Scareware Attacks on the Rise

Posted by Denise Griffitts in Internet Mastery on 01 10th, 2010 | no responses

Scareware Popup

I don’t know if this is something you can attribute to the economy or not, but scareware attacks are on the rise. What is scareware? You know those pop-up windows that seemingly come out of nowhere to tell you that your computer has been infected with a virus? That is scareware. These applications are being built solely to steal personal information and spread viruses online.

Recently companies like Google, Twitter and the New York Times found themselves being exploited by hackers as part of a massive attack on consumers. The Better Business Bureau is offering advice on how to protect computers and personal information from scareware which can appear on even the most trusted websites.

There are steps you can take to protect your personal information and your computer. By staying wary and never letting your guard down, you can avoid a lot of heartache and angst.

Protect your computer. Install updates to your operating system and purchase antivirus software from a name you recognize and trust and be sure to keep that software up to date. Some of the leading anti-virus software providers are Norton (Symantec), McAfee, and AVG.

Make sure that all security patches and updates are installed for your web browser and programs such as Adobe Flash Player.

Take immediate action if you believe that you are the victim of a scareware attack. If you receive a scareware popup window (see images below), force the window to close through your task manager. To do this on a PC, hold down the ctrl, alt and delete keys simultaneously, open your task manager, find the browser in the list of running programs and click “end task.” Once you have closed the window, run your anti-virus scan to make sure that nothing awful happened.

Stay alert and err on the side of caution when you are unsure of anything.

**You have permission to reprint in your publication or to your website/blog any articles by Denise Griffitts found on this Website as long as Denise Griffitt’s name and contact information is included. Denise Griffitts, Virtual Assistance Industry Expert, http://internetmasteryblog.com, info @ virtualassistantindustry.com, 888-719-6711.

Manage Your Time by Managing Your Self-Interruptions

Posted by Denise Griffitts in Internet Mastery on 01 8th, 2010 | one response

Wasted Time

The promise that technology will make our lives easier is true in many respects, but more people are finding themselves time poor than ever before. To run our businesses more effectively we need to become very aware of where the time bleeds are and manage them.

If, for instance, you are in the habit of checking your email every 30 minutes or so, you will find that at the end of the day you wasted a considerable amount of time on a task that probably should be scheduled twice a day. Do you spend a lot of time in and out of Social Media sites such as Facebook or Twitter? Again, by designating a specific time, or times of each work day you can save hours of wasted motion.

I use an online productivity tool called Rescue Time (available for Mac and Windows) that allows me and the members of my team to easily and effortlessly track how productive we are each day so we can avoid and in some cases, banish distractions.

Rescue time actually allows you to specify a period of time you want to focus on the projects at hand and will block the parts of the web that you tend to go to without thinking or planning. You can set the number of hours you want to spend in a day on a particular site and Rescue Time will alert you on your email, RSS reader, or by SMS when you run out of time. You can create groups and compare your online stats with other users. There are Rescue Time widgets for blogs, iGoogle, and Netvibes. You can also create a white-list of sites that you want Rescue Time to pay attention to.

Check out the free trial here and please be sure to let me know your thoughts on this tool after you have used it for a while.

Your Partner In Success Radio Show Welcomes Back Jim Bouchard

Posted by Denise Griffitts in Internet Mastery on 01 6th, 2010 | no responses

Table of contents for Your Partner In Success Radio Show

Your Partner In Success Radio Show

Jim Bouchard was my guest in November, 2009 and we had so many topics to talk about and so much valuable information to impart that we quite simply ran out of time. Jim very graciously agreed to return on Friday, January 2010 and I am very much looking forward to speaking with him again. Jim is dynamic, passionate about helping other people, and funny!

Jim Bouchard thinks like a Black Belt, and he’ll help you think like a Black Belt too!

Jim’s resume is colorful. As a former television writer and producer, Jim has done everything from fitting pipes on submarines, mopping floors, pumping gas and selling hot dogs to producing television commercials, fighting fires, boxing, playing drums in major concerts, hosting radio shows and kicking for semi-pro football teams.

In 2007 Jim decided to share the philosophy of self-improvement he developed through his life as a martial artist and entrepreneur. His first book, Dynamic Components of Personal POWER also launched him on his next career as a speaker and media personality.

We will be chatting about success and the dynamic components of personal power. I have a lot of questions for Jim and invite you to join us in the chat room or on the line to ask your questions during the interview.