I know for a fact that many, many people have problems with their browser – pop ups, ads, and just general clutter that ends up in (typically) Internet Explorer.
This article describes (in detail) some steps to remove all the junk, extra toolbars, and strange start-up pages that you may have.
http://bcheck.scanit.be/bcheck/hijacked.php
I have personally reviewed the article, and found it to be technically correct, so you can feel safe following the instructions contained therein.
“Technology & Law” is a semi-regular column posted by Keith M. Survell. It deals with the interaction of technology and security with the modern law office.
Follow-Up
Last week I talked quite a bit about security, and it seems like a good thing I did, because there have been several news stories since then about large organizations’ data being stolen – data that includes confidential personal information.
As usual, these crimes are happening because criminals are lazy – and these big companies are the easiest targets to go after – both because they are “big,” and because they have the most data to steal. With the information thieves have stolen recently, they could obtain credit in a person’s name with very little trouble – never mind that fake social security cards and driver’s licenses are probably being made as well. It is a troubling trend.
This week, however, I’m not trying to make anyone paranoid(although a little paranoia can be a good thing) – I’m just trying to save you some money, time, & effort through the use of technology.
Free Software
There are many software utilities & programs that are available for free on the Internet, and many of them can be used by a small business (such as a small law office) without violating any licensing
terms. Often times this software can be as good as the more common “commercial” software, and sometimes it is even better – as it may incorporate features or utilities that large corporations might not consider “worthwhile.”
Here then are some of my personal picks for useful (free) software for a law office.
Many jurisdictions are now allowing on-line filing of paperwork for cases (many Federal courts are this way, for example), and most of these on-line filing systems make use of PDF documents in some way.
Now, you can purchase Adobe Acrobat and use it to create PDF documents from your existing documents – if you want. However, since most people simply want to make a plain PDF from their document, there is no need
for the advanced features of Adobe Acrobat. A program called “PDFCreator” can produce the same exact PDF files you’d get from Adobe Acrobat, but without having to buy several copies of Acrobat (one for each computer).
With more and more filing being done on-line, having a program to produce PDF files is invaluable. You can take any TurboLaw document and make a PDF out of it – so it’s 100% compatable with TurboLaw as well. Once installed, you create a PDF file by “printing” your document to “PDFCreator,” which will appear as an additional printer in your system. Simply select “PDFCreator” instead of your normal printer, and you will get a PDF document.
You can download PDFCreator here – you will have to scroll down somewhat to get to the download link, however.
Many computers these days are infected with “Spyware” or “Malware;” that is to say, software that the user did not knowingly install, and that may be reporting information on the user back to some entity (be it a company or individual), as well as usually causing some sort of negative performance effect to the user’s computer.
The easiest way to avoid spyware (as I’ve said before) is simply to not use Microsoft Internet Explorer. There are several alternatives, but I’ve already recommended Mozilla Firefox.
If your computer is already infected with spyware, you may have a hard time cleaning it all up. As a computer professional, I can tell you that removing spyware from a computer can take the better part of a day – and that’s if you’re lucky. Sometimes there is just no way to get rid of spyware, except to re-format the computer & start again from scratch.
However, there is hope – a utility called Spybot Search & Destroy (available here) can scan your computer for spyware and remove it (much like a virus scanner, except for spyware). Spybot Search & Destroy (or S&D as it is sometimes known) is free, although the author does ask for a donation if you find the product useful.
For added protection, be sure to enable the option in Spybot called “teatimer” or “registry monitor.” This will monitor your computer for changes that are likely to be caused by new spyware, and can help keep them from getting back into your computer.
It’s a given fact that just about everyone has email these days. There simply is no easier way to communicate than by email, especially in business. Chances are, if you are reading this article, you have email – maybe even more than one address!
Like anything else, email has its problems – in this case, it’s called “spam.” Many corporate email users report that up to 85% of their email is “junk.” Depending on how many total emails you receive in a day, sorting through all this junk can be a serious drain on your time.
For larger firms, a professionally installed Exchange Server system with Outlook may be desirable – or already in place. This system provides in-house email, server-based junk-mail (spam) filtering, as well as many other benefits, like shared calendars. However, an Exchange Server system with Outlook can cost thousands of dollars – or more! Thus, it is only an option for large firms that can justify the expense (and have need of the other features that go with it).
Fortunately, there are options for the small or medium sized firm. The option that I recommend is called Mozilla Thunderbird. It is a free email program that has very good built-in junk-mail (spam) filtering. It is very flexible and can be customized to suit anyone’s
style. Best of all, it can be extended through the use of free “extensions,” which are like plug-ins for the program. Depending on your level of technical expertise, Thunderbird can be a useful email program, or it can be an extremely powerful & secure communications tool.
In addition to being easy to use, Thunderbird has the added benefit of not being vulnerable to the same virus exploits that Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express are. Given the fact that many viruses spread through email, using Thunderbird can potentially save your firm thousands of dollars by preventing the spread (and initial infection) of viruses.
You can download Mozilla Thunderbird here.
Other Resources
I hope you’ve found the above links to be helpful – although this is of course by no means an exhaustive list. If you have a specific need, chances are that someone else has that need as well, and may have created software to deal with it. It’s worth the time to use Google to see if someone has already created software that solves your particular need for you. Of course, if you can’t find software, feel free to contact us – we will probably be able to help you.
And please, feel free to comment on this article – you can share your experiences with software, or let others know about software solutions you may have found (or that you can advise against).
Until next week – good luck!
From ZDNet News:
Boston College is fighting against an attack on its fund-raising databases, which may have exposed the personal data of more than 100,000 alumni.
Read the whole story
You’re going to be hearing more & more about these types of things as time goes on. My advice: use caution when giving out your personal information!
I just wanted to post a quick thank you to the MBA organizers for this year’s annual conference, and also to the lawyers, both customers and non-customers, who visited our booth. We had a great time in Boston meeting all of you and look forward to next year!
Recently, a lot of users of TurboLaw have reported errors while checking for updates. Typically, the message is “Error &H80072EE7 (-2147012889) – The remote server name could not be found.“
This problem is caused by an Internet Firewall on the user’s computer. The firewall software has “blocked” TurboLaw update, and is not allowing it to access the Internet. (There is a PSC KB article describing this symptom: TL00215.)
Firewall software can be a double-edged sword in some ways – it protects your computer from viruses, worms, trojan horse programs, remote attacks, and so on; but at the same time, it can block legitimate programs on your computer from working.
Here are some basic instructions to allow TurboLaw Update to access the Internet through your firewall, for both Norton’s “Internet Security” firewall, and the new Windows Personal Firewall.
Norton Internet Security
Windows Personal Firewall
As usual, your milage may vary – and you may want to consult your firewall’s product documentation or your local IT person before making any changes.
Hi, I just wanted to remind anyone viewing this that yes, you can edit any of our documents or forms. You just need to click the “edit document” button on the TurboLaw Toolbar in Word or the picture of the padlock and pencil in Excel.
If you do not see these buttons please refer to these directions or call us if you need help!
Have a great weekend!
Something that we have added recently to our support site is the Online Tutorial. This helpful video guide covers all the common questions we get about using TurboLaw, broken up into the following sections:
You can skip around from section to section and see exactly how to use the features of TurboLaw.
From a Reuters story posted on Yahoo! News:
LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Data broker LexisNexis on Wednesday said that identity thieves have gained access to profiles of 32,000 U.S. citizens, prompting calls for better consumer protections after a rash of similar break-ins.
[...]
The information accessed included names, addresses, Social Security and driver’s license numbers, but not credit histories, medical records or financial information.
Click here for the full article.
“Technology & Law” is a semi-regular column posted by Keith M. Survell. It deals with the interaction of technology and security with the modern law office.
Introduction to Security
As Director of Software Development here at Promethean, I am the de facto “top tier” technical support representative. Because of this, I have a lot of interaction with the computers of many different attorneys and their staff. This has given me a unique perspective on some of the challenges facing our users these days.
As you may or may not be aware, identity theft is the fastest growing crime on the Internet; and by far the largest portion of Identity theft is committed using “phishing” (sounds like “fishing”) scams. If you’ve been on the Internet for a while, you’ve probably seen an example of this kind of scam before; perhaps an email that you received that looked like something official – perhaps it seemed to be from your bank, or from eBay, or from PayPal. However, the email was not from who it said it was from. It was from the scammer – and it was deliberately “forged” to look “official.” Taking advantage of people’s trust, it can fool people into giving away credit card numbers, passwords, and many other pieces of information – including the mother of all personally identifiable information, your social security number.
It’s extraordinarily important for people to be aware of these scams, because these particular scams rely on what computer security professionals call “social engineering.” Social engineering is (basically) using people themselves as the “weak point” in the chain of security. Your bank’s server may be impenetrable, and the bank’s physical security may be top-notch, but if a criminal has your name, account number, and password – your money is as good as gone. And if the criminal tricked you into giving him that information, you have no recourse against the bank (or whatever) for your loss – because YOU were at fault.
Additionally, tricks like these can be used to bypass virus protection and firewalls to get viruses or trojan horse type programs into your computer. The latter is especially dangerous to those in the legal profession, as you frequently have sensitive, privileged, private information on your computer. A trojan horse program works just like its namesake – it gets into your program by “pretending” to be something legitimate; maybe a free game, or a useful utility, or even a “fake” security update.
Now, all of these things are bad enough on their own, but what makes all of this 10 times worse is that the browser you are probably using to read this article is making it 10 times easier for those criminal types to get into your computer and steal private information. Yes, I’m talking about “Internet Explorer,” the default browser in every version of Windows. There are more problems with Internet Explorer in regards to security then I have room to talk about, but I’ll go over two of the big ones.
Integration into Windows
You probably remember the big anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft from a few years ago. Among other things, this suit alleged that Microsoft had made Internet Explorer an inseparable part of the operating system (Windows). And – unfortunately for most users – this is absolutely true. You cannot un-install Internet Explorer from your computer if you are using anything newer than Windows 98 – which means ALL new computers, as well as anything running Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP.
Because of this integration, any flaw which affects the browser (Internet Explorer) also affects your computer in general. During the past year, there have been dozens of “updates” released by Microsoft for Internet Explorer. If you have Windows Automatic Update turned on, and you actually bother to read the description of the updates you are receiving, you’ll see that the descriptions are largely the same:
Update for Internet Explorer: A flaw has been discovered that could allow an attacker to take control of your computer. Install this update to remain safe. You may have to reboot your computer when the update is installed.
Remember – each of these flaws has to be found by someone (typically not Microsoft themselves), and then Microsoft has to fix it – a process which can (and often does) take months. All the while, your computer is vulnerable. It’s as if the manufacturer of the locks on your house notified you by mail that there is a flaw in your locks (which has been known publicly for several months now), and that any kid with a toothpick can open all your doors – and they will be sending you the tools & instructions to fix your locks in a few more weeks. It goes without saying that this is a less than ideal situation.
ActiveX – Browser Plugins that Bite Back
Perhaps the biggest security problem with Internet Explorer isn’t actually a “flaw” at all – it’s a feature, designed way back when Internet Explorer was still fighting with Netscape for dominance on the Internet. This “feature” is called “ActiveX,” and it allowed small little programs (called “ActiveX objects”) to run “inside” of your browser window. These programs could literally do anything; and since they were running on your computer, they were a prime choice for getting access to your system. On many computers, these ActiveX programs are simply downloaded & installed without notifying the user – which means that you could be visiting a web site that is (unbeknownst to you) installing an ActiveX program that scans your computer for credit card numbers, social security numbers, passwords, or any number of things, and then sends them back to some server somewhere – where they are most likely used to impersonate you and obtain access to your money. Even on computers where the user is prompted about the installation of ActiveX programs, most people simply click “Allow” when prompted – mostly due to the fact that Microsoft themselves uses ActiveX for things like Windows Update, and their web site instructs you to click “Allow” (although to their credit, they do ask you to review the text on the window and make sure the program actually does come from Microsoft).
Alternatives
This wouldn’t be much of a “tech” column if I didn’t offer some helpful (or at least useful) advise on this subject. Towards that end, here are some of my recommendations. These can (and should!) be implemented by everyone – regardless of whether you’re a solo practitioner, or part of a large law firm with a dedicated IT staff.
Switch Your Browser
Perhaps the easiest thing you can do is switch to a different browser. This won’t remove Internet Explorer from your computer – nothing will – but it will give you a safer, more secure browser. And since nearly 90% of the time people spend “on the Internet” is actually browsing, this can be a significant step forward in terms of safety.
The browser I recommend is called “Firefox,” and it is completely free – for both personal and commercial use. This browser does not support ActiveX; so if your company uses ActiveX for something internal, or if you need ActiveX for on-line banking (there are a few rare banks that require ActiveX for on-line banking), you may still need to open Internet Explorer sometimes. However, most (99%) pages will open faster in Firefox, and there’s far less security problems. There are also features in Firefox which make it ideal for research – in particular the “tabbed browsing” feature. But don’t just take my word for it – over 25 million people have downloaded Firefox world wide. And it’s not just for Windows, either – if you’re a Mac user, or if you use UNIX or Linux, Firefox is available for those operating systems as well.
For more information on Firefox, visit www.mozilla.org, the home page of the public organization which created it.
Get a Firewall
Many people don’t know what a firewall is, or how it can help improve security. Basically, a firewall is a piece of hardware or software that “blocks” certain types of data from passing between computers (or entire networks). You can think of it as a little computerized “bouncer,” only letting in the people (data) you’ve approved. Random people trying to gain access to your computer (perhaps via a security flaw) will be turned away, thus keeping your computer safe. (A firewall is actually much more complex than that – but for simplicity’s sake, that’s all I’ll say on it. For the full definition of a firewall, click here.)
If you have Windows XP, and you’ve installed Service Pack 2 (or if you’ve just been doing your Windows Updates regularly), you already have a very good firewall installed on your computer. If you have XP, but haven’t downloaded Service Pack 2 yet, I highly suggest you do. You’ll have to visit www.microsoft.com and go to the Windows Update site (or you can use the link that’s probably on your Start menu).
If you don’t have Windows XP, then you probably should install a firewall. Fortunately, there are free firewalls available as well. The one I would recommend comes from Zone Labs, and is called ZoneAlarm. You can download it by clicking here. You may also be able to get firewall software bundled with your anti-virus software (you DO have anti-virus, don’t you?), so be sure to check on that. Just remember that firewalls also block programs on your computer from connecting to the Internet, so when you see a window pop up asking you if you want to allow a program to access the Internet, take a moment to read it and decide if it is legitimate. (Users of TurboLaw may run into this problem when checking for updates, for example.)
As an alternative to software firewalls, most Internet “routers” have built in firewalls. If you have a small home or office network, and you have a router (probably from either Linksys or Netgear), then you already have a layer of protection against attacks from the “Internet-at-large”.
I hope that I have managed to at least provide a background for the casual user regarding these very important topics. As I said previously, I highly recommend that you follow the advise I give, but if you are in doubt, always check with your local IT professional. All of the software I recommend in this column is totally free – and my recommendations are based solely on my own extensive experience with computers. I do believe that if you keep your wits about you, and if you understand just a little bit about the way the Internet and computers work, you can keep your computer (and your data) safe from most of the threats that exist these days.
Good luck!
This is just a friendly reminder that the time has come once again to update all TurboLaw documents.
For those who don’t know the reason for this yearly update; we must update our documents once a year to retain the digital signature which is used to validate our documents. Unfortunately, the signature is only “valid” for one year, and there’s nothing we can do to change this. Therefore, once every year we must update all documents at once.
If you don’t have the most recent version of TurboLaw (2.34 at the very latest), please update before downloading the documents. It will save you time in the end.
Also, remember that you can minimize the update window – you don’t have to wait for it to finish; you can keep using TurboLaw while it updates!
