CompuClever Blog

Going Incognito – Browse Web in Privacy Mode

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Incognito, according to Wikipedia, from the Latin incognitus, refers to a person who wants to remain anonymous to the world and others, in hiding or shut off from humanity.

Web surfers have the option to enable privacy mode or “Incognito” mode on their browser.  Each of the main browser type offers some level of private browsing.  It is known as Private Browsing, InPrivate Browsing, and Incognito depending on the type of browser used.

Basically – this is a privacy feature that quite simply provides some privacy on your local computing device but, DOES NOT provide hidden detection or stealth beyond that.  Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and other agencies connected on the Internet can detect your activities via your unique IP address on the web servers.

Disabling functions such as the web cache and browsing history make this a relatively private way of browsing the web.  Cookies, the data holders sent by web sites to recognize or track your online activity, are also disabled.

Items Deleted or Not Saved:

The list  of items that are deleted or not saved when you browse during Incognito or Privacy  mode are:

  • Website history.
  • The cache of files stored during your browse session.
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CompuClever Antivirus PLUS – VB100 Award!

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CompuClever is pleased to release the latest VB100 test results for CompuClever Antivirus PLUS.  We will present these results and help you to understand them as part of our ongoing testimony to the effectiveness of our AV product.  As is evident with these results… CompuClever Antivirus PLUS offers outstanding protection without slowing down your PC!

The Test Results

We’ve had four positive test results from the VB100 test lab, one of the few independently operated testing facilities focused on providing comprehensive examination of security software and solutions.  Let’s start with an overview of these four tests that are available for online viewing.  These tests were conducted between August 2015 and October 2016 on various Windows platforms.

Overview & Breakdown

The specific results of each test are based on test markers which you can get an idea of when you mouse over the column title (RAP Score, Performance impact %, etc.)  We define them here:

  • Platform:  This is the selected operating system that VB100 performs its test on. VB100 tries to cover a spectrum of the most popular Windows OS with their tests focusing on one version at a time.  Note:  CompuClever Antivirus PLUS supports Windows 10, Windows 8, 7, Vista, & XP.
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Breaking News – Yahoo Admits Breach of 500 Million Accounts

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My heart dropped when I was alerted by CNN that Yahoo admitted today that 500 million user accounts have been compromised. As a seasoned IT professional who has been involved with the security industry for the past decade, this is probably THE worse security breach that’s occurred since the inception of the Internet.

Here are the key facts that you should be aware of regarding this breach:

  • In August 2016, a person codenamed “Peace” attempted to sell what he claimed to be 200 million Yahoo user information.
  • Back then, Yahoo only said they were investigating the legitimacy of the claim.
  • On Sept. 22nd 2016, Yahoo issued a statement acknowledging the legitimacy of the claim. Furthermore, Yahoo confirmed the scale of the breach is actually 500 million accounts.
  • Yahoo also confirmed that the information stolen contains name, username, lightly encrypted passwords, date of birth, and for some accounts, security questions and answers.

Nevertheless, till this moment, Yahoo hasn’t issued a notice to all of its users advising them to reset their passwords.

Here at CompuClever, we felt it is necessary to inform you about this event because there is a high possibility that either you or someone you know might be impacted by this incident. Continue reading...

A Personal Encounter with Ashley Madison

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What are the consequences to piracy that involves millions of users and personal information? We look at both the overall effect of the greatest hack in modern day as well as how it came to our attention through someone seeking our support and professional guidance. We offer here testimony and strategy.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few months, you must have heard about the Ashley Madison account hack. This was where hackers released the entire user database of names, email addresses, billing information, and account details of 38 million users tied to the site. Some described the historical hack episode as an extinction-level event for privacy.

Jeff Yang, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, asked this simple but stern question in his CNN-syndicated commentary – Ashley Madison hack: privacy becomes extinct. Comparing the incident to the prehistoric planet-wide catastrophe that wiped out the Jurassic World, Yang declared that the data hack of the Toronto-based infidelity website was “an extinction-level event for privacy”.

Attack Aftermath

We were shocked when we first learned that hackers managed to steal close to 40 million users’ records from Ashley Madison, which made claims shortly after the incident that its members remained anonymous. Continue reading...

Stay Safely Connected

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Email and social networking are two primary means of communicating and stay connected with family and friends. Through social network sites and emails, you share updates, post photos, and reveal things that are sometimes very personal about you.  Examples include where you live, which company you work for, whom you are related to, when and where you are going on holiday, what food you like, what music you listen to, whom you have just met, etc. By piecing these bits of information together, it becomes easy for anyone to learn more about you. And that’s also how cyber criminals find out information they want from you. Personal identity theft and online scams are two primary threats that target email and social networking users.

Identity theft

A recent study conducted by Bitdefender, a leading European security technology provider, discovered that more than a quarter of a million email addresses, usernames, and passwords can be found easily through social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, personal blog postings, chat forums, and download sites. Surprisingly, 87% of these compromised credentials still provided valid access to personal email and social networking accounts. What’s more astonishing was that 75% of the people in this study use the same password for all their accounts.

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