teachers, technology mix it up - InMaricopa.com

16m BUSINESS InMaricopa.com
March 2012
BECOMINg TECH SAVVY
Sponsored by Data Doctors
Is your PC safe enough
to do your taxes?
Tax season brings out the scams,
fake emails and malware because
thieves and hackers know it’s
becoming more common to prepare
taxes via your home computer.
Making sure your computer’s security
software and operating system are up-todate
is important this time of year because
3
12
BY KEN COLBURN
Q
WHaT SHoulD I Do To MaKe Sure My
CoMpuTer IS Safe To Do My TaxeS?
A
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of the clever nature of infections these
days.
In the past, malware authors were
proud they infected you and made it a
point to let you know that they “gotcha.”
Today, malware code is specifically written
to be silent and lurk in the background so
as to go undetected.
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Even if you are diligent in keeping all
your software updated, all it takes is one
bad decision (clicking on a fake link, opening
an infected email attachment, downloading
files from file-sharing networks,
etc.) to have a silent thief slip into
your computer.
The whole idea is to find a way
to gain access to your computer
in a way allowing a remote hacker
to silently run programs on your
computer. It used to be Windows
was the primary target, but today
virtually everything you use on
the Internet (browsers, PDF readers,
Flash players, email programs,
etc.) is being targeted as a way into your
precious hard drive.
So, before you jump into doing your
taxes on your computer, take a few minutes
and do some spot checks for signs of silent
intruders.
A common sign of malicious programs
is a computer taking an extraordinarily
long time to start up.
Windows users should check the task
manager (ctrl-alt-del) to see how many processes
are running on the computer (look
in the bottom left corner). Make sure you
do this spot check right after restarting the
computer so nothing is running yet.
When we perform our overhaul cleanup
service, we strive to get the running
processes on Windows XP systems in the
30 to 40 range (laptops tend to require
more processes) and Windows 7 and Vista
systems in the 35 to 45 range.
If you have 60, 70 or 80-plus processes
running, you want to make sure none of
those excess processes are hidden malware
programs.
While you have the task manager open,
KEN COLBURN
click onto the performance tab and check
the CPU usage and history. On a clean machine,
your system should be idling, which
means the CPU usage should be very low
and stable (4 percent to 8 percent) and the
graph showing the CPU usage
history should be fairly low on the
graph.
If your CPU usage is jumping
up and down, or is running at a
much higher number and the history
graph shows wild swings up
and down, something is running
in the background of the computer
and should be identified.
Have someone you trust do an
inspection of the various startup areas in
Windows to see if there are obvious signs
of malware (blank entries in MSConfig,
strange keys in the registry, etc.)
Even if you aren’t infected with malware,
getting these indicators back to
normal levels will rejuvenate your computer
and make everything run faster and
smoother for everything you do, not just
your tax return.
Another danger for households with
teenagers (or anyone who tends to engage
in file-sharing networks) is the accidental
sharing of your tax records or other sensitive
files on your hard drive.
Many file-sharing programs automatically
share certain folders on the hard drive
with the rest of the file-sharing universe,
so make sure you check your installed programs
to see if any strange programs have
been installed before you get started.
Ken Colburn is CEO of Tempe-based
Data Doctors and be followed on Twitter
@TheDataDoc. Maricopa Data Doctors, 1
N. John Wayne Parkway.
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