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If you would like to improve the security level of your home, the best way to start is to look through various tips and suggestions related to home security. Some of these tips may not apply to your situations but some may be very helpful in determining the next thing that you will need to improve and the steps which will result in the most secure outcome. This article will cover several home security concerns and will provide tips and suggestions to the possible improvements that need to be done. As a result of following these steps you will be able to create a more secure home, neighborhood and live a more secure life. Your family will be protected and your valuables will be safe.

The first suggestion deals with the situation where people simply forget to take preventive security measures and do something that is completely insecure. For example, many people don’t follow an excellent advice not to hide a spare key neat the door. Whether you hide your key under the door mat, above the door frame, under rocks or at some other location, you are reducing the security of your home. These are the places there the burglar will always look first before attempting the burglary attempt. This king of behavior can even trigger the burglary attempt. For example, imagine if a burglar is looking for a house to break into and sees that someone is hiding a key under the door mat. That tells the burglar that the house is unprotected and there won’t be many obstacles stopping him in the progress of the burglary. Even if you keep a spare key in your work desk, this creates an additional danger for you.

Another type of danger comes from the situations when people forget to lock their doors or windows. If your window is unlocked or even completely open, this is a sign for the burglar that there is an easy entry inside the house. Windows should always be locked. There are, however, situations when you do need to keep your windows open (usually when someone is inside). In this case there are other preventive measures. For example, there are locks that keep your windows open only half way and don’t allow getting into the house through the window. You should also always remember to lock your doors and turn on your alarm before you leave the house. Even if you are at home, you should still keep your doors closed. Being careful makes your life much more secure.

Make sure that you can see what is going on around your house. If there are tree branches that hide the yard from your direct view, it is better to cut some of the branches to make sure you can see everything that happen outside. If you can see that someone is approaching your house in advance, you will have more time to react to that. If your car is parked outside, you should also be able to see it from your window. This way you can make sure that no one is trying to steal it or vandalize it. IT is a good idea to install a motion detector light outside near your door. This way if someone walks close your door at night, the light will allow you to see who that person is.

Another good advice is not to attract the attention of possible burglars. If you have an expensive car and have a garage - always park your car in the garage. If you have expensive items at home, keep them away from the window so a burglar who may be walking by your house does not see that you have many valuables inside. It is also a good idea to have curtains covering your windows. If you purchased something expensive recently, don’t simply throw away the empty box outside. Throw it away in such a way that people outside don’t see it or would not understand what type of item this box is from. You should also never throw away the paperwork with important personal of financial information printed on it. For example, if you want to throw away your credit card statements or check copies, you should use the paper shredder first.

At First Home Security you can find a wide variety of home security alarms, personal alarms, as well as self defense products at discount prices.

Nyxem has been programmed to delete Power Point, Word, Excel and Adobe PDF files starting on the 3rd of February and the 3rd of every month thereafter, Besides destroying those types of files, the worm also attempts to disable anti-virus software so that it stops updating and it can also disable the mouse and keyboard of infected PCs. It has also been reported that some Internet users have already lost important files after becoming infected by the Nyxem worm mainly because the clock time on their computer was wrong.

Many antivirus manufacturers have already released patches for Nyxem, but it is estimated that thousands of computers
are still infected. Most of these infected PCs are believed to be located in India, Turkey and Peru but many other computer
systems worldwide could be hit soon as the Nyxem virus will mail copies of itself to contacts in a user’s address book.

To prevent getting infected by the Nyxem worm and the loss of critical data files you should not open attachments or click
on Web links within these e-mails, especially if these e-mails have a porn-related subject line. You should also backup any important files that you want to preserve. It is also recommended to scan your computer for viruses.

About the Author: Edward is the owner of http://www.thespywareterminator.com where you can download the highest rated spyware remover for 2005.
This superior software removes many unwanted Internet parasites such as viruses, trojans, popups, adware and spyware.
It has been downloaded over 35 million times by people in over 100 countries. It really works!

The risk of monetary loss in the event of a computer security breach is frighteningly high. These days, an unprotected computer is likely to be infected with a pest within 20 minutes of being connected to the Internet. The average computer is checked for weaknesses by unknown parties 17 times a day.

If you are one of the 70% of users who has experienced an Internet-based attack that you were aware of, you probably shudder as you recall the time, money and aggravation it cost you to clean up your computer or reinstall your operating system. The costs are high enough to cause a business to fail. In fact, the majority of businesses that experience data loss or total system failure do fail, usually immediately.

In our work with small businesses and home users, we have observed that people are generally aware of the dangers, but at the same time, up to 90% do not have adequate protections in place. This is a cause for deep concern because of the enormous negative impact these attacks have on individuals and organizations.

It is also cause for curiosity. It’s as if 90% of the homes and businesses in a bad neighborhood weren’t locked up at night: Very risky. It made us wonder why.

So, we started asking. Here is an overview of the responses we got:

• Response #1: Internet security isn’t achievable because new threats are coming out all the time, so why bother.

• Response #2: Internet security is too complicated to do anything about.

• Response #3: It’s easy to recover from an attack. If something happened to me, I would just deal with it.

• Response #4: It won’t happen to me.

As computer professionals, we’d like to weigh in with our opinion about these responses because if your system is not adequately protected on the Internet, you are at high risk and we’d like to see you move to a low risk category.

1. For the first response, that Internet security is not achievable: Ninety-nine percent of all reported intrusions occur because of known vulnerabilities or configuration errors. This means that 99% of intrusions are preventable right now, today. Internet security is very achievable.
2. For the second response, that Internet security is too complicated: Computers certainly can be complicated. However, the right kind of information and support can turn any fearful, confused computer user into a confident, capable one. As the computer industry has matured, computer experts have become better at communicating to end users in clear language. The “complexity gap” is shrinking.
3. Woe betides the person who persists in the third attitude, that recovering from a security breach is easy. Recovering from a security incident is always costly. It can take up to several days or weeks to recover (if at all). During that time you can expect to pay heavily in system support, business downtime, and serious aggravation.
4. The fourth response, that “it won’t happen to me,” is a sort of irrational optimism that humans often use as a way to manage fear in a risky world. Unfortunately, it’s a terrible strategy for the online world, because you can be virtually 100% certain it WILL happen to you.

We urge and encourage you to take the steps you need to take to protect and secure your data, your computers and laptops, and all your wireless devices. Being confident is about being prepared. You need computer Internet security and data protection solutions that give you high confidence.

The author specializes in common sense computer security solutions for real people in their homes and small businesses. View recommended solution here. Includes $25,000 identity theft insurance policy.

Scammers are everywhere online and off. You will find their stint in the classifieds, on all auctions, e-stores, merchants such as Paypal, your email and anywhere else they perceive as avenues for swindling money from you. Many people have been scammed and are living the painful consequences. Some people fall prey to scams because of their own greed, some because of their desperate circumstances and others because of ignorance. But whatever the reason, pain is pain.

Below I will delineate some clear and definite ways you can protect yourself from being scammed and identify the primary clues to recognizing scammer activity. I have also listed some resources that you may find helpful.

1) Don’t be greedy. You are not going to get something for nothing. If it sounds too good to be true…it is NOT true. Any correspondence you receive that even hint at your getting more than expected or bargained for is a clear red alert. Keep in mind that an online business is just that: a business. Any transaction that is not in keeping with common ethical business practices is not to be engaged in.

2) Be sure your buyer or seller is VERIFIED. Paypal, pppay and others are set up to protect us against scammers but only if we follow their guidelines.

3) Scammers are notorious for wanting to pay via THEIR method and have items shipped THEIR way. Do not waste your time.

4) Scammers have cleverly designed email correspondence to resemble paypal and actual banking institutions as well. BEWARE!! If you conduct transactions through paypal, get acquainted with their method of doing business. For example, when they send you an email it will always have the accounts name on it. Scammers do not know your account name and therefore uses terms such as “customer.” Their phony email will inform you that your account is in jeopardy and will encourage you to click on a link contained in the email to be taken to your account where you can make necessary adjustments. DO NOT DO IT!!! This is scamming activity. If you are unsure, go to your account via paypal.com; never click the link in the email. This goes for ALL accounts. In other words, never respond to an email requesting account or credit card information. This is called “phishing.” No reputable business will request this information via email. The following is an example of one I received recently.

Dear valued PayPal member:

It has come to out attention that your PayPal account information needs to be updated as part of our continuing commitment to protect your account and to reduce the instance of fraud on our website. If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and update your personal records you will not run into any futur problems with the online services.

However, failure to update your records will result in account suspension. Please update your records on or before November 21, 2005.

Once you have updated. your account records, your PayPal session will not be interrupted and will continue as normal.

To update your PayPal records click on the following link:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login-run http://203.76.135.170/.cgi-bin/webscrcmd=_login-run/

Thank you for using Paypal !

The PayPal Update Team.

5) Any correspondence that includes “Africa” usually Nigeria, should be avoided.

6) Do not get sucked in the religious jargon many scammers are using these days. It is a trick to get you to trust them enough to engage in their nefarious scam.

7) Notice the language of the email or correspondence. Most scammers write with improper grammar and misspelled words and often the sentence structure is difficult to follow. Did you notice unprofessionalism quality of the paypal memo?

Read about the Nigerian 419 Letter. http://www.fraudwatchinternational.com/internet/nigerian419.shtml

9) Trust your instincts!!

10) Be cautious when conducting business with countries known for high fraud activities: Romania, Indonesia, Singapore, Ghana (a rising star of fraud!), Ukraine , Uganda, Nigeria, Hungary, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovak Republic, Russia, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Phillipines, Thailand, Malaysia.

Additional Online Fraud Resources

Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org )
IFCC - Internet Fraud Complaint Center (www.ifccfbi.gov )

Shipping Carrier (www.usps.com , www.ups.com , www.fedex.com , etc.)
Anti-Phishing Working Group (www.anti-phishing.org )

Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov )
PayPal Security Center
Scam Busters: http://www.scambusters.org/NigerianFee.html
Break the Chain: http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/scams.html
Scamorama: http://www.scamorama.com/scam117.shtml
US Secret Service: http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml

Read about one person’s response to scammers: http://spl.haxial.net/nigerian-fraud

Rev. Saundra L. Washington, D.D., is an ordained clergywoman, veteran social worker, and Founder of AMEN Ministries. She is also the author of two coffee table books: Room Beneath the Snow: Poems that Preach and Negative Disturbances: Homilies that Teach which can be reviewed on her site. Her new book, Out of Deep Waters: My Grief Management Workbook, though delayed in publication, is expected to be available early 2006.

You have an open invitation to visit us at AMEN Ministries: Your Soul’s Service Station for reviewing spiritual services being offered, obtain spiritual refreshing and soul edification, get your daily dose of humor, browse our newly expanded Stop & Shop Store and to visit our prayer sanctum for quiet time with God.

Blessings to all!

In the age of Enron and failed intelligence, scandals remain the rage of the front page. Companies want to see positive spin and not scandal related material published. Imagine for a moment the educational software site where employees are identified as regular visitors to pornography websites. The effect to such a company’s image could be devastating.

Leaks, Peeks & Sneaks

There are numerous security risks facing companies with internal networks. Primary among their concerns are stifling leaks and backdoors that allow hackers to penetrate their firewalls. But the threat from within the company may prove to be more devastating to a company’s reputation and subsequently their stock value and much more.

Employees face a four-pronged attack from blended threats across the board. Phishing and pharming are two of the more popular attacks that face Internet users everyday. Typically sent via email, phishing attacks depend on the concern of an employee to take care of matters ranging from personal to financial. The uneducated user will click an embedded link and leave the network vulnerable to an attack.

The sophistication of these attacks can penetrate even the most complex of security systems unless user error can be compensated for. The most popular forms of phishing involve instant messaging and emails. Despite the widely known understanding of spoofing, most users do not expect to receive messages from spoofed accounts.

Increasing a systems security perimeter can block instant messaging ports and prevent such external security breaches. Network security devices can also block web requests to URLs presented in instant messages. Better still, URLs or web requests from internal users can be compared to a database of acceptable websites and disallowed or denied if they do not match.

Living on the Fringe

Installing spyware and malware is another by-product of visiting less than secure websites. Internet users are often besieged by offers for free software, free access and freebies. The lure of the freebie is as potent if not more so on the Internet than it is in real life. Downloading such freebies can come with passenger programs designed to record keystrokes and much more.

The least of the problems that spyware can commit is to tie up bandwidth and computer memory. The worst is that it can actually spawn Internet attacks to other sites, download critical data and send it elsewhere. Employees do not have to be lured just by a freebie either. They can simply make a typo in submitting a URL and find themselves in the wrong Internet neighborhood. Clever programmers can generate pop-up windows and disguise a button with a simple label like ‘close’ and the user will click it, thinking they will only close the nuisance window. Some programs on high-speed network access can be downloaded in the blink of an eye, compromising the computer and potentially the network.

One-Click Scandals

Scandals need very little fuel to fire. A user who chooses to go to a website of questionable integrity and intent and a user who is lured there by a bad link or a typo offer the same type of danger to a company. Scandals do not have to make the front page to generate reputation-damaging issues for a company.

Word of mouth is as fast a delivery service for reputation sabotage as press reporting is. A network security company that cannot protect against hacking of their website does not engender trust or confidence. A financial investment firm that is accused of insider trading when emails and instant messages from employees are subpoenaed and found to be questionable will likely lose clients, capital and more.

The Burden of Responsibility

Scandal can be generated by an innocent act as easily as by one of guilty intent. Corporations are responsible for the actions of their employees. Questionable Internet behavior and activity can and will affect a company’s reputation, financial standing and potentially their legal standing as well.

A corporation bears the burden of responsibility for its employees and their actions. By employing network security devices to monitor and restrict Internet activity, a corporation not only relieves a large measure of their burden, but also protects their interests on numerous fronts. Without such protection, a company is courting disaster and inviting scandal.

iPrism internet filters and web filters provide internet monitoring and network security. internet-filters.stbernard.com

For most people their home is their biggest investment. In 2006 the median price for a home is expected to be $231,000. And of course everyone has insurance on their house. Everyone has insurance on their car as well. But more people have alarms for their car than their home. How does that make any sense?

Most people associate home security alarms with high ticket home security systems, home security alarm systems or home security monitoring that can cost $70 a month or more. I recently heard of a new home security company in New Mexico that is hiring ex police officers only to respond to alarm calls from members because quite frankly the response time from the police department was way to slow. Monitored security systems are effective no question about that. The question is-is there an effective way to protect your house without sending you to the poor house.

Obviously there is a point where cost becomes prohibitive. Each situation is different for sure. Depending on the risk level of the area in which you live many low cost home security devices will do the job just as well as the high priced toys. Remember the objective is to prevent a burglary-keep the intruder from intruding.

Recently in Colorado Springs a woman was saved from an uncertain fate by an intruder trying to get into her house. She was awakened in the middle of the night by her barking dogs. Now I am not suggesting that everyone get a dog because quite frankly a lot of dogs are not suited for this anyhow. But let’s look at some inexpensive alternatives that do work.

The simplest and least expensive are security alarms activated by opening a window or door. When the alarm is activated a 110 decibel alarm goes off. Other systems using infrared technology detect motion in a room and set off an alarm. Yet another device sets of a realistic barking dog sound when movement is sensed from 30 feet away thru doors and walls. The barking gets louder and more frequent as the intruder approaches.

One more system that has a broader appeal is a motion activated annunciator system that can detect movement from 1000 feet away and “lets you know” if someone is approaching in your driveway, back yard or patio. This system can trigger a floodlight if it senses movement in a designated area. It can monitor up to six zones.

There are many home security alarms available that will do the job effectively without breaking the bank. Why take a chance with such a valuable investment. There are many choices available-one has to be right for your home.

Can you be absolutely sure, that your activity isn’t being monitored and recorded right now, while you’re reading this?

The problem with many people is, because they’re alone in a room with their computer, they think that no body can be watching.

If only they knew how easy it is to plant a computer recording device or software recording program onto a computer, they wouldn’t feel so safe.

Whether you’re a total computer newbie or a seasoned Internet veteran, everyone needs to know how to protect their privacy using the right anti spyware tools for the job.

In this article, I will show you how to easily spot a computer recording device or detect spy software using specific anti spyware tools.

It’s really quite simple if you know what FREE anti spyware tools to use.

Computer monitoring devices come in two main categories, Hardware Key loggers & Spyware Software:

In this article I will address each of these categories and give you the best anti spyware solutions available, to spot and prevent them from spying on you

Hardware Key Loggers:

This type of Key Logger requires that the perpetrator have physical access to your computer.

Key Loggers can easily be installed in less than 5 seconds.

It doesn’t matter if you use your computer at home or at work. If anyone has access to your computer they can install one of these devices without knowing a thing about computers.

If you want to see pictures and read up on this type of product, here is the URL for probably the most well known hardware Key Logger on the Internet:

http://www.i-loc.com

Once installed, a hardware Key Logger will capture every keystroke entered into your keyboard and then store it for future retrieval on the device itself.

Some hardware Key Logger companies boast a two-million keystroke capacity!

That’s about 5 years worth of typing for the average computer user.

Whether at home or in the office, you can easily fall victim to this type of spying. A hardware Key Logger is installed between your keyboard and computer.

Removal of Hardware Key Loggers:

There are no anti spyware tools available for this except you’re own two eyeballs. By taking a peek behind your system and following your keyboard cable, you can find out if there is something “odd” inserted between your keyboard and computer.

To remove a hardware Key Logger, you must shut down your system! You could cause damage your system if you attempt to remove the Key Logger while your computer is running!

Once your system is powered off, carefully remove the Key Logger from in between your keyboard and computer, and then plug your keyboard directly back into the computer. Make sure that it is plugged in completely and be gentle as the connectors are somewhat fragile.

It is very important to become an anti spyware enthusiast and check any computer you sit down at for hardware key loggers

Spyware:

Most everyone has heard of the term spyware.

Unfortunately the majority of people don’t really understand what spyware does and what kind of anti spyware tool is best for them.

Spyware itself is broken down into two categories.

Adware vs Spy Software

Adware:

Adware (Advertising Spyware) is the most prevalent form of spyware. It monitors Internet activity to send targeted advertising to you as a consumer, or simply monitor your surfing habits to gather intelligence for companies who want to know what your interests are.

Adware is generally not a security threat, but can really mess up your computer when you try to remove it. Adware removal could cost you hundreds of dollars in repair bills even using the best anti spyware tools available.

Adware is written by “coders” who don’t care what happens to your computer should you try to uninstall their software using an anti spyware tool.

Their only concern is making money from the information they acquire from your computer use.

Adware infections often cause many to make a trip to the computer repair shop just to get their computer back into running condition.

Adware can get on your computer in a variety of ways. You may download free programs, a screensaver, or some music or video, and the adware tags right along with your download file.

File sharing on peer to peer networks has been one of the worst culprits out there causing the serious spread of spyware worldwide.

Adware Symptoms:

The symptoms of Adware are uncontrollable popups, unwanted extra toolbars, and drastically slowed down computer performance that can result in freezes or lock up. When this happens it’s time to get out your favorite anti spyware tool.

Tip: Music or File Sharing Can Be Dangerous: Never download ANYTHING from a website you do not trust, or can’t verify, that they are a legitimate download site. Many times spyware can be attached to the music or file sharing programs themselves!

Adware Removal Using Anti-Spyware Tools:

You don’t have to purchase an anti spyware tool for adware removal. I’m going to show you how to deal with an adware problem for free.

Unfortunately there are many anti spyware companies trying to profit from the spyware problem, so some of the anti spyware tools on the market today are very inferior “slapped together” products.

Some of these anti spyware companies do as much damage to a computer as the adware does. Many times all they want you to do is give them money. After all, how can you really know if they have done the job or not?

Some sneaky adware companies have even joined up with anti-spyware software companies and created a spyware removal utility that actually puts spyware on your system!

It’s unbelievable what some people will do for a buck.

The only anti spyware tool you need to use if you have adware on your system is SpyBot, which comes highly recommended by security experts.

And it won’t cost you a penny!

SpyBot is FREE…

SpyBot anti spyware will do everything the paid ones do and then some.

If you like SpyBot anti spyware you can donate money to the author, but only if you want to.

Here is the website for this excellent FREE anti spyware adware removal tool.

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/

Spy Software…Are You Sure You’re Alone?

Spy Software is designed to silently record computer activity and then archive it for later retrieval, or stealthily send everything you do on your computer back to the intruder.

In my opinion, this type of spyware does the more damage to lives WORLDWIDE than any virus or adware product ever could.

Because spy software is so easy for anyone to purchase and install, now ANYONE who wants to find out what you’re doing on your computer can see everything.

The worst part is, spy software is virtually undetectable by most adware scanners.

Want to see what I’m talking about? One of the best known companies who sell this type of spy software is www.spectorsoft.com

Most Spy Software is sold to spy on other family members, leading to divorce and all kinds of grief.

The worst cases are when used by business associates or even those who are after your credit card information or passwords to your accounts.

I’ve got a firewall you say…

Many Spy Software products can bypass even the best firewalls.

A firewall will lock up your system and require you to give your permission for any software program to operate on your system.

Spy Software companies know this, and many have figured a way to bypass most firewalls and send your personal information right over the Internet to the perpetrators.

When your firewall is triggered to ask you for your permission to send your captured information, the spy software will actually alter the message your firewall uses to ask your permission.

Your firewall will now ask you if it’s alright for “Internet Explorer” or some application you’re totally familiar with to access the Internet.

Of course you will click yes, and many times you will tell your firewall not to bother you when this program accesses the Internet in the future.

By clicking yes, you’ve just allowed the spy software to send your private information to the perpetrator(s).

Spy Software can be slipped onto your system via e-greeting cards, emails, Trojans or just simply physical access to your PC.

Spy Software Removal:

Whatever anti spyware tool you get, don’t spend your money unless you’re VERY SURE the product will do the job for you.

You wouldn’t get a virus scanner that only got some of the viruses would you?

You can use the anti spyware SpyBot for most adware related spyware and it will even catch some Spy Software products.

The absolute best product I’ve seen to detect Spy Software is SpyCop.

SpyCop does not… I repeat, DOES NOT focus on adware. Do not download SpyCop to deal with adware infections.

SpyCop is a tool that is totally dedicated to detecting Spy Software products and has the most up to date spy software database anywhere.

SpyCop will scour your system for over 500 spy software products

SpyCop has been tested and proven to work by the most ardent anti spyware experts. http://www.spycop.com/download1

Elizabeth Ward makes it easy to protect your Internet & computer
privacy. Learn the 4 essential steps to spy proofing your computer. To receive your FREE 4-part mini-course visit the Anti
Spyware Toolkit