Oklahoma City Computer Repair

Apple’s Mac Computers Target of Latest Virus Ruse

Chris Moroz — Fri, 20 May 2011 13:49:12 +0000

For years Apple fans have praised the security of Mac OS. And while it is still considered inherently more secure than Windows, cracks in it’s armor are beginning to show. Mac Defender (a rogue antivirus program) has been making the rounds for several weeks now, and it doesn’t appear that it will be ending anytime soon.

Rogue antivirus programs disguise themselves as legitimate security products, but are anything but. Designed to scam you out of your money by scaring you into believing you have numerous virus infections, once they manage to get your credit card information its game over.

While Golden Years Computers has been seeing these type of infections in Windows for quite some time, the fact they are now appearing on Mac computers proves how effective it is to trick the user rather than the machine. So how can you prevent viruses from infecting your Mac in the first place? Cnet.com offers some excellent advice.

If an installer appears mysteriously, block it from installing. Quit out of odd warnings and pop ups, particularly if the “back” or “cancel” option is not highlighted, by clicking the red dot in the upper corner of the pop-up window. Move any suspicious looking files that appear related to MacDefender from your downloads folder into trash. In Safari under “preferences” uncheck the “open safe files after downloading” box.

As with the Windows variants, never click the ’cancel’ or ‘quit’ buttons on the actual windows, as the virus writers could have easily made every button actually mean ‘OK’. Always use the red dot to close out suspicious windows.

If you happen to become infected, Golden Years Computer Services offers complete virus removal solutions to the entire Oklahoma City metro area.

How to Create a Strong and Memorable Password

Chris Moroz — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 04:49:48 +0000

Do you use the same password for everything, or do you use a different one for each website? How do you remember your passwords? Do you have them on a sticky next to the computer, or have you created a spreadsheet to track them? Perhaps you’re using a software program that helps you organize and remember them. A few months ago we included a story about password security that laid out how long it would take a hacker to crack (or break) your password. I imagine that a lot of you use a password that is A) all lowercase and B) 6 characters or less. Your password can be broken in 5 minutes or less.

In December of last year, Gawker Media (the company that owns LifeHacker and several of the internet’s most visited blogs) was hacked, and all their user information was stolen. Names, passwords, email addresses, all stolen by hackers. In the following days, they prompted their users to now only change the password on their site, but all ANY OTHER WEBSITES THEY USED THE SAME PASSWORD ON. They knew that most web users have a tendency to use the same password over, and over, and over again.

So here’s a very simple tip that will help you to not only ensure you have different passwords, but that can also remember them.

Start with a strong core password. 8 characters long, including both upper and lowercase letters, and at least 2 numbers. My example for this article will be PopeYe65. Your core password is critical to the “being able to remember your password” part so memorize it! It can be whatever you want, but I encourage you to be creative with your use of capitalization and number placement.
As you create passwords on new websites you visit, you simply use your new core password and add the first letter of that website to the front (or end). For example. If I were creating a new account on Amazon.com, my new password for that site would be: APopeYe65. If I were creating an account at Facebook, it would be FPopeYe65. It’s as simple as that! You take the name of the website A for Amazon, F for Facebook, etc… and add that letter to your core password!
As you visit websites that you already use, go to your account information and update your password to ensure continuity and security across the entire web.

Your new password would take 20,000 years to crack using current technology. That’s a little better than 5 minutes, right?

Senior World Radio

Chris Moroz — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 23:07:21 +0000

We were very blessed to have the opportunity to appear on Glen Howard’s radio program, Senior World Radio, on New Year’s Day. We’ve placed our 20 minute segment below, simply click the PLAY icon to give us a listen!

Radio City Here We Come!

Chris Moroz — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 16:42:36 +0000

We’re excited to have the chance to appear on Glenn Howard’s radio program, Senior World!

You can hear us on KTOK 1000 AM in Oklahoma City at 5PM on New Years Day, January 1st. For those of you outside their listening area, or for those young folks who don’t own a radio anymore, you can listen live on their website.

We’ll be discussing some basic security tips, discussing some of our computer repair services and pricing, reviewing some things from last year, and just having a good time! If you’re a regular listener of his you know he always has interesting things to say, and if you’ve not listened before you may find a new favorite radio show!

Adobe Acrobat Reader Get (a little) More Secure

Chris Moroz — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:28:39 +0000

Adobe Acrobat Reader is one of those programs you just can’t help but hate. It’s a required piece of software for most people, but it opens computers to enormous security problems. It’s one of the “Big 3″, the top 3 pieces of software that we ALWAYS update on clients machines because of security vulnerabilities (the other 2 are Adobe Flash Player and Java for those wondering). Adobe has been fairly good lately about releasing updates and patches to plug security holes, but those of us in the IT industry have been waiting for version 10 when their next level security would be included. As of the end of last week, Reader X (version 10 for those not raised on Roman numerals) has been released, and should bring with it those much needed security enhancements.

I encourage to head straight over to Adobe’s site and install it. If you’re a little gun shy about installing or updating the software yourself, you might want to take advantage of out Annual Computer Checkup special. It includes thorough updating, scanning, and fine-tuning.

White Friday

Chris Moroz — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 20:29:30 +0000

Come join us tonight, Friday November 19th, 2010 for White Friday! There will be local vendors selling a wide variety of products, and you won’t have any of the hassle of Black Friday (see what we did there?).

We will be at the Victory Dance studio at MacArthur and 42nd.