A sector is a small area on the surface of a hard drive or a floppy disk.

Hard drives usually have several platters. The platters are the discs which are covered with magnetic material which is used to hold data. Floppy disk drives contain only one platter.

Platters are divided into a set of concentric rings called tracks. A 1.44MB floppy disk has 160 tracks. Hard drives have thousands of tracks.

Each of these tracks is divided into smaller storage areas called sectors. A sector is the smallest storage area on a disk.

What is a Bad Sector?

Hard drives are contain millions of sectors. It is very normal for some of these sectors to be bad sectors, even when the drive is first manufactured.

In addition, a small number of sectors will normally go bad during the lifespan of a drive.

When this happens, the data in those sectors may be lost, but the data on the rest of the disk will be unaffected and the disk is still completely usable.

A bad sector cannot be repaired, but it can be marked as unusable. Once marked as unusable, the Operating System will know not to attempt to store data in that bad sector. The storage capacity of the disk will be decreased by the amount of storage space in the bad sector.

If your hard drive develops a bad sector, back the hard drive up immediately. If the bad sector was caused by a faulty drive head, the problem can quickly spread to other sectors on the disk.

Occasionally one or more sectors on an otherwise good hard drive will go bad.

When this happens, the data in those sectors may be lost, but the data on the rest of the disk will be unaffected and the disk is still completely usable.

Those bad sectors can not be repaired, but they can be marked as unusable. Once marked as unusable, the Operating System will know not to attempt to store data in those bad sectors. The total disk capacity will be decreased by the amount of storage space in those bad sectors.

If your hard drive is experiencing a bad sector, back it up immediately. If the bad sector was caused by a faulty drive head, the problem can spread to many other sectors across the disk.

How to “Repair” a Bad Sector in Windows XP

* Press the button.
* Select .
* Under Hard Disk Drives highlight the disk which you want to scan.
* Open the menu and choose
* Open the tab.
* Click the button.

In earlier version of Microsoft Windows and DOS, this functionality was built into the `scandisk` and `chkdsk` utilities.

Once the bad sector or sectors have been “repaired”, continue to back up your hard drive on a regular basis. Hard drives are mechanical devices and all mechanical devices will eventually fail.

Try This

If you can’t open your Personal Folders file (.pst) (Personal Folders file (.pst): Data file that stores your messages and other items on your computer. You can assign a .pst file to be the default delivery location for e-mail messages. You can use a .pst to organize and back up items for safekeeping.) or your Offline Folder file (.ost) (Offline Folder file: The file on your hard disk that contains offline folders. The offline folder file has an .ost extension. You can create it automatically when you set up Outlook or when you first make a folder available offline.), or you suspect that your .pst or .ost data file is corrupt, you can use the Inbox Repair tool (Scanpst.exe), to diagnose and repair errors in the file.

1. Quit Microsoft Outlook if it’s running.
2. Double-click Scanpst.exe, located at drive:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\LocaleID folder – where LocaleID is the locale identifier (LCID) for the installation of Microsoft Office. The LCID for English – United States is 1033.
3. In the Enter the name of the file you want to scan box, enter the name of the .pst or .ost file that you want to check, or click Browse to look for the file.
4. To specify scan log options, click Options, and then click the option you want.
5. Click Start.

* When the scanning is completed, and if errors were found, you will be prompted to start the repair process.

To change the name or location of the backup file created during the repair process, in the Enter name of backup file box, enter a new name, or click Browse to look for the file.

1. Click Repair.
2. Start Outlook using the profile that contains the .pst file that you tried to repair.
3. On the Go menu, click Folder List (Folder List: Displays the folders available in your mailbox. To view subfolders, click the plus sign (+) next to the folder. If the Folder List is not visible, on the Go menu, click Folder List.).

In the Folder List, you may see a Recovered Personal Folders folder containing default Outlook folders or a Lost and Found folder. The recovered folders are usually empty, because this is a rebuilt .pst file. The Lost and Found folder contains folders and items that the Inbox Repair tool recovered. Items that are missing from the Lost and Found folder cannot be repaired.

1. If you see a Recovered Personal Folders folder, you can create a new .pst file, and then drag the items in the Lost and Found folder into the new .pst file. When you have finished moving all items, you can remove the Recovered Personal Folders (.pst) file, including the Lost and Found folder, from your profile.

Notes

* If you are able to open the original .pst file, you may be able to recover additional items from your damaged .pst file. By default, the Inbox Repair tool creates a file called file name .bak, which is a copy of the original .pst file with a different extension. The .bak file is located in the same folder as your original .pst file. You may be able to recover items from the .bak file that the Inbox Repair tool could not recover. Make a copy of the .bak file, giving the file a new name with a .pst extension. Import the “bak.pst” file, and then move any additional recovered items to the new .pst file that you created.
* A copy of the log file is written to the same location as the .pst file.

Then…

Import information from a Personal Folders file (.pst)

1. On the File menu, click Import and Export.
2. Click Import from another program or file, and then click Next.
3. Click Personal Folder File (.pst), and then click Next.
4. In the File to import box, specify the path and file name of the .pst file you want to import.
5. Choose one of the following:

Replace duplicates with items imported Existing data will be overwritten with the information in the file being imported.

Allow duplicates to be created Existing data will not be overwritten, and duplicates will be added to the current Outlook folder.

Do not import duplicate items Existing data will be kept, and the duplicate information in the file will not be copied to the current Outlook folder.

1. Follow the remaining instructions in the Import and Export Wizard.

Note You should not import items created in multiple languages or in a language that is not supported by your system code page to a file type that does not support Unicode. For example, if you have items created in multiple languages in a Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders file (.pst), you should not import the items to a Microsoft Outlook 97-2002 Personal Folders file (.pst). This file type does not support Unicode and therefore any items containing characters in any language other than those supported by the system code page in text fields other than the body of items (item: An item is the basic element that holds information in Outlook (similar to a file in other programs). Items include e-mail messages, appointments, contacts, tasks, journal entries, notes, posted items, and documents.) such as To and Subject lines of messages, ContactName and BusinessTelephoneNumber properties of contact items will be intepreted incorrectly and will result in the display of ‘?’s and other unintelligible text.

The message is saying that you are trying to open or execute a file and that file has an extension “.exe, .pdf, .doc, .mp3″ etc… that the system doesn’t have a default program for to run that file. For instance if you are trying to open a .doc file and you get that message the computer is looking for MS Word Viewer or MS Word to open that file.

Sometimes you will have to “associate a file with an application” in other words, tell you browser or operating system what program can be used to read a file type.

You need to choose a program to open it with. If you have saved the file, right click on it, select Open With, Choose Program and select the applicable program. Also tick mark to always open that file type with the program you selected.

The problem comes in when you put in a bad address, and then every time you go to type in the email address, the incorrect one appears in the auto complete list.

To fix this problem, there are two ways around this. The easiest way is this:

* Start typing in the address that shows up incorrectly.
* Hit the Down arrow key to select the auto completed address.
* Hit the Delete key to delete the auto complete address

The other way is by opening the profile folder and deleting the .nk2 file.

* Open up windows explorer, and paste the following into the address bar:

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Outlook
* Delete the Outlook.NK2 file that you find in this folder.

So, for example: when you double click to view a movie file on your computer, it is first loaded into RAM (a chunk at a time), then moved to the CPU (Central Processing Unit) where it is processed and decoded, and eventually output to the screen and sound card. And voila, you have your movie.

RAM is also known as “Primary Memory”. Comparatively, Virtual Memory (also known as Secondary Memory or Page Memory) is used in place of Primary Memory, but only if there is no Primary Memory available at the time.

Since Virtual Memory is stored on the hard drive, it is significantly slower than RAM; therefore, virtual memory usage should be avoided whenever possible. To compare: hard drive speeds are measured in Milliseconds (MS) where as RAM speeds are measured in Nanoseconds (NS). Generally speaking, the more RAM a computer has, the faster, or “more optimized” it is — especially when switching between tasks.

If you are constantly getting the message that your system needs to increase Virtual Memory settings
and you’re not overworking the PC, I would suspect a memory leak. This is, of course, assuming that you haven’t played with your virtual memory settings in Windows (it’s best to leave it alone or restore to default).

When all of your computer’s real physical memory (RAM) is in use, Windows will try to create virtual memory by grabbing a chunk of hard drive space and treating it like real memory. Your software can’t tell the difference between real and virtual memory, but you might because virtual memory access is much slower, due to the hard drive activity it requires.

If you encounter the low virtual memory error message, then you have used the maximum amount of real plus virtual memory that is supported on your system. Sometimes programs that crash or ones that are poorly designed will not return their working memory space to the operating system when they’re done using it. Other programs that need a large amount of memory to run may fail because Windows cannot “see” the available memory. In most cases, a shutdown and restart will resolve this problem.

Windows Knows Best

If you still see the dreaded “Your system is low on virtual memory” message then the first thing to do is make sure your computer is configured to allow Windows to automatically manage the virtual memory. In Windows XP, follow these steps:

* Click Start, then open the Control Panel.
* Click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.
* Click the Advanced tab.
* Under Performance, click Settings.
* Click the Advanced tab.
* Under Virtual memory, click Change.
* Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file (virtual memory) settings that you want to change. In almost every case, this will be your C: drive.
* Click to select the “System managed size” option, then click Set.
* Click OK three times and restart your computer.

When you allow Windows to manage your virtual memory, it should make the optimum amount of virtual memory available, by automatically shrinking or enlarging the paging file as needed. If that doesn’t solve the low virtual memory problem, there are a few more things you can try.

Eliminate Non-Essential Programs

Over time, we tend to accumulate a bit of clutter on a computer. My article “Making Windows XP Run Faster!” will show you how to keep your system updated, eliminate viruses & spyware, scrub the hard disk of unneeded files, slim down your startup selections, and eliminate unnecessary system services. All of these things will free up resources in your computer, making it run faster and more reliably.

Add RAM to Your System

It might just be the case that your computer needs more real, physical memory. By this I mean RAM sticks that can be purchased in most computer, electronics, or office supply stores. If your PC is more than three years old, chances are it’s close to being obsolete — at least in terms of the ability to run today’s resource-hogging software packages. And adding RAM to an older computer is the most effective thing you can do to upgrade it.

To see how much memory you have installed, follow these steps under Windows XP:

* Click Start, then open the Control Panel.
* Click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.

On the System Properties window, you’ll see the type and speed of your processor (CPU) and the amount of RAM. Note that Windows always seems to report that you have slightly less memory than you actually have. For example, if Windows reports 496 MB of RAM, you actually have 512 MB. (Memory will always be installed in 64 MB increments.)

The more RAM you have, the better your computer will perform. I recommend you have a minimum 256 megabytes (MB) of RAM, but with 512 MB or even a gigabyte of RAM, you’ll notice much better performance.

The Risks
Credit & Identity Theft
Zombie PCs
Online Banking
Invasion of Privacy
Vandalism
Liability
Cyber-Terrorism
Drive-by Hacker
What You Can Do

The Threats
Hackers
Hacker Tools
Viruses & Worms
Hybrid Viruses
Spyware
Software Security Holes

Computer Errors
Virtual Access Memory

Microsoft Outlook Errors

Misc
Using BCC in emails
How to Format Hard Drives WinXP
What is White Listing of Emails
This file does not have a program associated with it

The Myths of Security

I don’t have anything on my computer they would want.

Whether you know it or not, you do have personal information stored on your computer. Your computer saves information for you constantly without your knowledge. If you use your computer at all on the Internet, you have plenty of information about yourself and your financial profile stored on your hard drive. This is how your credit and identity can be stolen so easily.

Even if you don’t store anything you consider important on your computer, hackers really only want your computer for it’s processing power, and if you have a high speed Internet connection, they want that too. For a hacker, it’s
not about what is on your computer. They want to use your computer to send spam emails, to distribute pornography, and to attack other people. Your computer, if turned into a zombie PC, becomes a weapon and a money making opportunity for hackers.

Off-the-shelf anti-virus and a firewall is all I need.

The reality is that anti-virus and firewall programs alone are not enough to protect you against many types of hacker tools and other cyber-attacks. Even using both a firewall and anti-virus together, you are still vulnerable to
spyware, Trojan horses, remote access tools (RATs), password crackers, keystroke loggers, and much more.

Just as important, anti-virus and firewall programs do not provide you with critical security patches for your computer software. Microsoft issued thousands of security patches to their operating systems and other software last year. How many of those patches did you apply to your own computer? How many software security holes do you still have in your Windows operating system, Word, Excel, Outlook, Internet Explorer, etc? Closing these well-known security holes is imperative to keep hackers and the new hybrid worms off your computer.

You need more than just your anti-virus program or a firewall; you need a comprehensive security solution for your PC if you don’t want hackers, viruses and worms on your system invading your privacy.

And if you ever have a security problem with your PC, who would you call? You will pay a small fortune to get help from any of the cheap off-the-shelf security programs. Those products are not made to provide a total solution,
rather just a piece of a good overall protection strategy.

Without other programs that are available on the net FREE – chances are good that you will become a victim of a cyber-attack. You may have already been hacked and you would never know it! Don’t make the mistake of thinking
popular retail security programs are enough.

How much is all the time and money you’ve put into your computer worth to you? How important or valuable is the information on your computer? Would you really trust your privacy and security to a $40 security product?

My high-speed modem/router has a built-in firewall – I’m safe.

New high-speed cable and DSL modems, as well as other Internet hubs or routers have built-in firewall technology. These modems and routers are typically pretty good at shielding your computer or your small network of computers from random scans by hackers. BUT – those routers and modems must open up specific ports in order to allow computers behind those devices to connect to the Internet. Once a computer is connected to the internet – through one of these devices – that computer is OUTSIDE the protected network, and can be
attacked and infected.

High speed modems do absolutely nothing to protect you against spyware and hacker tool infections, or against viruses and worms. These routers and modems must allow your email program to connect to the Internet, as well as your instant messenger programs, file sharing programs, as well as your web browser itself.
Hackers can get to your computer through any of those programs. Your modem or router can’t do anything to protect you in that way. About the only thing they are good for is to shield your computer from random scans by hackers from the internet. While most of these devices will make your PC invisible online, they leave
you vulnerable to a wide array of cyber-attacks.

I am on a secured office network, so I am protected.

The type of network security afforded by small businesses and small home networks does nothing to prevent attacks via e-mail, web surfing, instant messenger programs, file sharing programs, wireless (WI-FI) access points, and more. Network security helps shield the network itself, but doesn’t do much to lock down each PC on the network.

Another huge problem with network security alone is that it does nothing to protect against “Insider hacking”. Any one computer on a network can be used easily to hack into another computer on the network because all the systems are already behind the network firewall. In order to protect against insider hacking, each computer must be protected individually with specific security technologies such as a personal firewall.

Network security systems also lack of ability to stop random outgoing connections from any one computer on the network. Many hacker tools work by getting planted on a PC via email and then automatically opening up and
connecting back out to the hacker’s computer. When this happens, the hacker gets the information they need to get inside the network. In simple terms, this means that if you can’t stop random outgoing Internet communications, hackers can get into your network fairly easily. The only way to stop these hacker tools from
automatically “phoning home” without your knowledge, is to stop the attack at the desktop level with a desktop firewall and intrusion detection system.

The bottom line is, if any one computer is compromised in any one of these ways, all of the other computers and the servers on the rest of the network are at risk – regardless of what network security measures have been implemented. Every individual computer on a network must be protected separately. By securing each
computer on the network individually you gain a critical layer of protection that is fundamental to a solid security strategy.

My Internet Service Provider keeps me safe.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) do very little to protect you. Some ISPs try to filter your emails for viruses, but can’t catch all of them. But ISPs do not protect you from hackers, spyware, and other cyber-attacks. Don’t be
fooled by any marketing pitches about security from your ISP. They do not protect you on your own computer, period.

My PC manufacturer will take care of my security needs.

PC manufacturers are not in the Internet security business. They do not provide comprehensive security on their new computers, and they do not have trained experts waiting to help you when you have a security problem. These companies generally include a trial version of an anti-virus program, but this isn’t done with your security needs in mind. Rather, they do it to make a little extra money from the anti-virus companies. Some PC manufacturers now offer very limited help with virus or spyware infections – but customers have to pay a steep
price for each incident. And, unfortunately, in today’s environment, you will also likely end up speaking with a technician from India when you are looking for help from these big manufacturers. This is not the kind of security service you need to protect your privacy.

When you go online, your PC is potentially connected to EVERY OTHER computer on the Internet around the world. And while the Internet provides you with endless information about anything, that same Internet creates a wide open window into your computer and your personal life from the outside world!

If you are like most people, you tend to guard your privacy closely in your own home. We don’t like people looking in our windows, or waiting outside to see when we come and go. We don’t even like people calling us to sell us something.
Yet, you can unknowingly expose yourself, your family and your business every day on the Internet.

Not adequately protecting your computer is like leaving the front door to your home wide open 24 hours a day. You might as well put a big neon “Open” sign on your house. You wouldn’t ever do that because you know better. BUT – that is exactly what you do if you don’t take the necessary steps to lock down your computer(s) and protect your privacy on the Internet.

Hackers

The media has used the term “hacker” to describe the malcontents and deviants that create problems and cause damage to personal and business computers. Although not all hackers do things with the intent of causing damage
or harm, hackers write malicious programs to gain access to other people’s computers without the victim’s knowledge or permission.

Hackers can invade your privacy in minutes from anywhere in the world. They can be on your computer, watching your every keystroke, and you would never know it. Everything you have on your computer is available to them. Credit card information, access to your online banking, family information and records, business information, contracts and other confidential documents are freely available. If you use passwords, they can crack them in seconds. If you have a web camera, they can turn it on and watch you! And this is just the tip of the iceberg. They can do all this anonymously, in the privacy of their own home, or even from a public library. It’s a free-for-all, because for the most part, they cannot be tracked or traced.

Hacker Tools

Over the years, hackers have developed tens of thousands of different hacker tools to break every system and program out there. Their list of tools includes password crackers; remote access tools (RATs), back doors, Trojan horses, keystroke loggers, spyware, time bombs, and more. There is virtually nothing they can’t do or break.
That’s the result of the work of millions of hackers each pounding away for hours upon hours to crack everything they can. This is a never-ending battle as new hacker tools are being created on a daily basis.

These dangerous hacker tools can be planted on your computer without your knowledge, and they now even come as a hidden payload inside new computer viruses. The only way to find and remove these dangerous hacker tools from your computer is to have the right technology on your PC, along with expert support when you need it.

Viruses & Worms

Hackers have become very good at writing computer viruses and worms and have caused literally billions of dollars in damage. You’ve probably heard about the more damaging ones on the news. And there’s a good chance that you’ve been infected with a virus or worm yourself, or you know someone who has. You may not even know
you’ve been infected in most cases if you don’t have the right anti-virus protection.

Viruses in the past have been more of an expensive nuisance than anything, infecting millions of computers with no real purpose. Viruses of the past caused performance problems on computers, possibly even shutting them down, forcing victims to have a professional remove the virus or reformat the computer. But the resulting
damages has been staggering.

FACTS:

. You can be infected through emails, instant messenger, downloads and by simply surfing the web.

Hybrid Viruses

There is a very dangerous evolution in computer viruses recently. New hybrid viruses and worms no longer simply duplicate themselves and tie up email inboxes and mail servers, slowing down the Internet and crashing computers.
These new hybrid viruses actually carry a damaging “payload” that is far more hazardous and can cause you a lot of pain and cost you a lot of money.

Viruses and worms like SoBig, MyDoom, and Bagle automatically install hacker tools on the victim’s computer. These viruses that come with hacker tools give the virus writer and other hackers a back door access to your computer – even after the virus has been cleaned off the machine!

Other new hybrid viruses actually scan your computer for your personal information like credit card numbers, passwords, online banking usernames and passwords, and even your address book, and automatically send that information back to the creator of the virus. With these hybrid virus attacks, hackers do more than just crash your computer; they can have complete control over your machine.
Experts believe that many of these dangerous new hybrid viruses may be part of an aggressive effort by hackers, organized crime groups, or even cyber-terrorists.

FACTS:

. The MyDoom virus become the most prolific virus of all time in a matter of a few weeks, infecting millions of PCs around the world and causing an estimated $38 billion in damages thus far. .
All the PCs infected with MyDoom were controlled by the virus creators and used together in a massive international cyber-attack on 2 U.S. corporations in March 2004.

Spyware

Spyware is created for one reason – to take advantage of other people; to spy on you, watch you, track everything you do, and steal information about you. Spyware comes in a variety of forms. The most common are “spyware cookies” and “spyware programs”.

A spyware cookie is any cookie that is not used only by a single web site for its private interactions with its users, but is shared across multiple sites. When multiple web sites read from the same cookie, or when they pass info from the cookie on to another site, those sites effectively share your personal information without your permission. Although most spyware cookies are not necessarily dangerous, they do invade your privacy and exploit your personal information for gain. Most people hate the fact someone is watching and tracking them while they use the Internet, and then selling your information to unscrupulous marketers and spam operators.

Spyware programs are really commercialized hacker tools built to allow someone to literally watch you and track everything you do on your computer. There are an increasing number of these spying programs now freely available on the Internet for purchase. Some of these newer spyware programs allow the intruder to send electronic greeting cards that install several hacker spy tools on your PC while you are reading the greeting card.

Many of these malicious spyware programs allow others to read your e-mail, see what web sites you visit, turn on your web camera and watch you, gather your computer passwords, and much more. Some other malicious programs also classified as spyware include keystroke loggers and web-dialers. While keystroke loggers track your every keystroke, web-dialers automatically dial certain 1-900 numbers from the victim’s computer without being noticed, running up huge phone bills through the victim’s ISP service. Although with less people using dialup modems these days, this is getting harder for these programs to work correctly.

These types of hacking and privacy invasion tools often lurk silently on your computer until something or someone sets them off. When that happens, you could lose passwords, personal data, credit card numbers, and open up a
back door to let the hacker into your computer or even your entire network of computers in the office. These dangerous spyware programs sneak past your firewall and anti-virus programs to invade your privacy and gain access to your computer. The ability to detect and remove these malicious programs from your PC is a critical part of your overall protection.

FACTS:

. The average PC is infected with at least 28 spyware programs.

Software Security Holes

Hackers take advantage of known security holes in popular software programs like Windows Operating Systems, web browsers,email programs, office applications, instant messenger programs, and other popular programs like music sharing technology.

All software created today is tested vigorously for its stability and function, but rarely is software adequately tested for security holes before it is released on the market for purchase. Most companies wait until hackers find the security holes and vulnerabilities in the newly released software, and then they issue patches to fix the security holes that have been brought to their attention. Microsoft alone releases several thousand patches each year to fix security holes and other problems with their software – after it was released!

Hackers count on the fact that nobody is patching their computer software so they can launch their attacks and gain access to systems around the world. For every known software security hole in MicrosoftÆ programs and other software, there are likely dozens or even hundreds of hacker tools and scripts created to exploit that specific software vulnerability. These “exploits” are shared freely among hackers around the world, making PCs that
don’t patch security holes an easy target for attack.

FACT:

. An un-patched PC connected to the Internet will last only 20 minutes before it is compromised by hackers or other malware.

Drive-by Hacking
One of the latest hacking trends is called “Drive-by Hacking”. Popular wireless Internet access points have now become a major target for hackers. Hackers simply take their laptop computers in their cars and drive through business parks or residential neighborhoods remotely scanning for open wireless networks. Millions of businesses and homes have implemented these wireless networks for their convenience, and now hackers can simply pull up
outside, up to 600 ft away, and gain access to the network, the Internet, and every computer on the network. This kind of hacking has become so popular, that you can even find public websites that sell maps to all the known “open” wireless networks around the globe.

Credit & Identity Theft

Identity theft is the fastest growing white-collar crime in America! This rapidly escalating crime can potentially damage your credit and good name – costing you time and money. Identity thieves use your social security number, address, even your medical records to run up thousands of dollars worth of debt – in your name.

Today’s computer systems are an easy target for stealing identities. Identity thieves have many ways of stealing your identity from your computer. There are hundreds of different hacker tools and spyware programs that can track your every keystroke, capture credit card information, and search out home addresses, social security numbers and dates of birth. Some hacker tools simply wait on your computer watching and listening for the right keystroke patterns and for personal information entered on website data entry forms. And other hacker
tools will send this personal information back to the hacker automatically upon discovering valuable data.

To make things worse, the newest viruses and worms spreading around the Internet infecting millions of computers have built-in hacker tools and spyware to find all the private information it can about you, and then automatically send your information back to the virus creator.

Have you heard of the term “phishing”? A Phish virus is an email that tricks users into entering personal information and submitting it to the sender of the email. With these fake emails, the creator of the virus is “phishing” for personal information from naive people. Several major banks like Citibank and Bank of America have been casualties of these types of Phish viruses, where banking customers have been duped into entering their private information into a fake website claiming to be the bank. You don’t have to be targeted by identity thieves to become a victim! Leaving your computer unprotected against these types of hacker tools leaves you at a major risk that your identity will be stolen at some point.

Individuals and small businesses have become prime targets for credit card theft in recent years. For businesses, an experienced hacker, can easily get customer lists, including credit card information, addresses, emails and other private data.
The fact is that business and personal computers left unprotected give hackers a free pass to stealing credit cards and either using them or selling them on the black market. Credit cards are stolen from computer hard drives, not while being used in a purchase on the web! Buying things off the web is actually very safe.
You are just as much at risk buying something from a retail store in a mall as you are when buying online. This is because virtually every business stores your information on their computers and also has access to the Internet, even if it’s just for email, and is vulnerable to hack attacks. It’s what businesses and consumers don’t do to protect their own computer systems that cause credit theft problems.

FACTS:

. There is an online black market for stolen credit cards. Stolen credit cards go for as little as $5 to $40.

Zombie PCs – Computer Hijacking
Would you ever know it if your computer were taken over and being used by a hacker? Not likely. When a hacker hijacks a computer, the victim rarely knows. A computer that has been hijacked is one that is completely taken over by a hacker, or a group of hackers, to be used for their own purposes.
The idea is that the real owner of the computer never knows their system has been hijacked, so the hacker(s) can secretly use it whenever and however they want.

Once a computer has been hijacked, the hacker claims ownership of that computer. In fact, in many cases when a hacker has taken over a computer, they will even “heal” the computer by closing the security holes, so no other
hacker can break into the computer and use it too. Computers that have been hijacked and are under the control of a hacker are known as “zombies”.

Some of the more popular uses for a Zombie computer include using it to send Spam emails, distribute pornography, download illegal copies of software, and to anonymously attack another computer, a business, a website, or even a government agency.

There have been many cases in the U.S. and around the world where a business or home computer has been hijacked and used for illegal purposes without the computer owner’s knowledge. These victims have had their computers used to distribute child pornography, deface websites, and even hack into government computers. In many cases, the owner of the hijacked computer (the business owner or the homeowner) has been arrested and hauled off to jail, only to be humiliated, demoralized and even convicted for crimes they didn’t commit.
Hackers are very good at hiding behind their slave or zombie computers.
A hijacked computer is a hacker’s protection of anonymity.

As unbelievable as it may seem, hijacked computers or “zombie” computers actually have a street market value in the hacker community. The better the computer and the faster the Internet connection of the slave machine, and the bigger the hard drive, the more it is worth on the market. Zombie computers are often leased out by hackers to other hackers, or even to organized crime groups, to be used for illegal purposes – without the computer owner’s knowledge. If a hacker or a cyber-gang can take over a hundred or a thousand computers, they have an army of computers at their disposal.

FACTS:

. Today, there are organizations that claim “ownership” of more than 450,000 zombie computers around the world that they use to anonymously send spam.

Online Banking

Tens of millions of people now do their banking, pay their bills and trade stocks online. Banks and other financial institutions have spent large sums of money to protect your information on their computers. And they generally do a good job of keeping your personal information secured on their systems.
They tell you that you are safe. But the real question is, can an Internet intruder get to your banking information through your personal computer? Who is keeping hackers from getting your online banking usernames and passwords from your own PC? Passwords for online banking accounts and stock trading accounts are easily cracked if a hacker gets onto your computer.

Even novice hackers can quickly dismantle your entire financial life if you aren’t prepared. Managing your money online is incredibly convenient and can be very safe, if you take the proper precautions to secure your system. You generally don’t have to worry about whether your bank is protecting your private information – you need to worry about thieves getting to your financial accounts through your own computer!

Invasion of Privacy

The online invasion of your privacy is a new concept to many people. The reality is that when you go online, your computer is connected to millions of other computers around the world, and is a window into your personal life. Many hackers are really just voyeurs who get their thrills from simply looking at what other people do or have on their computer. They like to read emails, look at pictures, and see what music you have. If they want a certain program or game that’s on the PC, or if they like the photos or other things, they can have it all if you haven’t locked them out.

You wouldn’t think of going on a vacation and leaving the front door to your home wide open, would you? Yet that is what people do when they go online and don’t take measures to lock down their computer. We shudder at the
thought of someone stalking our children or peeking through our windows at night. Yet we allow people we don’t know to invade our computers and watch everything we do while we are at the keyboard. Because we can’t see the intruder, it’s easy to not worry about it. In this new digital age, the threat to your personal and business privacy through your computer is real.

FACT:

. 20% of young Internet users have received unwanted sexual solicitations.

Vandalism & Loss of Data

The reality is that most people haven’t been victims of a vandalism cyber-attack. But if your computer is not properly protected, it can be vandalized from anywhere in the world, and you could lose everything you have on your computer. When a home computer is vandalized, it usually means something as simple as having certain files moved, changed or deleted, or something as extreme locking you out of your own computer, disabling your operating system, or crashing your computer altogether.

If you use a computer in your business, think of all the things you have on your computer, and then imagine losing it all. Computer vandalism can be disastrous. Imagine if you came into the office one morning and several of your confidential computer files were missing, or if all your customer data was deleted, or if you accounts receivable file was erased? What if the hacker just changed a few small, un-noticeable things in your files without your knowledge – like the terms of a contract, or the price of certain products? You can only imagine the potential
disaster waiting to happen if you leave your computers unprotected.

By far, the most common problems people have with their computers are the huge hassles and costs of repairing a computer that has been infected with viruses, spyware and other hacker tools. The cost of having to regularly fix or repair your computer can become a nightmare.

FACTS:

. You could pay thousands of dollars having a technician attempt to fix a vandalized computer and retrieve missing files. (It’s cheaper just to protect your PC to begin with.)

Liability

The bottom line with this trend in the law is that it is the responsibility of every computer owner to take adequate and appropriate steps to protect their computer(s). There have been many cases where an individual was mistakenly arrested and hauled off to jail because their home computer was used to attack a business or a government agency. In all cases, the people arrested were a victim of a hacker break-in where their computer was taken over and turned into a zombie, and then used by the hacker to attack another computer, to send spam,
or to distribute pornography. The lives of innocent people are being turned upside down, and they are guilty of only one thing – not protecting their computer(s)! It’s a good idea not to risk this kind of personal liability.

There are several recent laws that have been enacted that require businesses and professionals protect the information on their computer systems. These laws demand that businesses protect the private information of their customers from hackers and other breaches of privacy. Here are a couple of the more well-known privacy protection laws related to businesses.

The Graham Leach Bliley Act (GLBA) requires all financial institutions and other professionals that deal with other people’s money to protect their customer’s information. This includes banks, credit unions, financial planners, stockbrokers, CPAs, mortgage companies, insurance agents, and many other groups.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires all healthcare related organizations to protect a patient’s private health information. This includes health plans, doctors, hospitals, dentists, and other related healthcare organizations.

FACTS:

. Several states, like California, are enacting new laws at the state level that requires businesses of all types and sizes to protect customer information, and to report any attacks to their own customers and the government.

Cyber-Terrorism

There is a dangerous new frontier emerging in conflicts and political struggles around the world – that of cyber-terrorism. The vast majority of computers around the world are easy to take over and control because the lack
the proper security. When an attacker combines the power of tens of thousands of zombie PCs together in a focused attack, computers can be used to effectively disrupt businesses, lives and entire economies. Power plants can be shut down, dam spillways can be opened, hospitals systems can be taken offline, major phone networks can be jammed, and banking systems crashed – all in attacks from computers. Sounds like a sci-fi movie, right?
Well, it’s a reality – and all of those things listed have already happened in the past according the U.S. Homeland Security Department!

Governments around the world are scrambling to find ways to protect their infrastructures after several countries have been recently attacked by cyber-terrorists. In 2003, the “Slammer” worm began as a targeted attack against
South Korea by a radical Chinese hacker group. In this attack, the entire infrastructure of South Korea was taken down for several days, including air traffic control systems, ATM and banking systems, phone networks and more.
This attack wreaked havoc by paralyzing South Korea’s entire economy and disrupting millions of lives in that country. The Slammer worm attack spilled over to other countries around the world including the United States causing billions of dollars in damages globally.

There are many other examples of terrorist attacks via computers, including a real cyber-war that has been going on between Pakistan and India. Hacker groups from each country have carried out focused hack attacks against hospitals, power grids, and other critical infrastructures. No battles with guns and bombs, just a bunch of computers simultaneously attacking specific targets, causing economic damages and creating chaos and fear.

The U.S. government released their “Strategy to Protect Cyberspace” in late 2003 where they warn of future cyber-attacks against U.S. interests. The reality is that these attacks will include hacked computers within the United States itself! Experts predict that we have only just begun to see the types of attacks that could be brought about through cyber-terrorism.

FACTS:

. The U.S. government has warned U.S. citizens to protect their portion of cyber-space for their own protection, and to help prevent terrorists or others from using home and business computers in an attack against U.S. interests.

What YOU can do.

Now that you’ve become aware of the many threats and risks, you need to get the best protection you can find. If you use the Internet you are at risk. The threat is real. Make sure you speak to us to get the solution to these
issues today!!!

Step One
When you format a computer hard drive you will lose everything that is on the drive. Therefore, it is very important to back up anything you might want later. Additionally, if you are going to be formatting and installing Windows you need to make sure you have the discs for any applications or third party hardware you use since you will need to re-install your programs and drivers after re-installing Windows.

Step Two
Take a moment to think of anything that you have on the computer that you wouldn’t want to lose. Generally, you probably want everything in your My Documents folder, and you also want to save things like your favorites or bookmarks from your Web browser. Remember that each user on the computer has his or her own My Documents folder, Desktop items and Favorites/Bookmarks.

Step Three
Save everything to a CD, DVD or a hard drive that you won’t be formatting.

Formatting a Secondary Hard Drive

Step One
Right-Click on the “My Computer” icon either on your desktop or in the Start Menu and select “Manage.”

Step Two
A new window titled “Computer Management” comes up. Select “Storage” from the left hand side by clicking it once, then select “Disk Management(local)” from the right side by double-clicking it.

Step Three
Now in the lower part of the main frame (right side) of the window you should see a nice visual of all your hard drives. Each line is a different drive. Each box on a line (with a colored bar at the top and a size displayed in MB or GB) is a partition on the drive. Partitions are separations of space on a drive. Unless you are doing something specific that requires multiple partitions, you only want one partition per drive.

Step Four
First you must delete any existing partitions on the drive you are going to format. Do this by right-clicking on the partition’s box and selecting “Delete Partition…” Since you already know that you will be deleting everything on the drive, and have already backed everything up, you can safely say yes to any warning the computer presents you with.

Step Five
If there are multiple partitions make sure you have saved everything off them since they might each have different drive letters (i.e. “D:” or “F:”). Then repeat the above step for each of them. If you only want to format one partition that is OK and you can continue to the next step without deleting the other partitions.

Step Six
The box for the drive to be formatted should now have a black bar at the top of it and should say “Unallocated” under its size (see picture). Right click on it and select “New Partition…” The New Partition Wizard comes up.

Step Seven
In the New Partition Wizard click next. On the next page make sure “Primary Partition” is selected and click next. Now make the size equal to the maximum (it should already be set to it), and click next again. On the next page the computer will automatically choose the first available drive letter for the new drive. However, if you like you can choose another drive letter from the drop-down menu, and then click next.

Step Eight
Finally the New Partition Wizard asks if you would like to format the new partition and if so what format. If your computer will be sharing files over a network with a Windows ME, 98 or 95 computer select “FAT32.” Otherwise choose “NTFS” as it is faster and more secure. Leave the “Allocation unit size” as “Default.” In the “Volume label” field enter whatever name you want the drive to have. Simple is better. Avoid using spaces. Lastly, if the drive is brand new and has never been used before check the “Perform a quick format” box. If the drive has been used before leave this box unchecked. Leave the “Enable file and folder compression” box unchecked and click next. Then on the next page click finish.

Step Nine
The wizard will now spend a little while formatting the drive. On old or large drives this may take a while. Do not close the “Computer Management” window until it finishes. You will know it is done when the word under the size of the drive changes from “Formatting” to “Healthy” and the name and drive letter you chose for the new drive show up. After it is finished you can proceed to use your newly formatted drive.

Formatting and Installing from the Windows XP CD

Step One
This section explains how to reformat a drive from the Windows XP installation CD. This can be used when installing a fresh copy of Windows onto a computer. Here it is especially important to backup all of your important information because upon formatting you will lose EVERYTHING that used to be on the drive. This includes all applications and device drivers, so you must back up everything you can.

Step Two
Insert your Windows XP installation disc into your CD drive (Home or Pro–it does not matter).

Step Three
Restart your computer. On the first screen that comes up as your computer starts it should say at the bottom a key that you can press to change the Boot Sequence (may also be called Boot Device or Boot Order). Press whatever key is specified. If your computer does not give you the option to change the boot sequence directly from the startup screen you will need to enter your BIOS Setup by pressing whichever key your computer specifies for Setup. From the BIOS setup you need to change your boot order so that the CD drive is before Hard Disks. If all you see right when your computer starts up is a splash screen with the computer manufacturer’s name, press the ‘Esc’ key to display which keys to press for boot sequence or BIOS setup.

Step Four
Now as you computer boots a little more it will say “Press any key to boot from CD..” press a key to do so.

Step Five
The CD will load up a blue screen and then spend a while loading files it needs. When it is finished it will list a few options, mainly “Press ENTER to set up Windows XP.” Press Enter or Return.

Step Six
Now you will be at a screen to select where to install Windows to. This is where you can delete old partitions and format drives. The box in the bottom half of the screen shows all your drives and the partitions that exist on them. Use the Up and Down arrow keys to highlight your “C:” partition and press the ‘D’ key (if all that shows up is “Unpartitioned space” and you have no C: or D: partitions, skip this step). On the next screen press the ‘L’ key to finalize deleting the partition.

Step Seven
Now you are back on the screen to choose where to install Windows. The box on the lower half of the screen should no longer show a partition but simply have an entry “Unpartitioned space xxxxxMB.” Select this with the arrow keys and press the ‘C’ key to create a partition on the drive. The next screen tells you the minimum and maximum sizes the partition can be and lets you pick the size. The default size is the maximum, but double check that the number entered is the maximum and hit enter.

Step Eight
Now you will again be back at the choose where to install Windows screen. But this time you will have a partition that looks something like this “C: Partition1 [New (Raw)]xxxxxxMB.” Highlight this entry and press enter.

Step Nine
The next screen lets you choose which file system to format the drive with. If your computer will be sharing files over a network with a Windows ME, 98 or 95 computer, select “FAT32.” Otherwise choose NTFS as it is faster and more secure. If the drive is brand new and has never been used before then use one of the options that ends in “(Quick).” Or, choose one of the lower down options. Use the arrow keys to select the proper one and press Enter or Return.

Step Ten
From here you are all set and the installation of Windows will proceed starting with a format of your drive. This will take a while (over half an hour) so you can take a little break.

Warnings

* YOU MUST ALWAYS BACKUP BEFORE ANY FORMAT IS
PERFORMED OR YOU WILL LOSE DATA THAT YOU NEED.