If you’re like me, and indeed most people, you tend to have a bit of trouble remembering passwords for your different online accounts. At the very least, you may remember the passwords themselves, but not what they go to. What’s worse is that many account-connected services will auto-lockout when hit with too many wrong passwords. It’s almost like having a lock that breaks and becomes unusable after you try the wrong key.
Thankfully, as many companies and developers have become aware of this common problem, a good number of tools, features, and programs have cropped up over the years to help. We’ll be looking at some of these solutions, from built in features to standalone programs, and comparing the capabilities and convenience of everything from the basic to the advanced.
The most basic form of password management is the built-in password autofill option incorporated into most modern web browsers.
Now, for the most commonly used browsers out there, any new webpage or account that is signed into with a username and password will prompt the browser in question to ask if the user wishes to save that information for easy access later. If the user chooses to accept the prompt, then the browser will automatically enter the correct information to log in to a webpage every time the user accesses said webpage. In addition to this convenience, most browsers also have synchronizing capabilities to some extent, and as such can log a user in and provide usernames and passwords for the user’s accounts, even on a computer that wasn’t originally used to save the password, so long as the user is logged into the browser itself.
However, this method has its disadvantages. First off, the very fact that the information is not itself password protected means that anyone with access to your computer, or one of the computers you are signed into with that browser, can access any of your accounts without having to directly know the information required to do so. Besides this, the feature itself is usually not very easy to control. Once a password is saved, some browsers require you to go through a mess of menus and interfaces to manage or remove this type of saved information, and some don’t let you pick and choose, requiring you to remove all of the browser’s data, even down to your history and your bookmarks, in order to get rid of a saved password. For another thing, the browser’s password saving is obviously limited to only things you can open in said browser, and will not be effective on applications loaded onto your computer such as Adobe Creative Cloud, QuickBooks, ACT!, etc.
The next step up from this form of credential management are tools like Norton’s Identity Safe.
Identity Safe is a free program provided by Norton, and is frequently bundled with their antivirus package, making it one of the more commonly seen options on this list. Although it has some of the same limitations as the browsers’ integrated options, it definitely surpasses them in a few key areas. For one thing, it protects your many passwords with a master password, which is immediately more secure than browser-stored passwords. It still stays synchronized across different computers and devices since it is cloud based, meaning wherever you go, your passwords are just a log in away. It has an account and password manager for deleting or altering login data for different websites and specific accounts should they change or become out of date. It can also conveniently import existing passwords and account information from a web browser of your choice, so upon setting it up it is not necessary to go through and re-enter every piece of information you already have stored. It can also remember multiple logins for the same site, should you have multiple accounts.
Unfortunately, it still faces certain disadvantages, just like the options listed above. For one thing, Identity Safe only works, once again, on webpages. It has no support for logging into applications outside of a web browser. It also is not as secure as many would like, as all those passwords you have stored could be the most secure in the world, but that wouldn’t protect you if someone were to guess your master password. Beyond this, it also reportedly has trouble with identifying certain web pages that it should save the passwords for, but doesn’t. All in all, it’s a good option for the fact that it’s free, and it’s more secure than not, but it still has its disadvantages.
If you are looking for essentially the last word in secure passwords, look no further than products such as LastPass and Roboform.
Both programs rectify every weakness seen in the previous options, and include every feature already seen. However, both add the ability to generate large, randomized, and complex passwords. Both also work on external applications as well as webpages. both allow for numerous different form autofills and account logins for as many websites and applications as you wish as well. Security wise, both are heavily encrypted and virtually impossible to breach, as well as having the capability to set up a two step-authentication, which is a method of logging in that requires more than one password or method. In fact, the user has a good deal of options for authentication methods, even down to their fingerprints if the device has a fingerprint reader.
All in all, you cannot get more secure than these. Their convenience parallels their effectiveness, removing any real difficulty in choosing or managing what information is to be protected by these applications. In this day of identity theft and cyber crime, it is all the more important to remain vigilant and well guarded online.
For many parents out there, keeping a watchful eye on the types of content their children are exposed to online is an order of high priority. To reflect the importance of this task, both Microsoft and Apple have stepped up to the plate with their own parental controls systems built right into the latest versions of Windows and Mac OS.
In the case of Microsoft, the parental control system for Windows 10 has been improved and revised somewhat from previous iterations, and is now controlled primarily through the Microsoft Accounts. Parents will set up an account for their children, and add it to their “Family”, which is a sort of administered account group. Special steps are taken to ensure the account is properly classified, allowing parents to provide the right level of protection based on the child’s age range, among other factors.
The “Child” account, once set up, is registered under the “Parent” account’s contact information for recovery purposes, just in case the account gets hacked or the password is forgotten. The parent also has the option to receive weekly activity reports regarding what the child has been up to, what sites they’ve visited, etc.
By selecting the “Manage Family Settings Online” option under the “Accounts” and “Family” settings menu, parents will be redirected to a webpage that will allow them to disallow access to inappropriate websites, as well as restricting specific undesirable, but not explicitly “Inappropriate”, websites from access. Beyond websites, the control system can also limit applications and games to specific age ranges and rating levels, or similarly, on a subject by subject basis.
In addition to Application access controls, the control panel also has the capability of limiting access to the computers during specific times, and even has functionality for restricting the total time on the computer for a given day to a specific number of hours. These types of settings are geared toward enforcing bed times and keeping kids from spending too long on the computer on school days and the like.
For Apple, setting parental controls is similarly simple, but there are a few differences. To start parental controls, the parent must obviously choose or add a child account. However, in this case, the “Managed” account does not necessarily have to be an online account, but can instead be localized to only that computer in particular.
Once the parental control system is enabled and one or more managed accounts are chosen, parents have control over many of the factors their Windows counterparts do. These include setting which applications can be used, what websites can be accessed, and the time during which that user can log in.
Beyond a blanket filter of websites the computer deems objectionable, the parent can customize what they don’t want the child to see, allowing certain websites to be blocked or allowed in particular. Alternatively, it can act with a whitelist instead, blocking every website except the websites provided on the list.
In addition to this, Mac users can also affect control over what items can be purchased in the different app stores available, as well as who the user can email or have contact with.
All in all, both systems have their merits, and with keeping children safe on the internet, parental controls have come a long way.
For many years, the vast majority of users on the internet have mostly used one or two internet browsers: Internet Explorer or Safari. Those options were always laid out as plainly as the platform they were built on, being Windows or Mac OS, respectively. However, around 2010, that started to change. With the major performance issues of the now-defunct Internet Explorer 10, and the lack of features or real change presented by Safari, more and more users began looking toward alternative web browsers.
We’ll be going over some of those options, and why you should (or shouldn’t!) make a switch, depending on your tastes.
Mainstream Web Browsers
Microsoft Internet Explorer
First off, we have the most historically widely-used internet browser, the mainstay of Windows, and probably one of the longest-running ones on this list, Internet Explorer 11. Because of its long history, it also tends to be compatible with a lot of commercial sites, which tend to be slow to change or update. This makes it a very important asset for corporations and enterprises, especially those whose size make major system changes cost or time prohibitive.
However, Internet Explorer still suffers from a bit of instability when viewing certain content, and has been known to become sluggish or unresponsive in some situations. Also, being one of the historically most popular browsers has made it a target, in the past and present, of malware and adware attacks. Older versions are probably the most vulnerable, so especially for those running 10 and prior, which are no longer supported by Microsoft, it becomes very important to upgrade or, barring that, switch to another alternative.
Apple Safari
Next up, we have Safari. Apple’s mainstay internet browser has shown a long history, and like IE has shown considerably wide compatibility with many websites, whether they were made yesterday or fifteen years ago. Safari has also been shown to be more stable than Internet Explorer, and barring the occasional mishap, has had a very strong record of good performance and good security. With the recent integration of Siri, it has also entered the same smart browsing space as Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. Its exclusive presence on the Mac and iOS operating systems makes obtaining and using it prohibitive to anyone not owning an Apple-branded product, but for those that do, it remains a good option.
Naturally though, there’s no such thing as a perfect product, and in a number of places Apple’s Safari web browser falls short. For example, synchronizing settings, bookmarks, and the like is not possible, except between Apple devices. Being so restricted to exactly one brand of products means cross-compatibility is non-existent, and if you find yourself using a Windows, Android, or Chrome OS device (which tend to be far more commonly available), you will have no access to the data on your Safari browser. This was somewhat excusable in the case of Internet Explorer due to its widespread availability, as well as the ability of most other browsers to import settings and favorites from it on request. Even Mac users have the capability of running Internet Explorer via Bootcamp or Virtual Machine software like Parallels, but on such a closed platform, having no presence on other systems is inconvenient.
As far as both Microsoft and Apple’s original offerings go, both offer strong compatibility, good performance, and a simple interface. However, the lack of any real customization or the lack of a centralized location to get a decent selection of addons or extensions leaves them feeling bland and somewhat limited. As mentioned before as well, being the “original” essentially paints a target on your back in regards to security breaches and annoying or less than useful toolbars and hijackers looking to hit the widest number of potential victims.
Alternative Web Browsers
Google Chrome
Chrome has a lot of things going for it, and a lot of the changes Google has made have been pretty beneficial. First off, Chrome, especially when it first came out, was the fastest web browser around. Since its inception, it has also expanded to every platform imaginable, and can be used on Windows, Android, Mac OS, iOS, and even Linux. It also takes advantage of its cross-compatibility with its synchronizing capabilities. If you are reading an article on your Android phone, you can pick it up on your iPad or Windows PC, or any other device for that matter, right where you were. If you save a bookmark, add an extension, or save login details for a website, you will find that Chrome will have them handy on whatever device you use. Its connection to everything Google also gives it the interesting ability to allow for voice searches using “Google Now”, in which users can actually talk to the web browser to get answers on different subjects and perform searches. Chrome also has a massive library of extensions, from ad blockers to productivity tools, as well as a huge selection of themes, designs, and other tweaks to personalize it how you see fit.
Once again however, this is not to say Chrome is perfect. Unfortunately, since its now been on top in popularity for a few years, it suffers from the same targeted bloat and malicious software that the previous options have, and its extensibility has also amplified the problem to a degree, causing many Chrome users to unwittingly install such software alongside seemingly benign programs. It also seems that every piece of adware these days has some sort of hijacker or toolbar forcing victims to be annoyingly revisited by such content. Besides this, Chrome has also started picking up a bit of a flaw in its design in more recent versions. It has become very memory demanding, and although it still runs well on higher-end systems, lower-end or older hardware will suffer considerably from its hunger for more and more resources.
Whereas Google Chrome is something of a newcomer to the field of alternative web browsers, there are a couple that have persisted for much longer. One such example is Mozilla’s Firefox web browser.
Mozilla Firefox
Firefox is a rather interesting animal in that it stands out from the pack when it comes to a different emphasis on a few of its key features, and has historically been one of the first to develop or adopt a lot of capabilities we take for granted today. Every browser worth its bits these days has tabbed browsing, which is the ability to have multiple pages open simultaneously within the same web browser. Although so many use this feature in the present day, Firefox was the first, and it still has the most refined tab experience. It allows users to efficiently group multiple tabs into organized groups relating to certain subjects, almost akin to how one might organize a set of paper documents in a file folder. Another development is the smart location bar, which allows users to find webpages and information they frequently access or have recently visited simply by typing a related term or even a few letters into the address bar. Besides it features, however, Firefox has probably the greatest emphasis in the group on privacy and security, and tends to be the least vulnerable to phishing attacks looking to steal user information, and even goes so far as to actively block sites that it detects are dangerous or misleading. Firefox seems to focus a lot in areas different from the other browsers here, and to further fill that idea, it has shown to be the most lightweight web browser around – using about half the average memory of Chrome and significantly less than any of the aforementioned options.
Where Firefox excels in some ways over other options, it also has some weaknesses in comparison. Partially as a caveat to its low memory usage, Firefox has one of the slowest startup times on this list, and does not reload recently closed pages or tabs nearly as quickly as some others. In addition to this, with how its (admittedly plentiful) addons work, running multiple instances of Firefox or mutliple addons can cause a significant slowdown or instability. Finally, it is still somewhat less compatible with some websites than other options, and it can be almost overprotective in some cases, occasionally blocking perfectly legitimate websites or services it believes are harmful in some way.
Opera Chromium
Over the years, Opera has accumulated quite a troupe of interesting capabilities, most of which have remained to the present day. First and foremost, there’s Opera Turbo: a function that compresses website data before sending it, decompressing it on arrival. This provides the benefit of loading pages more quickly on a slow internet connection, as well as saving data on a metered or limited internet connection, for example on airline flights or with mobile hotspots and smartphone networks. Furthering the idea of getting to the pages you want quickly, Opera also has a feature called “Speed Dial”, which, in the same vein as a telephone, is a fully customizable menu which Opera opens to by default that can store links to frequently used or important websites.
There are also a variety of other handy features built right into the web browser, many of which often exist as dedicated programs elsewhere. For example, it has a built in Email client which can handle multiple accounts, an RSS reader, a note manager similar to Evernote, and even a Torrent downloading client. Other minor features involve the ability to preview tabs by hovering over them, reload webpages automatically on a set schedule (for those bloggers and bidders out there), and control common browser functions (Back, Forward, Refresh, New Tab, Etc.) with mouse gestures. It’s also built on Chromium just like Google Chrome, but it lacks a lot of the vulnerability to bloat with a tighter sense of security and, partially thanks to its uncommonness, much less of a focus by malicious software writers. It also manages to be one of the lightest on memory usage, trailing only behind Firefox on its lack of resource demand.
Opera is an interesting project in that it rectifies a lot of the flaws in some of the other browsers on this list, but it doesn’t particularly excel at any one thing. It’s features are numerous and different, and it comes with a lot of capabilities pre-packaged, but also because of its uncommonness, it doesn’t have a strong following in the extension development community. On the performance side, it doesn’t really stand out from the others either. It’s not the fastest, nor the lightest-weight, nor the most secure, nor the most extensible, nor even the most widely compatible browser on this list. It gets good scores on average where a lot of the others will flop in at least one area, but it never tops the charts. As they say: jack of all trades, master of none.
Microsoft Edge
But wait! You didn’t mention this browser under the mainstream browsers section. It’s a Microsoft product, and it’s meant to replace Internet Explorer! Doesn’t that automatically make it a mainstream browser?
Well… Not quite. Microsoft Edge may be the “powerful new web browser” built from the ground up to serve as the heir apparent to Internet Explorer, but it’s not quite mainstream yet. For one thing, Edge was in experimental stages as early as six months ago. All things considered, it’s very young. Secondly, it is not backwards compatible with versions of Windows before Windows 10. That’s right, it’s a Windows 10 exclusive. However, that doesn’t mean it should be discounted. In fact, if you’ve bought a computer in the last few months, you more than likely have Edge already, and if your current computer is from within the last six years, you probably have the chance to get Windows 10 for free. But this isn’t news, as everyone has seen the upgrade option at some point or another.
Regarding Edge though, it definitely lives up to the hype regarding its performance over Internet Explorer. Pages load faster, its more secure, it launches more quickly, and it is designed more intelligently. From my article regarding changes in Windows 10, “It has a very clean aesthetic, and most of the menus and settings are laid out in a very straight forward manner. In terms of integration, it works quite well with Cortana, allowing her to learn about the user’s needs over time, as well as allowing her to assist you and carry out functions within the browser.” It also has the unique feature of allowing users to capture entire web pages, even space outside the boundary of the screen (which alone functions better than any screenshot software I’ve ever seen), and write on them or edit them for collaborative projects or presentations. It also appears to be far less vulnerable to intrusion or exploitation than most browsers currently, and it has solid security.
It uses a good deal of memory, but it actually relinquishes it when closing tabs much better than Google Chrome seems to want to, and that’s alright with it being part of only the latest iteration of Windows. It doesn’t have support for extensions at the present time, but it’s planning on having them in the future. It’s still somewhat buggy, though, and that’s its greatest weakness: its age. Tabs don’t always close, some websites don’t display completely, and occasionally it lags for a second or so when loading new webpages. However, it’s solid otherwise and should improve on its deficiencies in time. Remember when I said that Microsoft Edge is Internet Explorer’s “heir apparent”? It hasn’t deposed Internet Explorer or anything. IE is still present, even in Windows 10, for “compatibility purposes”. This simply means that Microsoft acknowledges that Edge is not yet fully matured, and some things might not yet work with it. For those things that don’t, users have something to fall back on.
For the past 20 years or so, websites and applications across the world have relied on platforms such as Shockwave, Java, Flash, and Silverlight to show everything from video games to interactive graphics and financial graphs. Although many have declined in use over the past decade, most of the computers in the world still run Java or Flash Player, but the vast majority of people don’t know what either of them are for, only that they might be “important”. For this reason, it is important to understand more about Flash and Java updates.
Unfortunately, the almost universal adoption of these two programs opens up an easy target for scammers looking to steal user information or fool people into installing less than legitimate programs on their computers. The weakness comes from both sides in the form of updates for Flash,
as well as Java.
As far as the first group is concerned, their objective is to hit people who have not updated in a while, and who still have outdated versions of either program, in attempts to exploit glitches or chinks in the program to their advantage. This is usually with the intention of stealing valuable information such as credit card or social security numbers, online banking logins, et cetera. For this group the best defense is to always stay up to date and never open any emails from senders you don’t recognize. Frequently, links or attachments to any such exploits are sent via email in a message that may seem completely innocuous.
Now, this brings us to group two. Group two relies on the fact that most people have Flash and Java, and most people wish to keep them up to date, and so disguises their malicious or unwanted software as Flash or Java in order to trick people into downloading them. This method is typically more prevalent than the first, and ironically takes advantage of people’s fears concerning not being up to date and protected. More often than not, these types of illegitimate “updates” are shoehorned over webpages in the form of popups such as the one below.
The average person might see this and choose to download the “update”, believing it to be to their benefit. However, at the very least, the resulting program will be annoying, and at the very worst, dangerous to your security. The best defense against these types of attacks is to never download anything from a popup, and to always take careful notice of details in the popup itself. Ask yourself, “does this look legitimate?” Comparing the two Flash “updates” above, we see that the bottom one has several tells that indicate it’s not what it says it is. For example, the bottom one lacks any sort of officially licensed Adobe markings or insignias, is filled with jargon intending to sell itself rather than inform users of improvements, has no option to install the update later, and it possesses no End User License Agreement.
All the same, it’s usually best to avoid any sort of popups claiming to be updates or “free downloads” if possible. When you see a popup, even one that seems legitimate, there’s a fool-proof way of telling. Go straight to the developer’s website for the product, whether it be Flash or Java, and you can get the latest version from adobe.com and java.com, respectively.
We all remember the classic Mac Vs. PC advertisements of the late 2000s, where you would see casual “I’m a Mac” asking “I’m a PC” about all of his many problems. PC would then go on an awkward tirade about his glaring flaws and his “this just represents the status quo when you’re a PC” mentality. With an incredulous look on his face, Mac proceeded to recapitulate how “woe is you” PC’s existence was, and then outline a series of ways in which Mac doesn’t experience this problem or that. Of the many claims made therein, one huge drawing point Apple always made sure to underline was the invulnerability of Macs to malware-based threats. Commercial campaigns belonging to the Mac Vs. PC series ended several years ago, and yet many people still assume that Macs are immune to pretty much any threat. The truth is, although a virus by definition typically won’t pose a threat to a Mac, most people tend to mistake a “Virus” for the broader term of “Malware“.
In many cases, malware does not even have to be written for Mac OS to be able to get in. Especially in cases where Java or Flash are involved, nearly any device running either runtime can be vulnerable. Not only that, but many forms of pervasive Adware, which can be just as annoying to deal with, have been designed exclusively for the Mac environment.
When it comes to actual vulnerabilities that can be exploited, both Mac and PC have become increasingly more secure as time has passed, and relatively few major breaches occur compared to years past. However, devices running Mac OS are still just as crippled as those running Windows in probably their greatest vulnerability: You.
Many threats, from online scams, to phishing and identity theft schemes, to malware and trojan horses, are designed with minimal or no intention of breaching or otherwise exploiting a vulnerability in software design. Instead, they aim to trick or convince users of their validity, and then, once they have your unwitting permission, they carry out their purpose, whatever it may be.
Avoiding Malware Threats
At the end of the day, the best defense against malware is a conscientious user. Gone are the days of click and think; the best practice today is to think before you click. Always remember to read what’s on the screen, especially looking for the fine print – and ask yourself when you’re installing something, “Do I need to install this program? What purpose does it serve? Am I getting only what I’m asking for?” If you’re unsure of something, or a program looks fishy, don’t take the risk. Call a professional or your local technician and inquire.
