Three Ways To Prevent Online Identity Theft

This month, I've pulled the topic from many of the questions I received over the past few weeks. Questions like: How do I protect myself online? Should I worry about identity theft? What's a cookie? Do you want a cookie? These questions(all but that last one) are motivated by the fear of the unknown so I wanted to ease that fear with a little information. I'm going to outline the three most effective ways to protect your identity online.

#1. Don't fall for phishing scams.

The attacker in a phishing(pronounced fishing) scam wants you to login at a fake website so they can get your password. They get you to that website by sending an email that looks like it came from your bank, eBay, Paypal, etc. The email usually includes some sort of call to action, saying that your account is under seige or that your children are being carried off by some large corporation and the only way to fix it is to login with your *password*.

If you login at the fake website the damage is done. Your login information will be emailed off to the attacker or put in a database for later use. It may not ever be used since a successful phisher will most likely end up with more accounts than they can use. Needless to say, you'd rather they not have that data at all.

So how do you protect yourself from phishing attacks? First, don't click on any links in email asking you to login. If you must login to a website to check out a potential issue, go to your web browser and type in the website address manually(enter wamu.com or ebay.com for example). Also beware that some phishing attacks reportedly are using phone numbers instead of website links, so if you need to call your bank, use the phone number on your card or bill. It's all too easy to setup an 800 number with a computer answering system that sounds official.

#2. Know your computers

One way attackers have found to get passwords, credit card numbers, and other sensitive information is through the use of a keylogger. Keyloggers exist in the form of software(as distributed by a virus or spyware) or as an adapter that connects inline with your keyboard. This sounds ok until you realize all the sensitive information you type into that keyboard.

Just knowing that keyloggers exist should make you suspicious of computers in public places or that are infected with a virus or spyware. If a computer is acting strangely(lots of popups or extremely slow), it's not a great idea to login to your bank account with that machine.

#3. Keep track of data you care about

Since computers are such useful tools, we often fill them with our financial data, plans, and email conversations. As we surf the web, there is also a trail left in the cache and cookies stored on your computer. Before you donate or hand down that old computer, you might want to remove the hard drive(where the data is stored), or have the hard drive erased using a secure hard drive erase utility. One tech I talked to actually takes a pickaxe to his retired hard drives.

Lastly, I'd like to make a note about cookies to answer the cookie question. A cookie is a small file that is saved by your web browser on behalf of a website. This file identifies this web browser when you return to the website later. The benefit of this tool is that the site can remember that you are logged in. If you are concerned about cookies, you can disable them for all but the website you trust. I could write a lot more about cookies but that's the jist of it.

In summary, the most effective way to protect yourself online is to watch out for phishing scams. Next, develop a healthy suspicion of computers in public places or that display erratic behavior. Third, know where your sensitive data resides and protect that information from untrusted parties. Finally, don't worry too much about cookies. They are useful tools but if you are concerned you can just enable them for the websites you trust.

HP Recovery CD tricks

Who likes to pay to learn about secret options in tools you already purchased? That's just what I did recently with HP and it's recovery CDs. I present the information here so that nobody else has to pay for the secret options.

I recently had a problem using HP Recovery CDs to bring a computer back to the day it was purchased. This process is normally only used if Windows XP is severely damaged by a virus or hard drive failure. Therefore, you're only using these CDs when there are no other options to fix a computer's software state.

For the record, I was repairing an HP a730n and was met repeatedly with the error "Cannot recover file" while the initial copy operation was executing from CDs 2 through 8. I was given the option to abort, retry, or fail and usually retry would work if after a few attempts. Once I got to the end of the file copying, the recovery still failed as the copied files were attempted to be extracted. When I saw such files as cmd.exe and rundll32.dll failing, I knew the recovery was not going to work.

I then called HP and after giving the model and serial number, was told the computer was out of warranty and I could purchase phone support for 14 days for $45, 1 year for $99 or even 1 year of hardware replacement for $119 given that the computer is in good working order. Once I paid the $45 I was directed to a technical support rep.

He was quite helpful, telling me that the CDs need to be clean to avoid such errors(these were sparkling clean). As I started the recovery once again, I got to the first screen after CD 1 boots showing the choices: R for non-destructive recovery, F for full system recovery, or Q to quit. At this point I got my $45 dollars worth. There's a secret option at this screen of using Ctrl-Backspace that gives 9 or 10 options to do a system recovery piece by piece.

The one he recommended was option 6, completely erase the hard drive including the recovery partition. He suspected that the recovery partition was corrupt and that the recovery cd's use that partition in some way. Doesn't make sense to me but I think the secret option is useful and should be not secret anymore. That's why I'm blogging it here. If you ever have to do an HP recovery and it doesn't work, try Ctrl-Backspace on the first screen. It might just save you $45 or more.