April 17, 2008
Homeland Security - Protecting our Borders and Ports through
Biometric, RFID, Sensor and Surveillance Technology
Homeland Security Focused on Addressing Illegal Immigration and
Terrorism through Stronger Borders and Ports
By Ann-Marie Fleming, www.BorderandPortSecurity.com ,
www.HomelandDefenseStocks.com November 2005
Securing our ports and borders has become a major focus of
Homeland Security, in particular since the events of 9/11.
President Bush has made addressing problems with illegal
immigration, terrorist activities, and illegal smuggling of
weapons and drugs a high level priority of border and port
security. In October, the President signed the Department of
Homeland Security Appropriations Act for 2006, which allocates
$30.8 billion in discretionary funding for the 2006 fiscal year.
The bill apportions $7.5 billion towards illegal immigration and
gives $139 million towards the improvement of border technology
and intelligence capabilities to include cameras and sensors
among others.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff stated before the
US. Senate Judiciary Committee, “President Bush has placed
ever-increasing importance on border security and has devoted
significant resources to this challenge. The President believes
- and I agree - that illegal immigration threatens our
communities and our national security. The ability of
undocumented individuals to enter our country represents an
obvious homeland security threat. Flagrant violation of our
borders undercuts the rule of law, undermines our security, and
imposes particular economic strains on our border communities.
When we do not control our borders, we also risk entry into the
U.S. of terrorists or others wishing to do us harm.”
RFID Biometric Convergence:
A key initiative towards the achievement of secure borders and
ports to ensure the facilitation of lawful travel and trade, an
accurate immigration system and the overall protection of
visitors and citizens is the U.S. Visit program. Under this
program, foreign visitors are required to have their index
fingers scanned as well as a digital photograph taken for travel
document identification matching purposes. According to the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), US-VISIT entry procedures
are currently in place at 115 airports, 15 seaports and in the
secondary inspection areas of the 50 busiest land ports of
entry. Exit procedures are operating at 12 airports and two
seaports with procedures to be deployed to the remaining land
ports of entry by December 31, 2005.
Under the Visa Waiver Program, 27 nation’s such as Australia,
Austria, Norway, Belgium, Japan, the United Kingdom, France,
Germany and many more countries, had to meet a congressional
mandate that required, as a first stage in the multi-stage
border and port security strategy, for passports to have the
digital photographs in passports by October 26, 2005. The next
step according to DHS is a policy requiring these countries to
produce ‘e-passports’, which entails an RFID chip that can store
biographic information, a digital photograph and other biometric
details to be integrated into passports by October 26, 2006.
This technology, under the U.S. Visit Program, allows for faster
and more secure identification of illegal activity, and provides
for more efficient border and port travel for visitors to the
United States, while increasing the ability to share information
among federal, state, local and foreign agencies.
Homeland security technology expert Brian Ruttenbur, Equity
Research Analyst, Morgan Keegan & Co. explains, “What really
pushes countries and government officials to move are mandates
with deadlines and funding attached to those. The US Visit has
really pushed that along in enforcing the requirements set forth
in the program in terms of biometric authentication, and
governments have found the funding for those types of issues.”
Sense Holdings, a provider of biometric and micro-sensor
identification systems that target the homeland security market,
sees the convergence of RFID and biometric technology as an
effective security solution. The Company’s CEO, Dore Perler
explains, “The use of RFID and biometric technologies is almost
a perfect fit in the development of an easy to use intuitive
security system. As a layered approach, the RFID requires little
or no action from the end user, leaving only the biometric
component. Essentially this doubles the security of the system
without requiring any additional effort from the end user.
Incorporating multiple RFID triggers facilities notification to
the end user that they are not authorized prior to using the
biometric or approaching the system terminal, thus minimizing
the wear and tear on the biometric while correspondingly
allowing the process to proceed faster for those authorized.”
Domestic and International Opportunity:
“The biometric side of the business is going to grow extremely
fast all because of the enhanced border and visa security act
that was passed in 2002 by Congress, which is forcing every
country in the entire world to go with biometric sensors and
biometric travel documents. I see the EU Visitor Information
System and UK e-borders spurring into multiple programs and
there is going to be biometrics on every travel documents in
five to ten years down the road and that’s going to be National
ID Cards, Visas, and Passports all with biometrics. The U.S.
will be one of the last nations of the first world countries, to
adopt a biometrics national id card,” describes Ruttenbur.
Two key the goals for the integration of biometric and RFID
technology in terms of border and port security entails both
accuracy as well as efficiency to help facilitate faster border
crossing with an increased level of security. “The competitive
advantage of implementing a technology based solution, such as
RFID, biometrics, or a combination, comes not from the
technology itself, but from the improvements to business
processes that would be impossible without the devices. We are
very excited about the future of RFID integration with
biometrics and as a stand alone technology. Issues that have
plagued industry are now able to be resolved with the
incorporation of wireless LANs, RFID, and biometrics. Sense is
positioning itself and developing new product lines to address
these long time burdens,” states Perler.
Surveillance Systems:
The tragic events that took place in London with the bombings
within a major transit system have placed a growing sense of
urgency on the need for effective surveillance technology. As
Ruttenbur discusses, “I think that the next step to see across
the borders will be camera systems getting rolled out. We have
seen a number of announcements from the New York Transit
Authority, the New Jersey Transit authority that they are
starting to implement camera systems that monitor the platforms,
trains, buses etc.”
According to Corby Lawrence, Director of Business Development
for SYColeman, a division of L-3 Communications, “The roll-out
of such camera systems must be planned, built, and implemented
with a major focus on real-world operational effectiveness.
Simply installing huge volumes of cameras and sensors and
displaying the information on dozens of CCTVs exceeds the human
capacity to detect threat activities within an area of concern.”
L-3 Communications has addressed this global problem with its
PRAETORIAN surveillance software. Created by Sarnoff
Laboratories and recently purchased and commercialized by L-3,
PRAETORIAN is the industry’s only surveillance system capable of
integrating multiple cameras and sensors into a single, 3D
“game-like” display, permitting fly-through abilities. “With
PRAETORIAN, operators can finally have full situational
awareness, even in complex security environments such as borders
and ports,” stated Lawrence.
As the war on terrorism across the globe expands, and public and
private “homeland security” and related funding increases, the
demand for surveillance is anticipated to continue its growth.
Law Enforcement Associates (LEA) is working to take advantage of
the intensified need for surveillance technology through the
Company’s Under Vehicle Inspection System. As described by the
Company, the Under Vehicle Inspection System views the underside
of vehicles entering and exiting secure areas/facilities for
explosive devices and contraband. It is deployed on military
bases, oil refineries, ports, United Nations and NATO Locations,
embassies, nuclear facilities, and government installations.
Paul Feldman, LEA’s CEO, reveals, “Providing the needed security
at border entry points and ports is a very tasking job. Our
borders are vast and are difficult to fully monitor. The amount
of freight that comes into our seaports is staggering. LEA has
proven that their security products can play be an important
part of the “overall security” plan to help in border and port
security.”
Sensor Technology:
The focus on sensor technology with applications in border and
port security is increasing. Ruttenbur anticipates growth in
sensor programs for cargo screening, which are just starting to
emerge, as well as rollouts in the next several months for
additional sensor programs that entail body scanners first in
airports, then in other locations.
Sense Holdings is currently developing explosives sensor
technology based on Micro Electro-Mechanical Sensors (MEMS) with
plans on integrating this technology with biometric
identification. “As the needs for Homeland Security escalate and
become more complicated, there is a growing demand for
innovative detection technology to ensure and enable security on
a variety of levels. Along with developing technology that can
accurately identify explosives and harmful material, the use of
this technology must also be secured. The integration of
biometric identification with effective explosives detection
ensures that the activities are monitored, tracked and that the
technology is only being used by authorized personnel, while at
the same time helping to facilitate secure communication of
sensor activity,” describes Perler.
Law Enforcement Associates has entered the detection market with
their explosives detection kit, the EDK123, which according to
the Company provides a fast, reliable field test for detection
of trace nitrates that are found in 85% of all explosives,
including TNT, Dynamite, Sentex, RDX and ammonium nitrates. It
is currently being used by our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Global Security:
As the United States works towards an actionable security plan
to protect our borders and ports, it is becoming clear that
homeland security is more accurately defined as Global Security.
With the continuation of worldwide terrorist activity, it is
clear that security can no longer be understood and evaluated in
a domestic context alone. With a global perspective on security
and the potential threats that we face, innovative and effective
technology can be more clearly identified to address the needs
for securing travel and trade. This quest points towards an
industry that will continue to grow; one that will be here for
the long run as it continues to evolve to meet the diverse
challenges that global security demands.
Ann-Marie Fleming Ann-Marie Fleming completed her MBA in the
United States, where she attended Webster University. She also
holds an Honors B.A from the University of Toronto. She has over
fifteen years of experience within the financial industry to
include retail banking and brokerage, investment banking, and
mortgage brokerage within the United States and Canada, with a
firm background in corporate research.
Disclaimer: www.InvestorIdeas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp,
www.HomelandDefenseStocks.com/Companies/HomelandDefense/Disclaime
r.asp
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March 30, 2008
Running Applications in Compatibility Mode With Windows XP, you can run programs as if though they were being run under a different operating system. (This is known as “emulation”.) Simply right-click a shortcut, select “Properties” and then check “Run in compatibility mode” and select the operating system you wish to make the program believe it is being run under. This fools or tricks the program into thinking you are really using a previous version of Windows, such as NT, 2000, 98, or 95. This is especially useful for certain games that won’t run properly. Be careful *not* to use this with certain system utilities, such as antivirus, defrag, registry, and disk tool applications.
Customizing the Start Menu Right click on the “Start” button and left click “Properties”. From here, you can select the new Windows XP style Start Menu, or return to the Windows 2000/Millennium style one. You can also customize the two possible choices using their corresponding “Customize” buttons. This also allows you to turn on or disable cascading menus and other options that are useful, such as large or small icons and more.
Bring Back Those Desktop Icons After you install Windows XP, you probably noticed that some of your icons from previous versions of Windows you’ve used are missing. Microsoft did this intentionally to help simply and reduce clutter. Of course, for some people, this isn’t the best choice or the user preference. So, if you want those icons like “My Computer” and “My Network Places” back, just open Display Properties (right click Desktop Wallpaper, left click “Properties”) and click the “Desktop” tab. Click the “Customize Desktop” button and on the “General” tab check the items you want. You can also change the icons used by these desktop items in the same screen. One final tip related to this screen is the “Clean Desktop Now” button, which notifies you of unused icons on the desktop and offers to remove them if you choose.
Give Me My ClearType Windows XP includes a great new visual technology, called “ClearType” which increases horizontal legibility by approximately 300% and it looks great. Go back into “Display Properties” [see tip: “Bring Back Those Desktop Icons” for instructions] and this time, go to the “Appearance” tab. Click “Effects” and for the second drop down box, labeled “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts”, select “ClearType”. Click OK twice and you’re all set.
Lock Computer vs. Welcome Login Screen You must go into Control Panel and open the “User Accounts” applet to change this setting. Click “Change the way users log on or off”. For maximum security, uncheck the “Use the Welcome screen” option. This re-enables the use of the “Lock Computer” option from the ALT CTRL DELETE menu, but prevents multiple users from being logged on locally at a single time. This also returns to the Windows 2000 style login screen. If you’d rather have the ability to *not* be able to use “Lock Computer” and would rather allow multiple users to logon to the computer at a single time locally, leave this setting checked and also check “Use Fast User Switching”.
About the author:
Author’s Website: www.ICTtutorials.vze.com
Please click here for more software related articles.
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March 14, 2008
People are flocking to cell phones these days like bees to honey. The many cellular phone deals being offered by most of the major cellular phone companies are helping to fuel the fire. Many consumers might not have jumped on the cell phone band wagon so fast were it not for the great cellular phone deal they received.
Cellular phone deals make it more affordable for consumers to join the wireless phone revolution. Many of the mobile phone companies are offering such deals as free phones, free mobile phone accessories, free minutes or cash-back. Deals such as these can save you hundreds of dollars on your new cell phone service.
One of the best ways to find a great cellular phone deal is to do a search on the internet. This way you can compare all of the deals being offered from the comfort of your home with no pressure from a salesperson. In most cases you will be able to sign up for your service plan and have your free phone and other specials included in the deal delivered right to your home!
©copyright2004 Levetta Rivera, Cellular Phone Deals. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Levetta Rivera is a successful author and publisher of http://www.freecellphones-bestdeals.
com. An informational resource site for cellular phone deals, cell phone accessories and service plans.
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March 11, 2008
The author of Moral Armor offers a glimpse into the psychology of romantic art; the artists, the observers and it’s enemies.
A romantic artist shares the reward of his own mental state, revealing his deepest images of our stature and our environment. What he has chosen to present in colors, in landscape, in words, in musical harmony or in form is what he has trained his senses to focus onwhat he finds most significant. To the extent that an artist is rational, his work will reflect living values. His choice of subjects is guided by his acceptance of existential reality. His style will reflect his own cognitive power; his skill reveals the effort and devotion he brings to his values. The highest art properly integrates subject matter, technical skill and meaning, idealizing the use of Man’s perceptual and cognitive tools in the work’s every detail. As an artist and a man, he has the capacity to generate, to create new depth and new ways of positively affecting the senses and of impacting the intellectual and emotional pool of his audience. At its best, romantic art helps Man to recognize what matters most, leading him to find deeper meaning in the range of his vision. By integrating the most prized attributes of a work’s subject, the artist displays the order, structure and meaning behind moral awareness. The deepest and most moving pieces require the most pleasant concentration to enjoy, and it is proper that they be the most gratifying. Art is the most potent medium for exposing the essence of an artist’s character, as well as that of the observer.
A man’s sense of life determines his response to arthis view of himself in relation to what he accepts as possible to Man. All human beings take romanticism seriously. Their reaction to it, positive, negative or neutral, simply reveals the consonance or contrast of their accepted premises. From a consonant standpoint, listening to a symphony he might think, “This is how happiness or sadness (some particular emotion or cognitive action) feels to me.” Observing a sculpture, he might think, “This is my image of what a man should be and can be.” Watching a romantic movie he might think “This is how I want to feel about someone, and how I want them to feel about me.” Reading literature he might think, “This describes me,” or, “This represents my views.” When art is disconnected from the real world or our current possibilities, he might respond with, “If I had superhuman traits, this is how I would use them,” or, “If such a diabolical evil existed, this is how valiant men would fight it.” In acceptance, his ultimate response is, “This is a reflection of life as I see it. In worship of life, this expresses my tribute.”
Imagine observing the milky smoothness of a shapely woman’s statue, then to feel the startling contrast of touch to discover it’s marble. Imagine the tautness in the statue of a Herculean figure and its texture, which comes as no surprise. The highest art always projects the strongest man, the most stunning independence, the most beautiful physical form and poise, the purest confidence, and the most concentrated purposeattributes that serve the challenge of life, which we admire and wish to acquire. The next time you walk through a gallery, by holding the moral standards of life and comprehension as your frame of reference, the artgood or badwill make much more sense. Devoted to human life, I care for only one style, which is the subject of this chapter. The Self-made pattern of cognition is the means to create romantic art, as well as the means to achieve its projections in real life.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ronald E. Springer is the Author/Philosopher of Moral Armor, the world’s first fully-integrated moral philosophy based on the nature of Man. Featured on The Mitch Albom Show, NBC and FOX News radio affiliates, Mr. Springer is available for interviews, speaking engagements, philosophy workshops and seminars. Please contact RonaldESpringer@MoralArmor.com or visit http://www.MoralArmor.com for details.
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March 2, 2008
What are
Regular Expressions? A regular expression is a pattern
that can match various text strings. Using regular expressions
you can find (and replace) certain text patterns, for example
“all the words that begin with the letter A” or “find only
telephone numbers”. Regular expressions are often used in
validation classes, because they are a really powerful tool to
verify e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, street addresses,
zip codes, and more.
In this tutorial I will show you how regular expressions work in
PHP, and give you a short introduction on writing your own
regular expressions. I will also give you several example
regular expressions that are often used. Regular Expressions in
PHP Using regex (regular expressions) is really easy in PHP, and
there are several functions that exist to do regex finding and
replacing. Let’s start with a simple regex find.
Have a look at the documentation of the preg_match function. As you
can see from the documentation, preg_match is used to perform a
regular expression. In this case no replacing is done, only a
simple find. Copy the code below to give it a try.
<?php
// Example string $str = "Let's find the stuff
<bla>in between</bla> these two previous
brackets";
// Let's perform the regex $do =
preg_match("/<bla>(.*)</bla>/", $str,
$matches);
// Check if regex was successful if ($do = true) { // Matched
something, show the matched string echo
htmlentities($matches['0']);
// Also how the text in between the tags echo '<br />' .
$matches['1']; } else { // No Match echo "Couldn't find a
match"; }
?>
After having run the code, it’s probably a good idea
if I do a quick run through the code. Basically, the whole core
of the above code is the line that contains the preg_match. The
first argument is your regex pattern. This is probably the most
important. Later on in this tutorial, I will explain some basic
regular expressions, but if you really want to learn regular
expression then it’s best if you look on Google for specific
regular expression examples.
The second argument is the subject string. I assume that needs
no explaining. Finally, the third argument can be optional, but
if you want to get the matched text, or the text in between
something, it’s a good idea to use it (just like I used it in
the example). The preg_match function stops after it has found
the first match. If you want to find ALL matches in a string,
you need to use the preg_match_all
function. That works pretty much the same, so there is no
need to separately explain it.
Now that we’ve had finding, let’s do a find-and-replace, with
the preg_replace
function. The preg_replace function works pretty similar to
the preg_match function, but instead there is another argument
for the replacement string. Copy the code below, and run it.
<?php
// Example string $str = "Let's replace the
<bla>stuff between</bla> the bla brackets";
// Do the preg replace $result = preg_replace
("/<bla>(.*)</bla>/", "<bla>new
stuff</bla>", $str);
echo htmlentities($result); ?>
The result would then be
the same string, except it would now say ‘new stuff’ between the
bla tags. This is of course just a simple example, and more
advanced replacements can be done.
You can also use keys in the replacement string. Say you still
want the text between the brackets, and just add something? You
use the $1, $2, etc keys for those. For example:
<?php
// Example string $str = "Let's replace the
<bla>stuff between</bla> the bla brackets";
// Do the preg replace $result = preg_replace
("/<bla>(.*)</bla>/", "<bla>new
stuff (the old: $1)</bla>", $str);
echo htmlentities($result); ?>
This would then print
“Let’s replace the new stuff (the old: stuff between)
the bla brackets”. $2 is for the second “catch-all”, $3 for the
third, etc.
That’s about it for regular expressions. It seems very
difficult, but once you grasp it is extremely easy yet one of
the most powerful tools when programming in PHP. I can’t count
the number of times regex has saved me from hours of coding
difficult text functions.
An
Example What would a good tutorial be without some real
examples? Let’s first have a look at a simple e-mail validation
function. An e-mail address must start with letters or numbers,
then have a @, then a domain, ending with an extension. The
regex for that would be something like this:
^[a-zA-Z0-9_.-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9-]+.[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+$
Let me quickly explain that regex. Basically, the first part
says that it must all be letters or numbers. Then we get the @,
and after that there should be letters and/or numbers again (the
domain). Finally we check for a period, and then for an
extension. The code to use this regex looks like this:
<?php
// Good e-mail $good = "john@example.com";
// Bad e-mail $bad = "blabla@blabla";
// Let's check the good e-mail if
(preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z0-9_.-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9-]+.[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+$
/", $good)) { echo "Valid e-mail"; } else { echo
"Invalid e-mail"; }
echo '<br />';
// And check the bad e-mail if
(preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z0-9_.-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9-]+.[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+$
/", $bad)) { echo "Valid e-mail"; } else { echo
"Invalid e-mail"; }
?>
The result of this would be “Valid E-mail. Invalid
E-mail”, of course. We have just checked if an e-mail address is
valid. If you wrap the above code in a function, you’ve got
yourself a e-mail validation function. Keep in mind though that
the regex isn’t perfect: after all, it doesn’t check whether the
extension is too long, does it? Because I want to keep this
tutorial short, I won’t give the full fledged regex, but you can
find it easily via Google.
Another
Example Another great example would be a telephone
number. Say you want to verify telephone numbers and make sure
they were in the correct format. Let’s assume you want the
numbers to be in the format of xxx-xxxxxxx. The code would look
something like this:
<?php
// Good number $good = "123-4567890";
// Bad number $bad = "45-3423423";
// Let's check the good number if
(preg_match("/d{3}-d{7}/", $good)) { echo "Valid
number"; } else { echo "Invalid number"; }
echo '<br />';
// And check the bad number if
(preg_match("/d{3}-d{7}/", $bad)) { echo "Valid
number"; } else { echo "Invalid number"; }
?>
The regex is fairly simple, because we use d. This
basically means “match any digit” with the length behind it. In
this example it first looks for 3 digits, then a ‘-’ (hyphen)
and finally 7 digits. Works perfectly, and does exactly what we
want.
What exactly is
possible with Regular Expressions? Regular expressions
are actually one of the most powerful tools in PHP, or any other
language for that matter (you can use it in your mod_rewrite
rules as well!). There is so much you can do with regex, and
we’ve only scratched the surface in this tutorial with some very
basic examples.
If you really want to dig into regex I suggest you search on
Google for more tutorials, and try to learn the regex syntax. It
isn’t easy, and there’s quite a steep learning curve (in my
opinion), but the best way to learn is to go through a lot of
examples, and try to translate them in plain English. It really
helps you learn the syntax.
In the future I will dedicate a complete article to strictly
examples, including more advanced ones, without any explanation.
But for now, I can only give you links to other tutorials: The
30 Minute Regex Tutorial Regular-Expressions.i
nfo
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February 20, 2008
Mobiletoolbox allows end-users to sell and distribute mobile
content worldwide- all while pocketing a generous percentage of
the profit! It is an easy-to-use application that lets users
have full control over their storefront and gives them access to
detailed reports on all sales, content delivery and profit.
Mobiletoolbox is proud to announce that its clients have full
creative license when it comes to the design of their own mobile
content storefront. All Mobiletoolbox users have the ability to
customize the look and feel of their own stores by creating
unique headers, footers, title blocks and even Flash inserts.
Design your own storefront from scratch or let our design
professionals handle it for you! This feature allows every
individual store to better target search engines for increased
traffic and more importantly, increased sales. It also gives
each store owner the ability to organize their mobile content in
ways that will better suit the needs of their audiences.
Stop slaving to the templates that other companies force you to
use. Mobiletoolbox’s White Label storefronts give you the
freedom to do what you want- and it should always be about what
you want!
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February 9, 2008
Spyware and adware is a big issue today and the problem is only
going to get bigger over the next few years. To understand how
to rid your computer of spyware you have to first understand why
it is being created in the first place so why don’t we look at
that.
Companies in the past created spyware as a service to their
advertisers. What would happen is you would install an
application that you thought was cute or useful like Bonzai
buddy or Comet Cursors and you used this knowing that it was
free. What you did not know was that these “free” programs in
fact were tracking all of the websites that you were going to
and then sending back the information to the company that
created the application, this seemed to be bad but not many
people were too concerned. After the companies got this
information on your surfing habits then they would change the
ads on web pages, this is adware, so that they were targeting
topics that you had shown interest in, and of course those
companies were picking up the advertising dollars for placing
those ads on your computer.
Now that you can see the basics of how spyware is created and
why you can imagine how lucrative a business it is to create
spyware. In fact the company that was Gator is now called Claria
and made profits of $100 million last year. Since there is so
much money to be made in the spyware business there are always a
lot of new spyware being released. All of this spyware is
probably really slowing down your computer and breaking your
applications.
There are a lot of ways that a computer can get spyware and its
cousin Adware. The most popular ways right now are still by
installing programs that have the spyware embedded directly into
it and is launched as soon as you install the program. Other
ways to get spyware are from visiting webpages that drop Active
X controls on your computer or run javascripts and even
sometimes from objects placed within emails.
Most of the time getting spyware and getting rid of spyware is
not very difficult but it takes some work on the user’s part,
that’s you! There are several programs out there that will get
rid of the spyware and adware but the two that are most common
are Spybot and AdAware both of these programs are free to
download and free to use. I have used Spybot and Adaware for
years now and I never use just one of the two, I always use both
as they seem to each catch spyware and adware that the other
does not.
In the end you can not always rely on just one or two free
programs but even just using these two free products will often
make a big difference to speeding up and securing your computer.
When you are ready you can look around and often find one or
more great programs that will do it all in one place and do a
better job at that.
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February 1, 2008
Getting a new computer should be an exciting and gratifying experience. After all, you’ll be able to do things faster, safer and without having to worry that your old hard drive is so full that one more file will “break the camel’s back.”
However, there are dangers out there that probably didn’t exist when you bought your last computer. And there’s the question of what will happen to your old hard drive, with all your personal data on it.
Let’s deal with your new computer first. This information applies specifically to Windows XP, although it has broader application as well.
Remember:
- Many computers’ default configurations are insecure.
- New security vulnerabilities may have been discovered between the time the computer was built and configured by the manufacturer and you setting up the computer for the first time.
- When upgrading software from commercially packaged media (e.g., CD-ROM, DVD-ROM), new vulnerabilities may have been discovered since the disc was manufactured.
- Attackers know the common broadband and dial-up IP address ranges, and scan them regularly.
- Numerous worms are already circulating on the Internet continuously scanning for new computers to exploit.
- It is estimated that 80% of spam comes from personal computers (known as “Zombies”), like yours, that have been compromised with a trojan or other malware that the owner is completely unaware of. By protecting your computer you are protecting the Internet!
As a result of these hackers’ efforts, the average time-to-exploitation for an unprotected computer is measured in minutes.
Standard (wrong) advice to home users has been to download and install software patches as soon as possible after connecting a new computer to the Internet. However, since the background intruder scanning activity is pervasive, it may not be possible for you to complete the download and installation of software patches before the vulnerabilities they are trying to fix are exploited.
This Special Report offers advice on how to protect your computer before connecting it to the Internet so that you can complete the patching process without incident.
We strongly recommend following all the steps when upgrading to a new operating system from disc(s) as well as when connecting a new computer to the Internet for the first time.
- Perform these steps before connecting to the Internet for the first time.
- The links in this document are LIVE LINKS, but we recommend that you NOT connect to them through your new computer. Use the live links on a computer that is fully updated, virus protected and firewalled, and download the instructions/programs to a CD or a USB drive, then transfer them to your new computer. A 128 megabyte USB drive costs less than $20, is “plug and play,” and can be used over and over.
- If possible, connect the new computer behind a network (hardware-based) firewall or firewall router.
A network firewall or firewall router is a hardware device that is installed between the computers on their Local Area Network (LAN) and their broadband device (cable/DSL modem). By blocking inbound access to the computers on the LAN from the Internet a hardware-based firewall can often provide sufficient protection for you to complete the downloading and installation of necessary software patches. A hardware-based firewall provides a high degree of protection for new computers being brought online.
If you connect to the Internet before you install a firewall, it may be possible for the computer to be exploited before the download and installation of such software is complete.
XP has a built in firewall that may or may not be enabled. If Microsoft XP has not had Service Pack 2 installed, follow these instructions to turn on the Internet Connection Firewall. If XP is installed WITH Service Pack 2, then your firewall is enabled by default.
Microsoft has provided both detailed and summarized instructions for enabling the built-in Internet Connection Firewall on Windows XP.
We strongly recommend that you install a third-party firewall application and THEN turn off the Windows firewall.
We recommend ZoneAlarm (www.ZoneLabs.com), which is FREE. Zone Alarm is the top rated firewall, and protects both incoming and outgoing data. XP’s firewall ONLY protects against incoming data. Zone Alarm’s setup file is approximately 7 megabytes, which will easily fit on a CD or USB drive.
- Disable File and Printsharing if enabled.
- Go to Start -> Control Panel.
- Open “Network and Internet Connections”.
- Open “Network Connections”.
- Right-click on the network connection you wish to change (e.g., “Local Area Connection”).
- Select “Properties”.
- Make sure “File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networking” is unchecked.
- Connect to the Internet.
- Go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com.
Follow the instructions there to install all Critical Updates. However, if you are going to install Service Pack 2, READ THIS FIRST! Pay particular attention to “Get the latest PC manufacturer updates for SP2, because you may need to update drivers for your PC to work properly.
Only download software patches from known, trusted sites (i.e., the software vendors’ own sites), in order to minimize the possibility of an intruder gaining access through the use of Trojan horse software.
Staying Secure
Follow the principle of least privilege don’t enable it if you don’t need it.
Consider using an account with only ‘user’ privileges instead of an ‘administrator’ or ‘root’ level account for everyday tasks. You only need to use administrator level access when installing new software, changing system configurations, and the like. Many vulnerability exploits (e.g., viruses, Trojan horses) are executed with the privileges of the user that runs them making it far more risky to be logged in as an administrator all the time.
Moving Your Applications and Data
Unless you’ve never had a computer before, you’ll want to move your old data onto your new machine. There are several ways to do this quickly and easily (although there are often a few glitches). The best article on the subject is www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,115632,00.asp.
Protecting Your OLD Data
So, what do you do with your OLD computer? Perhaps someone else can use it, maybe a school or a retirement center?
One of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking that deleting files using Windows Explorer actually deletes the files! It DOESN’T!
When you delete files in Windows, all it does is delete the pointers that show where the files are. Any competent computer whiz can easily find a program on the Internet that will rebuild the file pointers, and then they have access to all your files- your emails, your business information and your financial information.
You can go to any flea market in the country, and chances are you can purchase a used hard drive with the old owner’s data still on it! Many professional identity thieves are doing just that!!!!
What CAN you do?
Personally, I remove the hard drive from the computer, and I keep it (not in a place that it would be found if a burglar came into my house).
Another alternative is to use a free disk wiping utility or purchase one.
To effectively remove data from a hard drive, it must be overwritten completely several times. All of the temporary files, all of the caches, all of the “swap files” that are created as you work may be lurking in some unknown corner of the hard drive.
Contrary to popular belief, even reformatting the drive does not necessarily make file recovery impossible!
Consider this - A recent search of hard drives that had been discarded revealed:
- A disk that had been owned by an Attorney, with all his case files and confidential information on it.
- A disk that had been owned by a CPA, with all her clients’ tax information on it.
- A disk that had been owned by a Medical Clinic on it, with hundreds of patients’ medical records still on it.
There are free programs that will do an adequate job of wiping a hard drive clean - although the data may still be recoverable by professionals with very expensive programs, and there are inexpensive programs that will make the data completely unrecoverable.
We recommend DBAN (dban.sourceforge.net/)which does 5220.22-M-compliant wiping. 5220.22-M-compliant wiping is the Department of Defense secure delete wiping standard.
Be aware, however, properly wiping a hard drive, particularly some of the large ones can take hours, but it is worth it to protect your privacy.
© Steve Freedman, Archer Strategic Alliances, 2005 All Rights Reserved
Steve Freedman
Author of “Help! Something’s Got Hold of My Computer and It Won’t Let Go!”
A PC Security eBook for Newbies, Skilled Users and Wizards
Archer Strategic Alliances
http://www.HelpProtectMyComputer.com
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January 14, 2008
The following article is offered for free use in your ezine, print publication, blog, RSS feed or on your web site, so long as the author resource box at the end is included. Notification of publication would be appreciated.
Title: How to overcome co-dependency and live a fulfilled life
Author: Dr. Ulla Sebastian
E-mail: publish@visioform.com
Copyright: © 2004 by Ulla Sebastian
Web Address: http://www.visioform.com
Word Count: 890
Category: Self Empowerment
CO-DEPENDENCY REFERS TO AN OBSESSIVE NEED FOR AFFECTION, ATTENTION AND AFFIRMATION.
Co-dependent people get easily drawn into the pain and problems of others, feel responsible to help people solve their problems while ignoring their own, look outside themselves for meaning, identity and value, say yes when they mean no and tend to blame others for their own unhappiness, failures and frustrations.
CO-DEPENDENCY IS AS MUCH A CULTURAL AS A PERSONAL PHENOMENON.
Through childhood and adolescence, movies and hit parades feed us co-dependent relationship ideals as romantic love, Christian ideals as service and care for others, cultural ideals as being a good mother, a caring wife or just a “good” person that cares for other people’s needs more than for one’s own.
If you as a woman wonder about the difference between being ‘good’ or co-dependent check the degree of involvement and the amount of pain you feel. Ask yourself:
* Do I always “have to do something” to help my partner?
* Do I feel burdened by the problems of my partner? Would I like to leave him and yet I do not dare to?
* Am I holding on to my partner even if he has repeated affairs or abandons me while “working at the office”?
Most people fall into a continuum of co-dependency. If you are still wondering, keep checking:
* Do I feel responsible to help people solve their problems while ignoring my own?
* Do I look outside myself for meaning, identity and value?
* Do I say yes when I mean no?
* Do I tend to blame others for my unhappiness, failures and frustrations?
If you answer ‘yes’ to most of those questions, co-dependency is an issue.
CO-DEPENDENCY HAPPENS IN RELATIONSHIPS
Codependent relationships are predominantly the domain of women who are engaging in personal relationships with someone who needs help and support. They offer themselves as ‘helpers’ and ’saviours’ and turn into angry persecutors if their attempt to save the ‘other’ fails, which is usually the case.
This dynamic in co-dependent relationships has been described as the drama triangle being played by two people who change the roles of victim, saviour and persecutor.
The term co-dependent relationship was traditionally used for an alcoholic and his or her partner but has lately been applied to a broad range of people who need help such as drug users, criminals, sex addicts, mentally ill, physically ill, and even workaholics who need someone to support them while they “do their thing.”
CO-DEPENDENCY IS THE RESULT OF FRUSTRATED NEEDS IN CHILDHOOD
Basic needs like being nurtured, protected and appreciated were neglected, boundaries invaded through abuse, self-expression discouraged or punished. This neglect of primal needs then become the obsession of the adult who longs for their fulfilment in every close relationship.
The deep need to be saved from the inner loneliness and emptiness is projected on to another person, usually an addict in an attempt to save ‘him’. Needless to say, that her attempt to save the ‘helpless him’ or to endlessly support the ‘busy important ones’ is prone to fail which then increases her frustration, anger, disappointment, guilt and low self worth.
DO YOU RECOGNISE ANY OF THIS? DO YOU FEEL A DEEP NEED TO BE SAVED FROM INNER LONELINESS AND EMPTINESS?
This deep need can turn into a desperate, needy search for a romance that makes you vulnerable for being used by people. This neediness will draw partners into your life that want to have their needs fulfilled and will have little concern for your feelings or needs.
You may also find yourself projecting this need on to another person, usually an addict in an attempt to save ‘him’. Saving ‘him’ will not solve your problem. In the opposite: If you stay long enough in an unfulfilling relationship you become accustomed to unhappy situations, which then again will make you an easy target for being used.
HOW CAN YOU BREAK THIS VICIOUS CYCLE AND OVERCOME CO-DEPENDENCY?
First, make your needs and interests your priority. What do you need to do to be good to yourself, to love yourself, to appreciate the good things in you and in your life?
Start to take stock in the people you have surrounded yourself with. Are they as concerned with your needs and feelings as you are with theirs? You may need to detach yourself from some of these people, maybe even your partnership at least until you have taken time to start taking care of yourself.
Learn to say No when you mean No. Practice setting up boundaries that are firm and flexible. Saying No can be as easy as just not answering the phone.
Romance, alcohol, drugs and sex are not appropriate tools for overcoming co-dependency or filling your inner emptiness. Instead, focus on enjoying the single life, as you develop a wide variety of interests and activities, meet people, and make new friends. With interests, activities and a good network of friends and acquaintances, the inner emptiness and the painful longing will cease.
About the Author
Dr. Ulla Sebastian is a well-known author, trainer and psychotherapist. Her work spans a wide range of themes for professional and personal growth and is the result of forty years of research, work with thousands of people from all over the world and a lifelong experience of selfgrowth and transformation. Visit her website http://www.visioform.com for free courses, distance courses, books and articles.
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January 2, 2008
One of the most common questions we as consultants have to
answer on a daily basis is the difference between wired and
wireless networks. Let me summarize:
Wired: In simple terms; the communication between two devices
via cables. Wireless: the communication between two devices
without cables.
Now, is it that simple? Not exactly, each method of networking
has its own pros and cons.
Wireless networks do not use any form of cable. The transmission
of data (your files, music, printing to the printer etc) occurs
over radio waves… just like cordless phones or the Bluetooth
headset that came with that snazzy phone you purchased recently.
The major advantage of having a wireless device is the mobility
and freedom that comes with it. Moreover, there is less clutter
and fewer wires to worry about. But, you sacrifice in most cases
on speed and security.
Wired networks on the other hand have been around for some time
now. Officially known today as the Ethernet, the cables usually
connect these devices using CAT5 cables. The speed and security
in this scenario are greatly enhanced. The latest Ethernet
routers can support up to 1000Mb/s or a gigabit/sec. that’s 10
times faster than the widely used 100 Mb/s router. Moreover the
over all cost of a wired network is lower, provides high
performance and better security than wireless networks.
The choice depends on your day to day activities. Wireless
networks won’t become mainstream anytime soon in office
environments. But as home users, wireless networks have become
the choice. A little sacrifice in speed or security as a
residential user is minimal but for an enterprise environment -
well, it becomes a whole new ball game… and, pretty detailed
too.
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