Lots of websites collect personal information – some are just more obvious when doing it.

There are those sites that ask for personal information up front before granting the user access. Often, site visitors are asked for their name and e-mail address before gaining access. The Internet is a public place, so how anonymous are you? When you visit any web page, you leave traces of where you’ve been. Worse, if you share a computer, someone can see what you’ve been up to online in just a few clicks.

But there is a way to maintain your privacy through erasing the digital footprints that remain after you close your browser.

What’s important? When you want to cover your online tracks, consider removing the following: browser histories, cookies, cache files, AutoComplete information, e-mail trash, and log files created by chat programs and your internet connection. You can delete these items yourself, or install a program to do it for you.

Here are the 8 best ways to cover your online tracks:

1. Remove Most Recently Used (MRU) list

Most programs keep an MRU list showing the last used items. The most recently opened documents list is one of the ones you might be interested in, as it shows the last documents you’ve opened. You can remove or clear the list in one of several ways.

In Windows XP, you can right-click on the Start Menu, choose Properties > Start Menu > Customize > Advanced > Clear List. You can then uncheck “List my most recently opened documents” to prevent it from keeping a list in the future. Another method would be to manually remove it from the registry. Any time you tweak the registry, you run the risk of damaging your system so do so at your own risk.

If you want to remove the MRU from the registry, the key is found at HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer and then remove the key for “Recent Docs”. Again, back up your registry before you make any changes, there is always the risk of damage to your system.

(more…)

No program is a substitute for parental supervision, but some monitoring tools help you control where your children go online.

It’s great to have a tool that complements your shrewd set of eyes, but you still need to teach your children to be cautious when surfing the internet.

(more…)

Anti-virus programs are pretty much an essential component of every Windows PC these days. 

Unless you logged out of Prodigy and went to sleep for the last 20 years, you are more than likely aware of just how prevalent, and how dangerous computer viruses can be.  On the low end they can be annoying either flashing a silly message or slowing your computer down.  On the high side, they could completely destroy your system and its data, or open holes for identity thieves and hackers.

Surfing online without an updated anti-virus  program is like crossing the Grand Canyon on a tight rope.  It’s not a matter of if you’re going to run into to trouble, it’s a matter of when.

(more…)

Network monitoring is just one piece of the management model, and different capabilities are used for different levels.

Before you pick a tool, you need to understand what you’re measuring and what ‘normal’ is in your environment so you can identify problems as they happen. Here’s a few network monitoring tools to consider when selecting the one that’s right for you.

(more…)

When it comes to keeping your network secure, few things can be as critical (and annoying) as keeping your servers and workstations patched.

At least in the Windows world, Microsoft comes out with vulnerability patches on the second Tuesday of each month. 

Affectionately known as "Patch Tuesday" this is a day that is the bane of most IT Administrator’s existence. 

Why do you ask?  Because it means another round of downloading patches, another round of testing, another round of scheduling deployments and then dealing with any fallout when applications for some strange reason just stop working.

Automation is the Key

Anyone who’s been in the IT industry for any length of time knows that automation is the key to eternal happiness, and automating system patching is essential.

(more…)

Elephantware. That’s what download.com calls them: programs that, like tanks, pull you down with the undertow and slow your PC to a crawl, causing it to freeze up while you’re in mid-sentence.

You don’t want them, you don’t need them, and you can get rid of them and replace them with friendlier less bulky counterparts. So what are they?

Here’s a list of the top five most annoying elephantware programs:

(more…)

It’s just another day as you slide into your seat and hit the start button on your computer. You guzzle coffee as you wait for your system to start up, and bam! Your stomach drops as you stare at the deep indigo colored screen. It’s not a folk tale, it’s not an urban legend…it’s the blue screen of death. (BSOD) Yikes. There goes your day.

We all know that it’s common sense to stay away from funny looking email. If you don’t know who sent it, don’t open it. It’s a great concept, in theory. In fact, lots of us with itchy, trigger-happy fingers have opened email titled ILOVEYOU only to be bitten by the love bug. Ouch. Let’s take a look at some of the worst network attacks of all time.

(more…)

Every time you surf the web, or do something on your computer, you leave tracks of where you have been and what you were doing.

Whether that means pictures, movies, URLs, browser history, etc., it all leaves clues as to your online and offline behaviors.

Privacy means something different to everyone.  Many people aren’t concerned with someone else being able to see where they’ve been online, what files they’ve downloaded, etc.  Other people are VERY concerned and go to great lengths to cover their tracks online.

When covering your tracks online, there are two main areas of concern. 

1. Covering your online activity (masking your IP address), clearing cache and browser history, etc.
2. Covering your offline (local) activity, what files you’ve opened, programs you’ve run, etc.

Here are our Top 5 Ways to address both of these areas.

(more…)

Information Security is a concern for every company, no matter how big or how small. 

Knowing what information typically is traversing your company’s network is critical to knowing when something out of the ordinary occurs. 

Monitoring your network enables you to be aware of many things including degradation or fluctuations in performance, overall network health and stability, and security.

When it comes to network monitoring tools, there are many choices ranging from free to commercial, open-source to proprietary. The range of functionality they provide also varies from packet capturing tools to full-blown network monitoring applications that can show the health of all devices on your network in real-time.

(more…)