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Save Money!
Mention Mid-Atlantic Computer Solutions to a friend and get a 1 hour
discount on your next service visit. Make sure to tell them to
mention your name! If they agree to an inital (no charge) visit with
MACS, we'll give you the discount!
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Flexible Leasing Options
Lease Your New Power Mac G5
AFS Commercial Credit has provided innovative financing solutions
to thousands of businesses. Whether you need short- or longer-term
financing, they'll tailor a lease just for you. With AFS Commercial
Credit, you can combine hardware, software, services, and non-Apple
products to meet your technology plan, with a payment that meets your
budget.
Come in today to explore your options.
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Exposé Shortcuts, Part One
Exposé offers keyboard shortcuts that better organize your
desktop and allow you to easily shift between open programs.
Press Command+Tab and icons for all your open programs
will appear highlighted on screen. Continue to hold the command key
down and Press Tab until your program is selected.
F9 shrinks your open windows so that you can see every open
window. Click the window you want to bring it forward. If you have
more than one window open in the same application - Safari, for
instance - Press F10 to highlight all the windows open
for that program. To hide all windows and return to the desktop,
Press F11.
Tips and Tricks courtesy of Magnet Media, producers of the award-winning
Digital Media Training SeriesTM
and Zoom In, covering the most popular software for
creative people. For special discounts and more information,
click here.
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Keychain Access
Keychain in Mac OS X Tiger allows you to secure
your password protected programs while speeding up the log-in
process. Program Keychain to plug in passwords when prompted.
First, open the Applications folder and double click
Utilities. Next, open Keychain Access and double-click
the account you want to set. Now, click the
Access Control heading and
select Confirm Before Allowing Access. Activate
Ask For Keychain Password. This will automatically reset that
account to the general log-on password for your computer. Click
Save and enter your log-on password when the dialogue box
appears. Choose Always Allow and you're through. Please
remember that this streamlined log-on procedure will work only on
your computer.
Tips and Tricks courtesy of Magnet Media, producers of the award-winning
Digital Media Training SeriesTM
and Zoom In, covering the most popular software for
creative people. For special discounts and more information,
click here.
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Get Info:Learn More AboutApple Cinema Displays.
No matter what you do with your Mac, your display size affects
your productivity-particularly if you work with multi-page documents
or applications with palettes and menus.
If you're thinking about making a change, Apple offers Cinema
Displays in 20", 23", and 30" sizes. But there's more to this story
than just dimensions. In this free Apple technology report, find out
why Apple Cinema Displays are designed especially for the Macintosh
user.
Click here to download.
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Cyber Security Tip ST04-002: Choosing and Protecting Passwords
Passwords are a common form of authentication and are often the only
barrier between a user and your personal information. There are
several programs attackers can use to help guess or "crack"
passwords, but by choosing good passwords and keeping them
confidential, you can make it more difficult for an unauthorized
person to access your information.
Why do you need a password?
Think about the number of PIN numbers, passwords, or passphrases
you use every day: getting money from the ATM or using your debit
card in a store, logging on to your computer or email, signing in to
an online bank account or shopping cart...the list seems to just keep
getting longer. Keeping track of all of the number, letter, and word
combinations may be frustrating at times, and maybe you've wondered
if all of the fuss is worth it. After all, what attacker cares about
your personal email account, right? Or why would someone bother with
your practically empty bank account when there are others with much
more money? Often, an attack is not specifically about your account
but about using the access to your information to launch a larger
attack. And while having someone gain access to your personal email
might not seem like much more than an inconvenience and threat to
your privacy, think of the implications of an attacker gaining access
to your social security number or your medical records.
One of the best ways to protect information or physical property
is to ensure that only authorized people have access to it. Verifying
that someone is the person they claim to be is the next step, and
this authentication process is even more important, and more
difficult, in the cyber world. Passwords are the most common means of
authentication, but if you don't choose good passwords or keep them
confidential, they're almost as ineffective as not having any
password at all. Many systems and services have been successfully
broken into due to the use of insecure and inadequate passwords, and
some viruses and worms have exploited systems by guessing weak
passwords.
How do you choose a good password?
Most people use passwords that are based on personal information
and are easy to remember. However, that also makes it easier for an
attacker to guess or "crack" them. Consider a four-digit PIN number.
Is yours a combination of the month, day, or year of your birthday?
Or the last four digits of your social security number? Or your
address or phone number? Think about how easily it is to find this
information out about somebody. What about your email password-is it
a word that can be found in the dictionary? If so, it may be
susceptible to "dictionary" attacks, which attempt to guess passwords
based on words in the dictionary.
Although intentionally misspelling a word ("daytt" instead of
"date") may offer some protection against dictionary attacks, an even
better method is to rely on a series of words and use memory
techniques, or mnemonics, to help you remember how to decode it. For
example, instead of the password "hoops," use "IlTpbb" for "[I]
[l]ike [T]o [p]lay [b]asket[b]all." Using both lowercase and capital
letters adds another layer of obscurity. Your best defense, though,
is to use a combination of numbers, special characters, and both
lowercase and capital letters. Change the same example we used above
to "Il!2pBb." and see how much more complicated it has become just by
adding numbers and special characters.
Don't assume that now that you've developed a strong password you
should use it for every system or program you log into. If an
attacker does guess it, he would have access to all of your accounts.
You should use these techniques to develop unique passwords for each
of your accounts.
Here is a review of tactics to use when choosing a password:
* Don't use passwords that are based on personal information
that can be easily accessed or guessed
* Don't use words that can be found in any dictionary of any
language
* Develop a mnemonic for remembering complex passwords
* Use both lowercase and capital letters
* Use a combination of letters, numbers, and special
characters
* Use different passwords on different systems
How can you protect your password?
Now that you've chosen a password that's difficult to guess, you
have to make sure not to leave it someplace for people to find.
Writing it down and leaving it in your desk, next to your computer,
or, worse, taped to your computer, is just making it easy for someone
who has physical access to your office. Don't tell anyone your
passwords, and watch for attackers trying to trick you through phone
calls or email messages requesting that you reveal your passwords.
If your Internet service provider (ISP) offers choices of
authentication systems, look for ones that use Kerberos,
challenge/response, or public key encryption rather than simple
passwords (see Understanding ISPs and Supplementing Passwords for
more information). Consider challenging service providers who only
use passwords to adopt more secure methods.
Also, many programs offer the option of "remembering" your
password, but these programs have varying degrees of security
protecting that information. Some programs, such as email clients,
store the information in clear text in a file on your computer. This
means that anyone with access to your computer can discover all of
your passwords and can gain access to your information. For this
reason, always remember to log out when you are using a public
computer (at the library, an Internet cafe, or even a shared computer
at your office). Other programs, such as Apple's Keychain and Palm's
Secure Desktop, use strong encryption to protect the information.
These types of programs may be viable options for managing your
passwords if you find you have too many to remember.
There's no guarantee that these techniques will prevent an
attacker from learning your password, but they will make it more
difficult.
Authors: Mindi McDowell, Jason Rafail, Shawn Hernan
Copyright 2004 Carnegie Mellon University.
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Cyber Security Tip ST04-003: Good Security Habits
Good Security Habits
There are some simple habits you can adopt that, if performed
consistently, may dramatically reduce the chances that the
information on your computer will be lost or corrupted.
How can you minimize the access other people have to your
information?
You may be able to easily identify people who could, legitimately
or not, gain physical access to your computer--family members,
roommates, co-workers, members of a cleaning crew, and maybe others.
Identifying the people who could gain remote access to your computer
becomes much more difficult. As long as you have a computer and
connect it to a network, you are vulnerable to someone or something
else accessing or corrupting your information; however, you can
develop habits that make it more difficult.
* Lock your computer when you are away from it. Even if you only
step away from your computer for a few minutes, it's enough time for
someone else to destroy or corrupt your information. Locking your
computer prevents another person from being able to simply sit down
at your computer and access all of your information.
* Disconnect your computer from the Internet when you aren't
using it. The development of technologies such as DSL and cable
modems have made it possible for users to be online all the time, but
this convenience comes with risks. The likelihood that attackers or
viruses scanning the network for available computers will target your
computer becomes much higher if your computer is always connected.
Depending on what method you use to connect to the Internet,
disconnecting may mean ending a dial-up connection, turning off your
computer or modem, or disconnecting cables.
* Evaluate your security settings. Most software, including
browsers and email programs, offers a variety of features that you
can tailor to meet your needs and requirements. Enabling certain
features to increase convenience or functionality may leave you more
vulnerable to being attacked. It is important to examine the
settings, particularly the security settings, and select options that
meet your needs without putting you at increased risk. If you install
a patch or a new version of the software, or if you hear of something
that might affect your settings, reevaluate your settings to make
sure they are still appropriate (see Understanding Patches,
Safeguarding Your Data, and Evaluating Your Web Browser's Security
Settings for more information).
What other steps can you take?
Sometimes the threats to your information aren't from other
people but from natural or technological causes. Although there is no
way to control or prevent these problems, you can prepare for them
and try to minimize the damage.
* Protect your computer against power surges. Aside from
providing outlets to plug in your computer and all of its
peripherals, some power strips protect your computer against power
surges. Many power strips now advertise compensation if they do not
effectively protect your computer. During a lightning storm or
construction work that increases the odds of power surges, consider
shutting your computer down and unplugging it from all power sources.
Power strips alone will not protect you from power outages, but there
are products that do offer an uninterruptible power supply when there
are power surges or outages.
* Back up all of your data. Whether or not you take steps to
protect yourself, there will always be a possibility that something
will happen to destroy your data. You have probably already
experienced this at least once-- losing one or more files due to an
accident, a virus or worm, a natural event, or a problem with your
equipment. Regularly backing up your data on a CD or network reduces
the stress and other negative consequences that result from losing
important information (see Real-World Warnings Keep You Safe Online
for more information). Determining how often to back up your data is
a personal decision. If you are constantly adding or changing data,
you may find weekly backups to be the best alternative; if your
content rarely changes, you may decide that your backups do not need
to be as frequent. You don't need to back up software that you own on
CD-ROM or DVD-ROM--you can reinstall the software from the original
media if necessary.
_________________________________________________________________
Both the National Cyber Security Alliance and US-CERT have
identified this topic as one of the top tips for home users.
_________________________________________________________________
Authors: Mindi McDowell, Allen Householder
_________________________________________________________________
Produced 2007 by US-CERT, a government organization.
Terms of use
This document can also be found at
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Mac HelpMate
Mid-Atlantic Computer Solutions is proud to introduce Mac HelpMate,
which allows us to instantly respond to your questions or concerns,
as long as you have access to the Internet. Mac HelpMate allows us to
see your screen no configuration, and it's highly encrypted and
secure.
Zero-configuration means that Mac HelpMate requires no
manipulation of router settings or port forwarding; you do not even
need to know the IP address of your Mac or router. All you need is
Mac HelpMate, an Internet connection, and the ability to click a
single button. This means you can spend more time working and not
waiting for a technician to visit, and even if you are on the move
(at Starbucks or a hotel), Mac HelpMate will let us connect to you
from almost anywhere. It's magic.
That means that whether you are doing business in China or
sitting at the local Starbuck's coffeeshop, you are within our
service area. As long as you're able to connect to the Internet, our
help desk is open for business.
Get it here:
http://www.4macsolutions.com/MacHelpMate.zip
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Included on every new MacBook and MacBook Pro.
Built-in iSight Camera
A built-in iSight video camera and integrated microphone give you
everything you need to participate in video chats-with no additional
costs and no complicated configuration. Just open iChat AV, click the
video icon to choose a friend or family member, and start your
conversation. Or shoot fun pictures, complete with cool effects, with
the built-in iSight and using included Photo Booth software.
Mac OS X "Tiger"
Preinstalled on every new Macbook and Mac Book Pro is the latest
release of Mac OS X featuring Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat AV,
Safari, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, DVD Player and more.
iLife '06
iLife '06 includes iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, GarageBand, iWeb, and
iTunes, the latest tools available for creating, organizing, and
editing digital media-giving you more ways than ever to enjoy your
digital life when you're on the move.
iWeb, part of iLife '06 shown on a MacBook.
Front Row
Experience Front Row software with the simple-to-use Apple Remote
so you can access and control your digital media from across the
room. Ideal for watching music videos, TV shows, and movies, or
showing off your latest iPhoto album.
Front Row shown on a MacBook Pro.
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