Yes it is Casual Friday again! This week I received a question via email and it was a great one so I thought I should share it here for everyone. I am going to share it below along with the answer we sent back.

I hope this helps the person that was requesting this info… It may also help others as well. Remember you can always contact us… with all your security questons and… Don’t Be Causal when it comes to your own PayPal Security, And Protecting Your Desktop And eMail!

The Question:

Thank you for your comprehensive and informative description of how to protect your website from hackers and spammers.

However, if you do not mind, I would like to ask you a question.

For example my website has a donations link and when you press it to donate an amount it shows my e-mail address. I recall reading your post and it mentioning that hackers like to get ahold of your e-mail.

What do I do now? Is it ok to leave it as it is? Or do I contact PayPal or something? I am pretty lost and would really appreciate if you could assist me with this issue.

Best Regards,

Leandro

Our Answer:

Hi Leandro,

If you go here: http://thecyberhoodwatch.com/sitemap/ and click our donation button to the right side you’ll see that our button was created in PayPal using the donation’s button widget. To add a little flair and be different I created our own button with an image we chose rather than the typical PayPal look.

If you click the button, you’ll notice that button it using a: form action= “https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr” which protects our email from being exposed. This link takes you directly to PayPal.com to submit your donation. Instead of using your email you use your PayPal account and their secure process which allows you to take the person to a page to fill out their information or use their PayPal account. I would recommend using PayPal’s donation button because it is more secure. Below is an image of what it looks like inside of PayPal and where you should go to set yours up:

If that does not work then I would recommend contacting PayPal support, so you don’t risk any undue expose of your email or personal info… and as always use a password generator and create a very good only used on PayPal password with a minimum of 20 characters like this:

You should change your password on a regular basis, like once a month, or no less than once every 3-4 months to protect your account!

I highly recommend clearing your desktop of potential hacks, or scripts that can be downloaded directly from emails or websites. There is a free program that I personally use which is called: “Spybot – Search & Destroy©®” use this every day and no less than once every week, to protect you from giving hackers access to your open ports or server access through your cpanel, ftp and/or the program you use to upload files to your websites!

I hope this helps, I can’t stress enough that the simple things you do will give you the most protection, do all the free things you can do first, and then make sure to buy extra protective security tools when needed. We have a whole list of other things we recommend through our network of sites.

My favorite and one that the CHW approves of, is a program called: Avast Free Download Antivirus Software. This software is free and comes with tons of bells and whistles. If you are going to buy a program this is the one I purchased and use for the extra protection, and I recommend it because it really works well, and it’s very inexpensive

As always be safe online,

Bill

p.s. please email me back if you try everything and contact PayPal and you are still having issues, and I will try to help you resolve this issue.

Everyone please be, Xtra Careful when protecting yourself, with PayPal Security And Protecting Your Desktop And eMail! Don’t Be Causal With IT…

Learn IT, DO IT, Teach IT, Share IT, BE IT

Your CyberHood Watch Partner

Bill Wardell

 
Radio Security Journalist

© 2006 – 2011 CyberHood Watch®

Co-Founder, Marc Maiffret is back as CTO of eEye. The CyberHood Watch partners, Dave & Bill, talked about the value of Marc’s new perspective that he is bringing back to eEye after several years of contributing to the industry elsewhere.

Marc understands that modern societies will become increasingly dependent on technology, not just as something nice to have, but as a foundation for a way of life. However, along with the technology dependency, people like Marc who understand the vulnerabilities individuals and societies are facing, are the defenders of our personal and national security. Personal, corporate, national, and international entities are all subject to cyber threats, exposing our children, families, and businesses while making them vulnerable to the digital threats from cybercriminals.

Marc Maiffret On CHWradio

The truth is we have no choice…The Internet is here and it is so much a part of our daily lives that there is no disconnect, plug to pull, or switch to turn it off. The CyberHood Watch appreciates individuals like Marc who are tireless defenders of our cyber security.

We have laid the golden egg…The Internet. Unfortunately, everyone and every entity connected to the Internet are its treasures and valuable resources. Each entity connected to the Internet provides nefarious organizations  potential access to personal information, and financial wealth. In addition there are many who are concerned about the security of the nation form those who seek world domination or the destruction of nations.

Too often, I have stated as well as heard, “we are always a step and a half behind the hacker”. Good news, according to Marc, understanding the aspects of the life cycle of attacks, allows us to get a jump ahead of the bad guys. The nefarious entities are all scrambling to find the vulnerabilities in the systems or a way to socially engineer individuals to trigger a behavioral response. However, if we focus on the basic commonalities in penetrating a system, and find it first, we have a chance of staying ahead of the hackers allowing Marc, to patch and deny access to hackers with bad intentions. One thing is for sure; it is a never ending battle 24/7, 365 days a year. As Marc said, “It is a continuous sprint with no finish line in sight”.

Thank you Marc Maiffret, as well as all our guests we have had on CHWradio who strive to make the digital age safe for all children, families, and businesses.

I Love An Intellectual Challenge - Lets Match Wits

Marc loves the intellectual challenge and matching wits with the nefarious hackers. However; be mindful there are the counterparts to Marc, who are well funded by criminal organizations, racing Marc to discover the same vulnerabilities in the system.

Graham Cluley, from Sophos, raised the question in his blog post about hiring hackers who have turned good, one of whom was appointed to Homeland Security. The concern is we might be sending a message of approval for individuals, in order to obtain a position of importance; you have to become a notable hacker of the system to prove your worthiness.

The concern is we are approving the negative behavior of hackers to catch a hacker, likened to hiring a notorious bank robber to guard the bank. Probably the reason, as Marc pointed out, that large reputable companies shy away from public association with their employed white hat hackers…It takes one to one.

Here is a tip from Marc regarding new types of hacks currently occurring, and that is if you maintain a balance on your iTunes account or similar account – Don’t, hackers have recently penetrated iTunes, and are draining those accounts balances.

Some believe it is dramatic and too much of a noble claim when you say you are fighting for a way of life. Consider how technology is becoming embedded in our lives, automobiles, smart grid, smart phones, etc., and you begin to understand how individuals like Marc are fighting for our way of life. Be sure to listen to Marc’s story about penetrating a water plant and the implications that presents to all our municipality’s safety.

Be sure to download the entire interview, Marc shares a great deal of insight to what is necessary to maintain a safe presence in the digital age. Moreover, the landscape has changed and what were simple recommendations to stay safe (and still applicable) on the Internet have been expanded to identify the risks you have no control over.

Allow me to leave you with this thought from Marc regarding the “The Explosion”. The explosion is when the access and the data come together for the smart phone, and it becomes the complete replacement for the wallet. The smart phone replaces your driver’s license, replaces your credit card, ID card, payment options, etc. When this happens, it all becomes very worthwhile for the hacker. A previous guest, Winn Schwartau, sees it as the “perfect storm” in 2013, when there will be approximately four billion connections to the Internet, the majority of which will be the smart phone, and in the hands of children.

Thanks again Marc, for sharing your time with Dave & Bill on CHWradio.

david c ballard

Do You Want To Be A Stay-At-Home-Dad?

Congratulations Armin Brott on approaching twenty years of helping dads become lifetime fathers for their children and the dads their children need them to be.

Like many great causes their beginnings are fueled by a personal wanting for something more. In Armin’s case, it was a justifiable anger because of the lack of information and his desire to be the best dad he could be. Which he has ultimately provided for others, including the resources and wisdom he gained through his research?

The CyberHood Watch partners can only imagine the impact we will have after twenty years. Almost twenty years later and Armin is still empowering dads who want to more than the stereotype father figurehead.

In 1994 Armin authored his first of many books called, “The Expectant Father”, which has sold over a million copies. Armin’s most recent book, in the last couple of months, is the “Military Father” – A Guide for Deployed Dads.

The whole idea is to get people to understand how important fathers are, starting with the fathers themselves, said Armin Brott.

Armin touched on something that will personally affect me in the next year or so and that is “separation anxiety”. Not so much the separation when your child develops his or her own friends and it is no longer cool to associate with moms or dads, but more so the empty-nester separation anxiety.

More than thirty years I have officed from my home and have been a constant in all five of my children’s lives. Ironically, sometimes I felt I had too much time with them, but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. Did I make mistakes – oh yeah.

However, it is getting closer to the day when they will all be out of the house, and it is very likely then, I will understand the meaning of separation anxiety.

How do today’s dads differ from our dad’s generation ago?

Dads then and dads now are very similar on the inside; the difference is on the outside. Our dad’s generation before us was based on a different definition: a good father. A generation ago, the definition of a good father was you went to work, you made money, and you put shoes on everybody’s feet, and food in the refrigerator. That is what was expected and in some ways that was allowed.

Today’s dads are still expected to be the providers and protector. However, in addition to the latter responsibilities, dads are now expected to drive the carpool, coach the soccer team, and be the stable emotional presence in the home. There is a lot more responsibility for the contemporary father.

If you ever doubt for a moment that our children are not part of the new Net-Generation and the digital world – think again. Bill and I got a chuckle when Armin explained that his daughter literally completes six-thousand text messages in one month. In comparison, Bill pointed out that he has only accumulated approximately a thousand tweets on Twitter – oh yeah – that covers more than a year.

I think my older kids are beginning to unplug – they do not want to be at everyone’s beckon call – they want time to themselves.

Each generation of parents face new issues and new technologies and it is important for the current generation of parents to be responsible and be aware of what their children are doing.  Today’s parent faces new technologies and they can no longer remain the digital immigrant while their children become the new digital citizens.

The digital gap between parents and children can be the difference between a productive and happy childhood and a child who has lost their innocence only to live a life of torment. Today’s contemporary parent cannot be complacent with the role of technology in the child’s life. The flow of information available to our children is massive and today’s parent needs to be aware so their child does not drown.

As Armin points out, a generation ago, you had to stop and use the pay phone to reach home, or you had to be home to receive the call. You could control the amount of information that flowed into your child’s life. If you had to be the disciplinarian, you could remove the privilege of using the phone. Today it is hard to find privacy and avoid contact from the many sources of media.

The bottom line is many of today’s contemporary fathers want more of a relationship in the nurturing, care taking, and development of their child. Unfortunately, media has so often portrayed the mother as the sole caretaker of the children that dads have not been allowed to share in that role.

Surrounded By Love

Fortunately, Armin Brott’s, desire to be an active participant in his children’s lives as the nurturing caretaker has opened the doors to many dads who have yearned to take on such a role in their child’s life.

Armin’s journey over the past twenty years has provided other dads the resources to take an active role in the lives of their children.

Be sure to download and listen to the CyberHood Watch Partners interview with Armin Brott. In this post, I only covered half our conversation.

david c ballard