One of the great advantages of having a laptop computer is the portability.  You can just pick it up and take it anywhere, and these days you can find a wifi signal in lots of public places.  However, there is a downside with that portability benefit – laptops are easily stolen.  One minute you are sitting in an airport waiting for your flight, you turn your head for a second, and before you know it you are missing a laptop.  Smart phones present the same problem because they are so small.

If you have ever had a laptop stolen, you know that there is very little chance of recovering it.  Sure, you can check Craigslist for someone trying to sell it, and you can check with the local pawn shops.  But the reality is you might as well plan on buying another one.

UNLESS…

Unless you take a simple precaution ahead of time, and install a FREE program on your laptop that will allow you to track it after it gets stolen.

(Here’s the sad part of this… at some point in the future, one of you will be thinking, “Why, oh why didn’t I just install that little program on my laptop when Scott told me about it?  Now I’ll never get my laptop back!“  Will that be you?  I hope not.)

The free program is called Prey.  You can get it here.  On the site, click “Log in”, then click the green button that says “Not registered? Sign up!”

Here’s how it works:  you install this little program on your computer.  It really doesn’t do anything until you “wake it up”.  Should your laptop get stolen, you can send the “wake up” message from any other internet-connected computer, or even as a text message from your phone.

When the program is activated, you are able to gather some important information – including its location.

Here are some features:

• 100% geolocation aware (this can be done via GPS, if the device has it, or through the use of nearby wifi signals).
• Does your laptop have a webcam?  Take a picture of the thief without his or her knowledge!
• Grab a screenshot of activity – you might even catch the thief while he’s browsing Facebook or reading his email (no webcam is needed for this feature).
• If you want, you can even completely lock down your PC remotely – so the thief will not be able to use it at all.

There are paid versions of Prey, for individuals or companies with lots of machines to keep track of, or if you want some more advanced reporting features.  But for most people with a single laptop or smart phone, the free version is adequate.

Check out some of the stories of how Prey helped people get their laptops back:

You have probably heard about the malicious software programs that suddenly pop up a window and tell you that you have 97 severe threats on your computer and you need to take action to get rid of them.  You close the window, and it just opens up again a few seconds later.  Sometimes lots of windows – and they prevent you from doing anything else.

Some people would say that is the most annoying kind of virus in existence.  Well, while that type of thing is certainly frustrating, it is definitely not the most dangerous.

The malware that can do the most damage is the one that you don’t see at all.

There is a new type of virus/spyware emerging, and it employs a rather clever technique.  It is called the “post transaction” attack.

Here’s how it works:

The malware finds an unprotected computer and gets in.  Then it just sits and waits – no obnoxious pop-up windows or anything.  To the computer user, everything seems to be working fine.

What the program is waiting for is a bank account login.  Eventually the owner of the computer logs into his or her bank account, and when that happens the hidden software records the user name and password and other critical personal data.  That is Step 1 of this scam.

Step 2 is immediately put into place – an instantaneous redirect.  This means that the next time that computer tries to go to that bank account website, it is immediately sent to a different website – one that LOOKS identical to the user’s bank account, but is in fact just a fake page that is designed to look normal.

In the background, the virus is using the bank account to make fraudulent purchases, and if the user logs into what appears to be the account, it all seems fine – at least for a while.  Eventually it gets figured out, but the software achieved it’s purpose – discovery was delayed by hours, days, maybe even weeks.  Scammers love having all that extra time to get away with your money and cover their tracks.

So, for those of you that think you are protected because you check your online bank account regularly, please consider that you might not be doing enough to protect yourself.

How to prevent this from happening

There are 3 security programs that I use and recommend.  2 are free, and the other is a cheap, one-time investment.  Here they are again:

1. Microsoft Security Essentials (antivirus – free – click here to get it)

2. Malwarebytes paid version (antispyware – $24.95 one time – click here to get it)

3. SuperAntispyware (antispyware – free – click here to get it)

Take a few minutes to get these programs on your computer, and save yourself hours of grief.  I can put them on  your computer if you want – I have installed them on hundreds already.  However you do it, make sure you do it.

You have probably heard the term “firewall” sometimes, in relation to computers and security.  Let’s talk about what a firewall is, and if you need to make any changes to your computer setup in order to be secure.

First of all, what is a firewall?

Basically, a firewall is what its name suggests – a tool that blocks some access to your computer.  When you are connected to the internet (which for most users is 100% of the time), there are all kinds of little bugs and bots and malicious people that would like to get into your computer and take a look around.  You don’t want any of these bad things having access to your computer.

Second – do you really need a firewall?  Yes, you do need a firewall.  The good news is, you are probably already protected.

There are essentially 2 types of firewalls: hardware and software.  Hardware means an actual piece of physical equipment that acts as a firewall, and software means a program running on your computer as the firewall.

Think about your computer, and how it connects to the internet.  In most situations, the internet signal comes in to a modem, and the modem is in turn connected to a router.  Then, your computer gets the internet signal from the router (either wirelessly, or by a direct cable).  In some cases, the modem and router are actually a single combination box (that’s how it is with my Verizon FIOS connection – the modem is also the router).

If your computer connects to the internet using a router, you already have a firewall built in to your security, because the router acts as a hardware firewall.  In my opinion, that’s all that most people need.

If you want the additional protection of a software firewall, your Windows computer has this already built in to the operating system.  You have the choice of turning it off or on – just go to Control Panel and look for Windows Firewall.

Some people will tell you that Windows Firewall is insufficient, because it only blocks traffic one direction – from the internet to your computer.  Their point is that if something infects your computer and is trying to access the internet, Windows Firewall won’t block that access so you need another third-party software that blocks access both directions.

This is where other firewall manufacturers come into the picture, such as ZoneAlarm, Norton and Comodo – and of course if you ask them, you definitely need their software in order to be protected. I would say they are a little biased because they want your money.

Obviously, the final decision is yours, but I will tell you two things:

1. I have not run a third-party firewall program on my computers in a long time – probably more than 15 years.

2. In many cases, where I am checking a computer with problems and it can’t connect to the internet and/or get email, the issue traces back to a software firewall that is blocking access (usually because of being configured incorrectly).  Get rid of that program and the problem goes away.

What is your opinion?  Let us know in the comments area below.  And if you find this helpful, please do me a favor and click the Like and +1 buttons at the top or bottom of the post.  Thanks!

Like a lot of people that do business online, I use Paypal every day for both sending and receiving money.  It’s really the easiest way to conduct business.  To receive payments from clients who wish to pay by credit card, I don’t need to have a merchant account – the money just goes directly to my Paypal account, and I can have it transferred directly into my bank (or get cash from any ATM).  To make a purchase, I pay with Paypal and the money either comes from my checking account (immediate transfer) or is charged to my credit card.  Simple!

Well, not always that simple.  Here is part of an email I received this week:

This week has been kind of a nightmare for me.  Both of my Paypal accounts have been shut down…Forever they tell me.

It was a form letter telling me that my account has been “limited”, and saying that this was a “result of a routine account review activity”.

I called the “contact us” number through my account and spoke a surprisingly friendly woman named Audrey, who assured me that this was nothing more than a standard review of my personal and business account.

Two days later I received a message that “my appeal has been denied”, my personal and business accounts had been terminated, and that they will be holding over $5000 of my money for the next 180 days.

Can you imagine the nightmare?  What if the money in your Paypal account was needed to pay your bills?  What if you needed that account to conduct your business?

I am putting this on my blog today to help you avoid being in that situation.

Garry Sayer, a respected internet marketer in the UK, has written a fantastic guide on how to protect your Paypal account.  It’s called Paypal Buddy: How to Stay on the Good Side of Paypal.

I bought this guide and highly recommend it.  It’s something that you want to have handy if you should ever receive a notice like the one above.  You will learn not only certain things to do ahead of time to avoid a problem, but also exactly what actions to take if you should get an email from Paypal about a problem with your account.

The information is very inexpensive and could come in handy some day (and Garry offers a 60-day money back guarantee if you’re not happy with it).

Get your copy here

Happy 4th of July!  Today is a pretty big holiday here in the US so I am taking a break from the regular “computer tip” blog post. Hey, even we computer guys have to get away from the computer every once in a while!

This is just something that I find interesting and a bit scary.  We should all at least be aware of it, even if there’s not really much we can do about it.  Details in the video:

You probably search Google most commonly for websites that have information that you want or need. However, it has become more and more popular to search Google images as well (particularly if you are look for a picture of something). If you search in Google Images, you are fairly likely to come upon a malicious website or two.

What happens is you are happily searching along and clicking on some pictures to see them full size.  From a scammer’s point of view, this is ideal – lots of people just clicking on all kinds of stuff, not even knowing what is behind that picture.

(In my opinion, this is where Google is dropping the ball.  When you click to look at a picture, Google automatically loads the associated website behind the picture.  Whether the website is good or bad, it’s going to load whether you like it or not.  That’s a dangerous practice, and I think Google will have to change that at some point.)

At some point you click on a picture, and suddenly you start seeing reports on your screen that your computer is infected with viruses.  There are all kinds of official-looking images and graphics that say your computer must be about ready to die with all those threats.  Finally a window appears offering a “solution” to your computer’s problems.  All you have to do is click to download this program and you’ll be fine.

As you already know, this is a complete scam.  If you click on that download button, you will be anything but “fine”.  The real solution is this:  close that window.  You can either close the tab, or you can click the X to close the whole window.  Problem solved.

Here’s a real life example:

You can go to Google images (here) and do this search:  ikea covers

When you see the array of images, look on the left side and click on Large.  (This means the only images shown will be large ones.)

Scroll down a few rows and you will see this image:

When you click to view that image, you might wait a few seconds, then suddenly the warnings start to appear to get you to start panicking:

Who knows what garbage I would be putting on my computer if I clicked on “Erase infected”.  Don’t be tempted to do that!  Just close the tab or close the page and you will be fine.

There are a few more “advanced” pages that not only show you these warnings, they will also immediately reduce the size of your browser window down to about 1 inch square on your screen.  Same strategy – if you see your window get small immediately, you know what is happening – just close it with the X.

If you have concerns about online privacy and security, I have information here that you need to pay attention to.  The subject of today’s post is: geotagging.  You might not be familiar with that term.  If you take a picture with your digital camera and upload it to a website such as Google’s Picasa, or Flickr, or Facebook, you are often given the option of adding some data such as the date and location where the picture was taken.

For most digital cameras, this is not a big deal.  The camera just creates the digital file and no other information is included with it.  That’s because your standard digital camera does not have any location (GPS) capability.

But your smartphone does.

And how are most people taking pictures now?  With their phone.  When your phone creates an image file, it most likely includes the location information as part of the file.

So how does this work?  Check out this video:

To disable having this information on the pictures you take with your smartphone, here are complete instructions for the various types of phones:  instructions here

Cookies in general are not necessarily a bad thing (just ask Cookie Monster!). Many times, when you visit a website, the site will place a cookie – a small bit of data – on your computer so that it remembers you when you come back. That’s why every time I go back to Amazon.com, the screen says, “Welcome back, Scott!”. I don’t have to type in all my information every time I make a purchase there, which makes it convenient.

The problem arises when you decide to delete a cookie, and later you discover that it has come back from the “dead” and is still tracking you.  That’s why some are called “Zombie Cookies” – they just won’t die.  At least not through the normal means of killing them.  At the very least, that is annoying.  At worst, it could be an illegal invasion of privacy (and a class action lawsuit in California is in the process of testing that right now).

In the meantime, we need to get rid of them.  You almost certainly have some on your computer already and don’t even know it – because your web browser only handles “normal” cookies.  Zombie cookies (that is the actual technical name, by the way) are stored in the Adobe Flash Player – an area that cannot be accessed by your browser.

You could go to the Adobe website and after some trial and error access their Global Privacy Settings and find the “bad” cookies and delete them.  However, I have a couple of methods that are much easier than that (I’ll bet something easier is what you were hoping for!).

Method #1 – CCleaner

CCleaner (free) is a program that I have used and recommended for a long time.  You can get it at www.ccleaner.com.  They won’t charge you to download it, but it is nice to make a donation if you find it helpful. For this purpose, it is very helpful.

When you run CCleaner, you will see 4 buttons on the left side (Cleaner, Registry, Tools and Options):

Several of the Windows and Application components will already be checked by default.  Go down the list (in both tabs) and UNcheck all of them except two:  Leave “cookies” checked under “Internet Explorer” on the Windows tab, and leave “cookies” checked under “Firefox” in the “Applications” tab (you might not see the Firefox section if you don’t have it installed).

Now, click on the “Options” button on the left, then click on “Cookies”:

You will see a screen separated into left and right halves.  On the left side are all of the cookies on your computer (regular and Zombie).  You can go down that list and choose the ones you want to keep.  Maybe you want to keep the cookie that remembers your Gmail information, or your online bank account, etc.  For those that you want to keep, just click the arrow to move them over to the right side of the screen.

Now go back to the “Cleaner” section (the top button of the 4) and click Analyze at the bottom of the screen.  It will quickly give you a report of how many cookies will be deleted.  Click “Run Cleaner” and they will be gone.  You can do this as often as you wish.

Method #2 – BetterPrivacy add-on for Firefox

If you use Firefox, there is a free add-on called BetterPrivacy that can be found here.

When you go there with Firefox, click on the “Add to Firefox” button and it will be installed.  It will track the Zombie Cookies for you and makes them much easier to delete.  And provides another reason to use Firefox.

What do you think about Zombie cookies?  Let your voice be heard in the comments below.

How do you delete a virus? How do you delete annoying or malicious spyware? For many people, that’s easy – they call me. I’ve been doing this for years.

But what if you can’t get in touch with me right away?  What if there are 5 other people contacting me at the same time and I can’t get to everyone at once?


Now there is a solution.  I have created Virus Zapper! Your Emergency Virus-Killing Toolkit.  Learn all about it here.

With this product, I have – for the first time – made public the procedures that I use to get rid of viruses and spyware.  You get step-by-step instructions on exactly what to do.  Full screenshots are included, so what you need to do is as easy as painting by numbers.

My clients pay me $75 per hour to solve a virus or spyware problem.  I have no problem staying busy that way, but I wanted to also provide this alternative for when you can’t get to me, or want to take care of it yourself immediately.

Important note:
When a virus message pops up on your computer, or your screen is locked up because of a spyware app that you accidently clicked on from a Google search, you may not be able to download this guide that is available to you right now (the virus/spyware might prevent it).  My recommendation is that you get this now, while you can, and print it. Then you will have it when you need it.

Also, I will be raising the price soon after this introductory offer.  You can get it today at the lowest price.

Get all the details here:  Virus Zapper! Your Emergency Virus-Killing Toolkit

As always, your comments are welcome.

My newest guide to computer security is now available for free download. It is called PC Lockdown: How to Keep Your Computer and Data Secure. 30 pages with full color illustrations. Covers lots of areas, including:

• Antivirus
• Antispyware
• Facebook (big section on that)
• Craigslist
• Email
• Setting up a backup procedure
• and lots more!

This guide was written with the idea of answering a lot of the questions I get asked pretty regularly, and to help people avoid getting in trouble with computer problems.  With the right knowledge ahead of time, you won’t have to deal with having an account hacked into or losing your data because of a hard drive crash.

THIS IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE: If you get my emails currently, and want to continue to receive them, you need to sign up in the area to the right.  I am changing email services, so you need to enter your information to continue to get my email newsletter.

When you are on my new list, you will get the guide to computer security as my free gift to you.  At some point in the future this will be a product that I sell but for now it is free to all of my subscribers.

So go sign up now!