Van Hagar and those pesky alien uploads

This week, former Van-Halen rocker Sammy Hagar released his new book.  In this book Hagar going into details about the band and its members.  The book also mentions Hagar’s encounter with aliens.  In this encounter, aliens proceeded to link up to Sammy Hagar’s brain and proceed to upload and download information.  Now, I know what you’re thinking… Sammy Hagar’s got a brain?  This has yet to be verified, but here is what Sammy has to say about it.

 "It was real. [Aliens] were plugged into me," Hagar says. "It was a download situation. This was long before computers or any kind of wireless. There weren't even wireless telephones. Looking back now, it was like, 'F---, they downloaded something into me!' Or they uploaded something from my brain, like an experiment. 'See what this guy knows.' That happened. That friggin' happened, I'll tell you right now."

You can catch the rest of the story at:     http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/amplifier/88706/sammy-hagar-was-abducted-uploaded-by-aliens/

After reading this, a few things occurred to me.

The first thing I imagined a couple of adolescent teenage aliens war driving human brains on a slow Saturday night in LA, when  they stumble upon this gem of a mind we call Hagar.  The second thing that occurred to me is that Hagar needs to get hot on upgrading his information security measures. 

Even if Hagar is a lost cause, there are several things that you the reader can do right now to help protect your wireless network in your home or office.  First, you will need to change the password on your router.  All home routers come from the factory with a common default password.  These passwords are well known to the people that intend to do harm to you by accessing your network.  This password can also be easily obtained from a quick search of the web as well.  This fact leaves you vulnerable to unauthorized access of your home network. 

Next you will need to rename your SSID.  Your SSID is the “service set identifier” or essentially the name of you wireless network. This allows you or others to identify what wireless network you are connecting to.  The wireless card on your computer or wireless device can detect these networks.  After you have renamed your SSID to something other than the default, you will then need to hide your signal.  This will deny others the ability to see or recognize your wireless network with their wireless devices.  You of course will still be able to connect to the network.  By selecting not to broadcast your SSID, it will reduce the detection of your network by others, and thus making it less of a target. 

There you go.  There are 3 easy steps to increase protection of your home network that tend to be overlooked.  Some of you are likely thinking…” that’s great, but how do I make these changes.”   In most cases, this is easy too.  You will need to access the interface on your router.  This is typically a screen that displays a set of options and settings for the router.  The changes are normally easy to make.  You can contact the technical support for the brand name of your router, visit their website and look for instructions, or go the links below for further information.  I hope this was helpful to many of you.  Please feel free to post your comments.   This does not apply to Van-Halen fans. .. jk

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9037321/How_to_protect_your_wireless_network

http://www.wikihow.com/Secure-Your-Wireless-Home-Network

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/support/wireless_secure.htm

Spam Rant

Do ya think that Spam, the meat in a can that can be found in stores everywhere, is pissed that they share their name with something as distasteful as electronic spam.  I am sure that when Hormel registered the SPAM trademark in 1937, they never seen this coming.  Either way, both the food and the junk mail have been frowned upon by many of us who have experienced them.  I bring this up because of some recent unwanted activity in my email account.  That's right, spam! I have lived a pretty good spam free existence for several years.  I thought that I was being careful in protecting my email address.  I mean, I thought so anyway.  Previously deployed anti-spam measures include:

1.  Having multiple email addresses. 
       - The intent being that I would use one for personal and social purposes.  This was for communication with friends and family. A different email would be business.  It would be used to contact employers, distribute resumes, make appointments, and converse with business associates.  Any business correspondence is conducted using this email address.  Finally, I have an email account that is solely used spamming scapegoat purposes.  It is used when taking part in insecure activity that will likely make the account vulnerable to spam attacks.  It is a sacrificial account of sorts.

2.  Identifying questionable activity.
       -  I feel that being identifying an email scam or spam attempt is extremely important.  This means that I avoid emails with general and nonspecific subject lines, emails from unrecognized contacts and businesses, and spotting poor grammar and spelling errors.  Who falls for that anyway. Some spam that I have seen in my "sacrifice" account has the worst spelling and grammar ever.  I know 2nd grade students who have a better understanding of the English language.  I do not open forwarded emails content that is not for the purpose of communications.  I don't care to receive jokes, political or religious stories, or random pictures.  These often go straight to the trash folder for deletion.  Sure I may miss out on a good laugh or touching story, but I will avoid spam, which is my main goal.  If I get something that is questionable or looks interesting, I can always forward it to my sacrifice folder and open there.  Most times the emailed tidbit ends up being a complete waste of time. 


3. Surf intelligently. 
      -  Seek out and view popular videos from unaccredited sources. When you hear of a video online of a shocking footage of some sort, be aware that these video may contain malicious code.  These could be human accidents involving cars, trains, or animal attacks.  Rock star falls off stage.  Actress on drugs video... and of course the ever popular celebrity sex tapes.  Which leads me to my next guideline for avoiding spam.... No internet porn.  The internet porn industry is a huge source of generated spam and distribution of malicious code. 



So , there you go.  These are the methods that I have deployed to protect my email accounts from spam.  It has been effective to a certain extent, but the system is not perfect.  Spam is a real pain in the butt to deal with, and even harder to avoid completely.  I feel that these guidelines should be enough to guard from spam, but it is not.  In the upcoming posts, I will discuss spam further.

The Beginning

Well, here we go.  The start to my very first original blog.  Sure I have posted onto a forum here and there, but nothing that is available to the public and directed by myself.  I created this account to fulfill the requirements for the CIS 608 course that I recently enrolled in at Bellevue University.  I hope that you all enjoy all of the wizdom that you are sure to find posted here in the near future.