Cloud Storage - A Good Thing or A Not So Good Thing?

Many of us have seen the ads all over the internet about Cloud Storage.  So what is it?  Is it a good thing or a bad thing?  According to Wikipedia.org:  Cloud storage is a model of data storage in which the digital data is stored in logical pools, the physical storage spans multiple servers (and often locations), and the physical environment is typically owned and managed by a hosting company. These cloud storage providers are responsible for keeping the data available and accessible, and the physical environment protected and running. People and organizations buy or lease storage capacity from the providers to store user, organization, or application data.  Cloud storage services may be accessed through a co-located cloud computer service, a web service application programming interface  (API) or by applications that utilize the API, such as cloud desktop storage, a cloud storage gateway or Web-based content management systems.

You may have seen applications on your devices that offer Free-Storage. This is the hosts way of letting us use it and experiment with it to see if we like it. A lot of these host companies give us up to 5 to 8GB of Free-Storage, which is generous.  There are many video's that can show you how to use cloud storage and how to add your files to it. Which help to make things a lot easier.  Now altho' I am all for technology we have to keep in mind that IF you place all of your files, such as, photo's, documents, video's etc to cloud-storage, you could be at risk of something going wrong.  Where your personal information could get exposed all over the internet.  Don't worry, the chances of this happening is very slim with the security programs in place to protect your priceless information.  But nothing is full proof and you need to take precautions against that happening.  For instance if you have sensitive photo's, video's or documents, it may serve you better and be more secure for you to load them onto a flash-stick or disc and not use a cloud storage app.  You can also use cloud storage for video games that normally take up a lot of space on your system when downloaded.

But if you decide to use cloud storage you can load other files that are not as personal or as valuable.  When you do this, you open up space and make more room on your hard drive.  As an additional action you want to delete any temp. files, browsing history or any files that are of no use to you. These files tend to build up behind the scenes and just sit there and take up valuable space which in turn can make your computer run slow, draggy and eventually it will prevent your computer from running at its peak performance. So dump those, run a defrag on your system and restart your computer. This way any files or folders that you need to have on your computer or want to keep on your computer will be filed close together in the system and there won't be pockets here and there in your system which causes your computer to run slower. Check out How-To video's on what the benefits of defragging your system has. You can find it on youtube.

     

                                                                                                                                                                                

     

Copyright(c)2016.Cloud Storage-A Good Thing or A Not So Good Thing? Written by Sherrie Vitello with Excerpts from Wikipedia.org. All Rights Reserved.

Counterfeit Downloads, Misleading Applications - How Can You Be Safe?

What is a misleading application?

Misleading applications typically strike people when they are surfing the web. There is not a single type of website where these applications are found, but they are more common from sites offering pirated goods and adult content, as well as blogs and forums. They can even sneak into advertisements on legitimate sites, usually through banner ads at the top of Web pages. In order to get installed onto a system, a person is usually either tricked into downloading the program (thinking it’s something else) or a small program called a "Downloader" is installed by the attacker through an un-patched flaw in the person’s web browser. This is often known as a "drive-by" install.

Misleading applications often are not the first unwanted program to land on a person’s system. A Downloader, such as Trojan.Zlob or Downloader.MisleadApp, infect the system first and then download the misleading application to the computer. Once the downloaded application is installed and ready, the malware that installed it will inform the user that they are infected with a new, previously unknown threat. This can be done through a "balloon message" that appears in the lower right-hand side of the system. The misleading application will then present itself and either pretend to download or run a scan of the system.

The scan results produced by the misleading application may be entirely false or may include some real issues affecting the system, but will always exaggerate the problems on the system and refuse to fix them until the vendor is paid and a registration key is entered into the program.

Why are they dangerous?

Misleading applications, sometimes called rogue software or rogue anti-virus, like a trojan horse, trick consumers into believing a problem exists on their system. Consumers who trust the messages are tricked into purchasing bogus applications for resolution of the problems they have been duped into believing exist. Misleading applications scam consumers out of money, faking the existence of problems and failing to deliver the protection they promise. They also create a privacy risk as the victim must provide their credit card information to the scammers in order to register the misleading application and solve the supposed problems. The victims of misleading applications have paid for software that does not work, handed their personal information to scammers, and are left with a false sense of security that leads them to potentially greater risks from more aggressive threats. Even if a person catches on to the ruse and does not pay the misleading application vendor, the programs can be notoriously difficult to remove without the proper security software.

What To Do?

Be sure to install a reputable, valid security program on your computer. You can check them out by doing research about them using the internet. Some very reliable and highly recommended security systems should be competent, valid and be a secure security protecton program. Norton/Symantec Security Systems have proactive protection programs against spyware and preventatives for other security risks. Kaspersky with real-time blocking of new and emerging viruses and spyware, McAfee anti-virus and anti-spyware software, Windows Defender anti-virus protection programs and scans. Which are proactive and reliable for internet security. Blocking threats that are more and more common on the internet today. There is even system protection for your smartphones. You can have confidence in knowing your system will be protected. Be especially cautious when clicking on pop-up advertisements—especially ads promoting system security or performance tools that look like a standard Microsoft Windows alert. You can always check with Microsoft Windows if you're not sure and don't click on any links on a suspicious looking email.

Do not accept or open suspicious error dialogs from within the browser!

Purchase security and system performance software from reputable sources by visiting there website instead of clicking on an uncertain link you receive in an email. Keep software and security programs up to date. Although there are many names of misleading applications some of the names of these rogue/suspicious anti spyware programs may go by similar or different names. Thats because the criminals behind these scams are still in business today and have been in business for many years. They have changed their names or reBranded themselves but are running the same rip-off security programs. So buyer... beware!