Those sneaky hackers are at it again. Here’s a new phishing scheme that has managed (so far) to elude Google’s filters. If you have a Google account and aren’t using 2-Factor Authentication (or 2FA, or 2-Step Verification, as Google calls it), something like this could be real trouble.
And if you’re pretty sure you wouldn’t fall for this, imagine a less-savvy relative or friend who might…perhaps you can help them lock down their account.
This alert affects all users who have ever created an account on Adobe.com. This would include those who have registered their licensed software, those who have purchased software through Adobe.com, and those who participate in their community forums. Adobe themselves has confirmed this breach, which includes not only usernames and passwords, but also possibly credit card information, password hints, and other personal information.
Adobe is the company that brings you Photoshop, Lightroom, Acrobat & Reader, Flash Player and more. It is an extremely widely used company and it’s entirely likely that you may have used their software along the way.
To find out if your account is among the ones compromised, please visit this link and enter the email address you used when you created your Adobe.com account. If yours is one of the many compromised (mine was as well), Adobe has already reset your password and you can request a password reset link to be sent so you can choose a new password.
If you are like millions of Internet users who use the same password at different Websites, it is advisable that you change your password at these other sites as well, as your password and email address are now revealed to the thieves and could possibly be used to further steal your identity.
A bit of good news for non-profit organizations: you can now get Office 365 for free. In a move that’s sure to win, Microsoft has announced that ALL non-profits, from the large to the small, are now eligible to use their online division of Office at no charge.
Office 365 looks and acts a lot like Office 2013, except that it’s web-based and offered on a subscription basis. You need to be online to install & activate, and to take advantage of the online collaboration tools, but you can use Office 365 without an Internet connection too. This applies to computers running Windows 7, Windows 8 or Mac OSX 10.6, and also to iPhone, Android and Windows Phones. If you sign into a Microsoft account when you run Office 365, you can take your preferred settings with you to any other computer, and also take advantage of their cloud-based storage offering, SkyDrive.
As a non-profit user, you’d need to sign up for a trial and as soon as they verify your non-profit status, you’ll be granted a license.
Pretty great deal, if you’re already an Office user working at a non-profit with budgetary constraints.
Typically, roughly 60% of my service calls include cleaning up some kind of malware. Whether it’s because updates have been ignored (you know, those pesky ones from Adobe, or Java, or Microsoft), browsers are outdated, extraneous toolbars have been installed, or someone’s been visiting nefarious Websites, one way or the other it’s a common refrain that I hear: “The computer is running really slowly….” or “I’m getting tons of popups” or the like. Once all the updates are installed, browsers cleaned and proper safe browsing habits have been reviewed, a majority of the time the computer is back in action and has gained a noticeable amount of speed. It’s usually at this point that someone asks me “what’s the difference between a virus and malware?”
It can be tricky to explain the difference, especially because nowadays the threat from other kinds of malware are far greater than an actual virus (which is, itself, a form of malware). I came across this article today from one of my favorite Websites, LifeHacker, which does a pretty decent job of explaining the difference between the two. Not only that, but the author is in agreement with me about the two protection tools I recommend deploying, since they are light on performance drags but heavy on effective protection (Avast Free Antivirus and Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware, although a newer tool, ADWCleaner, has earned a spot in my permanent toolbox as well). The article is written with the average layperson in mind, so it’s relatively easy to understand. If you’re curious at all about these constant threats we face, I urge you to check it out.
Almost every week, I’m asked by a client which browser I would recommend they use on a PC. With so many choices it sometimes comes down to whether they will be sharing data with another device (such as a smartphone or tablet) or whether I can gauge if the user is savvy enough to avoid the pitfalls of phishing scams, fake security alerts and the like. In 90% of the cases, I tend to suggest considering anything else but Internet Explorer. The newest version, IE 10, may have gained some ground in terms of its operability and safety features, but it’s only available on Windows 7 and 8 (and I still service many PCs that are XP or Vista), and even so, I still find that the majority of the malware breaches I encounter occur on systems where someone is using IE.
This morning I received a message from Quora, one of my favorite places to learn about things I didn’t know I wanted to know about, with a query about “How did IE get to be so bad?” and the first response is from someone who was on the IE development team back in the days of IE5. Fascinating stuff, and an opinion that Microsoft lost track of what was important which I happen to share.
If you’ve ever considered possibly wanting to try out Windows 8, even if it’s sometime down the line from now, the special cheaper upgrade pricing is ending this Thursday 1/31. Right now it costs $39.99 if you have a license for XP, Vista or Win7; after Thursday it goes up to $119.99 or 199.99 (depending on the edition).
You don’t have to install it now if you buy it now; nor do you need to install it on the computer where you buy it. You can simply download after purchasing and burn to a DVD or place on a USB drive and store it for future purposes.
SHOULD you plan on upgrading? Right now it’s a matter of personal preference, but someday it may become more imperative. Windows 8 takes a lot of getting used to from a visual standpoint; however it has some pretty cool features built-in and likely more to come. It’s quite a hefty difference in price between $40 and $120, so it may be worth it to consider. FYI.
Check out this article for more in-depth coverage and detailed information on how to go about this if you want to stock up but not install right now.