Month: May 2017

Are you taking basic steps to secure your information?

Are you taking basic steps to secure your information?

computer security
Protect Yourself from Computer Crime

It seems like every day there is another scary story about hackers, massive data breaches, and identity theft.  Attacks get more sophisticated each day so how can anyone be safe online? Unfortunately, many of us are suffering from burnout with the seeming hopelessness of securing their PC. The result – we get lazy and start to skip the basic security steps.

No method is fool proof, but many basic steps will provide tremendous protection for your computer.  Strong passwords DO make a difference and its important to use different passwords for each site. A password manager will make it simple to do.  It will also make it feasible to update your passwords periodically for best security.

Another simple safety measure is to use unique security questions and answers.  Remember, if someone does break into one account and you reuse the security question and answers, you’ve made it much easier for the hacker to break into more of your accounts. Don’t use personally identifiable information in your security questions. For example, some websites still ask for things like maiden name. This information can be found online easily so it offers no security at all and can help expose you further to ID theft. You can make your security answer anything – it doesn’t have to match the question.  When you use the security question and answer to recover your password, all that matters to the computer program is that your answer match what you’ve told it originally.  You an list your city of birth as Mars or even hotdog. An unrelated answer is much harder to crack.

Keep your software up to date. Set Windows, your antivirus software, and other programs to update automatically. At a minimum, set them to notify you when updates are available.  Many software updates are security patches to plug recently discovered vulnerabilities.

Don’t click on suspicious links, offers that are too good to be true, or open email attachments that you weren’t expecting.

Doing these simple things will provide a reasonable amount of security without requiring much effort on your part. Considering the potential cost and damage of identity theft, ransomware, or other potential computer security problems, these small actions are definitely worth the effort.

 

Help fight hunger

Help fight hunger

Help fight hunger

Pay with Discover at Walmart and they’ll donate 9 cents to Feeding America to help provide one meal with every purchase thru May 15, up to $1 million.

Every Drop Counts – Colgate wants us to pledge to save water

Every Drop Counts – Colgate wants us to pledge to save water

#EveryDropCountsClean water is a precious resource but in westernized countries we often forget how precious it is. Colgate is reminding us that an act as simple as turning the faucet while brushing your teeth could save thousands of gallons of water per year. Yes – thousands of gallons. Running the faucet while you brush can waste up to 4 gallons each time. In a two person household just turning off the faucet would save 5,840 gallons of water each year. That’s an easy way to make a big impact. So join with Colgate to make every drop count.

The Comfort of Your Own Front Door

The Comfort of Your Own Front Door

Truedoors.com makes made-to-measure decals made from photos of doors. They are simple to stick on to personalize any door. Dorm rooms are another great place to customize.  Or add some pizzaz to a boring blank apartment door. The truedoor decals can make it feel more like home.

Its a simple, fun, and fairly inexpensive way to personalize a door – whether its in a dorm room, an apartment, or a senior living facility.  The door stickers can be made to look like one of your own doors or choose from a library of door stickers.

Creating a door sticker that matches a senior’s former home door can help make a move to a senior living facility easier by providing some familiarity in strange surroundings. This can be especially useful for people with dementia.

The stickers are easy to apply and easy to remove. For more information check out Truedoors.comTruedoors.com

Who’s calling me?

Who’s calling me?

 

Who calls Me?
Source: Unsplash Matthew Kane

Even with the FTC do not call list and rules for spammy calls we still receive many calls from numbers we don’t know.  Before returning the call, check the number out. Simply put the number into Google’s search box – either with formatting (i.e. parentheses around the area code and dash in the middle) or just run all the numbers together. The results will usually show numerous websites that let you look up the phone number. Some require a fee, but several are free. Other websites such as http://www.allsnumbers.com, www.whocallsme.com , www.findwhocallsme.com , or www.shouldianswer.com include comments from others who’ve received calls from this same phone number. They also may show the location of the call’s origination and whether it is a landline or a mobile phone. Often there is enough information on the Google results page itself to help you decide if this call is of interest to you.

Donate Your Color by May 18th, 2017

Donate Your Color by May 18th, 2017

Celebrate the colors of spring and help Sherwin Williams transform rooms in needy communities across America with a fresh coat of paint. You can help without lifting a paintbrush. Check out the website Donate Your Color for easy ways you can donate your color online through May 18th. So hurry and make the world a more colorful place.