Until last week, Apple was extremely good at allowing users to think their Macs were invulnerable…even though I have been telling them otherwise for years.  This fallacy hurt at least 600,000 Mac users last week and shattered that myth forever.  Macs have been attacked by Trojans called Revier / Imuler and Tsunami, but the Flashback Trojan finally got the attention of Mac users around the globe.  Apple says that since new tools are beginning to roll out to clean up the Flashback Trojan, the infection numbers are down to under half, but there are still about 270,000, Macs infected.

The Flashback Trojan infiltrated approximately 600,000 Macs around the world.  Was yours one of them?  What can you do to protect your Mac?  eSet Nod 32 was one of the first antivirus companies who tried and tried and tried (Ask Leo!) to let Mac users know they needed protection and offered an antivirus software for Macs.  Other antivirus companies are now getting on the bandwagon.  I guess they didn’t take Mac security seriously either!  It was only a matter of time.  Here is a list of the top 10 steps owners can take to make their Macs more secure (this is from e-Online).

Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Office for F-Secure, has criticized Apple’s extremely slow response in his April 11 post on his company’s blog, saying:

“Apple has announced that it’s working on a fix for the malware, but has given no schedule for it,” Hypponen wrote. “Quite surprisingly, Apple hasn’t added detection for Flashback—by far the most widespread OS X malware ever—to the built-in Xprotect OS X antivirus tool. Also note that Apple has not provided a patch for the Java vulnerability used by Flashback for OS X v10.5 (or earlier).”

What do you do when you live in a vacuum and think you are invulnerable?  Put your product in danger.  Apple is arrogant and for the most part, we have let it be so, as it is a good product.  I mean, they DO have more money than God!  But no matter how good of a product or service one provides, need it be said that the product or service needs to be protected from infiltration?

eSet Nod32 for Mac.  ESET is the first and only company in the world with ICSA certification for Mac OS X.  (This is not an ad and I am not an affiliate of this company) – although I would like to be right about now!

Mac Security and other myths is a post from: Bev The Geek - Wired in the Bitterroot

Lower Initial Cost.  Well, yes, keeping your old computer WILL be less expensive than purchasing new technology.  As to the initial cost – if you purchased a high end computer several years ago (NOT the sales you see in big box stores), then you probably paid MORE for that computer than you will for a new one today.  And today’s computer will be faster (the processor, the memory, the hard drive, the wireless connection speeds, etc).  If you keep your older computer, you will be saving money in a new purchase.  Your only cost would be maintenance and ummm….

Parts….   Lockergnome says “Replacement Parts are Cheaper.”  I guess that depends on when and/or where you purchase them.  With the weather disasters in Thailand, hard drives are actually up in price.  Just like flash drives went skyhigh after the nuclear plant disaster in Japan.  I have still been able to purchase additional memory for pc’s at a reasonable cost.

Bugs are Generally Worked Out…Except Vista.  I keep thinking I find stable versions of Vista, only to encounter some strange anomally that seems to be different each time.  Yeah, except Vista.

Most Failures Happen Early On. . . . But they also happen LATER on.  If a failure is going to happen within the first few years of computer ownership, they will probably happen within the first few Months.  But a hard drive only has so many starts in it and we don’t know what that number is.  We only know they have an end of life too.  That is where a great backup system comes in handy (this comes in handy anytime), but I digress.  (I do that a lot:)

Better Native Support – the old hardware just seems to work.  Not really.  All the drivers still have to MAKE the hardware work, but it does seem easier compared to newer technology where you may have to pre-load drivers.  Although, I do remember the days when you would get Windows installed and couldn’t find the right network driver to install.  And yes, those days still exist….EXCEPT for the fact that the Internet has grown large enough we can more often than not locate the drivers in multiple knowledge bases quite easily.  Well, that was a good example of vacillation. lol

Older PC’s and the Advantage to Ownership is a post from: Bev The Geek - Wired in the Bitterroot

Interactive App for iPhone is a post from: Bev The Geek - Wired in the Bitterroot

When I first mentioned “WordPress” a few years ago, most people didn’t know what I was talking about.  Now, with the growth of blogging and new media structures, WordPress has become so popular that large companies like National Geographic, Yahoo.com, Sony Playstation, Tech Crunch, and WSJ / Wall Street Journal use the content management system called WordPress.  But WordPress is pretty vanilla without what are called plugins.  Developed by a hugenormous developer community, plugins are third party addins that make WordPress flexible and the amazing platform it is today.  New plugins come out all the time, and I will talk about those I find as I come across them.  Other plugins have become a ‘standard’ of sorts to make a website search engine friendly, load more quickly, redirect pages to the right place, backup the databases to even backing up the entire website.

I started pinning some of these to Pinterest, but since the plugins pages don’t always have screenshots, those pages can’t be pinned.  So I want to share them here.

ALL IN ONE SEO

Even though WordPress is supposed to be optimized to be the best SEO platform available (and Everyone wants to be #1 on Google:), you still need some tools to help you along.  All in One SEO’s settings help you control the search engine optimization aspects of your every tag, page, and post, allowing you to override WordPress’ defaults.

Headspace2: update coming soon

Backup Buddy (my personal affiliate link)

I use Backup Buddy.  I use it on my websites and recommend it to my customers.  It is from iThemes and backs up your entire single or Multisite WordPress install. Including the widgets, themes and plugins.  You can also use it to migrate your site to another host.  This is a Must Have.  You can click above for my personal affiliate link or go to iThemes to purchase.

You can compare Backup Buddy to VaultPress HERE.

WP DB Backup

An on-demand backup of your WordPress database.  Note: this only backs up the database.  It does NOT back up the information stored on the server such as download files and pictures.  To do that you need another program, like Backup Buddy (and why Backup Buddy was developed).

Re-CAPTCHA

Re-captcha is an anti-spam method originating from Carnegie Mellon University, then acquired by Google.  Instead of generating nonsense words, re-CAPTCHA actually uses words, then, when enough people have purportedly spelled them correctly, Google uses the results for their OCR book digitizing, doing good for the World.

The Best WordPress Plugins is a post from: Bev The Geek - Wired in the Bitterroot

SEO Best Practices for finding, crawling, and indexing your website is a post from: Bev The Geek - Wired in the Bitterroot

There is Driver Easy  and Driver Identifier, both with free versions.  Remember to use the Custom Install or you will end up with a new toolbar and a new home page!  Why do companies do this? Even Adobe tries to push McAfee and Chrome down our throats with opt OUT boxes on the install.  But I digress. haha!

You can keep your computer updated with these drivers because they scan HUGE databases for drivers matching your system, then show you what your computer needs.

I like to do all this manually because sometimes updates can be suggested that may not be compatible with your computer or may not even help your system at all!  But if users use their common sense and double check the suggestions, they should be fine.

Driver Easy:

• Automatically Detect Unknown Device Drivers
• Keep your Drivers Up-to-Date
• Over 1,000,000 Hardware Driver Database
• Driver Backup, Restore & Uninstall Features *
• FREE for Personal Use
• Multi-Language Interface *
• Extremely Easy-to-Use

The main difference between the free and paid version of Driver Easy is the availability to backup your drivers as well as restore them.  There is also technical support available with the paid version.

Driver Identifier:

• Access to 27+ million device associated drivers.
• 32bit and 64bit supported.
• Windows 7, Vista, and XP drivers

Driver Identifier also proudly claims to always have their database updated.

Both of these utilities will make updating your drivers much easier, but you only need one!

How to update the drivers on your computer is a post from: Bev The Geek - Wired in the Bitterroot

Call to make an appointment and we will transfer your data onto your new computer.  Mention this post and receive 10% off!

My Christmas present was having my Mom home from the hospital.  No new technology. Just Mom.  It was terrific.

So you got that new computer for Christmas…now what? is a post from: Bev The Geek - Wired in the Bitterroot

All I Want for Christmas is a post from: Bev The Geek - Wired in the Bitterroot

Holiday Closure Notice is a post from: Bev The Geek - Wired in the Bitterroot

That’s why you need offline (not at your house) disaster recovery backup.  I personally use Carbonite on my home and work computers, although there are other software options you might choose from such as Mozy or Norton’s Online Backup, both of which have limited storage.  I also recommend Elephant Drive, which will give you 2GB Free backup if that is all you require.

Carbonite not only has unlimited storage (so no matter how large your C: drive is, it is backed up), it now has a subscription addon for external hard drives!  I have been waiting for that and am in the process of waiting to hear back how I can upgrade my subscriptions and those of my clients!

I know this sounds like a commercial and I don’t mean for it to, but I have been asked this question several times this week, and it seemed pertinent to get the information out there.

Is an External Hard Drive Enough Protection? is a post from: Bev The Geek - Wired in the Bitterroot