Internet, OSes, & More!: Malware

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

#17 Gmail - How to protect your account.

Hi ya!

In this blog post, we’re going to be talking about how to protect your Gmail account from hackers and other forces wanting to get into your account.

Let’s get started!

Make sure that you have a strong password

That one is very important.

If you have a weak password, then a hacker could easily get into your account.

Don’t use things like password, 123dog, 123456, 654321... you get the point.

Use a creative password, and probably longer than ten characters.

But most importantly - Don’t share your password with anyone!

and, never use your Gmail password for any other account. That gives a potential hacker a greater chance to hack your account.

Here are a few sites where you can check your password strength:

And you could do a quick Google search yourself.

Enable Two Step Verification

If you use Two Step Verification (2SV), then what you’ll be doing is protecting your account with your password - but also with your phone number.

When you sign into your account (after you’ve enabled 2SV), you’ll not only have to sign in using your password but also a verification code that you’ll get from your phone.

To learn more, follow the links below:

Recovery Options

Recovery options help secure your account and give you a way to access your account if you forgot your password.

To use the recovery options, follow the steps below:

Go here and sign in.
Find secure your account and click Get Started.

Keep your device clean

Probably the best thing for you to do is read this blog post about malware.

Avoid Scams

If you get an email one day that says something like this:

“Congratulations! You have won $10,000 dollars in the Outlook and Gmail Lottery!

All you have to do is to give us your home location, phone number, and Gmail password and you’re good to go!”

What do you think? Is it legit? Is it a scam?

It’s a scam.

Remember this simple rule: Google never asks for personal information.

See the links below for a follow up.

Do as much research as you can

Every day, probably every hour or so, someone is being hacked.

Learn how to protect your account so you won’t be the next one that gets hacked.

You have to constantly be aware and watch out for things.

That’s about all I can give ya.

Stay safe, and good luck.

To summarize:

Make sure that you have a strong password
Enable 2 Step Verification
Use Recovery Options
Keep your device clean
Avoid scams
Research, research, research

References:

For more information, check out the links below:

Google Help Center.

Talk to live Gmail users!

Gmail Forum.

Thanks for reading!

Hope you enjoyed it!

See an improvement on the blog? Post it in the comments!

Have any suggestions for me to blog about? Post that in the comments as well!

Best of Luck,

W.C. Blitzy.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

#14 Chrome - How to protect from Malware

Hi ya!

Every browser get’s some kind of malware, or PUP (potentially unwanted program). There’s really nothing you can do about it. With the internet these days, you think you click on a secure site, but in reality, it’s full of dangerous ads, pop ups, and all that nasty stuff.

You ask yourself, “How do I keep my Chrome browser and my computer safe from these things?”

Here are some suggestions on how to avoid getting PUPs on your computer:

Install all sorts of malware protection!

Mcafee, Norton, Kaspersky, etc.

And others like: Malwarebytes, Avast Chrome extension from the Chrome Webstore, CCleaner, etc.

Adblock extension

If you’re on questionable sites, sometimes ads will pop up while you’re browsing those sites. Most likely, the ads will be dangerous. The best thing to do is not click on them. Or...not allow them to show up at all!

If you install an Adblock extension from the Chrome Webstore, then more than likely, you won’t see any dangerous ads popping up. It depends on the type of Adblock extension you get.

Keep your Chrome version up-to-date.

To check to see if you have the latest version of Chrome, see this page entitled, How to check your current version of Chrome!

Do frequent scans from your malware protection service provider.
Use common sense.

There’s only so much Google can do to keep your Chrome browser safe. It’s also up to the person using it.

Try to avoid obvious scams. I could spend days talking about obvious scams. But, I’m not going to. I'm going to suggest you to do some research yourself.

I’ll give you a head start.

You can follow all those steps stated above. To me, the most helpful thing for you to do is doing some research yourself, watching out for scams, and not clicking on random links/pages.