If they opened a James Bond movie the way spring of 2011 opened, it would seem like quite a plot – cyber terrorists around the world attack Western computer systems.

First, they try a soft target – the Sony PlayStation data center; and then they get more ambitious and take Citibank data center security down.

US Airways is grounded because of a computer glitch; and so is United Continental just a week later. It’s the end of Western civilization – if James Bond doesn’t join hands and do something.

There’s one little way in which the whole story doesn’t ring true. This Citibank data center security breach and the one with the PlayStation were the only ones we learned about.

There are breaches occur almost every week that never get reported. People who trust that the banks know how to take care of their financial information and who give their credit card numbers to dozens of merchant establishments trusting that they will do everything in their power to keep them safe live in serious self-delusion.

Banks and merchant establishments lose your data just as often as you misplace your car keys. Only, when it’s your car keys, you actually get to know about it.

What can you do when your hard-earned money sits there in your account waiting to be robbed at any time? It’s there one moment, and it’s gone the next.

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has just published a proper list of all the data center security breaches that have occurred over the last six years in this country.

And apparently, there are enough people on that list to cover the US population twice over. There have been a couple of hundred security breaches this year alone and tens of millions of financial records have been stolen.

Some people can have their life turned upside down when this happens. The people who steal their Social Security numbers and everything else can commit crimes in their names.

When the victims go apply for a job or a house loan or something, their name shows on the system, flagged as that of the convicted felon. Criminals don’t need to rob banks anymore.

They just have to get a stolen bank account, sit at the computer, and steal as much money as they can from other people’s bank accounts and have it transferred to the stolen bank account they have and make away with the money. They don’t care that they’ve just destroyed someone’s life forever.

So are these cyber thieves some kind of super high-tech people with brilliant hacking abilities? Not likely. Most of these crimes are done by people who use basic old techniques that have been in place for years now. It’s just that the banks haven’t been doing anything at all to protect your interests. The question is, if the banks won’t protect you, how do you protect yourself?

Basically, all you can do is to protect your computer. If they are stealing from the bank where you have an account, there’s pretty much nothing you can do. All you can do is to take steps to minimize the fallout, once it happens.

One way to protect yourself would be to use different user names and passwords for every online banking account you have.

When thieves get their hands on a bunch of user names and passwords from one bank, they’ll try them on every other bank hoping that you’ll have been too lazy to think of a new username and password there. They have automated programs that try every bank (and PayPal) out, automatically.

If you are hit at any time, the only way you’ll ever know is if you take a look at your credit report and see some suspicious activity. Make sure you keep on top of your credit reports.

Accepting the Reality of Data Center Security Breaches and Coping is a post from: Computer Spot

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Do you share a computer with your child? If yes, you will need some additional steps to safeguard your data and also to protect your child’s experience on the computer.

This article will share some important computer security tips that can help you.

1. You set some rules for your child what he/she is allowed to do on the computer.
2. Installing security software such as firewall and anti virus software. You must keep them up to date.
3. Set up parental controls. It’s our duty as parent to control our child using a computer. In windows 7 there is a feature how to limit your kids computer use. Here is the reference how to set up parental controls on windows 7, http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Set-up-Parental-Controls
4. Take advantage of login and user management systems
5. You should use tools that can monitor their activity. Monitoring your child using a computer is a good way to protect them.
6. Be accessible to your child in case of questions and concerns.
7. Warn your child of dangers associated with social networking and chatting.
8. You must back up your important data. There are many ways to backup your data. You can use external hard disk, flash disk, etc.

It is very important to not only properly secure your computer, but also to keep your child safe, if you are sharing your computer with your child. Use the tips in this article to keep them both safe.

Safety Way to Share Your Computer With A Child is a post from: Computer Spot

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We’ve all heard about someone whose computer has crashed. It’s a terrible mess. That person probably thought that it couldn’t happen to them until it did. Be proactive and back up your data.

A computer’s hard drive can crash for any number of reasons. You don’t want to be happily finishing up a 30 page project when it happens. Where does the information go? It is lost in the abyss that has become home to many a kilobyte.

It’s more frightening than a bad hair day but you can keep it from happening to you. Back up your computer files so that you don’t lose all of your work to the great beyond. It is a good practice for anyone who has a computer.

It is not hard to put a backup system in place. When you buy most laptops these days, the system comes with free backup for one or two years.

Every file is stored elsewhere for easy retrieval should you lose it. There are two ways of backing up computer files: online or software programs.

Backup Software Programs

Heard of Norton? You probably know about their antivirus software. They also make backup software for your computer. One is Norton Ghost 14.0.

You can back up your entire hard drive or specific folders. With this software, schedule regular backups just like any other maintenance operation to protect your computer. The software setup is instructive and easy to follow.

Another Norton offering is Norton Save & Restore 2.0. It is similar to Norton Ghost 14.0 but without the extra features.

You can schedule your backup operations and forget about it. In the event of a crash, you won’t lose what you have worked so hard to create.

Online Backup Programs

With an online backup, your data is sent to a secure server online. They offer both free and paid services. Depending on the amount of data you are backing up, the free plan may work for you.

For a business, the paid service offers unlimited data backup for a low monthly fee.

Examples of online backup programs include:

• Mozy – free up to 2GB; $4.95 per month for unlimited data
• Carbonite – yearly subscription of $49.95 for unlimited data
• SOS Online Backup – $39.95 per year

Each program offers something different. The advantage of an online backup over more traditional programs is the theft-proof aspect. In cyberspace, your files can’t be stolen.

Use online or software options for backing up the vital information on your computer. It gives you peace of mind in the event of a system crash.

Backing Up Your Computer Data is a post from: Computer Spot

The realization about the need to prepare for safeguarding crucial data on your hard disk may come a little too late when the computer or the hard disk has crashed.

Data loss could mean, for a small business, going out of business unfortunately, sometimes permanently. Rebuilding years of data is out of question. It is pertinent to know the whys and hows of data loss in order to understand data recovery better.

Important Causes of Data Loss
What you hoped will not occur, perhaps because of no reason, could always hit you hardest unless you are safeguarded against them.

Computer running slowly could be because of spyware scrupulously installed could be working behind screens to destroy or transmit data to their masters eventually causing hard disk to crash.

Others like electric storms, power surges, mechanical failures, fires & floods and user errors (sometimes in disregard of warnings) could affect your computer without any or sufficient warning.

You could also loose data because of sudden but unintended deleting of files or programs. Accidental disk format, virus attack, partition loss are some more causes for data loss.

Data Protection
Data protection is the best policy than ruing over the loss. You can make use of trusted data backup software which automatically backup your data regularly, if you can’t do it yourself manually.

Keeping backup of backups will safeguard you against the worst eventualities, too. Turn off your computer immediately as you hear strange noises like creaking run of hard disk. It is also wise to unplug power cords, modem and telephone cables when you are going out of home or office for a long time.

Data Recovery
The first thing you need to understand when dealing with data recovery is not loosing cool. Never act in haste and don’t attempt data recovery yourself unless you are an old hat at that. Call for professional help from your area and who you know.

Data recovery software does a neat job in most of the cases. There are quite a few reliable softwares available, no matter what platform your computer operates on.

Data recovery softwares are available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and so on. Don’t attempt to use the software yourself out of gut feeling. If you must, check for user friendly personal packages.

An average company in US alone spends anywhere between $100,000 and $1 million in total for desktop-oriented disasters. This should more than emphasize the need for data safety and disk recovery.

Your Next Option To Safeguarding Information is a post from: Computer Spot

This is the question that majority of the home computer users have not yet asked themselves. How to backup my PC & what kinds of data do I want to backup?

In business environment, there are unlimited options, which the Computer professionals have the access to backup up commercial data.

The home users should not have the same options, as they are totally unnecessary because of the quantity of data that the home users can back up.

While you backup the computer there are lots of different ways to perform it and lots of files & folders can be backed up.

We are going to focus on data files that are formats word, excel, jpegs, mp3’s, and nothing else, like applications folder, program files folder and so on.

For home user you don’t have to backup the whole thing on your hard drive. That will take too much of your time and will get very expensive. I recommend saving all the data files to the 1 spot, if you are Microsoft Windows user; most of the software packages will have the default data to My Documents folder. If you are Mac user then where it will default no one knows! It generally defaults to desktop.

Make the folder and name it meaningful. Name something that you will keep in mind, like the “Computer Backup” or else “My Backup Files”! After that make sure that you save all your significant files to that particular folder. You can default all your files saved in that file so you don’t require worrying regarding clicking and dragging to your folder.

One more computer backup suggestion would be to buy external hard drive i.e. firewire or the USB cable and then plug in your computer. You have to treat external hard drive like an USB Key solution.

Only difference is that there will be more space available on its external hard drive than USB Key. You can as well purchase internal hard drive and install it or if you are purchasing new computer, then you can put one for little amount of money.

This needs to be treated like the original hard drive, and it will have some letter allotted to it (i.e. C, D) or it will get mounted to the desktop.

Home Users – Data Backup is a post from: Computer Spot