Help keep coronavirus off your phone: How to effectively clean and disinfect your device

Studies have found the novel coronavirus, which causes the respiratory disease known as COVID-19, may be able to survive on some surfaces for up to nine days -- and that may include your beloved phone. This is the device you handle constantly and often press to the side of your face, which means that any bacteria, virus or other germ that makes its way onto your phone or case could easily transfer to your skin.

Washing your hands the right way can help keep you and your loved ones from passing the virus, but what about cleaning your phone? The good news is that disinfecting your electronic device has officially become easier. Earlier this week, Apple said on its website that you can safely clean your iPhone with disinfectant wipes, like Clorox sheets. Samsung hasn't responded to a request for comment about its phones.

There are still cleaning agents and techniques to avoid, however. While you might initially see good results, these harsher methods can eventually damage the screen (or possibly the internal components) that you're working so hard to protect.

We're going to tell you what products to avoid and the best ways to disinfect your phone and clean off fingerprint smudges, sand and lint from the ports and tenacious makeup off the screen (hint: never with makeup remover). We also tell you how to care for phones rated for water-resistance.

And here are nine more practical tips you can use to help limit your exposure to coronavirus.

Click here for the rest of tips.

How to get Microsoft Office 365 for free

If you're staying home more often due to the coronavirus pandemic, you might be in need of some basic tools on your personal or work computer, like Microsoft Office 365. And if you don't want to shell out the cash, there are a few ways you can get Office 365 and its apps for free. 

Microsoft's subscription service suite of productivity software -- including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint -- typically costs $150 for a one-time installation, or between $70 and $100 every year for access across devices and family members.

Click here for the article from Cnet.com

An introduction to cyber security and data protection

From the University of York, here is a good comprehension guide to cyber security and data protection.  Enjoy and click here for the article.

Best Ad Blockers for 2020

Are you bombarded with annoying ads? This review looks at ad blockers and sees how they perform. By the end, you will find the best ad blockers there is.  There are countless areas users are bombarded with annoying ads. It can be from websites, or you head over to YouTube and are halfway through an intriguing clip to find it paused and you have to sit through a strategically placed ad.  Click here for the full article from www.vpnandgo.com

So what is the Deep Web? and more importantly, how do you access it?

If you want to visit a website like Amazon or Wikipedia, you won’t have any trouble finding it even if you don’t remember the exact URL. You can just type what you’re looking for into Google or Bing and a link will show up in the search results.

However, not every website can be found this way. The deep web is a term for any part of the internet that isn’t indexed by search engines and so can’t be found through search results.

Even though the deep web sounds intimidating, it includes lots of mundane, everyday websites like company intranets, webmail platforms, and private databases.

Even the contents of your personal Google Drive are part of the deep web because they are hidden behind an authentication process.

Within the deep web is another part of the internet called the dark web. These websites are so well-hidden that they can’t be accessed at all with a normal browser. Most of the dark web can only be accessed using Tor.

What is Tor?

Tor, short for The Onion Router, is a free, open-source software combined with a global network of servers that helps you stay anonymous online.

When you connect to the internet using Tor, your data is wrapped in multiple layers of secure encryption. Your encrypted data is then directed through a random series of volunteer-operated servers called nodes.

Each node that you pass through decrypts a single layer of encryption to learn where to direct your traffic next. The next node decrypts the next layer of encryption, and so on. The “onion” part of The Onion Router comes from this process of peeling off layers of encryption like the layers of an onion.

Click here to find out how to access .onion sites and the dark web

You can still download Windows 10 for free.. and you should

Support for Windows 7 is now officially over, which means Microsoft wants holdouts to upgrade to Windows 10 to keep devices running securely and smoothly. If you have an older PC or laptop still running Windows 7, you can purchase the Windows 10 Home operating system on Microsoft's website for $139. But you don't necessarily have to shell out the cash: A free upgrade offer from Microsoft that technically ended in 2016 still works. 

When Windows 10 was first released in July 2015, Microsoft offered an unprecedented free upgrade offer for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 users, good through July 2016. But in 2017, Ed Bott of CNET sister site ZDNet reported that the free upgrade tool was still functional. I tried it out in November 2019, and was able to upgrade a 2014 Dell OptiPlex 9020 desktop from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro. As of January 2020, readers are still emailing me and commenting below, saying that it's worked for them as well.

Windows 7 users who don't upgrade to the new version will no longer be able to get Microsoft's security updates or fixes, or technical support for any issues, leaving your computer at greater risk from viruses and malware. While Windows 10 users have experienced a number of bugs over the years, upgrading remains the best option for keeping your computer safe, analysts say.

Here's how to get Windows 10 for free, if you're currently running a licensed and activated copy of Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 Home or Pro: 

1. Go to the Download Windows 10 website. 

2. Under Create Windows 10 installation media, click Download tool now and Run. 

3. Choose Upgrade this PC now, assuming this is the only PC you're upgrading. (If you're upgrading a different machine, choose Create installation media for another PC, and save the installation files.)

4. Follow the prompts. 

5. When the upgrade is complete, go to Settings Update & Security > Activation, and you should see a digital license for Windows 10. 

It should be noted that if you have a Windows 7 or 8 Home license, you can only update to Windows 10 Home, while Windows 7 or 8 Pro can only be updated to Windows 10 Pro (the upgrade is not available for Windows Enterprise. Other users may experience blocks as well, depending on your machine). This upgrade using the media creation tool isn't meant for the general consumer, but it works for many nonetheless. 

To get the best Windows 10 experience and take advantage of features like passwordless sign-on through Windows Hello, you'll want to purchase a new Windows 10 PC (or one released after July 2015) with all the hardware upgrades. If you're a student or university faculty member, you may also be able to download Windows 10 for free (search for your school's software offerings here).