The Firewalls-and-Virus-Protection.com
   Security Alert News Reporter   

    The "NewsReporter" is published to keep you up-to-date on the latest information we gather for avoiding and surviving the hectic hacker attacks on your computer security and personal identity that take place constantly on the internet. Many of our comments are based on personal experiences. Protecting your safety, security, sanity, and privacy is not a simple task. We are trying to make it a bit easier for you to accomplish.
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A review of the past issues demonstrates how much, and yet, how little the cyber jungle has changed.

In addition to SPAM and popups, Spyware concerns were beginning to alarm even the most casual users of the Internet, even though the majority of them were uninformed about how to avoid or minimize the threats.

In our first issue, we addressed the seriousness and dangers of this scourge. We outlined some of the related areas that should have been of major concern to all web surfer and Internet users:

      Latest Virus threats and variations
      Latest Anti-privacy theft measures
      Children, teens and other Family security topics
      Available publications
      Latest Free resources
      Excerpts and reviews of recent security publications
      Answers to security related Questions

One of the biggest problems we recognized then, was that most of the everyday email users, web surfers, etc, did not have the proper software tools to protect their computer security and the more serious threats to their personal identities, nor did they fully understand what they needed.

And today, a year later, the purveyors of spam, spyware, malware, adware, and viruses continue fiercely, to dump this stuff on us, with even more sophisticated methods and tools.

There's a critical race ongoing between the software safety and security writers and the more sophisticated criminal types to outdo each other.

A little over a year ago, many of our family members and friends were telling us about the problems they were experiencing with their computers. They were really unaware of the reasons why their computers were crashing, popups were popping up all over, spam was inundating their mail boxes, and other odd things were happening to them. Virus Grief and Computer Rage often resulted from these frustrations.

To help them, and everyone else encountering the same difficulties, the "Firewalls-and Virus-Protection" website was published.

A news letter can usually be more current and timely than a website, so the

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We post Kid Safe Sites, because like you, we care about the safety and security of our children and grandchildren
...and to help parents, grandparents and guardians guide today's young internet surfers to safe sites. There are many other website creators who feel the same concerns and responsibility. These are just a few of their sites that we have personally reviewed and tested as safe for our Grandchildren. Check them out and share them with the young people you care about.
  Please note the 'AMBER ALERT" scrolling at the bottom of this table
  If you would like to help support the Code Amber project, please click here.

Reviews of Family Safe Sites
CRAYOLA	The Crayola website goes beyond being just for Kids with its sections for Parents and Educators, too. We wouldn't hesitate to send our children and grandchildren here for entertainment and education. Here's the LINK
	PBS Kids is a respected and trusted site. We would not hesitate to send our children and grandchildren there for entertainment and education, either. Their Privacy Policy is very assuring. Families visiting the site can feel safe regarding potential threats to family privacy and their children's welfare. Jump to it from HERE http://pbskids.org/
	Our Firewalls-and-virus-protection.com website has been Certified 'Family Safe' by the Institute of Family Safe Businesses.
Ask Jeeves for Kids	Enter your question here: Ask Jeeves is a trademark of Ask Jeeves, Inc., Copyright 1996-2000 Ask Jeeves, Inc. Ask Jeeves for Kids has great Study Tools, Fun and Games and News Resources, all Safe. Visit Ask Jeeves for Kids Home page Here
Kid Safe Site from		A really cool Index to the Web for net Surfers ages 8 - 14. Parents will love this one, too.
	Check out the Kid Friendly pages HERE	and the Parent Friendly Links  HERE
Click to visit Site	Your Site Support Supporting your Play Time with Kids for Kid approved activities that grownups love
	We receive no compensation for displaying these links and you will be under No Obligation when you visit them. They are here because we care about the safety of everyone who uses the internet, especially our Kids.

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Publications - Use these Free Reports to help your family and friends:

    Many people using the internet sometimes wonder if their firewalls and virus protection are good enough to keep them safe. For those of you who have visited our Firewalls website and Security Alert Blog, you know that the information there is directed toward keeping you safe from hacker and cracker attacks. Additions to our bookshelf are selected with the same purpose - and we encourage you to share it freely.
    
Because it isn't always convenient to share your computer with family and friends, we have created small downloadable reports that can easily be printed and distributed to the people you'd like to help avoid 'virus grief'.

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Browser Hijacking hasn't gone away. One of the outstanding sources for information about browser hijackers and tools to remove these predators is available on the SpywareInfo.com/ website.       It's loaded with powerful information and helpful advice that zeros in on the hijacking problem. If you are experiencing any similar problems, be sure to follow the link to their forum. There are literally thousands of postings from which you will learn and possibly find the advice that will help you resolve your own issues.      You can download HijackThis from the Software link on the SpywareInfo website. Be sure to read and follow their instructions to the letter if you want good results.                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We learned about this program from the extraordinary website and forums built and maintained by James Healan, webmaster of SpywareInfo.com.

DOWNLOAD latest cws shredder from Softpedia. It'll find and remove those nasty Cool Web Search trojan horses.

Here are A few more helpful resources   "Keep Your Private Information PRIVATE"   Lock away all of your Passwords, Images, Documents, Video and Audio into one Encrypted database for your eyes only. Enigma enables you to Encrypt and store almost anything so that only you can access the files through a master password chosen by you. Of course, all or any of your Encrypted files can be restored to their original state any time you choose. You can even backup and restore the entire database to and from CDs to ensure that you lose nothing even if your hard disk dies. Click to get your Free Trial Here                                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~     Ever since I found the eBook, "The Hacker's Nightmare" that tells how to really Keep Hackers, Worms and Germs out of my PCs, it has received my highest recommendation to family and friends.    This is an eBook by the 20 plus year veteran of internet security consulting ...Mr Bill Hely, there's so much valuable information and just plain common sense contained in this eBook, that we could fill this and future issues of our News Reporter for the next few months just talking about it. Here are a few more things we found:    In addition to the Free Anti-Virus program by GRISOFT,   we learned that having just these three anti-spyware programs will build a strong fortress against Trojan Horses:                             Spybot-Search & Destroy, AdAware and SpywareBlaster.    Spybot S&D and AdAware scan and remove spyware from your computer. SpywareBlaster keeps spyware from being installed.     Bill Hely has designed a webpage that describes many of the security tricks and tools that will help keep that nasty stuff out of your computer. Review The Hacker's Nightmare Story HERE. Some sample (Free) chapters are available to early visitors.   Here's a testimonial Bill recently received -   "Bill, there is no way I can thank you enough for creating this wonderful program. I have done little else since I got it downloaded than print, read, experiment and learn. You are truly a genius and a very kind person for helping me 1-on-1 with my problem. The information in that book is so all encompassing that it is far more than a book on how to protect a computer. It also gives all the basic information on different concepts from Computer 101 to Advanced. My biggest question is why you are not charging more?      All of that information would cost a fortune if it were sold separately. At any rate, thank you again and again!! I would love to be an affiliate as soon as I learn a little more. It would be the only thing I ever sold that I truly believed in. You are incredible!"                                      - Barbara Dingman (USA)    The Hacker's Nightmare eBook isn't just for Professionals and Small Business Operators. Much of Bill Hely's information can easily be applied to keeping even the less experienced internet user out of the deep and murky depths of despair resulting from Hacker attacks, virus grief and spyware intrusions.  Visit now and Learn the Truths About Computer & Internet Security. (Bill expects to increase the price sometime in the near future. Visiting now could avoid that price increase)   I feel it's really worth it, even at a higher price. ... Richard P.S. here's the link to Grisoft's AVG anti virus software, in case you       missed it in a recent issue                                       ... R                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Operation Web Snare is a coordinated effort targeting an expansive array of Cyber Crime schemes victimizing individuals and industry worldwide. This initiative highlights numerous investigations that have been successfully advanced through coordination of law enforcement, and a growing list of industryand international partners.

The development of international resources is closely coordinated with the DOJ, the U.S. State Department and a growing list of E-Commerce industry partners.

Criminal schemes included in this initiative include: criminal spam, phishing, spoofed or hijacked accounts, international re-shipping schemes, Cyber-extortion, auction fraud, credit card fraud, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), Computer Intrusions (hacking), economic espionage (Theft of Trade Secrets), International Money Laundering, Identity Theft, and a growing list of “traditional crimes” hat continue to migrate on-line.

Operation Web Snare has been coordinated at the Federal level with the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Secret Service, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Numerous state and local law enforcement agencies contributed significantly to this nitiative as well.

Operation Web Snare includes more than 150 investigations, in which more than 870,000 victims lost more than $210 million dollars. Through these investigations more than 300 subjects were targeted, resulting in 100 arrests/convictions, 116 indictments, and the execution of more than 130 search/seizure warrants.

Although significant in number, these investigations represent only a fraction of the Cyber crime problem, underscoring not only the need for sustained law enforcement focus, but the continuing development of expanded industry partnerships as well.

(We'll add more 'Good Guys' credits as the results come in, but here are our
 'Good Guy Check Marks' to date ) √ √ √ √ √ √ √
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"User Education" is the focus of our Firewalls and Virus Protection website and the "Security Alert News Reporter".  
 
How many of your IM and Chat Room Buddies are alert to the growing Instant Messaging threats?  In case you missed this FREE report on the Firewalls-and-Virus-Protection website, you can read it here.  Please print the report and share it with your family, friends and associates.
        
  As a P.S. to the above comment, encourage your friends to check out our new "Security Alert Blog". The most recent Blog entries include these helpful and timely posts:
 
        2 posts on our experience to date with the Mozilla Firefox Browser
               ▪  Updating to the latest version of Firefox
               ▪  How to protect against the latest Firefox vulnerabilities
               ▪  Are PC users ready for another Operating System?
               ▪  Instant messaging - the Hacker's newest target
 
  There are dozens more posts available in the Blog Archives. Read our Blog Posts HERE. I urge you to Comment, Challenge and add your own opinions to ours.                                    
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  If they are hesitant or uncertain about the benefits of visiting with us,
suggest that they review the help that's readily available at this one page summary of the Online Security Consideration and Protective Tactics that are designed to keep them be safe on the Internet. They Can Check out these Considerations and Tactics HERE.

 
And finally for this issue, we hope you can take our one minute mini- survey (We'll give you a nifty and entertaining Free eBook on Coping With Your Stresses for your time) and visit our new Blog Pages, read our postings and contact us with your comments and opinions. Everything you have to offer will help us do a better job of helping you. Thank you. ...Richard
                  Read our Privacy Policy                   

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As promised in our first issue, we aren't going to stuff your mail box with un-ending mailings every day, week, or whenever. When there's important news about the topics we've noted, we'll let you know, usually monthly. 
To avoid unwanted and unnecessary filtering of our messages, we will send a very brief text email to you. It will have a link to this News Reporter and an un-subscribe link.The email subject line will identify the contents as "Latest Security Alert News Reporter - Issue ##" and the email "FROM" address will be "richard@richardpresents.com"

                                                      
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