Pay $100 (Or Less) Now
Pay $500 (Or More) Later
 I am sorry to say that two clients in the same 24 hour period have had their pictures, documents, spreads sheets and email files encrypted. All of this material is no longer available to them and will not be again unless and until they pay a $500 ransom to these bloodsuckers. They've left a message, a text file, multiple times, once in each of the directories that they've incapacitated. The message is simple, pay the ransom to get your files back. (Blowup Below).The encryption is RSA (named for the three scientist who put it together, R. Rivest, A. Shamir, L. Adleman, "A Method for Obtaining Digital Signatures and Public-key Cryptosystems") and is for all intense and purposes unbreakable.
Even after you pay up, you may not get your data back and I can tell you that your computer will never be the same, as apparently they leave some software behind.
The best protection is a backup. Backing all your information, daily or at least regularly. Ideally, disconnect the backup drive each time afterwards; these blackmailers do not appear to encrypt the backup drive. The risk is though that you might not spot the trouble early enough to stop overwriting the good with the bad and for that I am recommending alternating backups between two drives, giving you a better margin for error.
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 The Russians have stolen 1.2 Billion user names and password combinations and 500 Million email addresses.
Federal prosecutors have said that an identity theft ring in Vietnam managed to obtain 200 million personal records, including Social Security numbers, credit card data and bank account information.
If that's not bad enough... Our very own FBI has amassed records on 78 million Americans, that's about 1 in 3 of us. Additionally, they are accumulating about 12,000 names a day to add to their criminal database which are largely the result of minor offenses, most as a result of arrests for violations of zero tolerance policies in schools.
While there's very little you can do to protect yourself from these invasions as they're company based, there are some things you can do to enhance your personal security and reduce your personal risk. See below...
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Cell Phone Security  Try Redphone from WhisperSystems. Redphone uses your own local phone number and without special codes or pin numbers encrypts your telephone conversation from end to end. Free for Android and in development for Iphone.
How about Textsecure also from WhisperSystems. It does the same thing for text messages, encrypting the message from end to end. Free for Android and in development for Iphone.
There's also Bleep, a similar application available for Android now and in development for Iphone from BitTorent.org.
When you're not on the phone and you want to stay out of anybody's radar you can try wrapping your phone in a Faraday cage. This metal lined bag makes it invisible to cell towers, wi-fi, GPS and BlueTooth. Read about it HERE and buy it HERE.
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Quick Links
If you're browsing, try Start Page, it provides totally anonymous searching. Click the details button to see just how secure your search is. With anonymity comes complete privacy.
There's also Tails, same functions with a stress on privacy.
Smart Traveler is a free US State department app that keeps you informed of travel alerts that they issue. The app also provides maps and embassy locations. For Android and Iphone.
Travel Safe uses your present location to provide police, fire emergency medical help nearby. It also provides one touch dialing for the suggested contact. It's about a buck for Android and Iphone.
Then, there's Hurricane. Yes, hurricane news, weather alerts and shelter locations. It's free for Android and Iphone.
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All Your Social Networking
Under One Roof
 Do you want your dose of Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter in the same place? Try Feedient. It's in beta and still a bit buggy, but worth looking at. Altemion is a similar application, slightly less polished version but does let you connect to more social networks. Lastly there's Hootsuite which lets you link to five social networks for free. If you need more than 5, it's $15 a month.
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What, you're not living in Scarsdale! Well then your not living in the most affluent community in New York State. Look Here.
AOL 9.7 does not delete the icon from 9.6 and in fact an AOL upgrade does not delete the software either. If you click on the 9.6 icon, it will indeed launch 9.6 and that gets confusing. At the very least, if you've installed 9.7 delete the AOL 9.6 icon from your desktop.
If you've purchased Dropbox 100 GIG plan, that's 100 GIG of cloud storage for $99 a year, you now get 10 times that amount. All existing and new sign ups get 1Terrabyte for the same $99. That's enough to store an entire family's data in an off site protected backup.
Microsoft bats 500. It seems to be the best they can do. Windows 98 was great, only to be followed by Millennium, a loser, Windows XP, awesome, Vista stunk so bad that we as IT pros rolled users who bought it, back to XP to make them happy. With the arrival of Windows 7, everyone got happy only to be followed by Windows 8, another loser. So here comes Windows 9 (might be a year) which ostensibly picks up the best parts 7 and 8. Read the article and watch the video.
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I make DVD, BluRay, Chromecast and Roku connections for that Netflix account or to watch web content on your TV.
I also connect your Homelink and your garage door.
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