In This Issue:

• Home
  
  
• ILL Advised
  
  
• Inside Outreach
  
  
• PubMed Particulars
  
  
• Tech Time
  
  
• Chic Chat
  
  
• Announcements
  
  
• Links
  
  

Do You Know How to Turn Off Your Computer?

It is always better to be safe than sorry. It is important to properly shutdown a computer, rather than just pushing the ON/OFF button. Files may get corrupted if a computer is not properly shutdown. If a laptop is not shutdown properly, the battery may get drained of its power. Then if you need to use the laptop on battery power, you will need to first recharge the battery.

Follow these procedures to properly shutdown your computer:

1. Close any open documents and shutdown programs with the program's Close or Exit command. (Usually found under the File drop down menu.)
2. Shutdown the computer using the appropriate steps, depending on your operating system. (Usually Start—Shutdown)

Spam: Spreading Viruses, Worms, Scams, Urban Legends, and more Spam

Spam is identical or nearly identical email messages sent to thousands (or millions) of recipients. Addresses of recipients are often harvested from listserv postings, Web pages, obtained from databases, or simply guessed by using common names and domains. (from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_email.)

It is probably impossible to eliminate spam from your email Inbox. Many institutions have anti-spam filters on their email servers. So believe or not, you are probably not receiving all of the spam that comes to your email address. Spam is more than annoying—it is often used to spread viruses, worms, and scams. Spam is also used to "phish" for personal information.

Remember, do not open email attachments from people you don't know. The January-February 2004 issue of the NER’estah (http://nnlm.gov/ner/newsletter/13/techtimes13.html) includes information about how to protect your computer from email viruses.

Also, don’t follow a link to a Web site that asks for personal information or financial information. This is called phishing—attackers hope to get information so they can steal your identity or money. Personal information includes name, address, social security number, birth date, logins, account numbers, mother's maiden name, and passwords. Over the past few months, spam has gone out that appears to be from a government agency, such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). If you click on the link, you are taken to a fake site to obtain your personal information. For more information on phising, I highly recommend the article written by Greg Bodin, the Technology Coordinator in the South Central Region. The article is available at: http://nnlm.gov/scr/scnn/sep-oct04/technotes.htm.

Firefox Internet Browser and Security

A previous Tech Time article (http://nnlm.gov/ner/newsletter/16/techtimes16.html) introduced the Firefox Browser as an alternative to Internet Explorer from Microsoft. One reason Firefox is gaining popularity is because it is more secure than Internet Explorer.

Popup blocking is part of Firefox. This feature eliminates annoying ads. In addition, a more technical reason Firefox is more secure is because it does not support Active X controls. Internet Explorer can automatically download and execute an ActiveX control. ActiveX controls have full access to the Windows operating system so there is a risk that the Active X control may damage software or data on your computer. By using Firefox, which does not support Active X controls, you are less likely to have unwanted programs and processes downloaded on your computer. Unwanted processes include spyware, data-mining, aggressive advertising/pop-up windows, and Web site tracking.

Firefox also makes it easier to identify "phishing scam" sites. Phising sites are designed to look like a valid secure site, like an online banking site, and then prompts you to enter personal information, such as social security number, password, ATM number, etc. In Firefox, when you land on an encrypted page, which phishing sites don't provide, the address bar on the top of the Web page is highlighted in yellow. The page's domain name also appears on the status bar at the bottom of the Web page. So, if the address bar isn't yellow, or the domain name on the status bar doesn't match the page you are expecting, don't enter private information. The screen below is an example of a secure site display in Firefox.

Please feel free to contact me at penny.glassman@umassmed.edu or 508-856-5974 if you have any questions. Here is to safe and secure computing in 2006!