CompuClever Blog

A Close Brush with McAfee

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“Safe is not a privilege.  It is a right.  Safe never sleeps.”

This is the message that McAfee delivers on their home page.  They claim to provide comprehensive anti-theft protection.  So what is theft?  What kind of price do we expect and are asked to endure in order to get “protection”?  Let’s look at the details which we at CompuClever experienced first-hand.

McAfee

  • Prior to Sept. 17 2012:  We were contacted by McAfee Web Security team about renewing our web security monitoring service for the next two years.  We had been using this service for the past four years, but given there are comparable services with better pricing plans, we decided not to renew.  The expired American Express credit card information was stored on our McAfee account.  The card expired in May 2012 and we decided to not update the card record, thinking that no one could do anything using a credit card with invalid expire date.
  • Oct. 22, 2012:  We discovered a transaction of $3,910.44 was charged by McAfee on Sept. 17th 2012, for a two-year web security monitoring service that we didn’t want to renew.  No bill, invoice, or notification of any sort was sent by McAfee.  
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Who Can You Trust?

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There are software producers that are dedicated to security, safety, and to combat online crime.  One of the guiding principles for CompuClever is to assist users in making their PC secure by removing confidential and private information such as banking and credit card data.  There are many security vendors that protect our computers from viral attacks – viruses and malware and the like.  We come to rely on these companies and trust they employ high standards of ethics.  However, when it comes to the “bottom line” – money and the pursuit of profits – you need to be vigilant and you need to take precautions.  In some cases, such as the example described here, you need to take a stand.

McAfee Forges Credit Card

McAfee is a security software company based in California which was purchased in 2010 by Intel for $7.68 billion.  We are no less than shocked to experience first-hand that McAfee, a company whose objective is to protect its clientele from fraudulent behaviour, would go as far as to force a transaction by arbitrarily picking a new credit card expiry date.  This was done all for the purpose of renewing a software service license.  In this article we will provide an overview as follows.  Continue reading...

Looking to speed up your computer? Be careful of these guys

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pecon software india crtcLooking to speed up your computer? Be careful of these guys!

As mentioned in a previous blog post about speeding up your computer, many people in North America have been receiving telephone calls (sometimes on a daily basis) from people advertising themselves as security experts.

Victims would get a call from someone claiming to be a computer repairman (and this person will most likely have a heavy accent). Once you pick up, there will be a slight pause as they connect you with a “technician”, who will then start asking you to run various system programs.

The end result is this company will fool you into downloading a computer program, and then making you pay for it.

The bright side? This company has been fined in Canada for violating something called the “Do Not Call List”.

In Canada, anyone can ask their telephone provider to be placed on a “Do Not Call List.” This means that telemarketers are not allowed to call you.

If they do call you, the can be fined.

The federal regulator in Canada says two software companies based in India were making unsolicited telemarketing calls from Canadian numbers to Canadians who had registered their phone numbers on the national do-not-call list. Continue reading...

How to fix Flash on your computer

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If you have ever heard of Flash, you’ve probably asked yourself the question: “How do I fix Flash on my computer?” Flash is a finicky program that often crashes. And it’s not only buggy – Flash can also be dangerous for your computer if it’s not updated regularly.

First of all, what is Flash? Flash is a “multimedia platform” created and maintained by Adobe, and is used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash typically helps your computer play streaming media such as radio broadcast, or, most regularly, YouTube videos.

Without Flash, most computer browsers would not be able to play YouTube (although that may change as new technologies are introduced).

So, if Flash is out of date and refuses to work, it can be extremely annoying because you won’t be able to watch videos or listen to music. Flash also sometimes powers webpages as well.

Why Flash can be dangerous for your computer

Flash is also used to display things like banner ads on webpages. Almost every website we visit has some sort of banner ad. However if your browser’s Flash plugin is not up to date, it can be a serious security issue. Hackers can find vulnerabilities, and can find ways to transmit viruses to your computer via Flash (often this risk is paired with the failure of the website owner to either make sure their own site is updated, or they may have chosen a really inept and risky way to build their website, making it easy for hackers to find a foothold). Continue reading...

How to create a safe password

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Practically every day we hear about email and bank accounts getting hacked, mostly because of  “password entropy”: we often don’t bother to change passwords frequently, the passwords we do have are easy to crack, and we often use the same password for multiple accounts.

  • Length: Passwords should incorporate 8 or more characters.
  • Complexity: Include letters, punctuation, symbols, and numbers.
  • Change your passwords often: Change the passwords for your email, banking, and credit card websites about every three months.
  • Variety: Don’t use the same password for everything. By cracking one password it’s easy to find out where you do your online banking etc.

How to create a strong password:

  1. Start with a sentence: Create a strong safe password
  2. Remove the spaces between the words in the sentence: Createastrongsafepassword
  3. Intentionally misspell some of the words: Cre@teas7rongs@fep@$$word
  4. Add length with numbers: Cre@teas7rongs@fep@$$word2112

Extra hints:

Try Microsoft’s secure password checker.

Never create passwords that incorporate:

  • Plaintext or “dictionary words” in any language (that’s why we modified our password with numbers and symbols).
  • Words spelled backwards, common misspellings, and abbreviations.
  • Sequences or repeated characters such as 12345678, 222222, abcdefg, or adjacent letters on your keyboard (qwerty).
  • Personal information: Your name, birthday, driver’s license, passport number, or similar information.
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