply.

Now you know why you're paying $20 for a game cheat!

By taking the time to read those TOS's and End User Licence Agreements (EULA's), you will (hopefully) know what you are getting into and possibly save some money for a new game.

 

With that info,

Safer Surfing!

FinallyFast - huh?

I am sure you have seen the commercials about FinallyFast.com and the promises they make about speeding up your Internet connection by 375% .  I have tried the program and found it to be a joke.  Now Jeff at besttechie.net has done some very interesting "research" to confirm my feelings about this "software".  Watch his video below.

With this info,

Safer Surfing and a happy holiday!

Internet Explorer security alert

BBC reports a major security flaw in Internet Explorer 7 in an article published this morning.

"The flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer could allow criminals to take control of people's computers and steal their passwords, Internet experts say."

The article also suggests that

"Users of the world's most common web browser have been advised to switch to another browser until a serious security flaw has been fixed."

Time for Firefox, my browser of choice.  Here are others: Safari, Opera, Avant Browser, Konqueror, Lynx, Google Chrome, Flock, Arachne, Epiphany, K-Meleon and AOL Explorer, take your pick but don't use IE until it is patched!

With that info,

Safer Surfing!

Don't be Gullible!

Microsoft does not send security updates per email!  There is a spam mail going around Europe and will probably hit the US today, "Patch Tuesday", supposedly from Microsoft about a "detected security breach".  This is a scam to get you to download malware turning your system into a zombie PC.

Websense® Security Labs™ states,

The fraudulent email message references a real Microsoft Security Advisory 951306 (also known as CVE-2008-1436). The email provides instructions in both French and English.

Here's what the mail looks like.

with that info,

Safer Surfing!

To the spoiled under-30 mob!!!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking Twenty-five miles to school every morning, barefoot, uphill ...BOTH ways no less!

Yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!  But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.

You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a
damn Utopia!  And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something we had to go to the public library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter, with a pen!  Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3's or iPods! You wanted to steal music, you had to
hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!  Or you had to wait around all day to tape, (cassette type not CD), it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and screw it all up!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!  And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either!  When the phone rang, you had
no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your Bookie,your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!!  You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had (I still have mine) the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your Imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen Forever!  And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called "TV Guide" to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the Channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you Hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rats!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove ... Imagine that!

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too
easy.You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back
in 1980!

Regards,
The over 30 Crowd

Christmas can be a humbug already this year!

Websense® Security Labs™ ThreatSeeker™ Network

has discovered that malware authors are already using Christmas themes this year as a social engineering tactic, in an effort to gain control over compromised machines. This campaign uses email messages in the form of e-greetings, leading to supposed animated postcards. These actually lead to a Trojan backdoor that has been distributed in previous malicious spam campaigns.

An example of the post card:

 

Make sure you know for sure that someone sent you a card.  If you really want to be sure then call and ask where they sent it from.

With that info,

Safer Surfing!

Now it's easier to decide

It's about time!  Trying to decide which security program you want to use and which one is best has been difficult - until now.  There have not been any agreed upon standards as to how and what to test for.

Members of the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO) have published guidelines that, for the first time, set recognized standards for testing security software. The standards have been developed and agreed to by more than 40 security experts, product testers and members of the media from around the world. The creation and publication of these standards is a critical first step in fulfilling AMTSO’s mission to improve the testing of anti-malware products.

Read more here.

With that info,

Safer Surfing!

Another opt-out Toolbar - Java + MLS

Be careful when updating or installing Sun Java now.  IE users now have to opt-out (that's right - out) of automatically installing MSN Live Search toolbar just as Firefox users must opt-out of the Yahoo toolbar.  For both browsers the install toolbar option is checked by default(see pics) and if not unchecked the tool bar will be installed.

For IE users Sun made the change after using Google for quite some time.

With that info,

Safe Surfing!

My Security Toolbox

I thought I would tell you what I use to keep my computer systems free from problems. 

My security starts with securing my router.  Every one is different and the best set up for you will be what works best for you and your system.  Make sure you read your routers user manual and set your router as secure as all of your computers will accept.  I have an older wireless laptop that will not let me run the best security at all times so it only goes online when it needs to be updated. 

I keep and use these programs in my personal security toolbox.

• ZoneAlarm Free Firewall
• Avira AntiVir - as active antivirus
• Malwarebytes Antimalware - as on demand antivirus/malware
• Crap Cleaner - to clean out the junk
• Spybot Search & Destroy
• SpywareBlaster
• SpywareGuard

You will need to read up on each program to decide if you want to install and use it. These work for me and my systems, hopefully they will help you.

With that info,

Safer Surfing!

How Do I Secure my PC?

An online colleague of mine, Prince_Serendip, started a series of Articles back in ancient times, (2004) about securing your Windows PC.  In his "Windows Security Checklist" you will learn a lot about keeping your PC from becoming part of one of those botnets I talked about yesterday.

Some of the info may be dated but it still applies, for the most part.  Stop over and make sure you read through the articles to help allow you to practice Safer Surfing.

With that info,

Safer Surfing!

Are you doing your part to prevent the Next (Cyber)War?

Computer security and awareness of what is possible out there is very important.  If you do not keep your PC secure and practice Safe Surfing, you could become part of a botnet and then be partly responsible for something like what is reported in a recent CNN News story.

Read more here.

With that info,

Safer Surfing!

Google's Privacy Promise - Not!

Google has promised to lower the amount of time search data is stored in the European Union from 18 months to 9.  That is a 50% cut but why is this data needed for that long?  According to Google this will hinder their "ability to improve its services by delivering more relevant search results and advertisements". 

Like we need more of that.

Let's not forget Google's new browser, "Chrome".  The EULA, (End User License Agreement) originally contained the following:

11. Content licence from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights that you already hold in Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content, you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services. This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

 

Wait a minute!  This means anything, and I mean anything, you do with this browser can be used by Google.

Here comes the privacy promise question again.  Why do they need to store this data and how long will it be stored?  After a storm of complaints, Google decided to change paragraph 11 to this:

11. Content license from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

That's much better but still no answer as to why they need to store this data for 9 months.

All this just goes to show how much we Internet users need to be aware of a EULA's content and what privacy we give up when installing software or using an online service. 

I love to read but those EULA's can get awful long.  To better protect your privacy you might want to use a nice little program I use called EULAlyzer. 

EULAlyzer can analyze license agreements in seconds, and provide a detailed listing of potentially interesting words and phrases. Discover if the software you're about to install displays pop-up ads, transmits personally identifiable information, uses unique identifiers to track you, or much much more.

 

Google has promised to get better. Only time will tell (hopefully less than 9 months).

With that info,

Safer Surfing!

SpywareHammer is Live

After 24 hours of life, SpywareHammer has acquired a "Who's Who" of Staff.  A total of over 100 members have joined and the first logs have been posted.

Some of the best in Malware Removal are awaiting your HJT and Rootkit logs to assist on.  Not only does SpywareHammer do malware removal but the Technical Staff is waiting to assist in any non-malware problems you may have.

Stop in and have a look around.

 

With that info,

Safe Surfing!

A New Star on the Horizon!

SpywareHammer is a new and interesting Forum for computer help and staffed by an interesting group of people known throughout the Malware fighting Community, several of them Microsoft MVP's . 

PCBruiser, an Administrator at SpywareHammer states,

"Our purpose is simple, if your computer system isn't performing as it should ... SpywareHammer is the place to come for help." 

Not only does SpywareHammer have an excellent Malware removal Staff, helping with most every type of malware problem, there is also a very knowledgeable Technical Staff to assist in OS, hardware and non-malware related problems.  When required, the two staffs interact to coordinate their activities and work together where problems span both disciplines. 

So stop by SpywareHammer and check it out.

 

 

With that info,

Safe Surfing!

Update to the update with MS KB951748

Good news!  ZoneAlarm has fixed the problem!

Recommended Actions -

Download and install the latest versions which solve the loss of internet access problem here:

And that comes from this Press Release.

With that info,

 

Safe Surfing!

Update to MS KB951748 breaks ZoneAlarm

The folks at ZoneAlarm are working hard on a fix for this.  Until such time it has been recommended to uninstall the update. 

Another work around is to lower the Internet Zone level from High to Medium.  It's a hard choice to make, not updating or lowering your Firewall security. 

Both choices can only be temporary.

With that info,

 

Safe Surfing!

MS KB951748 breaks ZoneAlarm

Windows update KB951748 should not be installed. It will break your Internet connection. If you have it already installed, uninstalling it fixes the problem.

I have spent the day troubleshooting over 20 PCs and have found all installations to have the install date of 9 July 2008, which in my part of the world is tomorrow. I think that as of tomorrow it should work. If not then MS broke something again, but we are used to that.

How to fix it?  Go to Start> Control Panel> Add/Remove Programs.  Make sure to put the tick mark in the "Show updates" box in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.  Scroll down to the Windows Updates and look for (KB951748), highlight it and press remove.  You will need to immediately do a reboot and when your machine has restarted your Internet connection will function again!

With that info,

 

Safe Surfing!

Are you secure and up-to-date?

If you are using Firefox, chances are good, if you are using IE, things look bad. According to a report from the Washington Post, “83.3 percent of Firefox users were found to have the latest version installed at any given time” compared to “47.6 percent of Microsoft Internet Explorer users”.

The info was collected only by browser type and did not include any plug-ins “such as those for Flash Player, Java, QuickTime and Adobe Reader. It's a safe bet that the share of users surfing the Web with fully-patched browsers would be far below 60 percent (probably closer to 15 or 20 percent),” if these were taken into account.

So now you ask how you can be sure that all of these plug-ins and other software you use is updated and secure? There is one way that I use and that is to use Secunia’s PSI. It “is designed with the sole purpose of helping you secure your computer from software vulnerabilities”.

With this info,

Safe Surfing!

Dirty Little Devilz

NetDevilz, a Turkish hacker group has struck again and this time right at the top. Recently they hacked Photobucket and yesterday they attacked and defaced THE domains that should be secure – ICANN and IANA.

ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and IANA, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, had their domains defaced with the message:

“You think that you control the domains but you don’t! Everybody knows wrong. We control the domains including ICANN! Don’t you believe us? haha :) (Lovable Turkish hackers group)”

You would think that the people “responsible for the global coordination of the Internet’s system of unique identifiers” and “the global coordination of the DNS Root, IP addressing, and other Internet protocol resources” would be secure from such attacks. If it can happen to them what can the little guy do? Evidently not much!

The hacked domains included icann.net; icann.com; iana-servers.com; internetassignednumbersauthority.com; iana.com.

 

With that info,

 

Safe Surfing!

CP@SS Computer Privacy @nd Security Services

Is your computer running slow? Is your PC infected? Are you being bombarded with pop-ups? Has your browser been hijacked? Are you being taken to sites other than those you type into the address bar? Does your browser’s home page keep changing? Are new and unexpected toolbars appearing? Are unwanted, mysterious icons in the system tray at the bottom of your computer screen? Do you keep getting random error messages? Are your search results strange and full of ads? Are you tired of spending your hard earned $ on Security Suites that don’t keep your computer safe?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, get in contact with me! I’ll help you get things back up and running.

info@mrrockford.com

 

Safe Surfing!

A good Laugh!

Something to make you laugh today.  Please go here, wait for play to appear and then start the movie.  Make sure your sound is at a comfortable level.  Have fun!

 

Safe Surfing!

To those who serve our Country!

I served, did you?  To those who serve, to those who served and survived, to those who served and died, I salute you!

 

Geek Humor -NOT!

A little humor is needed now and then.  Yes, Geeks can have a sense of humor, most of the time though it's a little deep for non-geek speakers.  Things like, "There's no place like 127.0.0.1" or "There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't". 

I thought something a little lighter would be nice.  Have fun!

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TRUE Nebraskan WHEN:

1. "Vacation" means going east or west on I-80 for the weekend.

2. You measure distance in hours.

3. You know several people who have hit a deer more than once.

4. You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again.

5. You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during raging blizzard, without flinching.

6. You see people wearing camouflage at social events (including weddings).

7. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

8. You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend (or wife) knows how to use them.

9. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

10. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.

11. You know all 5 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, hot, & DAM HOT!

12. Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to your blue spruce.

13. You were unaware that there is a legal drinking age.

14. Down South to you means Kansas.

15. A brat is something you eat.

16. Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new pole shed.

17. You go out to a tail gate party every Friday.

18. Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors because your fireworks melted.

19. You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.

20. You find 0 degrees "a little chilly."

21. You actually understand these jokes, and you forward them to all your Nebraska friends.

 

Safe Surfing!

Phishing is not your Phriend

You have seen those phake emails trying to get you to submit your login and password for a bank account that you have never heard of.  Those are easy to weed out.  Now that email received from "your" bank might not be the real thing.

There are people out there that just delete those mails.  Think of these mails as evidence of a crime and report them.  One place to do that is at CastleCops Phishing Incident Reporting & Termination (PIRT).  They chase down evidence for Law Enforcement to use.

Paul Laudanski speaks about Phishing and what is done to stop it in the following video.

 

Phishing is not your Phriend

 

Hope that helped you to understand what goes on out there!

 

Safe Surfing!

Help yourself and (maybe) learn something new

So you picked up an infection somehow and you don't know what to do.  You've searched and searched for the answer and found all kinds of information but you can't figure it all out. 

In your searches you probably came across a program called HijackThis (HJT).  This is a powerful tool that should only be used by trained helpers, as you can really mess up your machine if you do something wrong. 

HJT is a program which scans your system and allows you to create a log or report at the end of its analysis. The log created by the HJT lists many places on your computer that spyware and malware are known to target. The HJT staff are trained to interpret your HJT log and provide instructions which you can follow to repair your system.

Well, the people at CastleCops have done something to help you help yourself (you might not even need to use HJT) and learn something in the process.  This "something" is a procedure called "Malware Removal and Prevention" (MRP)

If you are here to do a thorough system cleaning or just a checkup, then MRP will guide you through that process. Perhaps your computer is showing symptoms of infection: Popup ads, general sluggishness, or browser redirects, to a name a few. If that is the case, MRP will offer you a good chance at restoring your system to normalcy.

The above help should make it easier for you to get back up and running and hopefully you will have learned something about security and your machine.

Safe Surfing!

Happy Birthday Earth!

Earth Day!  A Cell phone on your belt, a  PDA in your pocket, a GPS antenna on the roof of your car and your laptop on the passenger seat attached to your Navigation System and you are a real "Modern Mobile Man".  Are you "Green"?

In support of mother Earths day today, I thought I would pass on some links I have found interesting in "Green Computing".  Tips, hints and information on what you can do to make this a greener computing world.

So what is Green Computing anyway?  That's hard to explain so I'll let wikipedia do it for me.

"Green computing is the study and practice of using computing resources efficiently. Typically, green computing systems or products take into account the so-called triple bottom line of people, planet, profit. This differs somewhat from traditional or standard business practices that focus mainly on the economic viability of a computing solution. These focuses are similar to those of green chemistry; reduction of the use of hazardous materials such as lead at the manufacturing and recycling stages, maximized energy efficiency during the product's lifetime, and recyclability or biodegradability of both a defunct product and of any factory waste."

Climate Savers Computing has a checklist for you to go through to see what you know about Green Computing and how you can become greener.  They also have info on choosing Green Computer products.

At Greener Computing you can inform yourself what is going on in the world of green computing.  One really interesting thing they have available is a Resource Guide for Environmentally Preferable Products.

If you really want to see how "Green Computers" are certified, you will need to read through EPEAT's (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) criteria, from the public standard, IEEE 1680.

I can't imagine living back in the dark ages without my cell and my laptop and all those other things MMM needs, (how did we survive?), but at least I can try to live green.

Safe Green Surfing!

Certifying a Geek

Hooray!  I have decided to become the Complete Certified Geek.  More books are here, that means the Sybex and Microsoft Press Gods were at my door.

I already am a Certified Geek.  I have finally taken the time to complete the CompTIA A+ IT Technician Certification. 

Now you might think it would be easy after all my years of destroying, excuse me, building, repairing, upgrading and cleaning my own PCs and networks and those of others, to pass these tests.  That's what I thought until I received my Deluxe Edition Complete Study Guide.  You know, DIY, instead of going to school, so I could save time and money.  There are things that geeks do and talk about that are not in any of the books I could find.  The hardest part of the certification was translating Textbook to Geek and Geek to Textbook but I figured it out and passed.

Now I am on to newer and better things. 

On my way to completing my MCSA/E - Security certification I need to test out on (among others), a Microsoft Operating System.  I have been using XP Professional for quite some time so that should be easy to pass.  This morning I started flipping through my new DIY textbook on XP and lo and behold, there are 5, yes you read that is right, Five, versions of  XP! 

Refresh?  No!  Down right learning is on the schedule now.  I have to test on XP, Server 2003 and CompTIA Security+.  Thank god for caffeine and nicotine!

Safe surfing!

TANSTAAFL

There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. You get what you pay for.

I’m sure you have all heard these statements before. Well, in most cases it is true but there are exceptions. I have been around Computers since the late 70’s (yes, I am an OG - Old Geek) and have spent a lot of money for computer security. After years of buying and trying I finally decided to try the free stuff. What the heck, it isn’t costing anything and if it doesn’t work then I haven’t lost any money. So over the years I have come up with different security setups that work and best of all, it’s all free.

I use Avira AntiVir as my antivirus. It used to be a pain as they did not have a nice definition update system but now – wow! It is said that the free version does not scan emails. That’s true but it does scan those “files” when you are writing them to your harddrive, so that works for me. If you want to try it here’s where to get it:

http://www.free-av.com/en/download/1/avira_antivir_personal__free_antivirus.html

Something that I have recently added is MBAM – Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware. It is a nice, easy to use, well let’s say, anti-malware. It’s a little of everything all rolled into one. One of its best features is how fast it scans. MBAM has replaced two other applications that will remain nameless. I like multi-tasking, I like free, I like fast. Download it from:

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

Firewall, hmmm, good question. I have tried most all of them and depending on which computer I was using I used different firewalls. At this point in time it seems like Zone Alarm Free is doing the best for me. It has been easy to set up and doesn’t bug me all the time wanting to block or allow access to my PC or to the Internet.

http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp

Some other tools I use to keep my computers running smoothly are, as you would think – free!

Keeping all of the junk cleaned out, CrapCleaner from http://www.ccleaner.com. Just incase something gets deleted that should not have, I have started using Recuva, a nice little recovery tool located at http://www.recuva.com. Keeping track of all the software updates and patches is not easy and it also takes a lot of time so I picked up a nice little tool called, Secunia PSI. Find it at https://psi.secunia.com.

As they say in Germany, “Geiz ist Geil”(google it), and I believe it. This set-up works for me, it may not work for you. You might even want to try out different set-ups. If you do, you can go here, “A guide to assembling your own computer security suite ... free of charge!!” http://wiki.castlecops.com/Roll_your_own_Free_Security_Suite

Safe Surfing!

Small Town Wireless (non)Security

The small town I live in was a friendly town when I left 25 years ago and it is even friendlier now that I am back. You have to be gone for quite some time to appreciate the qualities of small towns. It is the simple things like the wave I get when driving down the street or someone pulling over and asking me if I need a ride when I'm out for a walk.

One thing I greatly appreciate is that I can go almost anywhere in my town with my laptop and get wireless Internet access – free and unsecured. It also upsets me. That's like leaving your keys in your car that’s running and then going on vacation – you're just asking someone to jump in and take off. By leaving your wireless unsecured and/or unencrypted you're just looking for trouble. Things can happen like identity theft, access to your bank accounts or records, access to your personal correspondence and of course just plain and simple access to your bandwidth. Your system is also open to all kinds of Internet infections.

You have seen the commercials about what can happen with identity theft so I don't need to say anything about that. Access to your online banking accounts gives me a chance to line my pockets with your money. Reading your emails – do you want me to? Using your bandwidth allows me to download all the movies and music I want and I don't have to worry about getting in trouble because it's not my IP address being used, it's yours and you are responsible for what goes over your IP, so thanks for letting me get those new movies.

How can you stop me from doing any of this stuff?

First thing you need to do is make sure you have secured your wireless router and how to do that is explained in most all manuals that come with them. The standard router user IDs and passwords (www.routerpasswords.com – just to let you know in case you can't find yours) are known to all of the hackers out there. If your manual doesn't tell you how, take a look at this info so you can get it done right.

Secondly, you need to make sure you have a minimum of security software installed on your PC including a two-way software firewall, one active antivirus, one on demand antivirus, and one antispyware. Which ones you use are up to you, there are many out there that you have to pay for and there are many (just as good) free ones.

And lastly (for now), practice safe surfing! Keep your software up to date. Keep that finger off of the mouse button when you see an interesting link on some website that says, "You have won an XBox360!" Don't open those attachments in emails that you have no idea who they are from. Keep in mind the acronym PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair) and you will realize the solution to Internet security starts with you and even a little bit goes a long way!

So my lovely little small town, quit being so nice to me and make me pay for my own Internet and don't let me use yours.