It’s unfortunate but true. Most of these online scams are known now as “phishing” scams and are typically known for masquerading as well know banks and credit card processors. The goal is to steal your information and use it for nefarious purposes such as stealing your identity, emptying your bank account, scamming others and even stealing email addresses.

Even child safety experts and their line of work get side tracked by this. It seems as though no one is immune today. There are some scurrilous individuals around that play the “missing child” alert to scrape and steal email addresses for their spamming purposes.

One of the latest phishing scams is an Amber Alert. Masquerading as the well known and highly effective alert system to find and save abducted children, this latest is particularly loathsome. The alert mentioned a 13 year old girl missing in Ohio. It was sent via an email chain with innumerable addresses on it.

You do not need to be a helpless victim of this or any other phishing scam online. Here are some great tips as to real versus fake. You can learn to know the difference. You can understand what is a phishing scam and what is not in order to keep yourself, your children and your families safer online.

First, stay calm. “Oh No! Another child missing! Let’s help!” is a natural reaction. The point is, it’s a reaction. Make your first rule about any unsolicited email, no matter who it is from, to hold a very healthy skepticism about it. Take time to read further. If you did not request it or it seems to elicit panic or a harsh emotion such as, “Your account is suspended!” chances are it’s a scam.

Two, true and valid Amber Alerts do not come as singular emails forwarded on from individual to individual. The “chain email” or even funny-looking links to follow are not indicative of real businesses contacting you.

Third, check to see if the email address is valid or a dead link.

As a rule, whenever you get questionable stuff like this type of email, go to Google. Simply enter it in the Google search box and add the word urbanlegend. Or, you can go to snopes (dot) com.

With these two tools you can find out very quickly whether it is real or not. The second thing that people are not aware of is that often these emails are used to gather email addresses for email spamming. If you scroll down you can see everyone who every got this line. When you get those ads for breast enlargement etc, you know where it came from!

—
Joyce Jackson is a #1 International Bestselling author and child safety expert in northern California. For your free Internet Safety Tool Kit see eChild Safety

Having a good data center disaster recovery plan in place can mean the difference between success and failure. That’s because safeguarding information is a data center’s number one job. If that information is lost for any reason, the data center has failed in its main objective. A disaster recovery plan is necessary for success.

Losing Data Costs Time and Money
Losing data to a disastrous event is not only an inconvenience, it costs money. That’s because recovering vital business information, if possible at all, can be time consuming and expensive.

Each day that passes between the data loss and the recovery of that data means lost business hours, less chance of successful recovery, and more expensive recovery. A successful disaster recovery plan can help save you money.

In addition, for some data centers, lost data can be time-sensitive. Waiting a week for that information can make it useless. Even waiting a day can be too long. That’s why it’s important to have a disaster recovery plan in place that allows you to recover data from the moment of the disaster.

How Important is Your Data?
If the data center is down, the rest of the business may not be able to function properly. In fact, some studies have shown that computer outages of more than ten days can cause permanent financial damage to a company. Within 5 years, half of those businesses have closed their doors.

Your information is vital to your business, and that’s why a data recovery plan is simply common sense. Recovery from a disaster needs to be straight-forward, and it can mean the difference between a short-term inconvenience and the end of your organization.

Implementing a Disaster Recovery Plan
The first step toward reducing the impact of a disaster is to obtain a disaster recovery planning guide and disaster recovery templates. After investing in these items, the strategy for recovery needs to be planned in detail. Having a vague idea of your recovery plan is not going to save you from data loss.

Like any precautionary measure, the upfront planning for disaster recovery can seem like a waste of valuable company time and resources. However, your organization will be grateful that it is prepared if disaster does strike.

A proper disaster recovery plan should also include an assessment of risk and the impact of a loss of information. This allows the company to prioritize data center operations, an important step in recovering business viability.

An additional integral component to any plan for business continuity should be rigorous and regular testing. Disaster recovery plans should be tested and reviewed on a regular basis. This ensures that the plan is ready for a true emergency situation.

Safeguard the Future Success of Your Organization
Problems with hardware or software often strike when usage is at its highest point. That usually means a very busy time for the organization. Peak usage times, while some of the most vulnerable, are also the last time you want your data center to have a crisis.

It is important not to be lulled into a false sense of security by the seeming reliability of your systems. Modern technology runs perfectly right up until the time it doesn’t. You don’t want that time to be the downfall of your business. Implement a disaster recovery plan, and safeguard both your data and the future success of your organization.

—
Managed Hosting leading provider with offices strategically located in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Quebec City. Visit us to learn more: Data Centre Montreal.

Do I need to highlight their importance?

If criminals or other malicious users steal this information, they can use your name to open new credit card accounts, apply for a mortgage, or pose as you in online transactions. In many cases you would not notice these attacks until it is too late.

Why are strong passwords needed?

Passwords can be the weakest link in a computer security scheme. Strong passwords are important because password cracking tools continue to improve and the computers used to crack passwords are more powerful. Passwords that once took weeks to break can now be broken in hours or sometime minutes.

Password cracking software use one of three approaches:

Intelligent guessing, Dictionary attacks and automation that tries every possible combination of characters. Given enough time, the automated method can crack any, yes I mean ANY, password.

What makes a Strong Password:

The general rule for making a strong password is to make difficult to guess. It is true for human driven password breaking attempts as well as software attempts.

You can follow these useful tips for making strong passwords.

Combine letters, numbers, and symbols. The greater variety of characters that you have in your password, the harder it is to guess.

Use the entire keyboard, not just the most common characters. Passwords are stronger if you choose all the symbols, including punctuation marks.

Make it lengthy. Each character that you add to your password increases the protection that it provides many times over. Your passwords should be 8 or
more characters in length; 14 characters or longer is ideal.

Passphrase: Creating a strong, memorable password in 5 easy steps

1. Think of a sentence that you can remember. This will be the basis of your strong password or pass phrase. Use a memorable sentence, such as “The second letter of English Alphabet is B”

2. Take the first letter of each word of the sentence that you’ve created to create a new, nonsensical word. Using the example above, you’d get: “tsloeaib.

3. Add complexity by mixing uppercase and lowercase letters. It becomes “TsloEAiB”

4. Add some numbers. I add them after every two letters. You get “Ts2lo4EA6iB8″. See the patterns, but they are hard to guess.

5. Finally, substitute some special characters. You can use symbols that look like letters or punctuation marks. “!Ts2lo4EA6iB8?”

See, it is now 14 characters in length.

Since it can be difficult to remember a ton of passwords, I recommend using Roboform. It will store all of your passwords in an encrypted format and allow you to use just one master password to access all of them.

It will also automatically fill in forms on Web pages, and you can even get versions that allow you to take your password list with you on your PDA, phone or a USB key.

—
The author of this article, Silki Garg, has written many high rated articles on Online Security and Best Spyware Removal Tools. She advices on how to remove spyware, virus, trojans, worms and other malware from your PC.

Keep your drive turned off

Keep in mind that hard drive recovery service starts with maintaining the safety of your data first and foremost. The way to make certain your data is safe is to make sure the data does not have a chance to be overwritten. If you are operating a computer that you need to recover data from right away, power it down right now. You may be wondering, “How can I save my files?” Turning off your computer is an important step in the data recovery process.

Be obedient to this or else

The next important lesson of hard drive data recovery people constantly do. Here it is. Do not install or run software on the drive that can communicate with the operating system. This can cause your data to be permanently lost. Recovering your files is your goal, right? Stop trying to fix a problem that you do not know exactly how to do it, especially when it comes to your valuable data.

Compare several hard drive data recovery service providers

Protect your data at all costs. It could also help to contact a few hard drive data recovery service firms to get professional advice about how to solve your problem. You will notice a pattern in the responses you receive. The answers these experts give can help you make an informed decision. Will software be an option? If so, which ones are the best? And if hard drive data recovery service seems to be your best option, what makes them so special?

Putting the information to work

When hard drive data recovery service comes to mind, a lot of people get sticker shock when they hear what the recovery will cost. They also can’t understand why they can’t find a professional company in town. If you live in an area where there is no major hard drive recovery service available, you may choose the next best thing and contact a local It professional or computer technician to handle the situation. Do not allow them to touch your hard drive unless they know exactly what to do. They should follow all of the safety steps listed above. If they do, then the odds of getting back your files is on your side.

If they are unable to recover your data, your only option at this point is to ship your drive to a professional data recovery firm. In the future, consider using a reliable local and network data management system so you no longer need to rely on hard drive data recovery service to retrieve your files.

—
Not all hard drive data recovery service centers offer the same service. Some are part-timers and others are full-time data recovery service companies with a clean room. Ken Roberts explains the ins and out for you.

I really was not too concerned with anything else. That is, until I started having problems, big problems! Not only was my computer running slower but it was freezing up! I was told by different people that I needed to try to locate where I had downloaded my problem.

I began reading about the three possible culprits, Adware, Spyware, and Anti-viruses. I found out that Spyware is software that does not harm your computer, at least not intentionally. Spyware creates pathways in which someone other than the computer owner can communicate with the computer.

The normal function of Spyware is to record the various types of websites that you visit; this information is used by web advertisers. Of course they will be sending you unwanted emails and pop-ups. So essentially Spyware is not good but it does not harm your computer.

That is your word of warning, avoid Spyware whenever possible! As the name implies, Spyware actually have their own programs that allow them to record your keystrokes, scan your files, look at applications you use, and even your Web browser settings. What an invasion of privacy! In some cases the Spyware author may even sell this information to advertisers or other parties, thinking nothing of taking such liberties with your information!

So how do you know if your computer is infected with Spyware? One clue may be that it suddenly slows downs. This slow down effect would be very noticeable. Other signs include pop-up ads that are not related to the site you are viewing, very often they are ads for adult content. Your basic desktop may take longer than usual to load. If you notice any of this I suggest that you scan your system immediately

Let us talk about Adware now. Adwares are often legitimate forms of freeware. However, you need to be aware that adwares are advertising materials which are pre-packaged into a software or program. This means that the advertisements are installed automatically when the particular software or program is added to the computer application.

Okay, now for the worst of the three, the dreaded computer virus. Computer viruses can be very destructive. That is what they are designed for. I have no idea what pleasure the creator gets from that but none the less that is the purpose. Just as with a human virus, a computer virus infects as many of the applications and components of the computer that it comes into contact with as it initiates self-replication. But it does not stop there; a computer virus can be passed from one computer to another and another, that is how you got it, right?

There are many products available today that offer protection for your computer. But even those products do not insure your complete protection. Some only provide Spyware and Adware scanning and others claim to focus on particular computer viruses. It is wise to scan your computer often. Use a good protection system, including a firewall system.

—
Want to know if your computer is infected? Scan your PC for free by following this link: http://www.FitInsidenOut.com/PCProtect.html

Debbie Allen is a writer, internet marketer (visit: http://www.InternetDivaDeb.com) and personal coach.

Many business owners readily accept to store their data to a web based storage provider because an online back up system saves on costs of traditional backup methods. These traditional methods require extra hardware, personnel and a lot of time that is spent in handling the data. Small and medium sized companies usually don’t have enough budgetary allocations to pay for an onsite data storage facility and keep a staff to handle their data storage and back ups like much larger companies.

Small companies are usually so much involved with other important aspects of managing the business data, that they keep it in stores hoping they will get time to store it properly before any information is lost. You do not need to worry about any security risks with a reliable online data storage company and any one who may express worry it is because they simply do not understand how it works. The information is normally highly encrypted before it is stored online where it remains encrypted until the customer needs to access it.

Encryption is available to ensure that confidential data is kept safe and secure. Even the administrators do not have the ability to access the clients’ data. Your data can only be accessed by the client because it’s only him who keeps the encryption key. The type of encryption used is extremely high and is similar to the one used by financial institutions and the federal government.

Online data storage is beneficial because whatever data is stored can be retrieved anytime it is needed. Recovery of data stored online is much faster than the time needed to recover from compact disks and zip drives. With online data storage there is no need for staff or IT personnel to access or store, there is no time spent picking media files from an offsite storage facility and transporting it to where it is needed. There is also the risk of making errors when dealing with personnel instead of the online back up system, no money spent on time used when making these errors and other mistakes.

Storing data in the traditional in house method is quite risky as it can be easily destroyed by fire or even stolen. If you consider the time, personnel and money spent on online storage system its no surprise that many small businesses are choosing this way of storing data instead of in house storage systems.

Taking into mind the speed, reliability and the savings on online data storage can achieve, soon online data storage systems are set to replace media back up systems as the number one choice of today’s business world. If you are considering on cost effectiveness of your business then online data storage is the way to go.

—
Jordan Mcpelt is a professional author who specializes in Online Backup and Data Backup Online. For more information on Online Data Backup please visit http://www.armordatasystems.com

To get a computer virus there are several ways, it could come in an e-mail message, or even over whatever instant messenger service you are using. This said don’t ever open up an e-mail that has an attachment unless you know who the message is from. That attachment is very likely a computer virus just waiting to get a hold of your computer and trash it. A virus may come as images, card, or even audio or video files. You know those downloads you can get from the internet, while they very likely could be a virus. Or if your someone who downloads pirated software you might want to watch out those people who have those files up there, you don’t know, they could be sending you a virus.

Symptoms of a computer virus are as follows:

Your computer could be sluggish and running slower.

Your computer may lock up, or just stop responding frequently.

If your computer restarts every few minutes after crashing.

If your computer just restarts on it’s own without crashing.

Your applications that are on your computer are not working properly.

Your disk drives come up as inaccessible.

Printing an item does not work properly.

Your getting unusual error messages.

Menus and dialog boxes are distorted.

An attachment shows two extensions instead the normal one.

Your anti-virus program isn’t working, and can’t be started.

If your trying to install a new anti-virus program you can get it to run.

New icons are showing on your desktop that you didn’t add.

Music or sounds come from your speakers without you doing anything.

Programs disappear without you removing them.

If you think your computer might be infected get the latest anti-virus software. The problems listed above may occur for other reasons, such as hardware problems. You need to get an anti-virus software to find out if these problems are caused by viruses or other problems.

You may also have gotten a worm or a Trojan horse via e-mail, following are the symptoms that you may see:

The file may make copies of itself, thus taking up all your free space on your e-mail server.

The file is sent to all your contacts in your address book.

The virus may delete files and programs from your hard drive.

Pirated software may be installed by the virus.

Security will be reduced by the virus.

You get a message with an odd attachment DO NOT OPEN.

A friend tells you they got a weird message from you, but you didn’t send one.

To fix a virus that is on your computer, follow the steps below:

You will need to install all updates from Microsoft.

Get the latest anti-virus software and install it on your computer, run a full scan.

Get Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool and install it on your computer.

These steps should free your computer of any viruses you might have, and after that is done just be careful of what you download and open in e-mail.

Fortunately, by updating the computer and by using antivirus tools, you can help permanently remove unwanted software.

—
Check out this windows xp registry cleaner to see the benefits you get by using this software on your computer.

Most people would love to find a solution to their data backup problems that’s fully automated and doesn’t require a lot of new training or resource expenditure. However, many are afraid that it’s too difficult to implement this kind of solution, or that it’ll be expensive. This doesn’t have to be the case. There are a number of Internet based solutions out there, offering high quality without an exorbitant price. Others make promises that they can’t deliver. How do you tell the difference?

Make sure that the backup software or service you use is actually as automated and easy to use as it claims to be. Look for programs that offer a free trial period, allowing you to test the possible options. That way, if you like what you see, you can easily purchase the service or program. Compared to old fashioned backup methods, using a good automated system for remote data backup could save you a lot of money. It’ll even keep your data safer.

There are a few features to look for in an online backup solution. Focus on finding backup software that’ll allow you to back up data from multiple machines at once, without the need for an administrator to supervise constantly. Automation will help you save time and money. Also, be sure that the administrator can assign a schedule for each machine or employee individually, while running distributed backup on multiple machines. Look for backup software that’s flexible enough to let you create and adjust plans for every employee who needs to save data.

Of course, online backups shouldn’t be so obvious as to distract employees from their work. Good remote data backup software should run in the background without using up too many resources or interfering with other processes that are happening on the same computer. Tasks should all be administered from a central locations. This makes it a lot easier to unify online backup tasks so that they’ll fit in with an overall company backup policy.

—
If you would like to see just how powerful online backups are and just how easy it is to protect all your valuable information you can get a free trial at backupalldata.com

Ingredients:
A complete and total lack of ethics
A good-sized serving of greed
One bushel of unnecessary products
One large cup of business ruthlessness
A dash of familiarity with spam filters
Several packages of innocent victims

Cooking Instructions:
The most important step in preparing the perfect spam is sanitization. Be sure to scrub all traces of decency and ethical behavior from yourself before attempting this recipe, as any leftover honesty or integrity will result in sub-par spam.

To start, gently fold together the large cup of business ruthlessness and your generous serving of greed. ‘Financial Gain’ brand greed is best in this recipe, though other brands of greed may be used, such as ‘Greed for Power.’

Add your bushel of unnecessary or nonexistent products. There are several tasty version of this recipe, and here’s where you can choose which flavor you like best; choose from poor-quality drugs, get rich quick schemes, work from home scams, and male augmentation. All are equally tasty.

Blend carefully.

Once your spam message is well mixed, spoon it into an Anti Spam Filter (ASF) Rewriter. Let cool. Scrape off all grease and nastiness, and set aside– spammers will want reserve this ingredient for use on a website.

Once spun and blended, scoop your message into a prepared blank email. Then sprinkle email addresses from your packet of innocent victims into email. Send.

Congratulations! You’ve created the perfect spam. Now after a quick cleaning to wipe up any spilled ingredients (you’ll want to wear gloves for this– it’s nasty stuff), you just sit back and wait for your customers to come.

Serving Suggestions:
This recipe makes enough for millions of servings. And while it’s important to have a highly useless product, presentation affects this recipe, as well. When presenting your newly-cooked spam, keep in mind your serving options:

Shouting: Want your well-cooked spam to get noticed? Use all caps and plenty of exclamation marks!

Best Buddy: Shouting seem like ‘too much’ for this batch of spam? Try being the recipient’s best buddy instead. ‘Saw this and thought of you,’ and ‘Can you believe what he did?’ are nice options. Want to make your dish extra special? Toss in ‘re:’ to make it appear a replied-to message. Creative genius!

Surprise Them: Don’t be boring– surprise all recipients with your specially prepared spam. Find people who didn’t sign up for and don’t want your products. Great addresses are available online or for purchase.

Fix What’s Not Wrong: Worried that recipients don’t need some of the great ingredients in your special Spam? Don’t! Instead, create a need by implying they have problems they don’t have– then offer them crappy drugs, scammy get rich quick programs, etc., to fix their new problem.

Tips for Recipients:
Had more than your fill of tasty spam and starting to feel a little ill? Here are some tips to help soothe your stomach:

- Check the privacy policies of all companies you submit an email address to.
- Never reply to spam, never click on a link in a spam message, even to unsubscribe. This shows spammers that yours is a valid email, and they will surely hit it again.
- Never give your email address anywhere online. If you have to, spell it out.
- Get a good anti-spam email filter. If your email service providers doesn’t offer one (most do) find one elsewhere.

—
Jes Darmanin works at GFI Software: a company that creates professional anti spam software for servers. More information about GFI MailEssentials - The leading server antispam solution on http://www.gfi.com/mes

128-bit Secure Socket Layer

When you connect to the remote backup server over the internet, you are sending your data over the largest public network ever created. It’s like shouting sensitive company information across a crowded restaurant.

However that doesn’t mean your data is unsafe as long as the connection is through an encrypted channel. The standard for internet encryption is the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). This is a set of cryptographic standards that scrambles your data during transmission. Even if someone is eavesdropping on your data as it is being sent, all they get is gibberish. The data is unscrambled at the other end so that the server can store your data.

In its original implementation, US government restrictions on cryptographic technology limited SSL to 40-bit encryption. That meant there were 2^40 or approximately a trillion different possible encryptions that a transmission could use. This is actually a very small number and it was possible, although difficult, to crack this encryption.

Today, SSL uses 128-bit encryption which provides approximately 3.4 x 10^38 or 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 different combinations. To put that in perspective, if one million copies of the world’s most powerful super computer all worked on cracking this code simultaneously, it would take 880 billion years for them to succeed.

Encrypted Data Storage

SSL protects only the transmission from eavesdroppers. What if hackers break into the remote server that holds your data?

To provide an acceptable level of security, the provider should encrypt all data storage as well. That means that without your password to unlock the encryption, the files they could get would be unreadable.

Because of the way encryption works, there is no reason for your password to be kept on the remote data storage servers. To get to your data a hacker would have to get access to your password as well as break into the remote system.

IP Access Restrictions

A final piece of security that not all remote data storage hosts offer is the ability to restrict access to only certain IP addresses. When you connect to the internet, you are given an IP address. Whenever data is sent to you from a remote site, your IP address is how it finds you. It is your identification to other computers on the network.

The remote host can prohibit access to anyone not coming from an address you have approved. That means that even armed with your password, an intruder couldn’t read your backups unless he was working from a computer within your organization. As long as these security protocols are in place, online file storage is safe from unauthorized access.

—
Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on Data
Storage services visit http://www.offsitebackupsolutions.com.