Microsoft is making Windows 10 available as free upgrade for qualified Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 devices . Must be running with latest updates/patches installed. If you never turned off windows updates for your computer you should be set.
Although this is a limited time offer, you have a while to get your things in order before you take the plunge as this free upgrade offer doesn’t end until July 29th, 2016.
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In the past month, several antivirus companies have discovered a new ransomware variant known as Cryptolocker. Ransomware is a type of malware on the rise that holds your precious files hostage for money.
It does that by searching your computer and shares for popular file extensions and encrypts them preventing you from accessing them ever again unless you pay up.
This type of ransomware does not spread to other PCs or replicate by itself. This program needs your interaction to do its evil work. Ransomware needs you to launch the program on your PC. Of course, like phishing scams, It does this by trying to trick you into opening up some random attachment from a random email.
This attachment (could be a picture, zip file or other) contains the simple script to get it started doing its havoc on your PC.
If your PC gets infected then your files will more then likely be encrypted shortly after and will not be able to access them. It is impossible to decrypt the files without the private key.
Have you ever stopped and thought about how many online sites you visit that require a username and password?
According to a study by Microsoft an average user has about 25 accounts that require passwords, and alarmingly types an average of 8 passwords per day. That was several years ago and it is much greater then that today.
Because of this a slew of products are available to help you “contain” all your username and passwords for online sites and they all can be accessed by one “master” password.
I have used several similar products that provide this functionality but have found LastPass to be the best. I have used LastPass for several years now and it “manages” over 300 sites in my LastPass “Vault”.
Yes this number of sites is probably not the norm, but when you include: forums, online stores, email accounts, health accounts, financial accounts, business accounts, social media, etc…the accounts, usernames and passwords add up rather quickly. With LastPass I only have to remember ONE single password to access any of the sites securely.
As a technology engineer and business owner where everything is in the “cloud”, security is one of the most important aspects.
No one at LastPass will ever have access to your sensitive information as it is 256-bit AES encrypted. The decryption occurs on your local device (PC, android, IOS etc..). And all data passing to the cloud uses SSL.
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So you want to sync your local files to your Microsoft SkyDrive or Google Drive account for free? Well then GoodSync is worth looking into and you can download the FREE version here.
After reviewing it and using the free version myself, I ended up buying the pro version as it has so many more options and is one of the better backup and synchronization programs out there I have explored.
One of the outstanding features that I use myself that others do not offer is the ability it has to sync to the cloud.
I am able to sync my local files to the cloud such as Amazon Cloud, Microsoft SkyDrive, and Google Drive. I use two out the three cloud services I listed, but actually prefer my Google Drive due to the FREE 15GB of storage and it just makes sense as I already use Google App for Business as my business Mail Provider for free. You can find out more about Google Drive here.
The syncing is fast as they now use
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Every PC should have the following 4 free security tools installed. This combination provides the ultimate security and the best part of it is it won’t cost you a dime. You may ask why you need four tools instead of just one. Well, there are many different security threats that can present harm to your PC and your personal data and each software vendor focuses on specific areas which they are good at. The following security tools are listed below.
1) AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
You may be using this already considering AVG is one of the most popular and free anti-virus software. It can protect your PC from both viruses and spyware. It’s a great Anti-Virus but it is even better when used with #2 and #3 listed below.
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