Paypal tries to limit your rights

Here is a important message forwarded to me from Albert Stern.  I work with PayPal on a daily basis and I and not heard of this.  

http://lifehacker.com/5951884/paypal-wants-to-limit-your-legal-rights-heres-a-way-around-that

Check out the implacations of what Paypal is trying to do.  If you are in any way concerned about your rights of leagal redress conerning Paypal being curtailed, I sould suggest sending the letter in. 

The first step in a long battle...

FTC cracks down on telephone tech support scam, read this first,

Regulators smash global phone tech support scam operation

So in the last 15 service calls that I have processed, 2 have been this scam. With the golbalization of customer support and the ease of remote access to your computer this scam is easy quick and profitable.  

I have seen a even worse situation where the initial target is contacted a second time to let them know that a second virus is on their computer and again the target pays money.  

Signs of the scam, 

- Unsolicited phone call

- Demand to access you computer remotely

- Will to negotiate on the repair price

- Will not provide a call back number

When in doubt, hang up, and as always if you have any security, virus, or malware questions, please feel free to contact me.

Password options

A couple of weeks ago I had a blog on password entropy. The long and the short of it, you need random passwords.

For years I suffered with trying to remeber passwords, and I used similar passwords all the time. That all changed after I found LastPass.com.

LastPass.com is a password manager that works on multiple platforms, I use mine on Windows and Android. By using a master password and random passwords for subordinate sites. This elimanates most of the security risks you encounter.

Check out Last Pass and let me know what you think.

www.lastpass.com

Don't Reuse Passwords

As part of my job I end up needing a lot of different passwords.   I use a system of random passwords that I change every three months.  Many people ask is it really necessary to do this.   I could give you a dry or canned answer, but in this case I think that I have found a comic that provides some humorous insight.