7 Tips for the truly paranoid PC user - Tip #4

Tape over the webcam

Integrated webcams are great for video chats, but they’re also excellent tools for hackers to spy on users. And you would never know that you were being watched: Although the webcam indicator light is supposed to switch on when the camera activates, hackers have found ways to disable the light in certain laptop models.

According to the NSA, a simple, low-tech solution is to tape over your webcam—with black tape, naturally. If you’re worried that the sticky residue might damage the webcam, use tape to secure a small piece of paper over the lens.

7 Tips for the truly paranoid PC user - Tip #3

Disable the built-in microphone

Disable your laptop’s built-in microphone to ensure that your private conversations stay private.

Just as your machine’s webcam can give hackers a window into your private world, your laptop’s built-in microphone—typically enabled by default—can fall prey to remote hijacking and allow snoops to eavesdrop on all conversations in its vicinity.

To ensure that no one can listen in on your home or office, launch the Sound applet from the Control Panel. Click the Recording tab, select your laptop’s built-in microphone, and disable it.

Of course, taking this step doesn’t prevent a malicious hacker who has already compromised your laptop from reenabling it. If you’re really paranoid, you can disable the built-in microphone permanently simply by poking it with the business end of a needle or paper clip. The espionage game has its casualties.

7 Tips for the truly paranoid PC user - Tip #2

Tip #2:

Harden your account settings

Spend a few minutes tweaking your Windows account settings. Few security measures offer so much protection for so little effort. A good first step is to disable any guest accounts that are present, ensuring that a password is set for each account, and disabling automatic login.

If you use sleep mode, adjust your PC’s settings to require a password on waking up.

Next, enable a screensaver and set it to start with a reasonably short inactivity timeout of between 1 and 5 minutes. To do so, right-click the desktop, select Personalize from the menu, and click Screen Saver. Make sure to select the On resume, display logon screen checkbox. Obviously, you will need to have a password configured first for this step to work.

Finally, require that users reenter their system password if the PC has been inactive. Configure this option by clicking Power Options in the Control Panel and selecting Require a password on wakeup in the left column.

A free Office Alternative and 10GB of online storage too!

Not to be overshadowed by Microsoft and Apple for their in-the-cloud document curation services, Google announced that Quickoffice is now free for iOS and Android users. The company also plans to bundle in 10GB of free storage for Google Drive for anyone who logs into their Google account from the app by September 26.

Quickoffice lets you create and edit documents, including proprietary Microsoft Office files. The app integrates with Google Drive so that you can access your files and folders from almost any platform, and it automatically scales down documents and allows you to access local files.

A look at Quickoffice on the Android platform.

Previously, Quickoffice offered a premium paid version and a free viewer. But the former has gone missing from both the Google Play and iOS App Store and seems to have been permanently replaced with Google’s offerings. The search giant bought Quickoffice last summer; at the time, Google said that it planned to work on “bringing [Quickoffice’s] power technology to our Apps product suite. It looks like this may be phase one of the plan.

You can download Quickoffice for Android and iOS.

7 Tips for the truly paranoid PC user - Tip #1

Tip #1:

Don’t read email on an admin account

Web surfing on a user account with administrative rights is kind of like walking through a bad neighborhood with your house keys in one hand, your Social Security card in the other, and your ATM PIN written on your forehead. You’re offering up all kinds of sensitive personal information to eager takers.

Because of that risk, the usual advice is to avoid surfing the Web on an admin account to limit the damage if a zero-day exploit happens to compromise your account. Given the growing number of attacks launched via email messages, it’s a good idea to extend this precaution to your inbox by reading new email messages only on a nonadministrator account. This practice won’t protect you from phishing attempts that try to trick you into giving up your password, though, so be sure to stay on your guard against fake email messages, too.

While adhering to these tips will go a long way toward shielding you and your data from prying eyes, to secure your PC further be sure to check out our tips to avoid the most devious security traps, Prism surveillance, and watchers on the Web. We can’t promise that following these measures will make you spyproof, but you will certainly sleep better. Just remember to keep one eye open.

$9.95 for the Post Gazette?.... I don't know

Well it seems our local newspaper will soon be starting a paywall for access to the site.  I don't see $9.95 coming out of my pocket for that site, but you may feel different.

Following in the footsteps of some of the nation's most prominent news organizations, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announced Wednesday that it will begin charging for access to its digital content.

Starting Oct. 1, the Post-Gazette will charge $9.95 per month for digital-only readers for unlimited access to its website, smartphone app, tablet app and to electronic editions of the newspaper. Post-Gazette customers with home delivery subscriptions to the newspaper will have unlimited digital access for free. Non subscribers to the newspaper will be permitted access to a limited number of stories each month on the website.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/pittsburgh-post-gazette-announces-plan-to-charge-for-digital-only-content-703823/#ixzz2fPPcZ1lq