Google Safe Browsing for Firefox
Submitted on February 2nd, 2006 by admin
Filed under Browsers and Software and Security
No. of comments (2)
As much as I follow Google’s new offerings, I can’t believe I let this one slide under my radar. The service is called Google Safe Browsing and it’s a small extension for Firefox which informs the user of phishing attempts by a website. If the site is trusted, you’ll see a green icon in the Firefox address bar, while if the site is malicious, you will see a red icon appear in its place. Why this hasn’t been implemented before is beyond me, but it looks to be a useful tool (by the way, Internet Explorer 7 also has this feature built in). Like everything Google, the extension is 100% free.
[tags]google, safe, browsers, firefox, security[/tags]
Tips for hiding your e-mail address
Submitted on February 2nd, 2006 by admin
Filed under Email and Security
No. of comments (1)
I found an article via digg with some great tips for hiding your e-mail address. While we’ve discussed many of them on TipMonkies before, it’s still a great read. Some of the obfuscation methods include encryption, using images or Flash, rendering it with JavaScript, and more. My favorite method still remains a well-coded contact form 
[tags]e-mail, security, spam, filtering[/tags]
Agatra, now with more features
Submitted on February 2nd, 2006 by admin
Filed under Storage and Services and Security
No. of comments (1)
Back in November, I wrote a short piece on Agatra, a free, web-based service which helps you keep track of all your passwords online. I received quite a few e-mails and some comments wondering about privacy concerns as a result, and through some discussions with the company’s president, Andrew Hayward, I’ve been assured there is nothing to worry about. The site has recently been updated with some new features; of particular interest is a new compatibility mode which will allow anyone to access their passwords through mobile devices like mobile phones, PDAs, BlackBerrys, and more. Additionally, Agatra now also supports tabbed automatic logins for all you Firefox users.
[tags]agatra, passwords, security, services[/tags]
Stop spam on its tracks w/ Mail Filter
Submitted on February 2nd, 2006 by admin
Filed under Email and Services and Security
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Here’s another great service I need to add to the ever-growing list of disposable e-mail address services, an it’s called Mail Filter. The service comes with all the features we’ve come to expect from such services including the ability to create fake e-mail addresses, access the account from anywhere, and RSS feeds for your inbox, but also offers some great features not available in all services including the ability to filter your real inbox through its servers, customizing the sensitivity levels of your filters, adding custom mail filters, and sending auto-replies while you’re on vacation. The service is free for up to 20MB of messages, with more filtering capacity coming at a cost (starting at around $5 USD).
[tags]spam, services, mail, e-mail, filters[/tags]
Hide your e-mail address w/ SpamFreeze
Submitted on February 1st, 2006 by admin
Filed under Email and Resources and Security
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One of the big no-no’s if you run a blog or website is posting your e-mail address is plain English (err…any language) right on the site. There are different ways to get around this; for example, we hide our e-mail address by encoding it into a contact form. Others may use image banners of their e-mail address so spam spiders can’t catalog them. Yet another way would be to use a site like SpamFreeze.
With SpamFreeze, you simply enter the e-mail address you’d like to hide into the form field and hit Submit. Within a second, your e-mail address is encrypted and put into a link which anyone can click on to contact you. To ensure that it is not a spambot trying to access the e-mail address, there is a “Captcha” test, where the e-mailer must type in a phrase hidden in an image into a form. SpamFreeze is totally free, and if you get a chance, also check out SpamButcher, a fantastic (but not free) spam filter software from the same developer.
[tags]email, spam, filters, spamfreeze, privacy[/tags]
Tips to anonymize your search history
Submitted on January 23rd, 2006 by admin
Filed under Security
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For those of you who regularly read up on the latest tech news, you may have heard about the federal governments attempt to get search history information from different search engines in order to find terrorists (or so they say). Out of all the subpoenas handed out, only Google refused to give up the information, while AOL, Yahoo, and Microsoft gladly complied (shame, shame!). Wired has put together a nice article called How to Foold Search Engine Snoops explaining cookies, and search histories, why it’s done, and how to protect yourself from it.
An article on Boing Boing also recommends using Customize Google, an extension which lets you anonymize those pesky cookies. My recommendations? Get some proxy servers and browse away. Oh, another joyful day for security nuts
[Via Boing Boing]
[tags]security, search, google, tips, cookies[/tags]
Creating a protected audio CD
Submitted on December 15th, 2005 by admin
Filed under Audio and Security
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I doubt many of you really have a good reason to burn a CD with copy protection, but this article is interesting because it explains how it is done, and gives a couple of suggestions for how to get around it. If you have ended up with a CD that you were unable to rip on your computer, check some of the suggestions at the bottom. You will find the article over at Freedom to Tinker.
Track system activity w/ Filemon
Submitted on December 14th, 2005 by admin
Filed under Software and Windows and Security
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Most people that use computers could probably care less about what system processes are running in the background of their PCs, but TipMonkies readers are different, aren’t you? Knowing what kind of processes are running in the background can be important, particularly when your system begins to slow to a crawl or an application isn’t responding properly. Windows has the Task Manager application but it doesn’t show much information which could be useful to troubleshoot a problem, but there is a great little application called FileMon which does.
WIth FileMon you can see what applications are running, what system files they’re using, and even gives timestamps telling you when a process began, ended, and more. Additionally, the application offers nice searching capabilities so you can find a particular application. FileMon is free, of course.
Vow not to buy a Sony BMG CD for 2 years
Submitted on December 14th, 2005 by admin
Filed under Shopping and Security
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With all the press surrounding Sony BMG lately, particularly the rootkit DRM fiasco, people are getting angry at the music giant. Now, its a basic rule of business that if you lose customers, you lose money. So, David Webster has started a pledge, saying that if you sign it, you pledge “I will vow not to buy a Sony BMG audio album/single for 2 years, but only if 100 other people do, too.” You can find the pledge right here, and, as of this writing, over 109 people have signed it. You can only sign it until New Years’ Eve (December 31), so if you’re going to sign it, sign it now!
GMail adds virus checking to the list
Submitted on December 1st, 2005 by admin
Filed under Email and Security
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I used GMail for quite some time, and still do as my second e-mail account (Goowy being my primary nowadays), and never really noticed that it did not have virus checking, but as of today, Google has added virus checking capabilities to its popular e-mail service! There’s no mention on whether they’re using third party software to do it or if it’s proprietary software (Google Antivirus coming soon?), but the antivirus will not only for viruses in your inbox, but also destroy any viruses which may make it into your sent messages as well. Great news from a great company for sure, and you can read full details at the GMail Help Center.
If a virus is found in an attachment you’ve received, our system will attempt to remove it, or clean the file, so you can still access the information it contains. If the virus can’t be removed from the file, you won’t be able to download it.
