October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month which is an annual campaign to raise awareness about cyber-security. We live in a world that is more connected than ever before. The Internet touches almost all aspects of everyone’s daily life, whether we realize it or not.

Chris Menard

Password Rules to Follow:

For some reason people have a hard time creating secure passwords. The most likely reason is our brains aren't wired to handle this much detailed information. In 2015, the average number of passwords per person was 90. I find that number to be on the low side. I personally have over 400 passwords.

Let me get back to the issue of creating a secure password.  I recommend your password be:

1. At least 16 characters
2. Contain a combination of numbers, symbols, uppercase letters, lowercase letters
3. Free of repetition, dictionary words, usernames, pronouns, IDs, and any other predefined number or letter sequences.
4. Don't use the same password for every account. 

Example of a good password: 

• Rp5#3@xQ*ZkT@F2!cWu

Examples of bad passwords (people actually use these passwords):

1. 123456
2. password
3. ginger
4. sunshine
5. seinfeld
6. 12345678
7. qwerty
8. football
9. baseball
10. welcome
11. abc123
12. dragon
13. master
14. princess
15. starwars

Below is a tool that tells you how secure your password is. The website is
password.kaspersky.com  If you use the site to test your password, don't type in your real password. I tested one of my Gmail passwords, but changed a few numbers and changed the special characters. Results below.​

My rule about passwords is this. If you can remember it easily, it's probably a bad password. 

Helpful Links:

Menard's blog post on passwords- City of Stockbridge

 

Contact Chris Menard for Microsoft Office training for your company.

Chris Menard

Hidden Valley Park in Henry County - Security needed in Ellenwood park

I've recently started going to Hidden Valley Park with my dogs for walks in July 2015. I live just a few miles away from the Henry County Georgia park but started going to it when I noticed the shaded walking trail. The .25 mile trail is paved and is shaded almost entirely during the summer.

Henry County parks are dog friend. Just a brief description of Hidden Valley park and then I will tell you my issues:

white cup that has been in the same place for 16 days

• 9 baseball fields.
• Senior center when you drive in - not sure if this is part of the park but usually a lot of people at the senior center.
• 4 tennis counts. I checked and all the nets were up and see people playing occasionally on Sunday mornings. 
• 2 pavilions. I've never seen anyone using the pavilions. 
• .25 mile paved walking/running track.  In the summer months in Georgia when it is 90 plus degrees, the shade is wonderful.

Here is my complain I made to the Henry County Commissioner Bruce Holmes on July 15, 2015 via email:

Since July 1, 2015, I have been to the park and specifically the paved walking track on 6 occasions. On those visits, I take my two dogs.  When walking around the track it is littered with trash. I noticed the abundance of trash and took pictures on 7/1.  One thing that stood out was a white styrofoam cup sitting 2 feet from the trail.  Also the restroom by the track were locked.  

After six visits and taking pictures on four of those visits, I figured an email was in order. Just  to be clear the trash was never picked up and the restrooms were never open during my 15 days period of visiting the park. 

What upsets me is how nice the park could be. Close by is Clark Community Park where numerous people go but you can't take your dogs on their walking trail. The trail at Clark Community Park is also mainly in the sun.

I don't understand why Hidden Valley Park's pavilions can't be cleaned and the restrooms opened.  We also need the police to come by. As my wife said, "No way I would walk this path alone." She is right. There was never anyone else around if you look at my photos. It would be very easy for the Henry County police to ride their motorcycles through the trail. It is paved. Maybe it is a safety issue and that is why I don't see anyone else at the park.  

So my suggestions are:

1. Clean up the trash.
2. Open the restrooms.
3. Have the police patrol the trail.

Update - July 17 and July 19, 2015

• July 17th - The Henry County Parks and Recreation department email me and said the restrooms can't be left open due to vandalism.
• July 19th - I called the Henry County police "non-emergency" number when I was at the park. They said they can't do anything about the vandalism and they could not ride their motorcycles through the trail. I've owned a Honda Goldwing and a Honda Valkyrie. I know you can ride a motorcycle through those trails. The trails are paved and free of debris. 

My Recommendations:

1. If you don't have dogs, go to either Clark Community Park in the City of Stockbridge. Clean park with paved walking trail, and restrooms are open. Police patrol the park.  5.9 Miles from Hidden Valley Park
2. If you have dogs, go to Rockdale County's "South Rockdale Community Park". Bike trails, walking, restrooms, horses allowed, and very clean.  

More trash at Hidden Valley Park

Pavilion - Restroom are always locked

No one is at the park - not safe on the trail for females

Another day - no one at the trail

Installing an SSD drive in my seven year old computer - great upgrade

I bought a Dell XPS in 2007. It is now October 2014.  I have never replaced or changed anything in the computer. I noticed that the hard-drive started making strange noises. Not a good sign. After taking a few minutes to boot up, not a good sign either and very annoying, it was slow to respond, to the simplest task like starting Google Chrome or Microsoft Excel.

Computer has 4GB of RAM and no viruses or spyware.  I checked with Avast and Spybot. The hard drive was a 450GB hard-drive was only half full.  The good news is most of my important files and photos were already backed up to:

• Dropbox
• OneDrive
• Google Drive
• External Hard Drive

Two friends said to buy an SSD hard-drive. I pointed out to them that my computer would only support Sata II.  

Samsung Evo 250GB

Decided to take the leap anyway and bought a Samsung 840 Evo 250GB for $138 with tax. I was doing a clean install meaning I wasn't transferring my old hard-drive to the new one.  I didn't get the 3.5" to 2.5" case yet.  Wanted to see if I liked the SSD. So the photo above shows the 840 Evo connected. 

I simply shut off the computer, plugged in the SSD where my old hard-drive was, started the machine.  I forgot to put in my Windows 7 Home premium CD, so I opened the CD drive, put in the CD, closed it and restarted the machine. Easy installation.  

Fifteen minutes later, I'm up and running.  No problem at all during Windows installation. Download Windows 7 Service Pack 1 with no problem.

I also added:

1. Chrome
2. FireFox
3. Camtasia Studio - which runs a lot faster
4. Adobe Reader XI
5. Irfanview
6. Dell laser color printer

I have several more programs to add but will add them later.

When I click on Start, Restart, it takes 34 seconds to shutdown, restart, type in my password, and I'm ready to go again. Amazing! If the computer is already shut down, the start up time is significantly less.  If I had Sata III, I'm sure this would be faster. 

SSD vs HDD (new hard-drive vs. old hard-drive)

Performance - This was really the key for me. I don't restart my computer enough to justify buying an SSD. What I was looking for was a significance performance increase. I frequently have to edit a really huge excel file (50MB). It took forever (35 to 60 seconds) on my old hard drive to save and the same time on a three year old computer with 2GB of RAM and with a HDD hard-drive.  On the newly upgraded seven year old computer with the SSD hard-drive, the edits happen in under five seconds! No more waiting. I was shocked.    

So if you have a old computer with 4GB of RAM, even if it only supports SATA II, and are thinking about getting an SSD, I recommend you invest in one.

Bottom line: for a computer purchased in 2007, this was a shockingly great upgrade for $138.

Chris Menard, Microsoft Office Master Instructor and Mia