Have You Started Your Spring Cleaning?

The birds are chirping, the plants are budding, and the sun is shining. It's spring cleaning time. Everybody is familiar with the yearly tradition of opening the windows to air out the house and finally getting started on that garage. What many people don't realize is that this is also an excellent time to perform maintenance on your computers as well. People tend to be inside, on their computers, more during the cold winter months. There is also more dust blowing around due to the decreased humidity in the winter. This is the time of year your system is most in need of a cleaning, both to Windows and the physical computer itself.

The first step to a good spring cleaning is to remove unnecessary temporary files. As you perform daily tasks, your system accumulates temp files. These can range from automatic backups of documents you're working on to saved images from websites you've visited. Many people don't realize that even though these files are called temporary files, Windows will store them indefinitely unless you clean them out. Some of these files serve a purpose, for example a website that you visit often will load faster because all of the pictures have already been downloaded and stored in temp files for easy access. On the other hand, many activities automatically check the temp files before taking any other action. This means that if you allow your temp files to accumulate it will take longer for your machine to boot up, print and load some programs. There are utilities that will do intelligent scans to determine which temp files are likely to be reused and which are safe to delete.

The next step is to remove unnecessary startup programs. Every program that you have running takes up system resources, causing the entire system to slow down. These days, many vendors will automatically set their programs to start running in the background during your system's boot sequence. Some of these programs you want to have running all the time, such as an anti-virus that provides real-time protection. However, there are many programs that probably aren't used every time you use your computer. Larger programs will load “helpers”, which are smaller programs that constantly run and help larger programs open more quickly when you choose to use them. Some examples of this are GPS and camera companies that run programs that allow you to access your devices quickly when you plug them in to a USB port. If you're on your computer daily, but only plug your camera in once a month you are probably better off waiting a couple of extra seconds to access your pictures rather than having your system's performance be sluggish every time you log on. You have to be very careful when removing programs from the automatic startup list, as removing the wrong programs can cause your system to become unstable or even prevent Windows from booting up properly. We recommend that you research each program if you're unsure of what it does. It's always safer to leave a program on the list until you can consult with an expert if you're unable to determine whether or not it's safe to remove.

The next thing to do is to check for updates to both your anti-malware programs and Windows. Any reputable malware/virus protection program will publish regular updates to their virus definitions. These are to protect you from newly discovered threats. Most programs that perform real-time protection will update at least once a day, sometimes multiple times a day. If you aren't up to date you aren't protected, it's that simple. Additionally, software providers are constantly looking for ways that their programs might be compromised in order to allow hackers to gain access to your system. When they find holes in their security they will release updates to patch these holes. Adobe, Java and Windows are the most commonly patched programs. If these updates are not performed you are running the risk of leaving yourself vulnerable. Most programs will offer a feature to either check for available updates or allow you to see when the last update was applied. While these updates should be happening automatically, it is good practice to periodically check to ensure that you are protected.

The final digital maintenance to perform is to defragment your hard drives. Let's imagine your hard drive as a library. Instead of using the Dewey Decimal System to organize books, this library simply fills the shelves from front to back. As books are checked out, they leave gaps in the shelves which are filled by other books that are being returned. If a gap isn't wide enough to hold a particularly large book, the librarian simply moves on to the next gap that is large enough, that way she doesn't have to constantly be shifting the books back and forth in order to make everything fit. This is essentially how hard drives are utilized by Windows. The problem comes in when you get volumes that take up multiple books. Let's imagine that our library contains a copy of Encyclopedia Britannica. When the encyclopedia is first acquired it is placed in alphabetical order on the shelf. Let's imagine that somebody takes the M book off of the shelf and checks it out. Later that day, a librarian sees that large gap and fills it with another book. When the M gets returned it no longer has a home and is placed on a different shelf. This process is repeated hundreds and thousands of times until the books are randomly scattered throughout the library. This is called fragmentation. Now let's imagine that you are researching a topic and take the time to scour the library and find that M volume. You sit down and look up your topic, only to find that the volume in front of you refers you to another book in the encyclopedia. Your search starts all over again. It would not take you long to decide that this is not a very efficient way to perform your research. Likewise, when your computer is searching for data a fragmented hard drive can slow the process considerably. This will cause programs to load more slowly and Windows to take longer to boot. When you defragment your hard drive you are essentially reorganizing the books in that library, putting all of the books in the encyclopedia together again so that they are easily and quickly found.

Once you've finished with your system maintenance, it's time to shut down the computer and open the case. The first thing that we want to do is to clean out any dust that's accumulated. Dust can cause two problems for your computer. It can lay across electrical circuits and cause shorts, which can damage or destroy your hardware. It also naturally gathers in areas of high airflow. Your system needs airflow in order to keep itself cool. Dust will clog filters and block fans to the point where your system has to work harder to keep itself cool, or run hotter than it's designed to. Either of these scenarios will significantly shorten the life of your system. Once the system is cleaned out check your hardware for loose connections and make sure that everything appears to be functioning properly.

Preventative maintenance is often overlooked when people are considering the performance of their computers. Many times people are looking to purchase a new system without realizing that with proper maintenance their current system can perform all of the tasks that they require. Hopefully, we've given you some tools to ensure that you can keep your systems running efficiently for years to come.

Do You Want To Allow Changes?

If you've used Windows for any length of time, you're familiar with the pop-up box that asks: Do you want to allow this program to make changes to your computer? One of the most commonly asked questions is: How do I know when to click Yes and when to click No? The first step to determining the answer to this question is to understand why this box is popping up in the first place.

The simplest answer as to why that box keeps popping up is that is attempting to stop your computer from installing malware without you knowing. Traditionally, viruses and other malware would piggyback on a file that you wanted to download in order to get into your computer. Once downloaded, the malware would begin running processes in the background to embed itself deep within your system. Microsoft has attempted to stop this by building a protection into Windows called User Account Control (UAC). UAC is designed to force any program that is trying to change how your system runs to ask your permission before it's allowed access. This limits the amount of damage that a virus can do without alerting you that it's there. The trick is to know when that box pops up if it's something that you made happen, or if a background program made it pop up. Once we determine that it's a background program, we can figure out if it's something that is malicious, or if there's a legitimate reason for that program to change your system.

First, let's rule out the possibility that you triggered the UAC box to pop up with something that you're doing. Here's a list of actions that will cause that box to pop up:

• Running an Application as an Administrator

• Changes to system-wide settings or to files in %SystemRoot% or %ProgramFiles%
• Installing and uninstalling applications
• Installing device drivers
• Installing ActiveX controls
• Changing settings for Windows Firewall
• Changing UAC settings
• Configuring Windows Update
• Adding or removing user accounts
• Changing a user’s account type
• Configuring Parental Controls
• Running Task Scheduler
• Restoring backed-up system files
• Viewing or changing another user’s folders and files
• Running Disk Defragmenter

Running any utilities such as Ccleaner or Defraggler will trigger the box because these programs are designed to perform one or more of these actions. Were you running any utilities immediately before seeing that box pop up? If so, there's a good chance that you triggered the UAC. In this case, the system is just checking to make sure that you're aware of what you're doing.

If you didn't try to perform any of the listed actions and weren't opening a utility program, then we know that a background process caused the box to pop up. Now we have to determine if that process is malicious. The easiest check to do is to check the program name and publisher listed in the pop-up box. Is it something that you recognize and know is safe such as Adobe, Java or Firefox? Is your antivirus trying to update itself to keep you safe from new threats? If it's a name that you know and trust, it's probably OK to go ahead and allow the action. If you don't recognize the name and publisher, or if the publisher is listed as Unknown then we may have an issue. If you've recently downloaded or installed a program that you wouldn't expect to change your Windows settings and it pops up a box, this is an indication that it may be malicious. This is an instance where you probably want to deny access.

Once you've decided that the program listed in the box is suspicious, the easiest action is to run a simple Google search. In most cases, you aren't the first person to encounter this issue. Other people have taken to the Internet to find out what this program is and why it's trying to access your computer. If it's something malicious, you'll see immediately see red flags in your Google search such as pages titled Virus, Spyware or Adware. One of the most common malware programs that we encounter is a toolbar called CouponBar. When I type CouponBar into Google, in the first page of results I see: Virus Warning!, ...is an adware program..., (adware. couponbar), How do i remove the coupon bar adware from my computer?, and pages on spywareguide.com and spybot.info. In all, 6 out of the first 10 pages listed refer to some form of malware, either in the title, the description, or the page's address. The other 4 are offers to download CouponBar. This tells me that even if I installed CouponBar on purpose I probably shouldn't grant it access to my system. Other searches, such as a search for msiexec.exe will not be so obvious. Some sites indicate that it may be malware, while other sites indicate that it may be part of the Windows operating system. In cases like this, it's safest to deny the program access and consult somebody that's more familiar with computers. Let them know what you were doing when the box popped up, what exactly the box said, and what programs were running. This way they'll have the tools to diagnose your system and tell whether your system was performing scheduled maintenance, or if you have malware masquerading as a benign system process.

As always, the safest bet is to have an up-to-date version of an anti-malware program running at all times. That way most threats should be neutralized before that pop-up window ever appears. UAC is a system that was developed by Microsoft to make it harder to invade your system, but it's not a catch all. Malware developers have come up with ways to circumvent this feature. The easiest way for them to do that is to trick you into clicking Yes on that pop-up box. Hopefully, we've given you some tools that will allow you to know when it's safe to say Yes, and when you need to dig a little deeper.

The Dangers Of Downloading Free Software

We have all been bombarded with advertisements that offer free products in exchange for an additional purchase. We immediately become skeptical when we hear “Sign up today and get a free umbrella.”, but we don't carry this skepticism over to the digital world. When we are offered a free screen saver or weather updater we jump at the offer without ever considering the motivations that are driving this free offer. There are instances where somebody writes a piece of software because they genuinely want to help other people. The sad news is that most people aren't giving these programs away out of the goodness of their hearts. There is an ulterior motive. Hidden deep within the code of that screen saver or weather updater there's usually a secondary program that you never see. It runs in the background, and it can do anything from slowing your computer down, crashing your computer altogether, stealing your information, or using you as a relay to send spam.

We have all heard stories about people opening dubious emails and getting a virus. This is the most well documented way to get an infection, simply because it is the easiest to identify. The fact of the matter is that viruses are getting less common as time goes on. There simply isn't enough money in viruses to make it worth somebody's time to create them. People that have the skills to create viruses are capable of higher returns on their time through other forms of malware.

Adware is now a much more common form of what we would consider malware. Adware is a program that displays advertisements on your screen, which the developer of the program collects profits from. Adware takes several forms. The most obvious is a program that periodically pops up a window with an ad banner. Another way that adware may work is to hijack your web browser. They are capable of replacing the advertisements that are displayed on legitimate web sites with their own ads. There is a group of adware that will even redirect your web browser to the sites of their advertisers. You can visit Google to perform a web search, and instead of displaying the results that Google publishes you would see a list of sites paid for by advertisers. Each link that you click on, the creator of the adware gets paid.

Another way to profit from malware is a scheme known as scareware. Scareware preys on people's fears of infections. A common scareware tactic is to pop up a window that looks like a system message telling you that there is a problem with your computer and directing you to a legitimate looking site, where they try to sell you a program to “fix” the problem. This program will usually just load more infections onto your system. The most common ploys that scareware uses are messages stating that your computer is not running at maximum speed, your hard drive is failing, or that you have a virus infection. The program will mimic the behavior of these problems by hiding files, hogging system resources to slow performance, or crashing your computer. These infections can be hard to combat, as the malware will often times hijack your system in an attempt to make you feel that you have no choice but to buy and install their software. In this case it's best to seek professional assistance, as there are tools specifically designed to overcome these tactics. Never, under any circumstances, download and install a package that is suggested if you observe any of this behavior, as doing so would open your system to much more serious infections.

The last form of malware we're going to discuss is spyware. Spyware, as the name implies, is used to steal your information. A common tactic is keylogging. Keylogging records every keystroke that is entered into your system and then sends that information back to the developer of the program. This can allow them access to all of your passwords, online account information, banking information, or anything else that has been entered into your system.

All of this can cause the internet to be a scary place. How can you tell what's safe to download and what's not? An easy way to determine this is through a little research. A simple Google search will often times pull up results of people having problems after downloading a program, if it is in fact malicious. Another way to keep yourself safe is to only download programs from sources that you know to be safe. Downloading a driver from HP is probably safe, whereas downloading the same driver from a file sharing site may not be. It is relatively simple to download a program, alter it to include malware, and upload it back to a file sharing site. This way people can add vicious programs to seemingly safe files.

The most important step you can take to protect yourself is to make sure that your system and software is updated with the most recent security patches. Legitimate software vendors are constantly searching their programs for security holes that malware can exploit. They then send out “patches” to fill those holes. This is only effective if you download and install these patches.

There is a lot of good, free programming online for download. However, as with everything else, there is a lot of bad out there too. Hopefully with this guide we've armed you with some tools to protect yourself. Make sure that you have an up-to-date anti-malware program running, and follow the tips described above and you shouldn't have any problems. By knowing what to look for we make the job of attacking us much more daunting.

Why Recycle Your Computer With UCC?

• We are local.  No need to drive a long distance.

• We recycle locally ourselves! The items we don’t keep go to a local recycler.

• We are your neighbors.  Environmental accountability is what we believe in.

• We don't charge you to recycle your items.

What happens to your recycled computer after we receive it?

We may choose to disassemble the computer to hardware components and sell them individually.  We may choose to keep it intact just “spruce it up” – by adding a DVD drive, install a larger hard drive or increase the RAM and sell it in the store.   We will always try to recycle by re selling a used item to someone who may be able to use it again – that makes sense to us.  But when components are no longer working or we decide that they are too old to sell we will recycle them ourselves with a local company that takes those electronic components and recycles them appropriately. 

Just think…

Nearly 250 million computers become obsolete between the years 2005 and 2010.

Just think…

Many people discard computers every 3 to 5 years.

Just think…

In 2001, only 11 percent of personal computers retired in the US were recycled.

What you can do to help….

• Maintain and keep equipment as long as possible.

• A typical computer’s life span is 2-3 years, but can be extended by 1-2 years with some upgrading. 

• Buy a good monitor; it can last 6-7 years or more, and keep it for use with your next computer.

• Be sure to always use a surge protector power strip with all electronic equipment.

• Change the settings of the power-saving feature on your computer so that during periods of inactivity your computer shuts down the monitor at five minutes, the hard drive at thirty minutes and finally puts the computer in sleep mode at thirty-five minutes.

When you’re ready to get a different computer consider a refurbished one.  You’ll save 139 pounds of waste, 7,300 gallons of water, and 2,300 kilowatt-hours of energy associated with manufacturing a new one.  If just 1 percent of the twenty million computers that become obsolete each year were replaced with refurbished machines, the waste saved could fill more that 1,700 garbage trucks; the water conserved could fill seventy-three thousand backyard swimming pools; and the energy saved could power every personal computer owned in the United States for fifty-five straight hours.

We will accept any computer or computer external peripherals (call and ask us IF we are accepting monitors) 8AM to 5PM Monday through Friday at our store –

216 N. Main Street – Burlington, WI 53105

UCC has been recycling computers for more than 10 years. 

We take pride in our approach to doing our little part in the process.

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”  Mahatma Gandhi

How To Stay Safe Using Facebook

Whether we like it or not Facebook is here to stay. Unfortunately with its ever growing popularity, it's become a hot target for hackers, spammers and internet criminals.
Consequently, it's become extremely important for users to understand how to stay safe when using Facebook.  We'll cover some techniques to help protect your personal information and computer from being attacked.
Facebook is becoming more popular everyday. With millions of people to be targeted, Facebook is definitely a battleground for security and privacy. This website has become a worldwide hit and consequently has become a target for those intent on spamming and stealing private information. In this article, we will cover many techniques to allow you to safely use Facebook.
Friend only Real Friends
It is important that we only share information with true friends and not distant acquaintances. Many people try to friend as many people as possible, perhaps even people they barely know. We believe it is important that people eliminate friends they barely know from their friend list. An alternative would be to create Groups of close friends and only blast more personal messages out to this group. This technique does require more involvement whenever you post.
Think before Clicking on Links
There have been several viruses that have hit Facebook users, many of which have caused links to malware or inappropriate content to be posted on Facebook. It is important that you exercise care before clicking on any links.
Shortened links that do not fully disclose the destination site should be expanded before being clicked. You can expand short links with a browser plugin or visit a site like longurl.org. Virustotal.com checks shortened url’s for malware.
Facebook Applications
Facebook applications have access to all your Facebook data. We suggest users eliminate applications that are unnecessary or seldom used. Many applications are granted access to posting on your wall or pulling information from other websites. There are security risks with all this functionality.

1. Select the Triangle in the upper right corner
2. Select Account Settings
3. Select Apps from the left column
4. Click the x next to any App you do not recognize or need

Beware of:

• IQ tests
• Polls
• Voting for a celebrity polls

There have been Facebook applications, in these areas that have lead to unwanted cell phones charges, privacy breeches, or other malware.
Privacy Settings
If you want to maintain your privacy, then don’t use Facebook. If you want to control your private data within Facebook, it is important that you configure privacy settings correctly. Facebook updates its privacy settings regularly, so it is important to check your current settings frequently.

1. Select the Triangle in the upper right corner
2. Select Privacy Settings
3. Set your Default Privacy to Friends 

The main sharing circles are:

• Friends
• Custom
• Public

Obviously you want to minimize the Publicly shared information as much as possible. You  may want to clamp down with Custom to reduce the expansion of your private information.
ReclaimPrivacy.org checks your Facebook Privacy settings and shows you how to fix possible privacy setting errors.
Insure that you have set Facebook to not allow search engines to access your profile. Be sure the box for public search results isn’t checked.
Sharing Sensitive Information
The following information is sensitive and may not be desired to be shared with others. Thieves can use this information as well those trying to piece together your identity or those attempting to hack your passwords.

• Vacations or times away from home
• Real birthday, at least no year
• Mother’s maiden name
• Pets names
• Children’s names
• Address
• Phone numbers
• Schools attended
• Religious views
• Political views

Facebook Passwords and Access
In addition to a secure password, Facebook supports double authentication which combines a password with authentication on a mobile phone. You will get a SMS text message on your cell phone whenever someone logs into your account from a different computer. It's wise for all users to enable this feature.

1. Select the Triangle in the upper right corner
2. Select Account Settings
3. Select Security from Left Column
4. Select Login Approvals
5. Check Require me to enter a security code each time an unrecognized computer or device tries to access my account

Facebook Website Tracking
Facebook has been tracking websites visited outside of its own. If you would like to prevent this from occurring, install the browser plugin disconnect.me.
Facebook Photo Matching
Facebook has facial recognition technology that can automatically label who is in a given picture. We suggest that you disable this feature or at least prevent it from recognizing your kids within a photo.
Facebook related Email Spam or Phishing
E-mail and instant messages have been used to propagate spam or phishing on Facebook. To receive a message about a new picture, and the link takes you to a Facebook or Twitter login page. The page is faked in an effort to steal your login credentials.

Biggest Malware Threats To Your PC in 2012

2012 is already shaping up to be pretty messy from a computer security perspective. Not only are computer virus attacks up 60% compared to this time last year, but more alarming is the severity of these infections. So what viruses and malware should you be looking out for in 2012? At this time, the climate for attacks is simply brutal. Based on what we've seen and read since late 2011, if the rate and volume of attacks continue, 2012 won't be pretty. Widespread spam-driven attacks, social media scams and plenty of malware look to be on the table for 2012. I've come up with what I believe to be the top 5 threats to keep this article succinct.
So, with that in mind, read our top five threats to watch for in 2012.
Using  legitimate websites by which to stage attacks
The continued presence of  vulnerable Web site code - particularly, vulnerable Word Press blog plug-ins - are going to turn into a big problem in the near future. This coupled with a flood of other malware blazing across the web means we’ll see a lot of sites get hacked in the coming year and used to redirect victims into an exploit kit.
The WordPress.org plug-in vulnerabilities permit malware guys to upload their code onto someone else’s Web pages; Keylogger malware, such as Zeus/Zbot, just rips saved FTP passwords and other stored credentials and ships them directly to People You Don’t Want In Control Of Your Web Site.
It’s already happening, with attacks propagating against other vulnerable WordPress.org code, and the results have been pretty scarily effective. Most of the code we’ve seen uploaded to legit sites redirects the browser into the maw of one or another exploit kits.
Exploiting Vulnerable Web-Browser Plug-ins
Are you using those cool plug-ins that make web-surfing easier? From what I’ve been reading they’re the next gateway for malware. It all starts with Javascript and ends within a few minutes with the victim’s PC owned and the victim’s passwords in the hands of some overseas stranger.
It couldn’t get any more obvious that you need to act immediately. Update Flash, Acrobat, Office, and other vulnerable applications today, right now. Disable Javascript within PDF documents in your PDF reader’s preferences. And at least for the time being, the safest thing to do is to uninstall Java from any system you control, at least until a patch gets released to address CVE-2011-3544.
More Spam? Yep
As ridiculous as some of the spam campaigns this year have been, they must be effective, because the bad guys haven’t spared a moment for months coming up with new and innovative social engineering tricks.
If the spam we’ve seen is any indication, malicious spam we receive in 2012 will come in every available delivery method - email, social networks, IM - and continue to take every conceivable form: shipping confirmations, missed deliveries, reversed credit warnings, utility bills, credit card statements, complaints about you to the Better Business Bureau (whether or not you operate a business), online order confirmations from small boutique etailers, bank statements, electronic funds transfer rejection notices, poorly-spelled ‘friend notification’ emails from a wide variety of social networking sites.
Smartphones and malicious apps
I don’t want to leave the mobile world out of the fun list. The sheer volume of copycat Android malware coming out of, in particular, China is just astonishing. There are whole Markets hosted overseas just rippling with malicious badness, as well as ripoff artists on this side of the pond trying to scam whatever they can.

Should You Consider Switching To Gmail?

Many of our customers express dissatisfaction with their current email service provider. Not enough space, confusing to use, too much spam, and doesn’t work with other email programs are some of the complaints we hear.
My recommendation has been and continues to be... “Switch to Gmail!”

Why?

1. It’s easy to set-up
2. It’s easy to use
3. You get plenty of storage
4. Packed with free features
5. It’s FREE

Registering takes 5 minutes and is super easy. Follow the prompts and Voila... Your a Gmail user.

Features- With 7.5GB of storage (which is difficult to use up for a personal email account) you will never have to delete an email again.  Other useful features included are; integrated calendars and tasks (which can be shared ), chat/talk functions, social media integration, address book and online document storage.

Integrate other email accounts - Another way Gmail separates itself from other providers is the way other email accounts can be imported and redirected to your Gmail account. This means you can still use your old address if your existing contacts have it, but manage and read all emails from one account - Gmail. If you choose, gmail also allows you to send emails from the non Gmail account.

 Priority Inbox, Filters and labels -  Your new best friend when it comes to fighting SPAM and organizing emails.  Gone is wasting your time putting emails in their appropriate “folder”. Priority Inbox allows you to prioritize which emails you see first and the best part?... YES! it’s all automated so messages go exactly where you want them to.

Easily add additional custom addresses - Gmail allows you to set-up virtually unlimited number of custom sub-addresses. It’s a great way to test whether or not a list your subscribing to is sending out spam. Ever wanted to know who’s selling your email information to “advertisers”? Now you can!

Conversation view - Groups replies with their original messages, making it easy to organize and follow email conversations.

And tons more additional features that I can't fit on a blog post!

I guess what I'm saying is... if you haven’t yet joined the Gmail party, you’re missing out. The reasons listed above are just a few of the many features and options Gmail provides email users to make our lives less chaotic.