Installing Your SSL Certificate

Secure Sockets Layer or SSL Certificates have become very important when safety shopping on the internet and all reputable websites will be using SSL certificates which encrypts all personal or bank details from browser to server to protect information and secure all purchases. There are a variety of SSL Certificates available with a range of prices the more sensitive your information the more you will need to be spending but this will mean safety for your valid customers.

The most important thing to remember is that each bank has different requirements for their security so always check what your requirements are with your individual bank if you accept credit card details and payments over the internet. You will always need a dedicated or unique IP address for your company as the SSL certificate cannot but put on a shared IP address unless the certificate is shared but this is a very rare situation.

You will also need to generate a Certificate Signing Request or CSR and possible generate a key too if you have never had an SSL certificate before but all of this can be done through your servers control panel.

To Install the SSL:

1: Log on to your server. Generate a key if you haven't already got one. Include the www.homepage in your domain name.

2: Next you must generate the CSR and select the one with a www most appropriate when given a choice.
Then answer all questions asked by the server and the CSR should be displayed (although sometimes it is emailed to you). Make sure you copy it into notepad just in case and ensure all the random characters are copied in too everything from ---BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST---
to ---END CERTIFICATE REQUEST---

3: All SSL vendors do things a little bit differently from here on in so make sure you get the individual companies instructions but typically you will need to paste the CSR into a field with certain contact details for yourself as well as the vendor.

4: You must also select an email address for the approval of your certificate and the signing authority will communicate via this address which must be authoritative over the domain or server. An example is admin@mydomain.com sometimes it's webmaster or sales

5: When the certificate is approved an email will be sent that look a lot like the request form but will be larger and have ---BEGIN CERTIFICATE--- at the start. You must then install the certificate by pasting it into a field in the server. Sometimes certificates can be uploaded from a text file but then the server will install the certificate.

If everything has gone to plan then it should all be installed without any problems but if you have had trouble then contact your service administration team.

Is Your Computer Infected With Viruses

Early in the internet days if your computer got infected by a virus it would cause it to crash. Now the scammers have gotten much smarter in creating their computer viruses. They realize that it is much better to leave your computer running in order to steal important data from you. This is how they get your passwords and credit card info from you. But if your computer doesn't crash then how do you know if your computer is infected?

Well, here are a few things to look for that may give you a sign that your computer has been hijacked.

If you notice that your computer is going through periods of prolonged slowdowns then this maybe cause by a malicious program operating in the background.

Your search results come back all wrong or you get sent to websites you had no intention of visiting.

You start to get pop-up ads that you can't stop from coming. This is a typical problem caused by adware infecting your computer.

So what is the best way to repair an infected computer? One thing you can do is to make sure you have anti-virus software installed on your computer. If it is not able to detect the infection then you can try a remote service that can scam your computer and remove the virus for a fee.

Reinstalling your operating system can also help if you cannot detect a virus. Just make sure you backup you machine first before you do this. Newer malware is sneakier than ever so do this even if you think you found all the infections on your computer.

You never know what can be taken once you computer is infected. Some take your data others send you unwanted ads. There are more that will alter your search results and log every keystroke you make. As technology grows so does the viruses the infect your computer. You have to be diligent in order to stay one step ahead of the scammers.

So the next time you know that your pc is not running the way it should be then stop what you are doing and scan your computer right away. Don't give the hacker a chance to rob you of your precious data.

History Does Your Computer Collect?

Most of the applications use Windows - provided dialogs for opening or saving operations. The "Common Dialog control" provides the standard set of the dialog boxes for certain operations like saving and opening files, selecting fonts and colors and setting print options. The "ComDlg32 control" that is used in several applications, saves its set of information in the history apart from the other 'Windows history'.

Every time when you open or save the file, Windows keeps the record of this activity by recording the names of the files that you save or open. So, when you choose the option "save" or "open" often from the application file menu, the Windows display the drop - down list of recently used files or opens certain directory. If these names opened or saved are not shown in file open / save dialog of the particular application, then they are placed in the 'Windows registry' and can be seen there.

To protect the privacy, erase all these computer history tracks manually or using history tracks eraser. The history tracker eraser include advanced scheduler to clear the history automatically, clear history in MSN Explorer, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Mozilla, Netscape, Safari, AOL Explorer and Maxthon (MyIE2), clear history in the Google Chrome, "clear browsing history", clear the contents of index.dat files, "clear search history", "clear AutoComplete" clear cookies, empty Temporary Folders in windows, clear recent documents list, "clear Recent Items", clear the Search History in Windows, clear the Windows Run History, clear the history in Start Menu programs and more,

Free Anonymous Web Proxy?

In this day and age it is truly difficult to feel secure and protected with identity theft on the increase our electronic lives means having access to that personal information is more valuable than ever. Learning only a few bits of information about someone like names dates and mothers maiden name along with a password or two and you have serious power over them. This information is becoming easier to retrieve as we spend more time on the internet giving out such information. Anyone using a free anonymous web proxy is therefore not really all that safe or secure.

To illustrate the point an associate of mine has recently stayed in a hotel that belonged to a large chain he had invested in using the wireless network that was available at extra cost. Although there were no complaints in terms of speed and service he found this facility to be incredibly insecure. He had used the free program 'wireshark' which acts as an amazing network sniffer and he could access all sorts of customer information from within the building. He could note down several passwords, tones of personal information including dates of birth, names, addresses and even mothers maiden names. There was very little information being encrypted via SSL but what there was showing was unreadable as expected but for the most part all of the information was available in clear text. This is especially dangerous as many people stick to using the same important memorable password for everything including bank details.

So how much of this information would have been available had he been using an anonymous proxy?
Unfortunately every last word. Every detail would have been there to take as anonymous proxy works only to shield your details from the server you are visiting everyone else can still access all of the information. So when using a wireless network think twice before giving out all your details and always use companies promoting an encrypted method of payment such as SSL.

Data Security on CDs and DVDs

We always think to secure our computer from viruses, spywares and take different security measures to do it but never think about the protection of data we use to write on our DVDs and CDs. We just write CDs and DVDs with our data and put it in CD case and lock it in our draws.

But when we use our data burned CDs/DVDs on other systems there is always a risk of data loss, in a way that any one can copy that data in to his/her system and can easily misuse it. Many software companies has developed different security softwares for viruses and hacking attempts and data security which we can only use on our systems but what about those who use to burn their important data on CDs and DVDs.

Data security products are playing a major role in protecting and securing data. These applications are becoming famous day by day. These applications are offering many useful features related to data security.

Softwares like Folder Lock, with unique security features for data locking and encryption uses 256 aes encryption standard to protect data. These kinds of softwares also provide an option of securing data on CDs and DVDs.

You can simply burn your data on cds and dvds and can use a software like Folder Lock to secure your data on CDs and DVDs so that no one can get a chance to sneak in to your data using your CDs/DVDs.

Now days our computers are totally dependent upon softwares, we have to download or buy different softwares which can satisfy our security needs because the security of personal data on computer or on movable media is a must.

Electronic Information

Storing electronic information as evidence can be difficult. Many people store electronic information on their own personal computers, but these people run into trouble because their files can be altered or deleted by anyone who might gain access to that computer. If electronic information is altered or deleted, it can't be used as evidence, and most court cases are lost because of a lack of evidence. It is always best to use a trusted third party to store important information that can be used as evidence in court, especially when dealing with electronic information that can be easily altered or destroyed.

When properly stored, electronic information can be used by to win court cases. There are three areas in which electronic information can play a major role in helping to protect people from being victimized by the legal system:

1. Divorce. For people dealing with child custody or property distribution issues, keeping an ongoing diary is extremely important in building evidence to help win the case.

2. Workplace Harassment. It is important to keep track of all information that can be used to prove harassment in the workplace. Also, in these cases people should not to store electronic information of this type on work computers, because the information can easily be altered or deleted by the employer.

3. Stalking. Often times people are stalked and harassed in their personal lives. But by keeping a record of these events in a diary and by storing the information properly a person can use that evidence to protect themselves and win their court case.

Identity Theft Using Second Hand Hard Drives

For most people these days technology is almost a throwaway fact of life; for some however old or no longer necessary technology provides a welcome source of additional income.

There can be no better illustration of this than EBay, the auction website. However there are inherent risks that can lead to problems which can only be solved by the use of expert Computer Forensics techniques.

It is important to understand that simply deleting information from a computer hard drive does not necessarily get rid of it; deleting it simply frees up the space so it can be overwritten with new data.

And just as Computer Forensics Experts can retrieve this data should the need arise so too can the well informed and increasingly sophisticated computer criminal.

One of the most common problems found by Computer Forensics personnel is the problem of hard drives not being properly formatted and wiped clean of all or any previous data. Without proper handling these hard drives, often sold on auction websites for a fraction of their original cost, can be reconstituted thus giving rise to identity theft and thus needing the help of an expert in the fight against Computer Crime.

It is of course not just individuals who sell their equipment on auction websites; companies also sell their unwanted equipment in the hope of making some extra money and without considering the consequences of not ensuring their hard drives are properly cleaned.

The home user wishing to make some extra money, or indeed the business user looking to recoup some money spent on newer equipment, can use disc wiping or erasing utilities which can be purchased from reputable Internet sites or from high street retailers but unfortunately many do not engage in this practice and as a result in recent years thousands of private citizen's details including their dates of birth, PIN (Personal Identification Numbers) and other personal details have been recovered on supposedly clean hard drives.

Computer Forensics Experts are often called upon to help recall lost data and also to prove that data has existed on a particular hard drive at some time.

Unless the hard drive has been removed physically from the computer and replaced with a new one, or the disc has been subject to an erasing utility, the likelihood is the information will be retrievable.

If you are a business and have a large number of computers to dispose of it is wise to take advice from an expert who will be able to help ensure that all personal and sensitive data is removed and non-retrievable before you part company with your computer equipment.