Speaking from personal experience, I know how dangerous it can be to take users internet privacy or security for granted. My brother has a tendency to use the same password for everything (sadly many of us do the same thing!). About a year ago some unscrupulous person discovered his “super-secret” password and was able to wreak havoc. This person gained access to my brother’s personal email, bank accounts, and other sites where he used this same password. Fortunately he realized that this was happening before anything disastrous could occur—he was very lucky.

In recent years the instances of users having their online security violated has increased exponentially. It has become a major concern among common internet users as well as those who maintain the networks. Despite the increased publicity of this epidemic it is still a major problem. There are a few things that you can do to increase your security.

The first, and simplest thing, is to cover your tracks. You can buy expensive software that will erase your browsing history once you log off but you can do this for free. To clear your browsing history you can follow a few simple steps (they might vary depending on which browser you are using): For Internet Explorer 7 go to the menu and select Tools | Internet Options. Where it says Browser History click “Delete” and it will erase your temporary files, history, cookies, saved passwords, and web form information; if you are using Firefox then select Tools | Options from the main menu. Look for Private Data and select the button labeled “Clear Now”.

Secondly it is highly suggested that you avoid Internet Explorer all together! Despite its popularity and large share of the browser market it is not, and never has been, secure. Hackers have had a field day the past several years finding and exploiting the security risks built into Internet Explorer. Microsoft has never done a good job of catching these vulnerabilities and has been slow to respond when they are reported. The best browser around for user’s online security is Firefox. Since it is open-source software it is regularly updated and the community can more easily report any security risks or vulnerabilities. Of course the advantages of Firefox is a matter of opinion, it is based upon years of experience helping to protect user’s online security.

Something else that many people overlook is your email address. Too many sites nowadays ask for your email address before you can use their site—web forums are a good example of this. They ask for your email address, they say, to allow them to verify your identity. They all claim, as well, that they will not sell your information or use it for any unscrupulous behavior. For 99% of sites this is probably true, but there are a few out there who take advantage of you. Users who are truly concerned with their internet security should have two email addresses—one throwaway address and another for everything else. The throwaway email address you use for registering at online sites and when you are asked to give your email address. The second is for your personal business—this is the one you give away to people you know. Don’t use your personal address except with your friends, family, and perhaps clients. The throwaway address you can get rid of every so often if you need to. (Gmail is a good option since you get a ton of storage space and it can be fairly anonymous). There are also plenty of websites that will give you an address for one-time use.

The last and one of the biggest things you can do to help protect your online security is web forms. Don’t—and I stress DON’T—use your home address and home telephone number unless you are ordering something. By giving away your home address and home telephone number you open yourself up to unsolicited sales calls and junk mail.

These steps might sound quite simple and obvious but most people on the internet don’t follow these steps. Even if you only take a few and apply them to your online experience you will see an increase in your security. Or better yet you won’t notice anything at all—which can actually be a good thing!

The first and most important thing you can do is erase your history and temporary files in your internet browser. This varies slightly depending on which browser you are using so for this article I am only going to discuss the two most popular ones—Internet Explorer and Firefox. (Every other browser works basically the same!).

Internet Explorer
A. Bring up Internet Options from the Tools menu, then select “Delete all…”. Alternatively delete individual items, using the History Pane accessible from the toolbar button.

B. Delete cookies - In the same IE Internet Options window, select Delete Cookies. Alternatively delete individual items, accessible using the View Files button.

C. Delete temp files - In the same IE Internet Options window, select Delete Files.

D. Delete saved form and password data by clicking on AutoComplete on the Content tab in Internet Options. Cover your tracks by clicking on the Clear Forms and Clear Passwords buttons.

Firefox
- Use the ctrl-shift-delete key combination and check the list for what you want to delete (cookies, passwords, form, password data, temp files). Alternatively delete individual items, go to the Tools menu and click Options > Privacy > Cookies > View Cookies to choose which ones to keep and delete.

For the rest of your tracks you can do it yourself using various tools but it is far simpler to use an all in one tool like Anti Tracks.

Anti Tracks is the complete solution which will protecting your online privacy and enhancing the performance of you PC. Internet tracks, computer activities and programs history information are stored in hidden files on your computer. With a simple click Anti Tracks will securely erase these unnecessary and unsecured hidden files. Supporting Internet Explorer, FireFox, Netscape, Opera and AOL give you peace of mind that whichever browser you will use your tracks are always “securely” erased!

Whatever your choice is, make sure to always cover your tracks and never leave yourself exposed!

To understand the problem you are facing we need a little lesson on how hard drives work. Hard drives are magnetic and the information is stored on very tiny magnetic rods on the surface of the hard drive platters. When the read/write head adds or removes information it aligns these microscopic rods by their poles (north or south). Depending on how the rods are aligned they represent either 1 or 0, binary language. When a file is added the read/write head aligns the rods. When files are deleted the rods are not realigned. The computer simply removes a reference to the file in the File Allocation Table (FAT). The data is still there, it’s just that your computer doesn’t realize it. This is the root of the problem. The FAT table can be rebuilt using easily attainable software and anyone can then see your information.

The solution to this problem is to overwrite the data that has been stored with random characters that are unintelligible and cannot be recovered. But even if you overwrite the data once or even twice the data can still be recovered. The Department of Defense’s policy on hard drive erasure is to overwrite at least three times. The National Security Agency (NSA) prefers to overwrite at least seven times! This makes sure the data is nearly impossible to recover. So what should you do? Ironically the technology to securely wipe your hard drive is already built in to your computer. Hard drive manufacturers started including a technology called Secure Erase in 2001 on all hard drives. Secure Erase is so effective that even the NSA uses the technology. Unfortunately the manufacturers of computer BIOS’s and the OS companies were not as forthcoming. The good news is you can take advantage of this technology.

How do you use Secure Erase? There are a few steps that you’ll have to take but you really don’t need to be a computer whiz to make it work:

The first, and perhaps still the best, piece of software to use is freeware called Secure Erase Utility (http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/Hughes/subpgset.htm). This program was actually developed by the same professor who created the Secure Erase feature on your hard drive. It does take a few steps such as creating an XP boot disc but if you take a look at the included README file it explains all the steps to use. This one might require a bit more computer knowledge but if you are willing to have a slight learning curve then this is your choice.

A second utility that you can use is Anti Tracks - Disk Wiper tool which support 4 secure erasing algorithms including the US Department of Defense DOD 5220.22-M, Gutmann and NSA in addition it allow you to build your own secure erasing schema with just few clicks. Anti Tracks might cost you few bucks for sure it will be worth the trip

Whatever you choose make sure that if you are looking to completely and securely erase your hard drive you don’t rely simply on a format utility since they DON’T securely erase anything. They just eliminate and rewrite the FAT table. Be safe!

What? Your files and personal data are still on your computer’s hard drive? Absolutely! You, or anyone else for that matter, can download absolutely free software to recover those files. Let’s take a brief examination of the file-writing and erasing procedures for your computer to better help you understand just exactly what is going on.

When you write something on your hard drive you are writing in a series of 1’s and 0’s. This is called binary language. If you were to examine the hard drive under a microscope you won’t actually see these 1’s and 0’s but would see very tiny magnetic “rods” that are aligned by either north or south to represent the binary language. When you computer’s hard drive writes data it aligns these “rods” with either their north or south poles up to indicate 1’s and 0’s. I know, very technical stuff, but important to know.

When you erase the files all you are really doing is deleting a pointer to that file. Your computer’s operating system won’t know where the file is and therefore it appears to be gone. In actuality those little “rods” are still aligned the way they were before and anybody with the right software can see them and recover the data they stores. The only sure way to effectively erase the file is to overwrite those 1’s and 0’s with new data. Although you should be aware that even a simple one-pass overwriting will still leave the original data intact. It is really too complicated to explain in the context of this post but you need to overwrite several times to be sure that your information is forever and permanently gone.

To securely erase those files we recommend using Anti Tracks:
Anti Tracks is a complete solution to protect your privacy and enhance your PC performance. With Anti Tracks you can securely erase your internet tracks, computer activities and programs history information even those are stored in hidden files on your computer.

Finally whichever your choice is you absolutely need to consider using something to erase your sensitive information. Especially if you ever plan to sell your computer to someone else. Simply formatting your hard drive won’t do it. The best software to use is up to you, but get one of them! It doesn’t really take that much time to make sure you are secure!

You have probably gotten an email in the past few months from purporting to be from either eBay, PayPal, maybe even your bank telling you that they need to verify your information and to please follow this link to log in. The problem is that the fraudsters have exactly duplicated the appearance of the other website on their servers and are now waiting for you to login so they can gain access to your username and password! The result is that now a thief will have the ability to log into your REAL account and take your money, ruin your reputation, and even gain personal information that they can use to open new accounts and credit cards. It is the modern-age equivalent to purse-snatching!

This is a very real problem and something that you must face or it will end up hurting you! What can you do to prevent being a victim of phishing? Here are a few easy steps to take:

Don’t respond to any email that requests your personal financial information – The best thing that you can do to avoid being the victim of a phishing scheme is to simply never respond to an email that requires you to enter your personal information. Even if you are 100% certain that the email is legitimate you should still not respond. Legitimate instituitions will NEVER ask you to reveal your personal information. If you think it is legit then go directly to the institutions website, don’t follow the link. You can even call if you are concerned about the contents of the email. Also don’t open any attachments that might be with the email as this can expose you to a virus in addition to the phishing attack!

Regularly check your account – If you are constantly aware of activity in your account you are far less likely to fall victim to a phishing attack. Most phishing emails will attempt to lure you to their site by falsely stating that you are the victim of fraud. The real fraud hasn’t been committed yet!

Make sure you are visiting a secure website – If you decide to follow the link, against the advice here, make sure that the link directs you to a secure web site. There are two ways that you can know if it is legit. The first and easiest is to simply take a look at the URL of the website. If it is preceded by http:// then it is NOT secure. If the address is preceded by https:// then you can be sure that you are visiting a secure website. Of course the phisher might actually have gone through the process of getting a security license for their website so this is really no gurarantee that you are actually at your bank or credit cards website. It is still a good idea to not follow the links in the suspected email.

Never give out your passwords or PIN numbers – A legitimate company will NEVER ask you to reveal your password or PIN via an email. They know that emails are not secure and can’t always be trusted. Also it would be a really good idea to use a different password for every site you visit. I know this can become tiresome or tedious and many of us use the same password over and over again (I am guilty of this one!). At least if you need to use the same password make sure it is not something easy to guess—like your birthday! Use a combination of letters and numbers as well as upper and lower case to make it harder to guess.

Update your anti-virus software regularly – Antivirus software may not protect your against phishing attacks but they do protect you in case you accidentally open an attachment that is virus-laden. Keep you anti-virus software up to date—leave nothing to chance!

Report suspicious activity – If you suspect you have been the victim, or even the attempted victim, of phishing report it as soon as you can!

By just being more aware of what is going on while you browse the internet you are in a far better position to keep your information safe. Follow these simple precautions and you will have a safer and more pleasant internet experience!

Before we start to look at solutions to registry problems let’s first try to understand a little about what the registry is. For all intents and purposes the registry is the brain of your operating system. The registry is a directory that contains setting for all your hardware, software, operating system software, users, etc. The system registry was designed to replace an older way that Windows used where every program stored its own data in INI files all over the hard drive. The thing you really need to understand is that the registry is very important and when it gets bogged down with bad or useless entries it slows the entire computer system down.

There are several things that can cause your registry problems. These include viruses, spyware, installing and uninstalling of applications, even system crashes. Most of these problems are basically unavoidable, and not necessarily your fault. Here are a few steps you can take to dramatically improve the performance of your PC:

Run Daily or Weekly Virus Scans: If you are like most people these days you have an always on type of internet connection (DLS, Cable, or Fiber Optic). This means your computer is exposed 100% of the time to the internet. You may also unintentionally visit websites that have malicious code built in that will download viruses or Trojans to your PC. Because of this it is highly advised that you run weekly, or even daily, virus scans. It’s not necessary to go out to your local computer store and buy the most expensive virus checker you can afford, there are several free options available that are just as effective. One of the best free virus checkers if Grisoft’s AVG Free (http://free.avg.com). They do have a pay version available but their free version is every bit as good. It regularly updates itself with the latest virus definitions and has a schedule feature so you can have it run when you are away from your computer if you like.

Use Disk Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup Tool: When your hard drive writes to itself it does not always do so in a logical fashion. One would think that a hard drive, like a DVD or CD, would write sequentially on the disk—unfortunately this is not so. The hard drive will many times write data wherever the writing heads happen to be at the time. The result is your hard drive becomes “fragmented” and it takes extra time to read. The registry suffers from this fragmentation because its data is scattered all over the place. Again, you could get third party software that does an excellent job of “defragmenting”, but why pay when Microsoft has included a decent version built-in. The easiest way to run this tool is by going to Start | Run and type “defrag” without the quotes. Another great, and built-in, system tool is the Disk Cleanup Tool. This will delete unnecessary files, downloaded internet files, temporary files, and even error logs. To run this tool click on Start | Run and type “cleanmgr”, again without the quotes. You should run these tools every week or two.

Watch what you download: This might sound simplistic, but perhaps the absolute best thing you can do to avoid system registry problems is to be careful what you download! It is extremely tempting to download that latest piece of freeware but what looks free might come with strings attached. Like the Trojan Horse of Greek legends, something free might have something nasty hiding inside. Many times the software will ask if it is ok to install that “extra” piece of software, but many times they don’t. You’ll find yourself very quickly with add-ons to your web browser, perhaps it might change your internet home page, or it might install better hidden spyware that will track your computer usage (or worse). These little “goodies” quickly clog your registry and turn your Ferrari of a computer into a bicycle with no pedal! If you have been the victim of spyware or Trojan viruses you might want to get a copy of Spybot Search and Destroy (S&D). This is one of the best (and free) spyware removers available today. It might take a while the first time you run it, depending on how many nasties you have downloaded, but it is well worth it! (http://safer-networking.org).

By following a few simple steps you will be on your way to a happier computer experience. These tricks and tactics might speed things up considerably but the onus is on you! You are responsible for what goes in your computer and you are the only one who can break the bad habits. To recap, get a good virus checker and use it regularly; use a hard drive defragmenter on a regular basis; and try to avoid the lure of free software! Bon voyage on your new internet/computing experience!

Most of you, in the field of computing, must be aware that Windows Registry is one of the hottest topics in the context of Windows optimization. Before moving on to discuss some of the problems related with Windows Registry and their potential solutions; let’s briefly explain the concept of Windows Registry for our novice readers.

To be precise, Windows Registry is a directory, or a repository, that houses the options and various settings for the OS; Windows (including 32 bit versions, 64 bit versions and Windows Mobile). Many people get suspicious about what exactly it stores? In one sentence; “Windows Registry stores all the information and settings for all OS software, non-OS software, hardware, user settings, preferences etc.” For example, settings for your internet, folders, networks, desktop etc are all contained in Windows Registry. They keep information regarding the start up of programs, the best way to run the programs and how to shut the programs.

Windows 95 was the first operating system, in the series of Microsoft OS, which incorporated the feature of Windows Registry. The purpose was to tidy up the abundance of per-program .INI files which had been used in order to store various configuration settings. However the introduction of Windows Registry has brought another problem. You may have noticed that a recently installed Windows runs much faster in comparison with a Windows that had been installed almost 6 months back. Can u guess why this is so? You will notice this even on two systems having same processor and memory specifications. The reason behind this is Windows Registry. Whenever you make any change in the settings or system policies or you install new programs or uninstall various programs from your system; all of these changes are properly logged and stored in the registry. This can lead to a slower PC performance which will be discussed later.

Problems Associated with Windows Registry

As mentioned earlier, the changes you make in the settings of your PC are stored in the System Registry. The registry even keeps track of the smallest change that you have made in your system; whether it is a change in the setting, an installation of software (Whether OS or Non-OS), un-installation of software; each and every activity, which leads to some change in your system, is logged into the System Registry. So where comes the problem? The problem arises when the size of these files (registry files) gets bigger and bigger as we do more changes in our system. As a result, our system’s performance decays and it reacts sluggishly. Whenever you delete any file or uninstall a program, a reference is kept for that deleted file or program in the Windows registry. This reference, which is of no use, is not deleted and when your System’s registry gets filled with these unwanted files, it makes your System lethargic.

Well, it doesn’t mean that you should stop making changes in your PC; you should do changes according to your interest. What you should take care of is to scan the registry in order to remove those files that are no longer required by your system.

How many of you regularly scan your OS Registry to remove unwanted registry entries? In real, most of the computer users don’t bother about the System registry. So the size of the registry files get bigger and bigger and over the time the Windows Registry gets saturated with various broken links, unnecessary and duplicate files and it often happens that the registry finally becomes corrupted. When it happens, you start getting problems like

• System halts

• System crashes

• RunTime errors

• DLL error messages

• Active X errors

• Invalid file messages and many more.

If you are one of those unlikely guys who are facing the above mentioned problems and degradation in system’s performance, then it means that your registry has become corrupted. If this is so, then you may or may not be aware of various hidden errors and bugs that are really harmful for your system’s performance.

How Invalid Windows Registry affects Windows Performance?

One of the main and apparent effects of Windows Registry Problems on your Windows Performance is the processing speed. You find applications or web pages running too slowly. You notice that your System is taking too much time at the start-up. You notice that the frequency of your system being halt increases. You must keep in mind that Windows registry is one of the most vital part of your OS since it makes the applications to interact with each other smoothly with the help of file associations. However, it is only in the beginning when everything looks really perfect but over the time, because of the additions and removals of various programs, the registry is left with file debris which finally results in slower PC performance and your system becomes unstable.

A computer tends to run slow when these registry files get messed up. This could happen because of many reasons. These files generally get messed up when music, videos, screensavers, software and pictures are downloaded, as these programs tend to install their own registries. Also, installing and uninstalling of software hampers the registry files. Whenever you install a program, it registers itself by putting its registry in your computer. Havoc is created when these registry files overwrite the current registry files as the new registry files contain wrong instructions for the program. For example, after a current registry is overwritten by a new one, what might happen is that when it is desired to open a program, the application may not open at all or what might even happen is that the computer might just restart. This is the reason why it is always recommended to install software like registry cleaner or scanner in order to maintain the registry through proper cleaning and it helps in running your system with maximum efficiency.

How to Fix Registry Problems

Anti-virus or Anti-spyware programs are not always enough to answer the problems of your system performance. Why don’t you try some quality registry cleaning/repair software like Registry Washer, Registry Cleaner, and Registry Scanner etc to get rid of various Windows Registry problems. Hope most of you know about registry cleaning/repair programs; it is just like an antivirus program. There are various Registry Cleaning applications available today online, out of which most of them are free. However, you will find some Registry Cleaning software that charge a small fee but they are worth it. What you have to do is nothing but a click on the scan button and the software will do its job. Isn’t it a simple way of handling a complex problem? What happens, in general, is that these registry cleaning/repairing applications perform scanning for any obsolete or invalid entries and then they come up with a list of errors they found in the Windows registry. The application, then, gives you the control of manually deleting or repairing the errors. After finishing it, just logoff and restart you computer so that the repair can be applied correctly.

Don’t worry if you have made a mistake while manually deleting or repairing the errors. Most of the registry scanning applications provide the feature of backup for the changes that you have made. Once it is done, your registry will be more optimized and it will result in better PC performance. After having it all, don’t forget to regularly scan your Windows Registry or it will be too late for you.