online security Archives - Tendenci - The Open Source AMS Blog

2010-06-05

USB Flash- Don’t leave home without it, and leave one at a friends

Flash drives – cheap and easy backup can save on Vacation Stress

They fit in your pocket, on your key chain and just look cool. With all the phones and portable devices we carry these days, we forget about these flash drives at the bottom of our desk drawers. The USB drive still has a couple of great features for traveling. Even if you are settled in for a nice staycation, add this little packing and preparedness tip to your travel plans or todo list. Snag a USB drive on sale in a multi-pack as the prices continue to fall on these little jewels. Or, pick up one of Happy Katies favorite designer Flash drives by MimoBot. Now, get ready for some scanning.

Files, documents and every important document you would ever need, all in your pocket. Scan personal documents and records in case you lose your wallet or passport and you will have a digital image of all your registrations. But, but… WAIT! What if the wrong person finds it when it drops out of the pocket of your shorts? No worries, you should encrypt the contents with TrueCrypt or your favorite security feature.

These little tech toys have some crazy cool options besides just a backup. Don’t want to carry a laptop or computer with you? Can’t spring for the iPad yet? You can save all your bookmarks, favorite email settings, and doc settings on a FlashDrive and launch your profile from any public computer without fear of leaving your crumbs all over the desktop. Portable Apps is an open source software platform you install on your flashdrive or other backup device, adjust your settings, then plug it into a computer and run your programs from your own drive. You have access to all your software and personal data just like on your own PC.

What to save on your USB Drive

Losing important documents can ruin what should be a happy vacation. A little safety and planning can eliminate much of the stress. Before you pack up and leave, take the time to scan copies of important documents and save the files on to a secure area of the flash drive. Here are some examples of important documents:

Vacation Plans: Itinerary, Maps and receipts of deposits for reservations.
Personal documents: Drivers license, passport, birth certificate, Insurance cards (health and auto), Credit Cards and CC phone numbers for lost cards.
Home Documents: Home Insurance, Auto Titles, Registrations, photos of big purchase items for insurance documentation, and documents that would be hard to replace if you came back home and they weren’t there. Yikes! My next plan is to scan old family photos for safekeeping before they detoriate or get wet in the next hurricane.
Medical Records: List of medications for each family member, immunizations, List of family doctor and dentist contacts.
School and Work Records: Nice to have everything in one place while you are at it. Include copies of your transcripts, diplomas, Resume, licenses, permits, Wills, and any other items you may want to keep all organized.

Now, your life is basically in one place if you ever have to recreate your history or need to hide it Bourne style. This is a cheap and easy way to travel light, backup photos off the camera while on vacation for processing later, and use software programs securely when on public machines. In fact, buy a couple of the drives, make copies of the drive and give one to a friend to put in their safe deposit box or mail one to a family member in another part of the country in case of emergency.

Enjoy your trip, be safe, and tell us how you use your Flash Drive for your vacation!

2009-06-02

Happy Safety Month from Schipul!

The arrival of June kicks off National Safety Month and, if you live near the Gulf as we do, it also marks the first day of Hurricane Season. A pretty good combo if you ask us!

Given that our CEO, Ed Schipul, is an Eagle Scout and that we have a crazy culture of Security and preparedness, we’ve decided to make June our very own Schipul Month of Safety!!

Stick around for the next month as we feature some great guest Blog posts, great tips and tricks on safety, security and preparedness. Whether surfing on the Web, in your office or around your house we’ll be sharing useful tidbits to keep you and your’s safe and sound.

In the meantime, here are some handy safety-focused links to check out:

This 1st week of June is also CPR Awareness Week! You can brush on up your CPR skills for FREE here
Create your family’s emergency plan with this handy free site
Read up on hurricane preparedness

2008-11-192014-11-02

Online phishing scams – don’t take the bait!

You’ve probably seen at least one, an email telling you that a $XX,XXX payment is about to go in to your bank or Paypal account — but ONLY!! if you confirm your address. And your name. And your dog’s name. And your Social Security number. And your dog’s Social Security number.

Sure, they might look fairly convincing (same big company logos, similar email design template, same boring corporate text), but your gut is telling you ‘really? I’m getting $10,546.72 from nowhere and my DOG has a Social Security number???’. Listen to your gut. It’s probably a phishing scam.

Telltale signs of a phishing scam:

Sense of urgency (respond today or we close your account!!!!)
Scare tactics (your dog’s account security has been compromised – doomsday!)
They want you to click a link or fill out a form to verify information
Misspellings and poor grammar
Call you ‘valued customer’ instead of your actual name
Email sent from a weird email address
When you hover (DON’T CLICK!) over links in an email, the URLs are a little ‘off’

If you see an email that appears to be a phishing attempt, the best thing you can do is NOT do what they tell you (no link clicking, no replying, no form filling out). Delete the suspicious email or forward it to: reportphishing@antiphishing.org.

If the email has a hint of legitimacy, don’t report it yet – rather, call the organization it is supposedly from (using a phone number listed on their Web site, not in the email) to verify that THEY are the ones trying to reach you. Also, be sure that you regularly check your online accounts and credit reports regularly, so that you can catch anything less than desirable just in case.

Remember, phishing scams aren’t just over email either – other places to be cautious:

Social networking sites
Your instant message chat program
Cell phone text messages
Fake sites that look like sites your trust, but are not (check those URLs!!)

A little common sense goes a long way, as with everything. If you see something pop up in your email that looks too good to be true (how many times can you win the lottery you never played – really?), it just might be. Stay secure and don’t let the bad guys go phishing for your information!