Over on lifehacker.com there is a great post about how to turn off the Google personal search results feature.
The instructions for doing so are simply to click on the settings cog at the top of the Google page, then select “Search Settings”.
Next find “Personal results” and select “Do not use personal results”.
This makes the “Hide personal results” the default for your searching pleasure.
Thank you to Melanie Pinola for posting that as I have already had a few people inquire about it!
The other day I posted about the BEAST that can circumvent SSL encryption used with websites and how a proof of concept would be demonstrated soon and actual exploits in the wild even sooner.
No sooner had I posted about that than Google’s Chrome development team had posted that they have an update already prepared for the Chrome browser that in theory should protect from the man-in-the-middle BEAST attack.
More information can be found over on The Register …
When the update comes…. Install it =)
What smartphone are you using and why?
Our office has moved to Androids, and in particular Samsung Epic 4G (original and the new Galaxy S II Touch) and absolutely love them.
I’d love you input….
One thing I am asked weekly is, “I just received an email alert telling me my mailbox exceeded the storage limit, why is that?”.
Wellllllll, first of all, these messages, though they come in email and look all official, signed by “System Administrator” or something similar, are likely phishing attempts.
If you hover over the URL listed to “re-validate” your mailbox, or to “increase your storage limit”, you will see that the link has nothing to do with your email host.
People who fall for this and follow the link through are presented with a form which asks for personal information to authenticate your account. That information is destined for parts unknown and could be used for anything from creating new accounts for you, to obtaining personal information about your finances, medical records, or who knows what. In most circumstances, it is going to be for monetary gain.
One I checked out for a client a few minutes ago prompted me to write this blog post… It was a very authentic looking email that appeared to come from Google’s GMail service. Even the link looked right upon first glance even to me, and understandably to the person who received it. The web interface was in the style of Google’s and other than the VERY in-depth questions, would have passed for a Google page. It was the supposed “Personal Profile Page”.
We’re talking about asking a person to input their first, last and middle name, street address, phone number, cell phone number, age, sex, birthdate, email address, which is fairly normal, but upon entering bogus information, it took me to a second page. That one was for “Personal Identity Verification” purposes, “for your safety”. Heh…. It asked you to input security questions for help in identifying you in the future. Mother’s maiden name, street you grew up on, enter a pin number, old Google password and a new one to change to for security purposes and something you should never be asked for, Drivers License number and expiration, SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER and a CREDIT CARD number with expiration date “For account verification purposes only, no charge will appear”.
They had gone to the trouble of putting up a FAQ that was functional, and even a “Contact Us” link that gave you a webform to fill out with your information.
Bottom line here is – don’t believe everything you read, and certainly, don’t just enter your private information into sites just because it LOOK official……
If you have done this recently, you should contact your financial institutions immediately. Watch those credit card bills closely!
It’s time to upgrade your browser if you are using IE7, Safari 3 or Firefox 3.5 or earlier. Not just to have the latest features and the best security, but in order to continue to use websites to their fullest.
Case in point – people using Google for Gmail, Calendars, Talk, Docs and Sites will lose functionality according to Google starting August 1st of 2011 as they are making a switch to supporting only “modern browsers”, and all future code releases will be focused on the newer browser versions.
You can read more about this on the Google Docs Blog http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/06/our-plans-to-support-modern-browsers.html
The majority of people should be able to upgrade to newer browsers, however, there will be a handful who are locked into an older browser due to a particular website they use ONLY supporting IE7 for instance. If you are one of those who must use an older browser for a corporate website, but want to run a newer browser, that’s possible! Just download and install Google Chrome for instance and use IE7 only for your corporate site.
Should you need help upgrading your browser, or have questions, please call upon us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com – we offer business computer support in the Greenville / Upstate, SC area….
Found an interesting article titled “Google Is Serious: You Can Kill Chrome’s URL Bar” which gives a glimpse of what may be around the corner; The ability to hide the URL bar by default.
What is the purpose? Smaller desktops, such as those found on netbooks could benefit from gaining a few pixels of real estate on the screen. However, as we browse more visually these days, it is not difficult to imagine that different ways to navigate the web may also be coming. I still enter a large percentage of all sites that I visit in manually, but I can foresee the day when that may not be the case.
Those who use tablets to browse find every way they can to avoid manually putting in the URL already.
If you own a smartphone, you know what your cellular provider does to the phone before you get it. With Android based phones, each phone is subjected to a custom install of carrier specific “tools” laid on top of the beautiful Android OS.
Verizon thought you didn’t need the Google browser by default, so they sent you to Bing, and Sprint, they thought navigation would be better handled elsewhere, etc. So you really don’t get a Google Android phone the way Google intended it to be, and in turn, phones run slower, lack the ability to perform certain functions, and it sure makes it difficult to compare a Samsung Galaxy phone on Verizon to one on Sprint or another carrier because they don’t have the same exact install. Most consider them crippled.
You will find a growing number of people have opted to “root” their phones and bypass the garbage, or install a pure Google Android OS on it. Creating phones that run much faster than their stock counterparts.
What about computers? For years, manufacturers of computers have been bundling software with computers. This preinstalled software could add a specific function, allowing you to access features of a notebook that are not supported by the stock Microsoft Windows Operating System, or they could just be junk.
The “junk” ranges from demos of games and applications, to browser search bars and other tools.
It’s easy to see why a manufacturer would bundle a trial of Norton Anti-Virus, because if you register it, they likely get a kickback from Symantec, but, could manufacturers be loading something malicious?
In one article, a man has claimed that Samsung has loaded a keystroke logger on new notebooks… Samsung is denying this, and it is possibly that VIPRE is producing a false positive, but, none-the-less, a cause for concern. Time will tell in this matter.
All these things taken into consideration, it is easy to see why some people buy a new computer and immediately wipe and reload a pure Microsoft Windows operating system.
One reason we love offering computers from Seneca Data, such as the Nexlink series that we offer businesses, is that they do NOT come loaded down with junk. Though, they have in recent years begun to install a tool to allow for easy restore disk creation, a trial of Norton and a pre-load of the Microsoft Office trial, we believe these to actually be tools a new computer needs. We CAN order them with NO operating system, and we can provide them with our own build of the OS to preimage.
Should you be interested in computer for your business that you are SURE do not come pre-loaded with unwanted software, you might want to give our Seneca Data Nexlink computers a serious look! Call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com for more information. We offer computer & server sales, service and support to Greenville / Upstate businesses and individuals.
Google Chrome is Gaining Ground Fast
Are you still using Internet Explorer? The majority of people are that hit our website and most others that track this information, but, as you can see from the graph on the right, alternative browsers are gaining ground.
Microsoft Internet Explorer, like it or not, is the de facto “standard” that web sites and web applications are built to support. There are many reasons for that, and obviously the main one is that IE is shipped with Microsoft Windows Operating Systems, and Microsoft Windows dominates as the OS of choice for both individuals and businesses.
As Apple Mac OS, Linux and other operating systems become a bit more mainstream, the alternative browsers that these systems ship with will cut into the Microsoft IE market share, but there is more going on here than a switch to new operating systems.
You are probably way ahead of me on this, but due to concerns over security, there seems to be a mass exodus away from IE. We’ve heard from our clients that they are worried about the seemingly endless flow of vulnerability announcements from Microsoft and then the subsequent patches that must be installed in order to ensure they can safely browse the web.
That, combined with the fact that other browsers are offering what feels like a faster browsing experience, a slew of new features, additional plugins or addons not available on IE, and a shiny new look makes it easy to see why the IE market share has dropped and Chrome has come up.
Chrome recently added some Active Directory integration making the browser even better than before for System Administrators.
Surprisingly, Mozilla Firefox, the second most popular browser, has actually been declining in popularity along side IE, while Safari and Opera have remained pretty constant in the low end of the scale.
With Chrome breaking into the ten percent market share, and pulling away from Apple’s Safari rapidly, it appears that Chrome could overtake Firefox in the next 12 to 18 months. Very interesting information.
Click on the graph for the link to the original article and more information.
No matter which browser you use, remember, there ARE security flaws. Chrome is not impervious to exploits, so, please remember to browse responsibly! Use current anti-virus / anti-malware, and common sense. (IE, Don’t install addons, plugins or codecs etc that you do not trust).
If you would like to discuss security concerns or whether a particular browser may be right for your business here in Greenville or the Upstate, please call 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com
This has been a long time coming, but Google has finally added the ability to port your cellphone number.
The downside is that there is a 20 dollar fee to do this, but the upside would be that for those who do, you could have that one number you give out to everyone now routed to your Google Voice account, and through the use of rules / filter, control what becomes of the incoming calls.
For instance, you could have all phone calls from a particular number routed to your new cell phone number when they call the Google number.
You could create client lists and control what becomes of those calls too. During business hours, send them to your cell number, but after hours – straight to voice mail.
The action of porting your existing number is pretty easy. On your Google Voice account simply go to SETTINGS, then select the CHANGE/PORT link beside your Google Voice number. Remember, there is a 20 dollar charge, and there are restrictions from many wireless providers.
If you need help in Greenville / Upstate SC, let us know, we will do what we can! 864.990.4748 / info@homelandsecureit.com
Browser Wars!
I normally don’t weigh in on the browser wars, as each browser has its own place. For instance, there simply is no replacement for Microsoft Internet Explorer if you want near 100% compatibility with every site in the world.
Obviously, each alternate browser has a strong point, such as speed, or installation size, or security, but each browser also has downsides that sometimes keep people, especially administrators from adopting something other than IE.
One such downside is that in many cases, for an administrator to deploy an alternative browser such as Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome, they have been forced to install at each machine, and for each user of that machine, or employ little “tricks”. Once installed, they then have an update and management issue where they don’t know why Bob’s browser doesn’t have the same extensions as Mary’s browser without checking it out (remotely or physically visiting the machine generally because it is faster than actually talking to Bob) to resolve the situation.
Recently Google has created a new installer designed for enterprise use. It allows a system administrator to utilize active directory in a Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 corporate domain to push the browser out to PCs (Windows XP Professional, Windows 7 Pro), control which extensions are used, lock down a proxy server, insure all installations are up to date, etc. Policies control many factors (the list can be found here).
If you would like to check out Google Chrome, it can be downloaded from http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?msi=true
Google Chrome may not be able to replace all aspects of IE, however, from the looks of it, it would appear that they are trying.
Should you need more information about the security or features of this browser, or how you can implement it site-wide at your organization, you can call upon us at 864.990.4748 in Greenville / Upstate SC, or email info@homelandsecureit.com
