The Dragon that Guards the Data: No Pet Names in Passwords!


TechRepublic’s 10 Things blog has a pretty good rundown. I’ve recently had to explain the very basics of rootkits to an occasional curious customer.
I’m writing this article so that I can refer callers to it. It’s going to be very, very basic. I’ve been getting calls from people who have been referred by my clients, generally with serious malware issues on their computers. When I look at the machine I invariably find that there is a fairly simple…
I’m just calling attention to this again, because I so frequently find all kinds of utilities on people’s machines. They don’t know what they are and don’t use them. They come from add-ons to installations. I wrote about this just under a year ago, in a post titled Security and Performance Tip: Installing Software. The…
I cannot think of anything that will spare computer users more annoyance and hardship than being careful of what they install on their computers. I’ve cleaned up several machines recently, and in every case there were multiple toolbars, numerous search providers, and a number of utilities. In each case the users could not tell me…
Wordfence has an excellent post on this subject. While their post is aimed at WordPress users, the ideas are good for any password. My own comment is this: Use MFA – multi-factor authentication. This is accomplished in various ways, such as an app on your phone, a texted code, emailed code, and so forth. It takes…
The hope of getting something for nothing was encouraged with the advent of computers and software. For technically oriented people, it’s fairly easy, and relatively safe, to steal software. You just copy it. For many, especially in the early days, this didn’t seem like stealing. After all, where is the thing that you’re stealing? I…
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