My Wonder Geek informed us that it was time to upgrade Windows.....and change pass words. Already? Again? What a pain! That point was brought to mind again when another rash of those empty emails with links hit me again this past week. There are a few things you can do to help stop this stuff. Even though I let the person know that they are spreading trojan/virus stuff, they seem to just plain ignore it. If it occurs 3 times.....I now just block those senders from my list.
First.....add a "fake" address to your email contacts. A simple example is........aaa.anon@yahoo.com. This is how it was explained to me: With the aaa at the beginning, this will be the first contact in your list. If your email gets hacked, and the trouble maker sends out those emails, the first one comes back as deliverable and puts a squash on the rest.
Second......change those passwords.....to something that is not a word. I was so guilty of this until Wonder Geek gave me this tip. Pick your favorite song, poem, Bible verse, quote, etc. Use the first letter of each word adding uppercase, and numbers and symbols. Example: Row, row, row your boat could be expressed as "rX3yB-gdtS" or as "3RurB!Gdts" . Simple combinations that make sense to you, are the hardest ones to crack.....and I still write them down in a notebook in pencil. The password should be at least 8 characters.....and 10 is better.
We live in a digital world, so expect increase attacks. Too bad that rotary cutters, scissors and pins won't stop them. I am prepared on that front. And don't get me started on those lousy robo sales calls......I now tell them to contact homeland security at 202.555.1212 for permission! It hasn't helped but I get a giggle out of it. Stay safe online and happy stitching.
7 comments:
Thank you for a very good reminder and useful tips.
That fake email is a wonderful tip, I haven't heard that one before. Some days I feel like that's all I got done was changing passwords.
Useful tip for the password - I shall remember that! The sales calls are a pain over here in NZ too, just when we're sitting down to an evening meal you can bet someone will call and even when you politely say:thank you but we're not interested" they carry one so I now just put the 'phone down.
Very good advice. Thanks
I am interested in trying that fake email address, too. Thanks!
The password tip is a good one and one the experts tell you to do. However, the fake email address will not work. This tip was one that was being passed around the internet years ago as a way to prevent viruses from spreading by way of your own address book. This was proven as wrong for that and on the Snopes page, they have explained the reason why this won't work if you'd like to read it. There were many different versions of the fake address at the top of your address book from what you mentioned, to using characters and numbers only which also will not work. The link below will explain more. Sorry, I know we all wish this were true, sadly it is not. If only it were that simple.
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/quickfix.asp
Well...darn it.....thanks for the heads up on this.
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