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Security and Privacy
Security and Privacy
OpenDNS FamilyShield Protects You and Your Family from Porn (and more)–for Free
Jun 24th
OpenDNS recently announced a free, simple-to-setup service called FamilyShield which not only blocks pornography sites, but also proxy and anonymizer, phishing and some malware sites.
OpenDNS FamilyShield versus OpenDNS Basic
OpenDNS has 2 free services, OpenDNS Basic and OpenDNS FamilyShield.
Unlike OpenDNS Basic, which requires you to create an account, FamilyShield requires no account, as you only need to specify FamilyShield’s 2 DNS addresses in the right place.
OpenDNS Basic gives you more control, as you can specify which categories of websites you want to block or allow. We covered this previously as a way to customize the level of web filtering on your network.
OpenDNS FamilyShield is pre-configured to block websites categorized as “Pornography,” “Tasteless,” and “Sexuality.”
There’s one more difference. When a user attempts to reach a blocked website, an OpenDNS block page appears in the browser. Those using OpenDNS Basic will not see advertisements on this page, while OpenDNS FamilyShield’s block page contains ads.
Setting it Up
You could set up an individual computer (instructions here). You might consider this if you don’t have a wireless network, or only want to protect a single computer. If you use this method, you’ll want to prevent savvy users from getting around FamilyShield by requiring them to log on to that computer using a standard user account, not an administrative account.
If you have a wireless router, follow instructions here to protect any wireless device that is (or will be) using your network. OpenDNS helpfully provides instructions for 18 brands of wireless routers.
OpenDNS FamilyShield is an effective way to prevent your network (or computers) from being used to display pornography and other unedifying websites. OpenDNS couldn’t make it any simpler to set up. Consider setting this up on your own network, or suggesting this to other people who want to protect their networks.
Secure Facebook in One Easy Step with SaveFace by Untangle
May 25th
Facebook has been rightly criticized recently for its increasingly complicated privacy settings. Several high-profile users in the tech community have left Facebook (after carefully deleting their posts).
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says, “In the coming weeks, we will add privacy controls that are much simpler to use.”
But what can you do now to ensure your Facebook settings are as secure as possible?
Untangle, the company behind Untangle for Windows which we’ve covered here, has answered the need to simplify Facebook’s privacy settings with SaveFace, a Bookmark utility which sets all of your Facebook account’s privacy settings (except “Add me as a Friend”) to “Friends Only.” More >
Firefox Add-on UntinyFox Reveals Those Shortened URLs Automatically
Apr 28th
URL-shortening services such as bit.ly and SnipURL have been around for a while. They’re very handy for shortening long links, but they do present a risk, since they disguise the original website address. Clicking on an innocent-looking bit.ly link could result in browsing to a site that could infect your computer. How can you protect yourself?
Untiny is a website where you can paste a short address and find out its original website address. This is helpful, but it would be even more helpful if this “translation” was done for you automatically.
Firefox add-on UntinyFox does this for you. Take a look at the screenshots of our Twitter page below. Voila! The original DownloadSquad.com link is revealed.
Check out Firefox add-on UntinyFox as another way to protect yourself in your web browsing.
More >
No Longer Using Internet Explorer? Lock It Down!
Mar 4th
Unless you live in the European Union, your Windows computer will have Internet Explorer installed.
Maybe you no longer use Internet Explorer for browsing, and have moved on to a more security-conscious browser like Chrome or Firefox? You’ll still need IE, or rather, Windows needs IE for downloading patches. Also, programs like Microsoft Outlook are closely integrated with IE, so they need access to it as well.
The Problem
IE, by default, allows scripts on web pages you visit to execute. Most of the time, these scripts do something useful, but too often, a malicious script can install spyware or do something else nasty on your computer. Microsoft continues to be fairly diligent in fixing these issues as they’re discovered, but the big problem is when malicious scripts execute on unpatched computers.
The Solution
Steve Gibson, on a recent Security Now! podcast, shows us how to lock down IE so it still does what we need it to do, but essentially turn off scripting. This can protect you from the next IE security vulnerability.
Here’s how to lock down IE: More >
Untangle for Windows: Step-by-step Setup
Oct 10th
The skinny: Untangle for Windows is a Unified Threat Manager (UTM), which acts as a gateway to filter all web traffic on your small (up to 10 computers) network. It’s available as a free download from Untangle’s site. Untangle for Windows doesn’t need a dedicated computer (it runs in the background). Based on which options you choose, you can block advertisements, stop viruses, allow or block websites (based on category), and have access to these and other commercial-grade technologies that not too long ago were too expensive for the home office/small office.
The configuration we set up is a for a simple home network (see diagram below). The computer where Untangle for Windows is installed must have a wired connection. In our case, all other computers access the network through the wireless router. This way, anyone using your wireless network (for example, a visitor who wants to access your wireless network with their computer) will also benefit from whatever options (virus blocking, advertisement blocking, etc) that you have set up. More >
5 Easy Steps to Stay Safe (and Private!) on Facebook
Sep 24th
5 Easy Steps to Stay Safe (and Private!) on Facebook http://bit.ly/gDrPH
The 2nd Most Important Thing a Home Computer User Should Do: Create a Standard User Account
Sep 19th
As a home computer user, your most crucial task is to make sure your data is backed up, and that you’re backing it up regularly.
The 2nd most important thing? Create and use a standard user account. By default, Windows (XP, Vista and now 7) create administrative accounts as part of the initial setup. These accounts are necessary if you need to install software, change security settings, etc, but for everyday use they are a liability.
Why Not Always Be Logged in as an Administrative Account?
In a word, protection. When logged on with a non-administrative account, viruses and spyware can’t infect your computer as easily as when you’re logged in with an administrative account.
How to Create a Standard User Account
Each flavor of Windows has its specific way for creating a standard user account, but the process is similar:
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows 7 (Ironically, this nicely-written how-to guide is from UnixWiz.net)
Whether you’re using Windows XP, Vista, or 7, it’s very easy to create and use a standard user account for your everyday tasks. Doing so makes your computer much less vulnerable to virus and spyware infections. It’s much more time-consuming to clean up an infected computer than to prevent an infection in the first place, so make sure you are using a standard user account for your day-to-day tasks.
Untangle for Windows – Free Unified Threat Management For the Rest of Us!
Sep 4th
The skinny: Untangle for Windows is a free way to protect your home/small office network (up to 10 computers). It leverages open source software to give you advanced control of your network that until recently was only affordable to larger corporations. Its features are impressive, especially for a free download.
Unified Threat Management (UTM) software is a fancy name for a collection of dedicated software (or a hardware appliance) that work together to protect a network by providing for example, virus protection and web filtering.
Years ago, UTMs were only available as hardware appliances which were installed in a server rack in a data center. More recently, software UTMs were released by companies like Endian and Astaro and Untangle that can run on PCs. These software UTMs require a dedicated computer. More >
Bogus Firefox Add-on Poses As Flash Player
Aug 30th
“Adobe Flash Player 0.2″ is not what it seems. It has been posted on various forum sites. Unsuspecting Firefox users who have installed this (assuming that it’s gotten past your anti-virus/anti-spyware software) find themselves infected. (To check, in the Firefox menu, choose Tools > Add-ons and look for “Adobe Flash Player 0.2″).
This bogus add-on injects its own advertisements along with Google’s ads. In addition, it can also monitor the results from a user’s Google queries, which it sends to a special website. This is another reason to consider using Startpage.com for your web searches.
As always, keep your anti-virus/anti-malware software updated, and only obtain add-ons from legitimate sites. Read more at Trendmicro’s blog.
Control Flash Cookies with BetterPrivacy Firefox Add-on
Aug 18th
Adobe Flash animations are used in many of the most popular web sites. The Adobe Flash plug-in can be used to store information in Local Shared Objects, or “Flash cookies,” which are very different from traditional browser cookies. Traditional cookie behavior can be controlled through settings in your browser, or deleted after the fact using a utility such as CCleaner. Flash cookies are browser-independent, meaning multiple browsers on the same computer can use the same Flash cookies. Flash cookies can also store a great deal more information (100 KB compared to the 4 KB browser cookie limit). More >