Microsoft Security
E-Mail Security Information
Safe Message - The Most Secure Communication System In The World is now available! Enjoy the peace & freedom! :-)
Thawte - Did you know that you can get the technology that makes communication secure, for free? Do you want to send The Computer Fixer (or anyone else) an encrypted message? Can't afford Safe Message? Then why don't you get a Free Digital Certificate from a trusted source!
Thawte is a global provider of digital certificate solutions that provide Internet users with peace of mind when sending information to web sites, sending emails, and downloading computer code over the Internet.
Thawte acts as a trusted third party on the Internet. They issue digital certificates to companies, and individuals, that are used as proof of identity online, and provide for the protection of all information sent over the World Wide Web, using the most currently available encryption technology.
You can use your Thawte Personal Certificate to digitally sign and encrypt your email communications. Thawte Personal Certificates are trusted out of the box by all major S/MIME-compliant secure mail clients, such as Microsoft Outlook Express and Netscape Communicator 4.x. S/MIME has been adopted by most messaging vendors as the leading mail and messaging security standard.
*** A note on usage from The Computer Fixer ***
So how do I use this system to Encrypt my messages?
First you should create a message such as: "This message is being sent to enable secure communications between us, I have digitally signed it so that you will have my Public Key. If you have a digital certificate, you can not only sign your mail directed to me, you can also encrypt it (because you now have my public key) so that no one will be able to read it except the intended recipient (that's me!). Blah, Blah, Blah... I love you, David" Or something like that. Then, Digitally sign it (*if you have a Digital Certificate and it is installed on your system (you can do this from the thawte website automatically)), by looking for the little signature icon »» 
in your email message and pressing it.
Now all you have to do is to send your message and when the recipient reads it, they will (*if they have their own Digital Certificate) be able to sign and encrypt their message back to you. *if any email recipient address (i.e. any particular email address in your email address book) does not have it's public key installed on your system, then messages can be signed but not encrypted, at least not until they read your first signed message sent to them.
Notice, when you send your first message to them, don't say what you wouldn't want read by other people. When you only sign a message, it's still readable by any one along it's route to the recipient, a signature alone only proves that you sent it and they can be assured that you wrote it, but a signature is not an encryption! If you want a secure communication then you not only must sign it, you also must encrypt it. Note the Encryption Icon here »» 
We included part of our menu bar from Outlook Express so you can see where the icons are placed, notice they are black and white until you roll your mouse pointer over them. Duh, not here! In your email program, silly! hehehe 
If you want to tell your buddies or whoever about this, the page location is on the bottom of this page. Just highlight it and copy it, then you can go to our Tell a Friend page and let them know! How convenient!
*** Important Note ***
The Computer Fixer is in no way affiliated or in any sort of partnership with Thawte. As with most links you find on our site, we make no money, or are partners with the sites or companies. We just provide the best sources, whether we get paid or not, because we're so nice!
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Firewall Protection
Gibson Research Security Information
News From Steve Gibson:
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December 2000
Leak test is used to check your firewall's vulnerability to an extremely common and easily exploited design flaw revealed by this test. At this time, EVERY FIREWALL BUT ONE is vulnerable to this danger, and some are more vulnerable than others.
Our new Leak test page, accessible through the link below and also from our site's home page, provides the whole story and the means to download my new and compact (27k byte) Leak test free ware:
The Leak test page also contains links to our very active public newsgroup forum (freeware.leaktest) at grc.com. This group is discussing the Leak test issue and comparing firewall behavior. You can quickly find any help or further clarifications you may need within this group.
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March 2001
New freeware utility developed and released:
"PATCHWORK"
As you may recall, the last eMail from me was the early December announcement of the new "LeakTest" personal firewall leakage tester. Thanks to your support, 775,778 copies have been downloaded ... and all major firewall vendors have updated their products to plug their leaks. In the future, a next generation of LeakTest will highlight additional problem areas in personal computing firewalls.
So what is PATCHWORK ??
Last Thursday (March 8th) the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation -- the FBI -- announced that the Windows NT and Windows 2000 Internet web servers belonging to at least 40 prominent eCommerce companies have been systematically broken into by Eastern European hackers. After having their private customer credit card data stolen, the companies were financially extorted under the threat of public disclosure of their customers' data. More than one million credit card purchasing records have been stolen. You can read the full FBI press release here:
http://grc.com/pw/FBIannouncement.htm
Shortly before the FBI's public announcement, I was contacted by people in Washington and asked if I could produce a utility to instantly determine whether a Windows NT or 2000 Internet server was vulnerable to these attacks, and to search the server for any evidence of previous penetration. The FBI provided all of the specific details required, so I quickly created my latest freeware: "PatchWork" (just 30k bytes).
PatchWork is ONLY useful for users running Windows NT or 2000 -- so I know that it will not be of interest to everyone -- but I wanted you to know that it exists. If you, or anyone you know, ARE using any version of Windows NT or 2000, you really should check out PatchWork! It is opening MANY people's eyes ...
http://grc.com/pw/patchwork.htm
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Other News:
1. The GRC NetFilter:
I am VERY excited about the next product I will soon start creating: It's called the "GRC NetFilter". It is like a privacy and security enhancing firewall that deals with the growing number of Internet privacy problems and annoyances; things like 3rd-party cookies, personal information leakage, browser "pop-up" windows, home-phoning spyware, web tracking and profiling, and even unsolicited (SPAM) eMail. For an overview of the project, check out this page:
http://grc.com/nf/netfilter.htm
2. The birth of FREE Firewall Log Analyzers!
If you use a personal firewall you may know that their logs can sometimes be difficult to decipher. Some entries in the logs may be friendly or innocent, while others could be truly nefarious. Some new and really cool utilities are answering the need to make sense of these confusing logs. More are on the way, but you may want to check out these first, completely free, solutions: Right now for all users of ZoneAlarm:
For users of BlackICE Defender: A feature-rich freeware log analyzer, similar to the ZoneLog Analyzer, is in development by the people at the popular DSL Reports web site. I'll be sure to let you know when it's available for your testing! In the meantime you might want to check out the completely FREE "ICEWatch v2.19":
http://keir.net/icewatch.html (just 63k bytes)
(See the ICEWatch v2.19 link at the TOP of the page.)
3. What programs contain Spyware??
During the year that my OptOut tool was closely focused upon Spyware, the question we heard over and over was "Does the such-and-such product contain spyware?" People wanted to know which products were suspicious. So I was very pleased when I discovered a web site that is actively maintaining a database of spyware carrying applications. If you have ever wondered about any of your own software, or before purchasing a new program, you might want to check it out!
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Thank you for your time. I hope this has been useful to you.
Steve Gibson. GRC Website
PC Security Utility
Scam Information
Nigeria - The 419 Coalition Website - We Fight the Nigerian Scam.
Fraud Info - The leading consumer, business, and professional resource on the Internet for detecting, reporting, and preventing fraud and white-collar crime.
Scam Busters - The #1 Publication on Internet Fraud.
K=TC² & Anonymity
Publius Censorship Resistant Publishing System
Other Issues - * Some information may be
outdated but may also be useful to some
How do spammers harvest email addresses ?
Airline information - huh? What's this doing here?