SECURITY: COME BACK IN ONE PIECE!
IT'S YOUR CALL: YOUR RESPONSIBILITY; AND YOUR FUNERAL

One of the major characters on Space Patrol was Security Chief Major "Robbie" Robertson. So you know what that means. Righ?

The interntet is full of wonderful things and Space Patrol helps you find them BUT it is also foul of things that you do not want to follow you home, or even stick themeslves onto you. Baaaaaadd things: Spybots, Adware, Viruses, Malware, badbots, spambots and bogus webisties. Don't think it can't happen to you: It can happen and even under the best conditions, it will happen. But you can cut down and lessen or even make yourself immune to, the cosequenses of these kinds of things big time with good security. In one case it's bad luck, in the other case it's bad judgement. Even when Buzz Corry went down, he went down swinging.

Now, FireFox is pretty good about those kinds of things. In fact, making the switch just jumped your Internet IQ up by 50 points. But you can always use a little something extra. Well, Space Patrol can help you there, too. You definitely don't want to get bushwhacked by PRINCE BACCARATTI Right? So You want protection. Well, here's what we use

  • ANTI-VIRUS GUARD: Recommended by Kim Komando
  • AD-AWARE
  • SPYBOT
  • ANONYMIZER
  • From FireFox and MORE FROM FIREFOX All of these have a free version of the software. If you're not covered after this, you must have some pretty obscure needs.

    WE'RE NOT THROUGH YET; CADET SO JUST KEEP YOUR SORRY ASS IN THAT SEAT AND LISTEN UP!! THE CiC'S A NICE GUY; BUT HE'S TOO NICE. SOMEONE'S GOTTA KEEP YOU GIABRONIS ON A SHORT LEASH OR YOU'LL TURN THE UNIVERSE'S A#1 SECURITY SCREEN TO SWISS CHEESE IN A HEARTBEAT! NOW JUST CUZ I YELL AT YOU GUYS DOESN'T MEAN I DON'T LIKE YOU: BUT I WANT TO KEEP ON LIKING YOU AND I SURE'S HELL CAN'T DO THAT IF YOU'VE GOT THE TERMINAL STUPIDS OR COME BACK IN A SPACE BODY BAG! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR??! CADET? BECAUSE IT COSTS BEAUCOUP BUCKS TO BAIL SOME NUMNUTSKI OUT OF A JAM THAT HE GOT INTO BY BEING DUMB!

    Aw jeez: Major Hartbyrne is on a tear. I wouldn't mess with him. He's sort of like "Ol' Gunny" with an Attitude and on steroids.

  • Start with KIM KOMANDO'S SECURITY TUTORIAL and listen up real good!
  • EMAIL: I get my meail at my IP's page. It has partnered with yahoo so that I can use a version of Yahoo Mail. I earned smarts points from my tech for this. I oridginally did it when my Outlook Express went bust. My tech said that getting my mail on the 'net means it doesn't get into my system so that if anything bad is there, it stays there and Yahoo uses a virus scan that it keeps updated as well as having some customizability in that area. This eliminates 80% of the email secruity problems. Also do not use your email addy. wirite it out , like: space_cadet at yahooo dot com" instead of "space_cadet@yahoo.com". an email reader needs to see the "@" and "." for it to record the address as valid. or, on a site write your email addy into a gif. that makes it part of an image that a 'bot can't read, or, set up an email form; that way persons don't even see your address, it's handled by the form processing outfit.
  • INTERNET EXPLORER SECURITY: You are advised to pick up the IETab addon from FireFox. Now this will tuck Internet Explorer in FireFox. But you have to treat it right: This will follow the rules you set up in your copy of IE. 90% of the security problems with IE are traceable to ActiveX. Now ActiveX is a wonderful thing in the proper context. You can set that context using Tools/Internet Optins/Security and Privacy. Your default setting is Internet Zone So just hit Custom Level and go and set anything relating to ActiveX to either Disable or Prompt. You do not want to dowload anything with Scrpts or ActiveX from a site you do not know well enough to trust or let them affect Windows or Internet Explorer at all (my SPACE PATROL site has some javascript that uses ActiveX but they are "signed as safe" and I know where I got them. The same is true of this and other "take-home" webtoys). In Privacy you set First Party Cokkies to Prompt and Third Party cookies to either prompt or Never. Save session Cookies is OK but you do want to use Empty Temporary Files after leaving because that's where a lot of nasty stuff goes. You can configure IETab to work for only some sites in the STIE FILTER Enable/Disable/ADD/RMOVE section once you have it at Tools/Addons/IETab/OPTIONS.Also, look at the Internet Options Security. It to has places for trustworthy sites and places for those that you might want to put on probationary restrictions.
  • FINALLY: THE POTENTIALLY BEST SECURITY DEVICE IS THAT HATRACK SITTING BETWEEN YOUR SHOULDERS: USE YOUR HEAD: Don't be the one who's born every minute. There are things you just don't do
    1. Don't give any of your passwords to anyone you haven't known for 5 years at least or seen in person several times and don't accept them from persons you don't know well, either.
    2. No reputable Organization asks for finacial data by email. The same goes for passwords and other ID's
    3. If it asks for info and it ain't SSI then it's SHI and it's heading for the fan; at lightspeed so BURN SPACE!
    4. turn off the images in the email. Those can be links or things that trigger something bad if they load.
    5. If a Subject title looks like gobbledygook, it's spam at best; at worst...well...
    6. If you get "Re" in a subject line and you never sent anything to that person, then flush it.
    7. Every name's an alias and every address is a storefront in New Jersey: from your website addy, those who know how can find your town. All they need to do therefter is get a phone book. I defy thme to locate in the phone book "space_patrolman_laser"
    8. When creating a username and password, use something that only has meaning to you
    9. If you use a netmail like yahoo. create different accounts for different things you do. "space_patrol..." is only used for Space patrol business. I use "juan_dil..." to do my porn sites and my sports stuff is done under "needles_of_...". BTW: "lady_in_red" is NOT my handle for matters transgender; That's "lisa_marie_prescott". Your IP often provides for you to have "sub accounts" up to abuot 5 or so and you can do just that with thise things. Now, figure out where I am lying through my teeth!
    And most of all; Whether it's an email offer or a website, if it sounds too good to be true, it is

    SO WHAT'S IT GONNA BE; CADET; SWEET DREAMS OR THE DIRT NAP? REMEMBER, IN SPACE; NOBODY CAN HEAR YOU GO "AAARRRGGGGHHH!!"