McKenzie Towne PC Repair

What To Do When Identity Theft Occurs

Great advice from an AMA email I just received:

If it happens, here are a few tips:
1. Call your financial institutions – Contact all of the banks you deal with and make them aware immediately

2. Flag it – Change your passwords and report the fraud to Equifax and TransUnion

3. Report it – Report the incident to the police and/or the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre

That is why AMA Insurance provides identity theft coverage as part of every home insurance policy. Check your own insurance to see what they cover.

16 Ways to speed up Windows 10

I get asked many times from family, friends, colleagues, clients and potential clients, why is my computer running so slow? Usually there are handful of reasons that could be either hardware or software related. Running a hard drive software program that gives you the physical health of your hard drive is a great place to start and rule out any potential physical hard drive damage.

Your computer could be getting so old that the amount of RAM you have in your current system was great for back in the day but now not only the demands of the operating system have increased but every other program you are running in the front and background are grinding your computer to a halt.

But more often than not, people's issue with having a slow computer can come down to software. You have too many 3rd party background programs running that you're not aware of or you have multiple Windows 10 programs running in the background that are taking up to many resources. By a process of going through a checklist, you can either turn these programs off or severely limit their resource hogging abilities.

One must always remember that it could be malware that is causing the issue. Malware can be generalized into many categories like viruses, etc. But at the end of the day these programs are not only causing your computer to slow down but could potentially giving the bad guys your personal information.

Running with multiple Chrome tabs open can also be an issue or running multiple programs at once can also be the culprit. Your connection to the internet could be an issue based on many different things that we can focus on at another time. The idea here is there is a difference between your internet connection speed and your PC being laggy are two different issues and have to be dealt with differently.

So finally we come to the answer of this whole article, what can I do to fix my computer from being so slow? Here is an excellent article by Computer World that helps to dive into some of the most common issues you can diagnose and fix yourself without having a PHD in computer science:

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3029168/16-ways-to-speed-up-windows-10.html

For anything else that doesn't make sense, give me a shout and we can try and figure it out together. Good luck!

Individual and Small Business IT Security On The Cheap

It never seems to end the onslaught of bad news in regards to individuals, governments and businesses getting hacked on a daily basis. If it's not Ransomware or some virus that is taking down a multi national firm or Joe six pack at home, it's some new-fangled security risk or threat that inevitably touches someone we know.

When you are an individual or small business you don't have the same resources of a government agency or larger business with a dedicated team of IT professionals that can help to mitigate most if not all of these cyber threats that are facing us today. So, what can the little guy do to help protect themselves on the cheap?

The first question you need to ask yourself is, what are the potential dangers I need to protect myself from? Without going into too much detail, here are a list of the top 5 cyber issues facing folks these days in no particular order:

Virus, Malware, Ransomware, Phishing and Trojans
Hacking
Not keeping your operating system and malware software up to date
Firewalls not being properly locked down
Bad or no Password protection
The top items listed generally fall into a similar category. You open a link in an email that you shouldn't have, you clicked on something on a website you shouldn't have, etc. Hacking might be a little remote of a chance unless you really have something that someone wants and has the skills and abilities to actually pull off the crime. Not keeping your OS or malware software up to date is an obvious one as that is the front line entrance and defense for your hardware. Firewalls, either software in your OS or hardware related to your router as an example if not properly secured can also be an access point for cyber criminals. Finally, password protection! Something as simple as having a strong password can help to dissuade people from stealing your identity.

So now that we have a list of what are the potential threats out there, how can we take the precautions necessary to stay secure on a limited or no budget at all? Here they are based on the aforementioned threats:

How to defeat virus's, malware, ransomware, etc. Good habits! Do not click on links you don't know who or where they come from. If you are in doubt about said link from family, friend or colleague, send them a new email to confirm or pick up the phone. Don't go to websites that are suspect or might not have the "HTTPS" protocol. (Not that every HTTPS website is 100% guaranteed safe but safer than just HTTP) Following these good habits will invariably save your bacon 99% of the time.
Hacking! As mentioned earlier, if a PRO really wants your data, they will probably find a way to get it. If you lock your car for example, you can generally avoid crimes of opportunity as the bad guys are looking for the easy in and out. By using a VPN or virtual private network when at a coffee shop or any open hot spot, you can significantly reduce the chances of being hacked. There are many FREE VPNs on the market and I suggest you read as many reviews as you can to find out which one works for you.
Keeping you OS or operating system as well as your malware or anti virus software up to date. Because a large portion of the planet uses the Microsoft OS and it's Office products, cyber criminals are looking at finding vulnerabilities to get around these products and infect your system with various key logging and other malware. By updating these pieces of software on a regular basis can help to offset any potential cyber nightmares! There are a ton of FREE anti virus and malware software programs out there. Like finding the right VPN, do your research online and find the best product for you.
Firewalls or routers not being locked down. If you have an internet connection at home, you most certainly have a router or a modem that you purchased or your ISP supplied you with. Leaving your router WIFI open and not secure is an open invitation to the criminal element to come into your home and wreak havoc. Most of the time your OS firewall should be already locked down, but always good to check from time to time especially after an OS update.
Finally, password protection! As simple as it sounds having a strong password with more than 8 characters, using a combination of upper and lower case, numbers and symbols will help to make things much more difficult for the bad guys. "But I have a thousand passwords to remember, how can I possibly remember them all?" Once again, by using a FREE password manager can really help. Once again, do your research and find the one that works best for you.
This is just a starting point to be safer and to help mitigate the risk and damage from cyber crime. If you follow my advice on just using sound judgement in your every day use of opening emails and going to websites and forming good cyber habits, you will decrease the likelihood of getting a virus or it's other counterparts. Here are a couple final parting pieces of software and advice that will make your life easier:

Cloud storage and an external hard drive. Back up, back up, back up is my mantra. There is noting worse than making it through unscathed from being infected or attacked to have you hard drive die on you! Though an external hard drive does cost money you can get FREE cloud storage to help back up your information in case of a nasty computer failure. Check out the many available online.
Watch what APPS or software you download. Not everything free comes consequence free!
Be careful with your identity, especially on social media. Make sure you lock down your settings on those sites and keep your personal information to a minimum. You don't want the bad guys to know you're on vacation and no one is home!
2 step factor authentication. This is an easy one for anyone that has a cell phone and a computer. God forbid you get hacked or someone gets their hands on your passwords, having 2 step factor authentication can be a real life saver.
I hope this helps out anyone that was curious or struggling to find a solution to what they can possibly do on the cheap to help protect themselves from cyber troubles. In full disclosure, I am not an IT professional but someone who has seen his fair share of friends, family and colleagues who have come to me with any and all of these issues at some point or another. I have done much research on these topics over the years and have been successful so far in eluding any harm coming to my systems (Knock on wood), save for bricking the odd device with a bad firmware update from the manufacturer. So fingers crossed it continues that way. Best of luck.

Photo by Petter Lagson on Unsplash

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Published by
Chris Holm
Southern Alberta Representative at GCR Agencies
Published • 1h
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