Archive for security
Always Log In Securely To Gmail
Posted by: | CommentsAfter hearing and reading all the hoopla regarding Gov. Palin’s email being hacked by a college student, I’m sure many of us have thought about the security of our own web email accounts and the ‘security’ questions we’ve answered to keep our passwords secure.
There are some pretty logical and sensible tips for doing this. Of course, if you have a public presence, you’ll not want to use your true birthdate and other easy-to-find-out-facts on-line.Even if you’re not a ‘celebrity’, it might be wise to pick a fake birthdate and birthplace for many things web-related.
Gmail is the only web-based email provider (I believe), that will allow secure (or https) sign-ins. This is a great benefit for those of us who want to check email while traveling, in a coffee shop, etc. Probably not many of us stop to think that when we’re on our wireless laptops in a coffee shop, and decide to login to our Yahoo, or other web-based email, that there is a chance that our password could be hijacked by someone lurking on the wireless network. Since there is no security on an open network, everything is wide open and those with the know-how can intercept our data.
In addition to offering the https login, Gmail gives us the added security of choosing our own security questions. Take advantage of this feature.
Enabling https in Gmail is a simple click. Login to Gmail and click ‘Settings’. Scroll down to the bottom and click the “Always Use Https” radio button. Save your changes and from now on, wherever you login, your password will be encrypted.
After you do this, you’ll notice the Google mail notifier has stopped working. (The notifier is the mail icon that appears in your system tray when new email comes in.) You can fix this two ways. You can do a manual registry hack, or you can download the Google registry hack that will automatically do this for you. Google conveniently provides an uninstall to the hack, should you later change your mind.
PayPal Plug-in for Secure On-line Shopping (Single-Use Credit Card)
Posted by: | CommentsMany of us either use or are familiar with PayPal – the premier way to pay for E-bay purchases. It’s also an easy way to pay someone for services–you just need their email address.
I recently learned that PayPal is offering a valuable and FREE service for those of us who are wary of giving up our credit card information when making an on-line purchase. Now, you can use PayPal’s handy Secure Card plug-in–it’s a small download and install. After installation, you’ll see a PayPal icon in your browser tool bar. If you’re at a site and you’ve found a really great deal on something, but you’ve never shopped there before, use PayPal’s plug-in. It will generate for you a one-time credit card number to pay for the purchase. This way, your own credit card is never displayed and you are 100% protected by PayPal from an unauthorized purchase.
The nitty gritty:
- this plug-in can be used ONLY with sites that accept MasterCard
- there is a limit of $1,000 per day
- you pay for your purchase with your PayPal balance, if that balance is zero, the secondary source is usually your bank account. If I’m a first-time buyer at a website, I don’t mind giving up my frequent flier miles and a 30-day grace period before paying my credit card bill.
Some handy features:
- Auto-fill – the on-line forms can be filled out for you
- On-line history and receipts of your purchases
- Alerts from PayPal if you come upon a fraudulent website
- You can use a number multiple times at the same website
Below is a screenshot from the website that shows purchase history.
Generate new cards or view old cards
1 This notifier appears when you’re shopping.
2 Use the plug-in to see all the Secure Cards you’ve generated. You can:
- Generate new cards.
- Change expiration dates.
- Close cards.
There are several credit card companies that will issue you a single-use number – Citibank and Discover are two of them. Contact your credit card company to see if they might offer this service. It’s to their advantage to offer something like this. Neither the banks or we want to go through the hassle of cleaning up the mess of someone stealing our credit card numbers. You can read about it here.
