Missing Vermont 12 Year Old Could Be Linked to MySpace

In Vermont a 12 year old Braintree girl talked her uncle into dropping her off at a convenience store in Randolph, where she was supposed to catch a ride to go visit a sick friend in the hospital. Surveillance cameras from the store showed the girl being dropped off by her uncle and then later it shows her walking away alone but this is the last time she has been seen.

Click here to read the full story

How to protect your home computer on the cheap. Part 2.

In the second part of this series we'll look at anti-spyware programs and whether or not you really need to run one. First, let's try to figure out what spyware is. No one really seems to have a consistent definition. Spyware it would seem, would be any kind of software that records or transmits activity performed on the computer. That could encompass a lot of programs, including parental control programs like our own CYBERsitter and SnoopStick. It could even include your browser because it keeps a history of all web sites visited.

So who defines what is and what isn't spyware? Each anti-spyware publisher uses a deferent definition and unlike viruses, there is a wide degree of variation between products. We have had numerous problems in the past with anti-spyware products incorrectly identifying CYBERsitter and SnoopStick as spyware, because technically it is. Parents that buy these products have a need to "spy" on their kids activities. That is a completely legitimate usage and labeling these types of products as spyware is irresponsible.

Most, if not all anti-spyware products are about 99% hype. They incorrectly identify legitimate commercial products as spyware, and miss a huge percentage of actual spyware. In fact, in reviews by major magazines, no anti-spyware programs ever score very well.

So here's the lowdown on anti-spyware programs. If you have an up-to-date anti virus program installed, you should never get any spyware. Spyware programs are considered infections and are blocked by every single major anti virus program. If you are already infected with spyware, then one of these programs might (and that is dubious) help you clean it off. But the likelihood that they will help you prevent spyware infections is slim if you already have an anti virus program installed.

So, the bottom line here is, don't waste your money! We don't run any anti-spyware programs here and never have. Some Internet security software companies try to convince you you need all these things, but it is just a way to separate you from your money. The more threats they can convince you there are, the more product they can sell you. So keep your anti virus program up-to-date, and save the money on the other stuff. Education is the best protection, so instead of plopping down $40, take a few minutes and research how to prevent spyware infections on the Internet.

In the next article in this series we'll look at firewalls so please check back.

Home Router DNS Hijacking On the Rise

A new variant of trojan virus has emerged that exploits the fact that many users never think to change the factory default login name and password on their home wired or wireless router. This is easily overlooked by many home users because once they have their router working, it is sometimes easier to leave well enough alone. Routers are also not the friendliest of interfaces to navigate.

What this means is that you may accidentally download something that will hack into your router using the default password and change your DNS settings to point to a Rogue DNS server so that they can control where you go on the Internet. This exposes every computer on your home network to dangers such as phishing, bogus sites, and even more malware.

We released an updated version of EZDNSWatch today that mimics the techniques hackers use to gain access to your router. It will let you know whether or not it was able to hack into your router and advise you what needs to be done to correct any problems it finds. It will not do any damage to your router and does not change anything, but it will alert you if you are vulnerable.

Free EZDNSWatch Released

A few months ago we released a free product to check for DNS hijacking. So many CYBERsitter users had unknowingly been hijacked we decided to go back to work on the product and create a new product that will continuously monitor your DNS settings to protect them from being hijacked.

Today we released a new product (also free) called EZDNSWatch. It monitors your DNS settings and alerts you if something changes them and will also fix the damage.

EZDNSWatch also supports OpenDNS. OpenDNS is a free public DNS server that is guaranteed safe and also provides protection from phishing and other dangerous sites you might accidentally encounter while browsing the Internet.

We strongly recommend that our customers use OpenDNS instead of their normal DNS server. In many cases it also provides a noticeable speed boost because most DNS servers provided by ISP's are much slower than OpenDNS's servers.

Ok, so you don't know what we're talking about here? No problem. A lot of users do not know what a DNS server is. That's what hackers and scammers count on. Whether you know about DNS servers or not, the important thing is that you know you do use one. Everyone uses one. We have more information about what this means to you at the EZDNSWatch web site.

Download and install a copy on your computer today. Remember, it's free and easy.

How to protect your home computer on the cheap. Part 1.

Every day we see users who we feel are tremendously "over protected". So how much protection is too much? How much protection do you actually need? Do you really need a bloated and expensive security suite? Probably not. In this article we'll take a look at the most well known threat, viruses. In the next few articles we'll also look at spyware, firewalls, various other threats, and what you can do to protect your computers inexpensively. We'll try to provide you with the information you need to make informed decisions about the level pf protection you really need, and hopefully save you some hard earned money.

Viruses - The dreaded "V" word. Yes, there are viruses out there. A few years ago, viruses were designed to damage your computer or data in some way. They were usually created by somewhat talented but misguided programmers with too much time on their hands and not enough in the way of conscience to realize the damage they were causing. Fortunately, there are not many of these left today, and oddly enough, many of the viruses users encounter are actually several years old. There are even viruses out there that are actually harmless and some that were created to kill other viruses. Go figure. Still, you need virus protection and we always recommend that users have an anti-virus application installed and keep it updated.

Viruses these days are much less likely to be destructive. In fact, whoever creates the virus would probably prefer that your computer is running smoothly. Why? Because they want to borrow it from time to time. Hackers and computer criminals figured out that viruses can be profitable so rather than damage your computer or data, they want to recruit your computer to be a soldier in their criminal enterprises.

You may have heard the term Zombie used in the context of a computer viral infection. These are not the same type of zombies you see roaming the cemetery in old 1960's horror movies. These are the new, improved, electronic zombies of the 21st century. They infect your computer and usually just sit there until they are called upon to do something. They will periodically check in for instructions from a hackers computer and when they receive them, they carry them out. They may send spam or participate in attacks against other computers. They are particularly nasty because they allow the hacker to control thousands of unsuspecting users computers. These are typically referred to as "Botnets".

The most prevalent use of viruses today is to create these botnets. And the most common way botnets are used is to send spam or for phishing schemes. Anti-spam software has become extremely sophisticated over the past few years, and spammers and scammers have had a harder time getting their emails delivered. Spam spewing servers are easily identified and the alert goes out all overt the world when one is. It is much harder to identify the hundreds of thousands of personal computers used as zombies by these botnets and the bad guys have figured this out.

To illustrate the potential profit these botnets can generate for the hacker, let's assume a hacker has a modest botnet of 10,000 infected computers. Each of these computers might generate 50,000 fake email messages over a 30 day period. That is a total of 500,000,000 (500 MILLION!) messages that go out for free. Whatever the hackers scam is, if he can average $1 on just .01% of the messages he sends using his botnet (1 out of 10,000), he stands to net $50,000 a month. That's a pretty lucrative deal. A hacker would much rather make a lot of money than delete some files from your computer, and that is what they are doing.

The bottom line is you do need a competent anti-virus program. Make sure you keep it updated, so make it a habit to regularly check your license expiration date.

In part 2 of this series of articles, we'll discuss Spyware and what you need to be concerned about. So, please check back!

Welcome to the Club CYBERsitter Blog

Welcome, and thanks for visiting Club CYBERsitter. We created this blog for our CYBERsitter customers and other computer users interested in Internet content management and home computing security issues.

Our purpose is to provide news and information in a clear and easy to understand format that the average home computer user will find interesting and helpful. We hope to provide straight forward explanations of current Internet security issues as well as provide recommendations and advice on how to keep these issues from affecting you.

Internet security is difficult for seasoned professionals. It is even more difficult for less experienced home users, and we hope we can make this topic less confusing. We believe that the Internet should be fun, but there are unquestionably many threats to be concerned about. We have been helping home computer users provide a Family Friendly Internet for over 13 years and Internet security for average people is what we do. We want to help you make the Internet a fun and safe place to visit. We hope you will find the information on our blog helpful in continuing to achieve this goal.

Brian Milburn, President and Founder
Solid Oak Software, Inc.