What Is Carbon Monoxide?
Did you know that carbon monoxide poisoning is the leading cause of deaths related to poison in the United States? Carbon monoxide is colorless, odorless, and it can kill you before you even realize that something is wrong. Carbon monoxide comes from generators, stoves, water heaters, and cars. Carbon monoxide come in both a liquid and a gas form, and when lit, has a violet flame. The poison bonds to your hemoglobin at the spots where oxygen usually bonds, and then it essentially cuts of the oxygen to your brain, heart, and other vital organs. A Carbon Monoxide detector can protect you and your family from this dangerous poison.
What Does A Carbon Monoxide Detector Accomplish?
A carbon monoxide detector will alert you to a problem with the poison before anyone experiences symptoms and will protect you from inhaling this deadly chemical. The Carbon Monoxide detector will beep to alert you of excess poison in the air. The detector will allow you to immediately clear your home of people and/or pets. You will have the opportunity to ventilate the home, and then hire a professional to find the specific source of the leak.
Symptoms Of Carbon Monoxide Exposure
Confusion, blurred vision, muscle weakness, light-headedness, vomiting, nausea, severe headaches, and ultimately unconsciousness. Children, elderly, pregnant women, and people with respiratory difficulties are more sensitive and will be affected more quickly than others.
What To Look For In A Carbon Monoxide Detector:
Buy a UL standard brand, and install your Carbon Monoxide detector at least five feet from the floor. You should do this because carbon monoxide is lighter than air, so it rises. Do not install the Carbon Monoxide detector near any gas producing device, such as a gas heater or stove. It is highly recommended to install a detector in the bedroom or sleeping area of your home, so the alert will be loud enough for everyone to hear it, wake up, and get to safety. Make sure the Carbon Monoxide detector is not installed behind furniture or near draperies. You can buy a Carbon Monoxide detector at nearly every home improvement store. Other department stores, such as Target and WalMart, will carry a variety of brands as well. There are detectors now that offer protection detection from both smoke and carbon monoxide.
Carbon monoxide is also known as a silent killer. Take the steps and precautions to protect yourself and your loved ones.
Margarette Tustle writes for the home and the family. Find more important detector resources at factdector.com.
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If you are a webmaster, you will find that one of the most valuable things you can use is the referrer. On the other hand, if you are a surfer, you may want to disable this feature as it can be a security risk and a violation of your privacy.
What is this referrer thingie? Well, all web servers have the capability to create log files and virtually all web masters (at least those who know what they are doing) use these logs to determine how their web site is doing. The log files contain one line for each hit to the web site. The format and contents of the line vary from server to server (and webmasters can specify they want more or less information), but in general it has an incredible amount of information about that one hit.
Some of the information gathered for each hit to a web site includes (among other things):
- The requested file (for example, index.html) - A status code indicating success or error (404 errors, for example) - The browser type being used by the surfer (this is the agent name, and it can also be the name of a search engine spider or a spam harvester). - The screen resolution of the surfer’s monitor - The date and time (locally to the server) of the hit - The TCP/IP address of the surfer (yes, every web page that you have ever looked at has your TCP/IP recorded in a web server log file somewhere). - The URL where the surfer came from
It’s this last statistic that causes some concern. Oh, there is a minor issue in that your TCP/IP address is stored in the server logs when you access a page, but this is not very important. You see, these logs do not tend to last very long as they get very large extremely quickly. Many (if not most) web sites purge these as soon as statistics are gathered. Conceivably, of course, this could be of concern if an investigation were performed … and these logs are looked at by webmasters for hacking attempts.
No, the important information is the referrer field. Why? Well, first there is the privacy question. If a webmaster knew your TCP/IP address (and he would have to know your address specifically, since this is the only thing relating you to the line in the log file - there is no name or email address stored there) he could get an idea of what you looked at before you came to his site. Thus, there is a remote chance that your privacy could be compromised … a very remote chance since this is virtually never done by any webmaster.
The second, and very critical problem is a real security risk. You see, many websites allow you to log into their sites to personalize your experience. These sites allow you to enter personal data such as credit card information, social security numbers and other items into their database. Generally cookies are used to identify you as you move from page to page through the web site. Cookies are by far the best and preferred way to do this - it’s called maintaining context. However, cookies are frowned upon my many surfers for various reasons (mostly blown out of proportion fears created by a press that feels it needs dangers and bad news to stay competitive).
Thus, some clever webmasters have come up with alternate ways to allow their web sites to know that “you are you” as you move around on their site. A very sloppy method consists of adding a username and password on to the end of each URL.
For example, suppose you log into a shopping site with a username and password like so:
URL: http://www.anyshoppingsite.com Username: innocent Password: naive
If you moved to a page called “toys.htm”, the URL might become:
http://www.anyshoppingsite.com?u=innocent?p=naive
You see the problem? Not yet? Okay, there is no problem as you move around from page to page within the shopping site. The problem results when you surf to another page outside of the shopping site.
What happens? Well, if you surfed to another site from the page above, that URL complete with the username and password would be added to the server log files. Guess what, your username and password just got recorded in plain text somewhere completely unexpected.
So what’s the problem really? Well, let’s say you went to your shopping site, logged in and made some purchases. To make it simple for you, your credit card numbers are stored on the site and you can retrieve them at any time after you are logged in. Everything seems safe because you need a username and password to get in.
Now, when you are finished shopping you are supposed to log out. This would remove the username and password from the referrer. However, you don’t do this and instead surf to another site. You leave your username and password in that webmasters log files. If that webmaster happens to check his log files he could get your username and password, log into your account and get your credit card numbers.
Are you alarmed yet?
Okay, how do you stop this from happening? It’s relatively easy, actually. You get a product called AdSubtract and install it on your computer. By default this product will remove the referrer field as you surf around. You are now protected.
Oh yes, one side effect is you cannot just surf to that shopping site, since the login information is removed by AdSubtract. Fortunately, AdSubtract allows you to configure exceptions. All you need to do is enter the “filters” section, add your shopping site and specify to not remove the referrer.
And that, my friends, is how you protect yourself from one of the internet’s biggest gaping security holes. I hope this has been of use to you.
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Every single computer on the internet is at risk from PC threats which include viruses, Trogans spyware, adware, key loggers, the list goes on. Most people genuinely try by buying an anti-virus program or an anti-spyware package which will help but there are still many other problems that need to be addressed.
More and more people are using PC’s these days for internet banking, paying bills, online shopping, using programs to manage financial information, and much more. It’s great to be able to do all these things without stepping out the door, but what people are actually doing is storing some of their most valuable information on PC’s and if the proper precautions are not taken hackers can have a field day.
Hackers and virus writers are getting increasingly sophisticated every day. At the same time, people are storing more and more confidential information on their computers. A good hacker can enter an unguarded PC through your browser, download your, credit card numbers, social security numbers, your entire identity is there for them take and use at there discretion.
Most people realize that they should be taking some type of security measure, but they don’t know where to begin. Before you ever risk all the data on your computer again, you need to know exactly where to begin locking your PC down or you are taking some serous risks.
I have been working in the IT industry for many years now and it has been a scary experience to see how PC threats have evolved. People need to seek good advice and put a system in place to protect their computers and themselves against the many PC threats.
I recommend people to use the Windows update feature, a trusted anti-virus package, a trusted anti-spyware package, and make sure they are set to auto update. These three things will certainly help guard against many of the nasty PC threats but other precautions still need to be taken to insure your PC protection.
I suggest people download and put to use the free information provided at www.yourpcprotection.com.
Glenn Munn
Information Technology support officer
(MCP)Microsoft Certified Professional
Comptia A+ accredited
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Go into to any office and look under the computer keyboards and you’ll eventually find a little piece of paper with that users logon ID and passwords. Probably every password that person has.
This illustrates a serious problem with the use of networked computers in business. User apathy and IT security arrogance often combine to defeat the purpose of established security policies.
What happens is that IT security policies clash with usability. Most customers will not follow policies they see as too difficult. One place IT policies and user compliance clash is at the point of entry for any secure computer system. The logon screen.
First, let’s agree on a definition for a strong password.
From Webopedia, A password that is difficult to detect by both humans and computer programs, effectively protecting data from unauthorized. A strong password consists of at least six characters (and the more characters, the stronger the password) that are a combination of letters, numbers and symbols (@, #, $, %, etc.) if allowed. Passwords are typically case-sensitive, so a strong password contains letters in both uppercase and lowercase. Strong passwords also do not contain words that can be found in a dictionary or parts of the user’s own name.
Customers will not use difficult passwords. Sorry, they just won’t! For instance, you have two passwords: 1Xc%&27m3 and parrott5. Which is the strongest? Which do you think your customers will use?
The key here is education. End-users must be educated on the seriousness of computer security and IT security professionals need to be aware of the needs of their user base.
You should avoid sequential passwords: parrott1, parrott2, parrott3… You should use a password that is easy to remember, but not in any dictionary. Maybe combine parts of two words, adding capital letters and numbers.
IT security professionals may not like this compromise, but it is better than passwords that are easily broken.
Strong passwords are critical to the security of any computer security, but are they the best way to control access? In part two, we’ll look at alternatives to passwords.
Parrott Writing Services, a San Antonio Texas company specializing in web content, ghostwriting, website optimization, online/offline ad copy and technical writing to small businesses.
http://www.rickparrott.com
Send an email to: EBOOK@sasecure.net for a FREE electronic copy of my eBook on Computer Security!
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As a computer technician and tutor, I get asked a lot of questions about technology and computers in general. The one question that out-ranks all the others in the number of times I’ve been asked is this: “Why do people hack?”
Myth: Hackers are bad. Actually, hackers are merely computer programmers who go in to someone else’s code and reorganize it somehow. The term is well charted and defined by Wikipedia and doesn’t directly refer to anything malicious. Quite the opposite; hackers are programmers to whom we owe a lot of thanks for working out troubles in software and the Internet.
Truth: Hackers actually lay claim to a Manifesto from 1986 that inspires curiosity and fairness and being accountable for one’s actions. The manifesto was written just after the author’s arrest for “Bank Tampering.” His best lament is, “my crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.” Indeed, the pressure of being constantly watched forced “The Mentor”’s resignation in 1990. To all hackers, he is considered a living legend.
The Answer: The damage that’s done on the Internet and perhaps to your computer or your neighbor’s computer isn’t done by true ‘hackers.’ Would you call a graffiti vandal an artist or a ‘painter’ in the classical sense? Little folks spray paint buildings because they can. Sometimes it may feel that it’s the only way to leave any mark with a life that feels too small for anyone to notice.
Peers notice though. The greater the achievement, the greater the coverage. It’s a dark fame from a malicious act with no definite target. YOU weren’t meant to suffer from an attack; the attack was meant to be seen, however. The first Internet Worm in history was actually a good experiment that grew systemically accidentally crashing every computer it came in touch with. Many malicious code writers and ‘crackers’ begin honestly enough just learning how to write code.
With any knowledge comes a tipping point where a decision has to be made. You eventually get better than the average person and able to do things that bend outside what was meant to happen. Most skills don’t leave one wondering if they can damage other people’s property (the cook doesn’t graduate culinary school wondering if they should poison people for example), but computer programing reveals that there’s an awful lot of stuff out there that’s ready to break or corrupt with a little push in the wrong direction.
When you learned to walk, did you step on ants? Why? “Because I could; because they were there; because I wanted to; because it looked like fun.” I’ll bet your answer isn’t because you like hurting or killing things. As you matured, you used those same feet to take you somewhere. In time, all the modern crackers will mature and most likely become brilliant members of programming society.
There is no one magic answer. It’s something that happens and you aren’t the target. You don’t understand it because you don’t do it. It is a crime, but it’s often just a juvenile act of poor choice and misdirected skills. Defend yourself with anti virus softwares, don’t fall for e-mail scams and know that someday those mischievous feet will be somewhere good.
Bryan Applegate has learned a lot about computers in the last two decades. In teaming up with Dinarius, Inc he uses his powers to do good by being a tutor. More free lessons and advice can be found at Dinarius.com
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Spyware Solution
Probably Today’s Biggest Computer Problem.
You Suffer Without Knowing Your PC is Infected!
“The effects can be devastating…and very costly.”
“Probably the biggest problem PC User’s
are experiencing right now.”
Symptoms
PC runs very slowly for no apparent reason.
It is difficult to access the Internet.
Bandwidth seems to be reduced.
Unwanted popup ads and often when you are not even surfing the web.
Changed Internet Explorer home page, (known as Hijacking).
Your PC is slowing down to a crawl.
Why You Should Fear Spyware
Personal information is collected from you without your knowledge or permission. Scary!
Spyware collects information from you on a range of areas, from all the Web sites you visit, to more sensitive information like user names and passwords and even banking details. Personal Information you would never give out if someone asked you for it! Spyware collects it covertly. The primary objective of Spyware is to steal information. Your ‘personal’ information!
Be aware, some Spyware may run unnoticed without any outward signs of infection. Do not be fooled. It could still mean you have a major problem! Spyware removal is required.
How does Spyware get onto your PC if you don’t knowingly download it?
Many PC user’s ask this question. The answer is that if you or your teenage children download music from file-sharing programs, free games from certain sites, ring tones or other software programs from unknown sources -you can easily become infected with Spyware!
Spyware uses security holes in the Windows Operating System, and many people are very surprised to hear that infection can occur without any actual conscious actions of your own.
Do not confuse Spyware with virus’s. Even if you have a virus checker this will not stop Spyware. It is a totally different threat.
It is annoying. All you probably want to do is surf the internet as simply as possible. The proliferation of threatening attacks to your system make this more and more difficult, unless you have the right set of tools in place to protect yourself.
How Do You Protect Yourself?
The best way to check for infection is to scan your machine with an effective program capable of protecting you. One thing you should be very aware of, are the ‘free’ programs offering to solve such a problem. Unless they are recommended by a professional source, you should steer clear of such programs. It has been found that many ‘free’ programs simply add to your problems, by adding more Spyware or other malicious programs to your computer. Even if you have not experienced it, you probably know or have heard of someone that has had their home page hijacked or their web search pages involuntarily redirected.
Recommended solutions?
There are a few legitimate programs which actually do what they say they will do. ‘Counterspy’ is such a program. ‘CounterSpy’ uses extensive Spyware signature databases, real- time security agents, and ThreatNet to protect your machine from many types of Spyware, adware, browser hijackers, malware, search hijackers, keyloggers, ghost spammers, and spy software. If you do not want to be targeted with offers of goods you don’t want and you want to feel secure, knowing your personal information is safe - then CounterSpy is the program you are looking for.
One great benefit of CounterSpy is the real-time agents that monitor your computer 24/7, securing certain key areas. Malicious Spyware authors are dubious and crafty. With CounterSpy you stack the odds in your favour and dramatically reduce the odds of Spyware installing on your machine.
There are no know issues with CounterSpy running with other programs, so you should find it blends in nicely with any existing programs you are running. I work in the PC maintenance and repair field and have found the program works as it says. A good number of other satisfied users that I have referred also rate this program.
The program has a 15 day free trial and a 30 Day Guarantee to ensure you are satisfied with the program. Its excellent value for money at $19 (or approximately £10 ) for one full year, including updates. The price in year 2 is roughly half the original price -so it really is a good deal.
I believe that £10 spent on prevention, is far better than paying out £100 later, if you have a real bad problem this program could have prevented.
Referring back to the guarantee, if you are not satisfied, your money is refunded in full. (Guarantee is provided by the makers of the software). A very good guarantee from an established company, with a quality product. I use the product myself daily. My opinion is that it will help in your fight to keep your computer running in top condition and more importantly, keeping your personal information more secure. You can try out the program for yourself just go here: http://www.gotopchelp.com/web/spyware
Stephen Wilk
PC Help
Copyright © all rights reserved.
About the Author: Stephen Wilk (MCSE) is the author of various technology articles and runs a commercial PC maintenance, repair and sales business. Stephen has already helped many people solve their frustrating computer problems.
Web Site http://www.gotopchelp.com
Article URL: http://www.gotopchelp.com/web/spyware
Send email to: itman6666-m2@yahoo.co.uk
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Passwords to access computer systems are usually stored, in some form, in a database in order for the system to perform password verification. To enhance the privacy of passwords, the stored password verification data is generally produced by applying a one-way function to the password, possibly in combination with other available data. For simplicity of this discussion, when the one-way function does not incorporate a secret key, other than the password, we refer to the one way function employed as a hash and its output as a hashed password. Even though functions that create hashed passwords may be cryptographically secure, possession of a hashed password provides a quick way to verify guesses for the password by applying the function to each guess, and comparing the result to the verification data. The most commonly used hash functions can be computed rapidly and the attacker can do this repeatedly with different guesses until a valid match is found, meaning the plaintext password has been recovered.
The term password cracking is typically limited to recovery of one or more plaintext passwords from hashed passwords. Password cracking requires that an attacker can gain access to a hashed password, either by reading the password verification database or intercepting a hashed password sent over an open network, or has some other way to rapidly and without limit test if a guessed password is correct. Without the hashed password, the attacker can still attempt access to the computer system in question with guessed passwords. However well designed systems limit the number of failed access attempts and can alert administrators to trace the source of the attack if that quota is exceeded. With the hashed password, the attacker can work undetected, and if the attacker has obtained several hashed passwords, the chances for cracking at least one is quite high. There are also many other ways of obtaining passwords illicitly, such as social engineering, wiretapping, keystroke logging, login spoofing, dumpster diving, timing attack, etc.. However, cracking usually designates a guessing attack.
Cracking may be combined with other techniques. For example, use of a hash-based challenge-response authentication method for password verification may provide a hashed password to an eavesdropper, who can then crack the password. A number of stronger cryptographic protocols exist that do not expose hashed-passwords during verification over a network, either by protecting them in transmission using a high-grade key, or by using a zero-knowledge password proof.
David and his team developed Article Post Robot, www.articlepostrobot.com, the software which can post articles to hundreds of article sites and mail lists automatically. Demo is available upon request at help(at)articlepostrobot.com
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Additionally, browsers use cookies to store login information that you may not want to enter repeatedly. If you ever click the “save password” button below a login form, you are installing a cookie on your computer that will automatically insert your password into the fields. For those with multiple logins, this can be convenient and time saving. Keylogger software often comes as the only solution for the parents with children who have the opportunity to access the Internet on a regular basis.
There are quite a lot of keyloggers currently available on the market. Quality depends and so does the price. Keyloggers are usually very simple to install, setup and use and require no special skills from the user. Most of them cost around $30, though there are more sophisticated species that may cost a little bit more. Keylogger software usually operates in the invisible mode and children don’t know their parents have an eye on them. Data loggers, key loggers are just a few programs which harvest info from your computer. Winclear is the only program created specially to auto remove such spywares. Some people mistakenly assume that anti-virus software protects them from keyloggers and Spyware. That is why every computer owner needs winclear.
Protect With Winclear :Online Privacy Purchase Account Software Download
Have you received any emails within the past few weeks, which appeared to come from e-gold requesting that you log into your account? Did the email contain a link or an attachment? Did you attempt to open the attachment? Winclear is the only software which is capable of removing keylogger programs. There are a lot of theft online ready to rob you and destroy you. Winclear has been the industry leader in fighting keyloggers for the last 8 years.
Winclear:
If you really are not protecting yourself from criminals who surf the internet then you are really asking for trouble so find the right about malware software and get started using it to protect your Pc and your personal information. That is the reason why you need Winclear installed onto your computer. In a few instances of spyware infection the users are unaware about spyware and assume that the PC’s performance connectivity and stability problems relate to computer hardware system or are because of virus and Microsoft Windows installation. Protect your computer security by using Winclear! More about Winclear here: Win Clear.
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