The Content Hoarder

In questions like your family’s safety, you don’t want to miss anything. It’s vital that you know you’ve done everything in your power for them. With ADT alarms, monitored security systems, etc., you’ll be doing all you can to protect everything closest to you.

Possibly the biggest step in home protection is the installation of strong alarms with monitoring by ADT. Now, are all solutions equally effective? Of course not - as the scale of the security required rises, you’ll find that you must incorporate a larger number of cameras, control pads, alarms, not to mention sensors. Otherwise,your dwelling will have security flaws that might leave it an obvious target. It’s purely a deterrent, not a preventative, but you must not underestimate the size of the part played by lighting in protecting your home. It’s unusual for an intruder to elect to run the risk of being observed during their approach, a challenge which gets more difficult the better lit it is. In addition to this - and the manifest advantages of a brightly-lit home to the residents - you’ll find yourself better able to see anything suspicious and even video surveillance can produce better results. We hardly have to point out that substantially improved results can be obtained with spotlights under the control of motion sensors. Please remember that ADT monitored alarms don’t just help protect against thieves. They can also help if a loved one becomes unwell. Therefore, if your house hosts somebody old or unwell, it’s important to have emergency wristbands set up. The average thief looks for empty apartments - and so, for while you’re on business trips, here are some simple tips to trick them. To start with, have a neighbor take in your newspapers and post for you to prevent them collecting somewhere visible and becoming obvious. Easily imitated signs of life include lawn sprinklers and lamps that turn on and off. Criminals aren’t likely to try their luck under these circumstances - at any rate, not those who target unattended buildings. Don’t believe those who try to convince you that home security is a sure thing. It’s possible to improve your safety, though. You’ll find that the knowledge you’ve done all you can to keep your home safe is a fantastic feeling.

Ten years ago, when online, you might have had just a single password to store for your email account. These days however, it’s not uncommon to have dozens of passwords for innumerous online services you’ve signed up to. So what happens? Lots of individuals tend to utilize the same password over and over. Some people may not think their Bebo profile as being majorly vital, but it is if you’re applying the very same password for that as you are for your PayPal account. Sure, the convenience of having to remember just one password is compelling, but what if someone gets hold of that single password? You guessed it, they potentially have access to all of your accounts that use that very same password. And if you think they can’t know what other online services you’ve signed up to, they don’t need to. They can run web application programs which examine thousands of online services and try to match your account name/password pairing that they know about.

This is an issue we all have to think about, but it can be solved. Actually, it’s not essential to remember every account name/password. Why? Your browser can remember this information. Be it your Facebook login or Email password. Just ask your browser to remember each account name/password, and then have a central password (”master password”) just in case a person gets hold of your computer. Physical access to your computer will still require the knowledge of the master password to gain access to all the other passwords. So in effect, you can sign up to hundreds of online services, and just have to remember one password : your master password for your browser.

In terms of thinking of passwords themselves, make them long and random, such as 8JJJfrfrt65K which is a mix of lower and upper case characters and numbers. Since you don’t need to remember them, be as random as you wish. A word of warning : don’t use dictionary words as your password, as these are effortless to discover for hackers.

Identity theft commonly begins with the loss or theft of a wallet or purse. But there are many or high-tech and low-tech ways criminals can get their hands on your personal and financial information in order to commit identity theft.

When someone uses your name or personal information, such as your credit card number, driver’s license number, Social Security number, telephone number, or other account numbers, without your permission, you become a victim of identity theft.

Thieves steal your personal information and use it to open credit accounts, bank accounts, telephone service accounts, and make major purchases in your name. These criminals use your sensitive information to take over existing accounts, or open new accounts. Their criminal activities can result in damage to your credit rating and denials to credit and job offers.

Protecting Your Identity While there are no guarantees that your identity will never be stolen or compromised, there are several steps you can take to minimize the risks. Here are a few of them:

• Before you discard your personal information that you no longer need, such as credit card receipts, billing statements, and pre-approved credit card offers, shred them using, at best, a diagonal-cut shredder.

• Create unique passwords and personal identification numbers (PINS) and avoid using easily available information such as mother’s maiden name, date of birth, or last four digits of your Social Security number.

• Do not give your Social Security number to people or companies that you do not know.

• Guard your mail from theft. Promptly remove your incoming mail from your mailbox and place outgoing mail in locked collection boxes at your local Post Office.

• As an extra measure of security, install a lock on your mailbox, even if mail theft is not an identified problem in your neighborhood.

• Before disclosing personal information, even to people you know where you shop or do business, insist on knowing the reason(s) your personal information is required and how it will be used.

Low-Tech Rip-offs: Thieves can do much damage with what they remove from your mailbox.

Criminals are increasingly creative in the methods they use to get their hands or eyes on your personal information, and ultimately, your money. Here are some of the low-tech techniques they employ:

• Dumpster Diving, one of the easiest ways for them to appropriate your personal information.

• Mail Theft from unsecured residential mailboxes. According to statistics, mail theft most often takes place at unprotected and easily accessible mailboxes in public places.

• Shoulder surfing takes place when a thief watches or listens literally over your shoulder as you enter your PIN into an ATM machine. They may even follow you home or your place of work to gather additional information about you.

High-Tech Techniques: Data transferred across the Internet can be intercepted during its journey.

• Phishing and Pharming: While phishing is a scam in which consumers are tricked into entering their personal information via a bogus email and website form, pharming occurs where hackers steal personal information from numerous people simultaneously through something known as “domain spoofing”. They take over a DNS server and redirect user information to a new website that they use to gather, collect, “pharm” illegal information.

• Skimming: Thieves quickly and temporarily steal a credit card and run it through a skimmer, a credit card reader that has been reprogrammed to steal information off the card.

Fight Back: Reduce the Risks

Make education about the scams, schemes, and frauds criminal use to steal your identity your priority in view of the rising occurrence of this multi-million-dollar-problem. With education comes prevention. Here are some prevention tips to help reduce the risks:

• Safeguard your personal information. Never take simple things for granted.

• Carry with your only the information you need. Always keep your personal information and documents in a safe and secured place of your choosing.

• Order and review a copy of your credit report at least once a year.

• Shred documents containing your sensitive information before discarding them.

For extensive information about ways to protect your identity, visit “Protecting Your Identity” at http://www.ProtectingYourIdentity.blogspot.com/

Known as The Master Blog Builder, Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW, helps small business owners and non-profit organizations improve their customer relationship marketing. Often he comes across cases that are red flags calling identity thieves to come in. Hence, he started the “Protecting Your Identity” blog. Contact him at http://www.MasterBlogBuilder.com/ for more information.

Why home owners file insurance claims? The answer to this question is obvious;
because of some kind of loss. Do you know what the leading reason property
owners filed claims with their insurance companies? According to c 2005 fact book
the answer is Fire and lightning counting for 32.42% of all loss claims. The second
leading cause of damage claims is Wind with 22.8 % followed in third by Water
damage with 21.74% and finally theft with 4.54%(these figures are based on 5 year
averages from 1999 to 2003). What does this mean? It means that statistically
speaking you have less to fear from your neighbor than you thought you did.
Knowledge is power; you are now empowered to protect your home from these
causes of home damage. How though?

One unsettling thought is how we are at the whim of natures’ wrath. Sure you can
install a lighting rod on your home to protect it from lightning strikes but what do
you do to protect you from the big ole tree next to our house that just got slammed
by lightning and is now not only on fire but also falling onto your house. Cut the
tree down, make a home out of asbestos and open up a whole other can of worms
or do you just try to be prepared as best you can for disaster? Being prepared for
disaster sounds like the best option to me.

How do I prepare for eminent doom? You would start by taking care of obvious
holes in your homes safety net. For example if you don’t have a grounded lightning
rod installed on your house do that especially if you live in a high risk area i.e. an
area where there are frequent lightning storms. Make sure that when you do tackle
a hole in that net that you fix it correctly the first time, otherwise you’ll learn the
lesson my grandma ingrained in me “the lazy person winds up working twice as
hard”. After patching up the apparent holes its time to shore up the not so palpable
ones; what I mean is doing the little things that will pay back big dividends for your
foresight. Or example making an inventory of all your possessions is a great place
to start. If the unthinkable happens, with your home inventory you’ll have a record
of everything you had and what’s more your inventory is just the tool you’ll reach
for during the claims process.

The first thing your insurance company will ask you for is to compile a list of all the
lost or damaged items. No problem for you because you have your home inventory!
But what is this wondrous, magical tool? A home inventory is simply a list of all of
your possessions, with photos and details such as make, model, serial number, all
compiled in a neat and organized fashion for quick dissemination. Imagine the
claims process without it; having to compile that list after the home was burned
down. Could you remember everything? Would you be even in the right state of
mind to be able to do this? Don’t wait if you haven’t done this act now, later will be
too late.

Another smart move would be to check out what disasters are actually covered by
your insurance policy. Listed below is a list of most of the disasters covered by most
insurance policies (from the Insurance Information Institute’s website). http://
www.iii.org/individuals/homei/hbasics/whattype/

What type of disasters are covered?
Perils
1. Fire or lightning
2. Windstorm or hail
3. Explosion
4. Riot or civil commotion
5. Damage caused by aircraft
6. Damage caused by vehicles
7. Smoke
8. Vandalism or malicious mischief
9. Theft
10. Volcanic eruption

The following might not be covered by your policy!
11. Falling objec
t
12. Weight of ice, snow or sleet
13. Accidental discharge or overflow of water or steam from within a plumbing,
heating, air conditioning, or automatic fire-protective sprinkler system, or from a
household appliance.
14. Sudden and accidental tearing apart, cracking, burning, or bulging of a steam or
hot water heating system, an air conditioning or automatic fire-protective system.
15. Freezing of a plumbing, heating, air conditioning or automatic, fire-protective
sprinkler system, or of a household appliance.
16. Sudden and accidental damage from artificially generated electrical current
(does not include loss to a tube, transistor or similar electronic component)

Most policies cover only the first ten items on this list the rest are extra’s. The next
list covers item that are not covered by most home policies.

Disasters not covered
1. Floods?
You can purchase flood coverage directly from your homeowners insurance agent.
However, the policy is provided by the Federal Flood Insurance Program
( 800-427-4661, http://www.fema.gov/nfip ). You can get replacement cost
coverage for the structure of your home, but only actual cash value coverage is
available for your possessions. There may also be limits on coverage for furniture
and other possessions stored in your basement. Flood insurance is available for
renters as well as homeowners. You will need flood insurance if you live in a
designated flood zone. But also consider buying it if your house could be flooded by
melting snow, an overflowing creek or water running down a steep hill. Don’t wait
until the evening news announces a flood season warning to buy a policy. There is a
30-day waiting period before coverage takes effect.?

2. Earthquakes?
Earthquake coverage can be a separate policy or an endorsement to your
homeowners or renters policy. It available from most insurance companies. In
California, it is also available from the California Earthquake Authority
( http://www.cea.gov ). In earthquake prone states like California, the policy comes
with a high deductible.?

3. Maintenance damage?
It is your responsibility to take reasonable precautions to protect your home from
damage. Your insurance policy will not cover damage due to lack of maintenance,
mold, termite infestation and infestation from other pests.

In light of recent disaster’s it might be a good idea in looking into flood insurance
coverage. You can find out if you live in a flood plain by contacting your local
government office, for that info if you’re not sure. You can find their phone
numbers listed in the blue pages of your local phone book.
Finally use your imagination as to how you can protect and make your home
disaster proof. There are countless other things you can do inspite of the factors
that you cannot control. Just use your head and find the holes. Remember you are
your homes first and last line of defense; if you don’t take care of your home, who
will? Be proactive, that way you can be prepared for the worst of situations. Good
luck and be safe!

http://www.myhiss.com H.I.S.S. Home Inventory Service Specialists is headed up by
CEO: Richard Berroa; a producer whose background is in live T.V. production and
documentaries. At HBO, NBC and PBS; Rich was responsible for gathering all the
information for the shoot (the who, what, when, where) and putting them to insure a
successful production (the How). That skill set is now put to work for your own
H.I.S.S. catalog; which is a mini production itself. The same commitment, attention
to details and meticulous organization will now work for you. We are a company set
up to serve an under served need; the fact is that all insurance companies tell their
clients to make an inventory but they do not provide this service to their customers.
WHY? Maybe it is because it’s simply is not in their (the insurance company’s) best
interest. Empowering you the customer is our priority. We are insured; currently we
service the entire east coast but we are willing to travel beyond on a per case basis.

As Technology advances, spyware has become a norm in many people’s life. But what is spyware? Spyware is not a virus. It is not meant to attack your system but it is used to steal information from your system.

To explain this as simple as possible, spyware is computer software that is used to run undetected in a victim’s computer to steal important information and report to the creator’s without the victim’s knowledge and permission. This information can be emails, password, credit card information…etc.

These spywares also have many different features. They not only steal information. They can even re-rout user to illegal websites or installing phone dialers. They even have the ability to destroy your computer files residing on it.

Knowing so many bad things that can happen if they infect your computer. But many people might ask; how do I know that there are residing in my computer? I need to know that they assisted before I can remove them.

No doubt it can be quite tough in removing these malware. But it is fairly easy to detect them. Below are some characteristics you will encounter if your computer is infected by these notorious malware.

* Computer slow down. These spyware often get involve with other computer applications and as a result crashes these applications and slow down the computer.

* Popups appear when you did not even know why.

* You are being re-directed to other websites and commercials.

* Additional Internet shortcuts on your desktop such as dialers, games or free software that is difficult to remove.

Now you know how to detect spywares in case they infected your computer. Removing them should be easy if you have good anti-spyware software. Below are some of the softwares that you might want to consider.

(1) NoAdware

(2) Spyware Nuker

Start taking action against these spywares now. Time should be spent on more productive work and should not be spent on these hateful, annoying spywares.

http://www.edux.com.sg/newsletter/newsletter7_2.html

Increasingly, employment recruiters are screening out job applicants after Googling them.

Information hunters are finding oodles of self-incriminating stuff on just about every college student they research. Many applicants openly discuss their predilections for boozing, doing drugs, engaging in wild sex, and in scamming the authorities in various ways. Using their real names, these tell-all tattlers are screwing up their chances of getting hired at most firms.

It makes you wonder whether posting articles and publicity of various sorts will somehow bite the rest of us on the rear, sooner or later.

The other day, I posted a new article, adding to the hundreds already tracked by search engines, and instead of going with a jocular, self-critical biography, just to break the monotony, I thought better of it at the last minute.

“How long is the shelf-life of this biography?” I wondered. Then, I calculated that the half-life of nuclear waste is shorter, and I would be better off writing a straight-arrow description of myself.

Before the Internet, it was relatively easy to control the kind of information a client or a prospect had on you. If you put something into their hands, such as a trade reference, obviously, they could call it. And if your brochure spoke glowingly of your accomplishments, some of them were taken seriously.

But now, anybody can dig up the dirt on you if they wish, either by letting their fingers do the walking at search engines, or by paying commercial entities to do it for them.

It makes you wonder, if you’re concerned at all about controlling your image, if not your privacy, if you want to make that task any easier.

In fact, a major premise of Internet marketing has been the idea of making it EASY for people to find you, to learn about you. But the more information they can access, the greater is the possibility that they’ll unearth something disturbing, or at least off-putting.

With over 600 of my articles posted on the web, do you think you might find at least one that repulses you?

I guarantee it!

But I cannot control WHEN you’ll discover it. It might pop-up first, after I have sent you my packet of materials and you’re undertaking the task of Googling me

Of course, if you assert you’re a major player in your field, and a prospect searches and finds zilch, that could be even more of a turn-off.

I just wonder how long it will take for public relations firms to start specializing in REMOVING web information, in the same way that they used to try keep the names of the rich and famous from appearing in “scandal sheets,” a few decades ago.

Also, are there some smart college students out there that have made a decision that they don’t want to appear in any search engine, that for all practical purposes, they wish to remain invisible?

Plotting out a plan for evacuation is very important and not very time consuming. If you are in a coastal area or live in a flood zone, the government will mandate evacuations for storms that are above 80 miles per hour. These are some steps that will make any evacuation more manageable and safe. There are also some options that you have depending on the size of the storm. Local evacuation is not always sufficient, traveling to another city that is inland is many times a better idea.

Many cities already have an evacuation route set up for where you live. A shelter is usually a large sports complex like a gymnasium or a cafeteria at a public school. You can obtain the specific detail about your city’s evacuation route by contacting the local weather emergency services. Their phone number is usually located in the front section of your phonebook. They can give you driving directions and any special instructions. This is important because the evacuation route may not be the most direct route. Emergency specialists map out a route according to the safest route possible. Some routes may flood easy or are easily congested by traffic. Keep this information in your glove box so that you do not need to search for in case of an emergency.

If you plan to leave town in an event of an evacuation, you need to choose a city that is inland and with in a couple hours drive. Traffic can drastically make this drive longer and you do not want to be in your vehicle when a storm may hit. Then select a hotel and get their contact information. Have a list of about three hotels, incase one is full. You do not want to be searching for a hotel when you are trying to prepare for an actual evacuation. Also keep this information in the glove box so that it is readily available when you need it. Then map out a couple different routes to each hotel. With all of this done, you can quickly evacuate safely before the threat of a storm.

Find out everything that you should know about hurricanes at http://my-hurricane-guide.info.