11. It's OK to text Happy Birthday, Mer-ry Christmas, etc. You don't have to call. 12. Don't have one-on-one's in the group-chat, better yet, rarely send group chats. They're mostly annoying and usually avoidable. 13. Try not to deliver bad news via text. Don't deliver bad news via DMs. 14. If you don't get a response, you don't have to get angry. It's not always that big of a deal. 15. If you have time to post on Snapchat, you have time to re-spond to text mes-sages.

1. Don't randomly FaceTime people. If you want to Facetime, shoot them a text or call first. 2. One word texts like OK and LOL are conversation killers. Don't respond with one word, unless you don't want to talk an-ymore. 3. If someone you know comments on a photo or video you posted, you should respond. 4. If someone com-municates to you us-ing a certain form of communicrespond using the same form ation, e.g. e-mail, then you are ex-pected to of commu-nication. 5. Don't like your own posts. People see that, and it makes you look weird. 6. Don't ask for likes, comments or shares.

7. Don't take hours to respond without an excuse. 8. You don't actually have to leave a voice message.

9. If someone asks you multiple ques-tions via text, don't just reply to part of the message. 10. Don't post doz-ens of photos of cheezy quotes back to back.

15 unwritten rules of communicating in the digital age

Monthly Reminders:

Run Malwarebytes

Run Super Anti-

spyware

Manually Update

Windows

Run computer

clean-uo

SVECC Newsletter Sunland Village East Computer Club

Volume 16 Issue 8

August 2019

S V E C C

Resolutions 2

Resolutions 3

Mistakes 4

Mistakes 5

Phishing 6

Calendar 6

Exit laughing 8

Inside this issue:

If you’re a human person who occasionally engages in commerce, hackers are probably targeting you. This year, resolve to do some-thing about it.

You know you need to take better care of your personal information, but you keep putting it off. It’s understand-able, but this is the year you take your security into your own hands. Here are seven resolutions you can make to lock down your data in 2018. Like going to the gym regu-larly, it might be annoying to get started, but you’ll be better off once you build better habits.

Use a Freaking Password Man-ager Why You Should Use a Password Manager, and How to Get Started

Re-using passwords is a very, very bad idea. Sure, having the same password everywhere makes it easier for you to remember, but it means that one site’s securi-ty leak compromises all of your accounts. To stay se-cure, you’d have to change all your passwords every time any service you use is compromised, which is basi-cally impossible.

This is why you need to use a different password for eve-ry site, and a password manager can help you do that. LastPass is a popular free choice, but there are a number of solid options out there that are easy to set up and use.

Stop putting this off. Every-thing you do online is at risk

until you stop re-using pass-words, and password man-agers make doing so simple.

Lock Down Im-portant Accounts With Two Factor Authentication How to Set Up Authy for Two-Factor Authentication (and Sync Your Codes Between Devices)

Even the most secure pass-word won’t completely pro-tect you. That’s why, once your passwords are in order, you should also use two factor authentica-tionwherever it’s offered. Two factor authentication means that if some-one does get your a pass-word, they still won’t be able to log into your account: they also need a code sent to your phone, which they probably won’t have.

Commonly, these codes are sent via text message, but SMS isn’t ideal for such authentication because it wasn’t built with security in mind. We recommend using an app like Authy instead. It won’t take long to set up, and once you do you won’t have to worry about SIM hijacking.

This might sound annoying. Do it anyway.

A lot of sites offer two factor authentication at this point, and ideally you should use it wherever it’s offered. If that’s too much for you, make sure your email ad-dress is locked down, be-cause anyone with access to that can reset all of your other passwords easily.

Lock down your password manager while you’re at it, for the same reason.

Back Up Your Computer (Seriously) What’s the Best Way to Back Up My Computer?

If a file is stored on only one hard drive, you’re going to lose it. It’s a matter of when, not if, the drive will die.

Which is why you need a backup strategy, especially for your irreplaceable family photos and videos. We’ve talked about the best way to back up your computer, and you should follow that ad-vice, making sure you have at least one remote backup using a service like Backblaze. It’s an in-vestment, but one that means you never have to worry about losing your files ever again.

Seriously: You know you should do this, but if you haven’t set it up yet, do it now. It only takes 15 minutes.

Don’t forget about all the photos and videos stored on your phone, either. Google Photos stores an unlimited number of photos, and syncs them from Android and iOS devices automati-cally. Set it up, or something like it, so that you can ac-cess your photos even if you lose your phone.

Backing up your data also gives you a poten-tial defense against ransom-ware, which encrypts your data and demands you pay

Page 2

Lock Down Your Tech in 2018 With These Resolutions

SVECC Newsletter

Re-using passwords

is a very, very bad

idea. Sure, having the

same password

everywhere makes it

easier for you to

remember, but it

means that one site’s

security leak

compromises all of

your accounts. To

to get access back. Instead of paying up you can simply wipe your computer and restore from your backups.

Update (or Up-grade) Your Router How to Ensure Your Home Router Has the Latest Se-curity Updates

Your wireless router is the gateway used by your com-puters, phones, and smar-thome devices to access the Internet. You need to make sure it’s secure, and that starts with making sure your network is protected by a password with WPA2 en-cryption—if it isn’t, attackers can easily access your home network (yes, even WEP is remarkably inse-cure).

Thanks to the KRACK vulnerability, however, WPA2 isn’t as secure as it used to be. Updating your computers and mo-bile devices patches the problem for those devices, but some smarthome devices may not be patched yet.

The simplest way to lock everything down is to update your router, so resolve to get that done soon. If there aren’t updates out there for your router, consider upgrading your router to a new mod-el—it’s probably been a while since you have, and the newer ones offer lots of features that can improve your Wi-Fi signal speed and strength.

Clean Out Your Browser Exten-sions Browser Extensions Are a Privacy Nightmare: Stop Using So Many of Them

Most users collect a lot of browser extensions over the year, but it turns out those browser extensions are a privacy nightmare. It’s relatively common for sketchy companies to buy up popular browser exten-sions and push malware to them using automatic up-dates.

This year, resolve to regular-ly clear out your browser extensions, deleting the ones you don’t use regular-ly. It’ll go a long way toward keeping your information safe.

Remove Unused Third Party App Access From Google, Face-

book, and Other Accounts Secure Your Online Ac-counts By Removing Third-Party App Access

Similarly, your Google or Facebook account can link up to third-party apps so they can access things like your calendar, contacts, or other info. But most of us forget about services we’ve signed up for and stop us-ing. The services haven’t forgotten, however, and may still be accessing your data regularly—which is a prob-lem if they ever get hacked, sold to nefarious companies, or just start doing sketchy stuff.

That’s why you should regu-larly review and remove unused third party app ser-

vices. You can scroll through and remove apps you’re no longer using, keeping them from ac-cessing your da-ta.

Lock Down Your Tech in 2018 With These Resolutions

Volume 16 Issue 8 Page 3

This year, resolve to regularly clear out your browser

extensions, deleting the ones you don’t use regularly. It’ll

go a long way toward keeping your information

safe.

Kretchmar’s Korner

Mistakes We Make When

Buying a Computer

By David Kretchmar, Com-

puter Technician, Sun City

Summerlin Computer Club

NV

For many of us, com-puters have become an integral part of our daily lives. Computers have become almost as important as a car to some of us. Fortu-nately, computers are pretty easy to acquire. They are no longer a major investment (my first computer system, 20 years ago, cost $3000) but still can be a significant purchase and something we will live with for years.

For the less tech-savvy, buying a com-puter can be difficult. There is a lot of tech jargon flying around, and all of it is compet-ing to get your money. Because of that, mis-takes are easy to make, and they can easily result in your money going to waste. When you’re spending hundreds of dollars, you don’t want to get a machine that’s going to break down in a year, fail to work as ex-pected or cost any more than it ought to. We are going to take a look at a number of

computer shopping mistakes so that you can avoid them and get a great computer with-out spending any more than you have to.

Always Buying What-ever’s Cheapest

If you have very mini-mal computer de-mands and hardly browse the Internet, you might be able to get away with only ever getting a cheap com-puter. Cheap and/or old hardware is going to wear out more quickly and fail to meet the ever-increasing de-mands of new soft-ware. A $200 machine could last you a couple of years, but that time may be filled with headaches as it begins to struggle more and more on its way to the computer graveyard. A $400 computer should last longer, and that time should be less filled with headaches. It is impossible to be en-tirely sure what you’re going to get for your money, but you’ll prob-ably have a good chance of finding a more reliable, longer-lasting PC if you spend more. You don’t need to buy a $2,000 com-puter, but just keep an eye out for good deals on brands and models

that have proven to have a good lifespan, and you should be safe.

Not Buying Based on Your Needs

If you think a computer seems awesome be-cause you’ve heard media hype about it, it’s the latest thing, or it just looks awesome, you’re probably shop-ping for a computer incorrectly.

Sure, if you want to prioritize a certain fea-ture such as appear-ance or power, you can, but most of us should just think about what we need from the computer and buy a machine that will ena-ble us to do the job. If you’re going to just do light Internet browsing, some word processing, and watch a movie here and there, you can probably do with-out 32GB of RAM, that 8-core CPU, or 12 USB 3.0 ports. Whatever you get with a comput-er, you pay for, so try not to go for something you know you don’t need.

Not Knowing What You’re Getting with an Operating System

Page 4

Mistakes We Make When Buying a Computer

SVECC Newsletter

If you have very

minimal computer

demands and

hardly browse the

Internet, you

might be able to

get away with only

ever getting a

cheap computer.

About 10 years ago my nephew camped out-side of Best Buy to get a dirt-cheap laptop. The laptop was inex-pensive, but it came without a permanent operating system! For-tunately he had a geeky uncle who was able to help him, but not all were so fortu-nate.

Today you are unlikely to be sold a computer without an operating system (OS). There are plenty of different computer OS out there — Windows, Apple OS X, various flavors of Linux, including the Chrome OS. Each OS functions differently. Most importantly for users, each OS han-dles software different-ly (if at all). If you have an old computer run-ning one OS and want to bring software you purchased to a new computer, don’t expect to succeed if you switch operating sys-tems. For example, Skype may have ver-sions working for Mac and Windows, but you won’t be able Skype with your friends and family if you switch over to Chrome OS. Remember the first step in buying a com-puter: you need to de-

cide what you need to do with a computer and ensure the OS will sup-port it.

Assuming a Feature is Included

Whether you’re shop-ping for a laptop or a desktop, don’t make any assumptions about the features that are included.

Computers come in all configurations

You should never take anything for granted. If you want a computer with a CD/DVD drive, look and see if there is one, and if you’re shopping on line or in a store, make sure you know with 100% cer-tainty it’s there. Optical drives seem to be slowly going the way of the old floppy drives – away.

Software can usually be downloaded online rather than installed from an optical disk. More and more new computers don’t in-clude an optical drive, especially laptops, since the optical drive on a laptop adds con-siderably to the bulk of the system. External optical drives are avail-

able for $25 - $30 and this is often the solu-tion if an optical drive is required.

Also make sure there are plenty of USB ports, and importantly at least 1 high speed (3.0 or 3.1) USB port.

Some new computers are sold with HDMI vid-eo output only.

If you plan to utilize an older monitor with only the old standard 15-pin sub-D input, you are out of luck without a special adapter.

Not Finding a Problem with a Computer While You Can Still Return It.

Just because you’ve spent your money for a new computer already doesn’t mean the buy-ing process is over. You have a time win-dow where you can return the computer if you’re not satisfied. Test everything. See how far the Bluetooth signal reaches. Ensure it can connect to your Wi-Fi network and maintain a connection. Test out all of the drives and ports. Try out headphones and microphones. Install all of the programs you

Mistakes We Make When Buying a Computer

Volume 16 Issue 8 Page 5

Just because

you’ve spent your

money for a new

computer already

doesn’t mean the

buying process is

over.

4. I looked at the link in the email from American Ex-press (but I didn't click it!). If you hover your mouse pointer over a link, you can see before you click where it will take you. Just look at the lower left of your computer screen to see the link infor-mation. The link in the American Express link was this (note the letters amx in the link):

Although I didn't click on the link, I was brave [stupid?] enough to go to www.ahmetcaglar.com to see what was there (so you don't have to do it!). When I got there, Google suggested that it translate the website into English (it was in Turk-ish), so I did.

from the named company. The logo and color schemes were appropriate. They both were similar in that they said that my account had been disabled or locked. They both wanted me to update or confirm my account infor-mation. (No way was I going to do that!)

3. Then I looked at the email address of the sender.

The Amazon email was sent from support@inbox.com. The American Express email was sent from support313526X@true.com. Neither of these email ad-dresses appeared to have any connection to the com-panies they were supposed-ly from.

What did I find there? The bio of a Turkish computer science student!

The lessons for everyone are:Look at the sender's email address. Does it seem to really be from the individ-ual or company you ex-pect?Don't click on any links, if you aren't 100% sure who the email came from.Absolutely do not give out any account information to anyone who contacts you.If you want to verify if

an email is for real, call the

company; don't reply to the

email.

Page 6

Phishing Expeditions

SVECC Newsletter

A "phishing" email is one that attempts to obtain your personal account infor-mation to use for unauthor-ized purposes. This month I did receive examples-- twice! Both appeared to be from familiar companies (Amazon and American Ex-press), but there were sev-eral clues that they were attempts at phishing. Here is how I knew. 1. Both messages came to an email address I use for a non-profit organization. I know that the email address these messages came to have never had an account or been associated in any way with either Amazon or American Express. 2. Both messages looked as though they had come

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1 2 3

4 5 6 Fix-it Tuesday

7 8 9 10

11 12

Computer Club

13 NO

Fix-it Tuesday

14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25 26 Computer Club

27 Fix-it Tuesday

28 29 30 31

August 2019

want to use and try them out. Run Prime95 or your most demand-ing video game for hours. You basically want to make sure that the computer will easily meet your needs. If it’s falling short or not working how you ex-pect, you want to find that out while you can still return it. (Personal story: I once bought a high-end Dell desktop computer that seemed great, but it would not shut down without cutting off the power. I returned it quickly for a replacement. If I hadn’t tested out those fea-tures early on, I would have learned the hard way what it felt like to waste $3000.)

Not Shopping Around Enough

You do need to shop around - that is, if you want to get the best deal. Don’t just go into Best Buy and assume your options are limited to those devices at those prices. Shop-ping at a single retailer (especially a brick-and-mortar shop) will guar-antee that you’ll miss out. Every big retailer

is going to have some deal going at any given time, so you’ve just got to hunt for the right one, which means checking way more than one place. I sug-gest you look at Newegg.com, TigerDirect.com, Ama-zon.com, and Best-Buy.com. If you’re brave and knowledgea-ble you can see what you can find on eBay.com. Check the manufacturers’ web-

sites. Check Costco and other retailers. If you shop around and are patient, you’ll get a good deal on a new computer.

Setup and Warranty

Finally, there’s the mat-ter of setup services and warranties. Choos-ing to get a warranty is

an extra cost, which I do not recommend, but it adds some security. If you’re concerned about physical damage to the computer, an accidental damage warranty isn’t a bad idea. As far as setup services, if you know your way around a computer, or know someone who does and is willing to help, you can likely pass on having a professional set it up — most of

what’s done is pret-ty simple. If every-thing about com-puters is like a for-eign language to you and no one you know tolerates your technological deficiencies, it may be worth the mon-ey to have a pro come set up your new computer and get you up and run-ning.

Mistakes We Make When Buying a Computer

Volume 16 Issue 8 Page 7

it may be worth

the money to have

a pro come set up

your new

computer and get

you up and

running.

Founded for the Residents of

Sunland Village East Mission: To help each other learn about Computers

Membership is open to all residents of SVE

Dues are $20.00 each or $30.00 family per year

Due October 1st

Mouth (privileged in-formation from the one concerned)

Stringing around, galli-vanting around, or pid-dling (Not doing any-thing of value)

Sunday go to meetin' dress (The best dress you had)

We wash up real fine (is another goodie)

Tie the Knot (to get married)

Too many irons in the fire (to be involved in too many things)

Tuckered out (tired

Pert-near (short for pretty near)

Pretty is as pretty does (your actions are more important than your looks)

Red up (clean the house)

Scalawag (a rascal or unprincipled person)

Scarce as hen's teeth (something diffi-cult to obtain)

Skedaddle (Get out of here quickly)

Sparking (courting)

Straight From the Horse's

and all worn out)

Under the weath-er (not feeling well this term came from going below deck on ships due to sea sickness thus you go below or under the weather)

Wearing your 'best bib and tucker' (Being all dressed up)

You ain't the only duck in the pond (It's not all about you)

Old Sayings continued

Check us out at

svecc.com

SVECC

President

Dick Moon

Check us out at

svecc.com

SVECC

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