Cheers

More information from Symantec (source of the fix) here: http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2004-050614-0532-99

If you have an iPhone application that isn’t responding or seems to be moving very slowly:

1. Open/select the application
2. Hold the Home button for 6 or 7 seconds until the application quits
3. Restart the application

This has fixed numerous mail errors I have encountered.

Website Signup

There is a great new service you want to sign up for or you want to leave a comment on a website, but they require your name and email address.

Minor dangers/annoyances: Spamming your email address, being added to a database that can be sold to third-parties

Big danger: if you have to setup an account (with a password) it may be readable. If you are one of those people who uses the same password with all of your accounts, you just gave them (the proprietors of the website and anyone who hacks into their site) all the information they needed to login to your email account.

Fix It

1. Use a temporary email address. This is a great solution as you can check the temporary email address for your confirmation email, enable your account and you never have to hear from them (or their affiliates) again! This chart (from Lifehacker.com) shows a comparison of temporary email providers.
2. Never use your “default” password in conjunction with your email address or an account name you reuse, EVER. I am not going to tell you that it makes sense to have a different password for all of your accounts, but employing a method that protects your privacy is simple and effective. The method I use is having two email accounts and a few memorable passwords. My Gmail account I use most often, and I have a Yahoo account that I sign up for services with.
   1. In determining what username/password combination to use on a website, ask: “What is my trust level for this website?” Trust level should correspond with how well known the site is (e.g. yahoo.com, google.com, nytimes.com vs. big-bobs-chickens-and-flooring.com, bitconsultants.net). If the trust level is high, you are probably safe to use a frequently used username and password. I still do not recommend ever signing up for a service using your email address and the password to that email address, it is very bad practice. If the site seems legitimate but you’ve never heard of it before, use a username and password combination that you never use with email/online banking/etc. If it doesn’t seem legit but you still want to create an account, use a temporary email address like those listed above.

Saving Passwords

You are on a shared computer (work, lab, hotel, etc.) accessing one of your accounts and you are asked if you want the browser to save your password

Major Problem: With a few clicks, someone can very easily read your username, password and what website it corresponds to. It’s not even a “hack”. Try for yourself (if you are in Firefox), click Tools > Options > Security > Saved Passwords > click on Show Passwords on the bottom right-hand side and …. uh-oh. Don’t save passwords if anyone else is going to use the computer, or while you are there, check the Use a Master Password option and set a password to protect your other passwords.

More: Never, ever use the following passwords:

• password
• password1
• 123456
• [your first name]
• [your pet's name]
• letmein
• monkey
• qwerty

Social Networking

Be very careful on social networking sites, they are full of people claiming to be people they are not, viruses and they do not take your privacy quite as seriously as you might. Read the website’s privacy policy and any content they have on safety: http://www.facebook.com/safety/. If possible, create groups of people and only post content to them.

Viruses

If you get a pop-up you don’t recognize saying you have a virus, hit Ctrl + Alt + Delete to open Task Manager and end the process (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc.). You do not have a virus, clicking on the warning will give you the virus. Don’t download files from anywhere except known software/hardward manufacturers or tried and true sites that scan their downloads for malicious content like download.com or majorgeeks.com

File Sharing

There is no such thing as free lunch. Pay for the content you use. Limewire and Torrent clients are responsible for a large number of computer infections and data breaches.

Coupons/Deals

“This seems too good to be true”

If you get that feeling, go with it.

If you have other means of maintaining your privacy, please post.

Step 1: Download an *AMP binary

Download WAMP. This binaries package for Windows contain Apache (web server), MySQL (database), PHP and Perl. WAMP also comes with PostgreSQL (another database). Get it? Windows Apache MySQL PHP (WAMP). You also have the option of using XAMPP; XAMPP get its name from its ability to work on Mac or Windows. Regardless, I typically use WAMP for local development because it is really easy to setup modules and it allows you to easily use multiple versions of Apache and PHP. XAMPP is a bit closer to production level and contains security enhancements not present in WAMP, but if you aren’t going to be exposing your server to the external world, this shouldn’t be a problem. For the purposes of this article, we will be using WAMP.

Step 2: Install *AMP

Install your chosen binary, if prompted to setup a root password for mysql, do so. MAKE SURE YOU NOTE THIS PASSWORD, it is not impossible to fix a lost root password, but you should really be careful with your root passwords. If it asks you where you want to install it, set it up as close to the root drive as possible and try not to put any spaces in the path (as it makes scripting a bit of a pain).

C:\wamp or C:\servers\wamp

Step 3: Configure Apache

There are already quite a few Apache modules enabled by default in WAMP. We want to make sure the following are enabled (you can enable modules by clicking on the gauge icon in your toolbar Apache > Apache Modules > (click on name to enable/disable it)

• mod_rewrite (or rewrite_module)
• php5_module
• mod_deflate
• mod_gzip
• expires_module
• mod_cgi
• dir_module
• including_module
• env_module

Go to your installation folder (ex. C:\wamp) and navigate to bin > apache > Apache X.X > conf > httpd-vhosts

Add a line like this to the bottom:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName local.mysite.com
DocumentRoot "c:/Servers/wamp/www/mysite.com/httpdocs"
SetEnv APPLICATION_ENV "development"
<Directory "c:/Servers/wamp/www/mysite.com/httpdocs">
DirectoryIndex index.php
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Save your file and restart apache (this can be done through the *AMP interface

Setup your hosts file

Open up Notepad (right-click and select Run as Administrator if you are using Vista or 7). Once Notepad is open, select File > Open and paste this in:

%windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

ADD the following line:

127.0.0.1 local.mysite.com

Make sure you replace mysite with your website’s name.

Test it out

Open your browser and navigate to http://local.mysite.com and you should see your website (unless you haven’t put an index.php or index.html file there yet).

Questions?

Install it here: Google Key