Is your data secure? Do you know how to stay secure online? Most don't.

Is your personal and banking information secure? Most isn't.

Most of us are weaker and more vulnerable than we think. Take the time to learn the simple things that make a big difference so you're not an easy target. Spend some time at this site learning what exactly you must do to ensure your data security and staying secure online.

A Difference Between Freecreditreport.com and Annualcreditreport.com

Freecreditreport.com

Wow, right after I thought about writing this article, but right before I actually wrote it, just to show you how timely things sometimes are, I finally saw a commercial about freecreditreport.com.  Since then, they’ve become quite popular and with some catchy tunes to sing along with.

Annulacreditreport.com

The real website to get a free credit report is NOT at freecreditreport.com in my humble opinion.  They may just try to upsell you using a portion which may be free or for just a trial period.  The real site that was endorsed by the U.S. government for your free credit report is actually annualcreditreport.com.

I do need to give you some important pointers though when using Annualcreditreport.com:

1. Be sure you click the back button correctly so you can go back and get the other reports from the other sites after you get the first one (of the 3 credit agencies)

2. Realize that one or more of the sites may still play some kind of trick and not give you a report for whatever reason or excuse.

You need to push the issue and get it by following the instructions since you are entitled and should exercise the entitlement, because it was meant to protect the consumer from scams of companies you never asked to do what they do and who have no permission yet get away with it!

Whatever they can get away with, until someone does something about it, they will.  This means, do something about it!

3. Realize that getting a credit report is not the same as opting out for the sake of privacy and reducing mail.  To do that, read my article entitled 5 Highly Effective Ways to Eliminate 80% of the Junk Mail You Get!

4. Know how to protect your privacy, and read up on Identity theft countermeasures.  More on that stuff in the near future.

5.  Keep the data you get secure and organized.  More on that later as well.

Let me know if this article helped you!

5 Highly Effective Ways to Eliminate 80% of Your Junk Mail

Do you get tons of junk mail each week that you hate going through, and throw away most of the time, while despising how many trees it’s killing off, or simply because you have to waste your time going through it?

I have 5 things I’d like to share that will eliminate about 80% of all that junk mail you receive.  That’s a lot!

Here’s how:

1. First, do not fill out anymore sweepstakes or surveys or drawings online or in person where you list your physical address.

2. Ask your financial institutions, insurance company and others whom you get bills from, if you can get only electronic statements.  This takes time but it’s worth doing to stop the junk mail.  Over time, most institutions should provide you with this option and free online account access.  Even a small fee may be worth paying for.

3. OPT OUT.  Contact the Direct Marketing Association (dma.org) and pay them a one time lifetime fee of one dollar (cost at the time of this writing), to take you off of their marketing lists forever.  These lists are sold to advertisers by the DMA, but if you opt out, after about 6-8 weeks you should notice a considerable difference and not receive as many ads anymore.  Notice I sai ad many, instead of 100%.

4. Contact your local post office to opt out of as many local ads as possible.

5. Keep your personal information private and not online.  Otherwise your mail could increase rather than decrease.

And there you have it.  Give it a good 3-4 months, and then let me know if it helped, and if so, how much, such as 20, 30, 40, 50% or more.  This is better than nothing, right?

Tales of Malware and Spyware 2

The Role of Education and Threat-based Awareness if Used Properly

Computer users at home and in organizations, no matter what the organization as long as PCs are used, need to be re-educated on these newer threats, and IT security training should frequently update it’s training content to do so rather than create bureaucratic programs and systems that take years or even months to update, as well as too long to re-certify users.

Malware is Getting Worse

The speed at which we become educated and secure must increase, or one day malware could cripple us as bad or worse than Trojans and viruses, or could even somehow combine to form sophisticated anti-security attack and disable programs that makes machines silently vulnerable all the while stealing data and doing other things, undetected, within the network, or even to the outside or vice-versa.

Rootkits, Botnets and the like

Rootkits, and Botnets that hijack computers like zombies using root level control…is on the rise!  Once We have quite a ways to go to reduce this threat, on personal PCs and on corporate distributed PCs, and for anyone at home who doesn’t use all 3, a firewall, anti-spyware and antivirus, that’s the worst thing they could do.  They remain extremely vulnerable to Identity theft and other things.

People still have an unlocked front door even today?!  Yes!

I know for a fact many don’t even have antivirus, because they don’t take it serious.  They don’t want to pay for it.  they should then go after the free stuff!   I’ve helped fix and secure enough of my friends’ and families’ computers to know that many just remain ignorant in this regard.

I try to educate who I can, and with companies like Microsoft offering such things with auto-updates and alerts, this awareness will at least be know and hopefully dealt with more seriously, rather than ignored.

At least let’s lock the front door, people.  That’s step 1…

Tales of Malware and Spyware 1

I would like to add a few things about malware experiences I’ve had.

I remember coming across some very grossly infected machines that some of my friends have had and could not effectively go to the internet and quarantine them because they had browser hijackers that only went to ad sites.

I highly suggest everyone burns a disc with s few of these programs as well as programs such as Microsoft’s Anti-spyware program, which also proved to be about 4 stars, in my opinion, as well as Microsoft’s malicious software removal tool, the MacAfee Stinger tool and finally Merjin’s anti CWS Trojan tool.

Trojans and Hijackers

The CWS Trojan and hijackers were amongst the most difficult I have tried to remove from infected machines because they somehow multi-replicate and reload at startup, silently, and could run without you knowing it.

What about a Firewall?

It’s good to rely on a firewall other than windows firewall, or even change firewalls once in a while, as a means to catch programs you are not aware of, trying to leave your computer through a port. But firewalls are no panacea.

I’ve even found some of these malware and trojans can hijackers can creep in and disable either features on a firewall of an AV program, which may have happened in the case of Norton described above, or disabled or reset firewall configs to allow it access so it remains silent and unnoticed.

As the malware gets worse, hopefully we’ll have some more industrial strength solutions and corporate solutions in this area, and hopefully they won’t wait too long to do so.  More on this in another post…

Unconventional Thinking Means Thinking Outside The Box 2

How We Can Be Our Own Worst Enemy

This is true in several regards, from preventing ourselves from blogging by being distracted with other things to not achieving our goals because of choices we made due to habits or pet peeves that we can ruin ourselves with!

We can waste our time and energy often spinning our wheels for nothing. In the end, what have we accomplished? We must stop being busybodies thinking we’re accomplishing a lot by staying occupied, and instead actually get something done!

Example = Me - I Waited Too Long to Blog - For Years Actually…

I am writing this from experience people. If you want to Blog, then just blog for goodness sake! Don’t over-plan, don’t go through tons of drafts, don’t just read and read and read about it or think about it. Remember Nike. JUST DO IT! Open up blogger and get going NOW.

What I Learned About Accomplishing My Prime Objective

• Eliminate Distractions !
• Reading is not DOING !
• Planning is not DOING !
• Pin Yourself Down to the Essential Task and GitRDone !
• Eliminate everything not helping your essential task !
• Stop over-complicating things, keep it simple !

How did I learn to keep it simple?

Here are some additional things I learned and the amazing thing is, these are simple bits of advice, but sometimes very difficult to follow…

• Less is better, always !
• When everything is a priority, nothing is a priority !
• DOING is DOING and NOTHING LESS !
• Make the time, because you’ll never find it, truly
• Saying you will do it later or tomorrow = you’ll never do it, trust me

When all else fails and you don’t know what to do, take the action that makes the difference, do what you should be doing NOW! Take action NOW! Do not wait or procrastinate. No ifs, ands or buts, period dot.

Just do it!

10 Predictions for the US Economy and Helpful Advice

Is the US Economy Really Failing?

I say no it’s not failing, but the law of cause and effect has dictated that certain effects or reactions to causes are taking place now, that for a long time have been looming which were delayed but are now coming to a head. To understand the 10 predictions, one must understand the cause.

The Cause Was Financial Overspending and Poor Risk Decisions on Everyone’s Part

First, private citizens got snared into debt by the easy credit lures extended to them. This was possible because companies changed their risk-based decision models to favor extending easier credit and therefore took greater risks trying to make greater gains, fully knowing the level of risk they were taking.

These companies failed investors, who now have lost confidence in these companies based on the companies’ poor financial decisionmaking. This loss in confidence in the market has massive effects, and can creep into other industries and therefore affect the entire economy.

But the cause again was poor risk decisionmaking as well as overspending. This was for things such as conflicts and war, and for other massive spending in other areas continually.

Cause and effect says money eventually dries up when you continue to spend. What’s worse is the national debt and continued increases on that and the interest deficit. Bas enough the debt. Interest only makes it worse.

For people, this overspending was a result of easy credit and the credit card debt that resulted. Also, add the housing market crisis, rise in gas prices, and that’s even worse. Finally, if we see things like double digit inflation and increased unemployment, as well as a weakening dollar, then we will be revisiting the late 1970’s crisis or worse…

So here are 10 predictions for the US Economy based on all of this…

1. We’re headed for a recession and will probably get there Investors will continue to lose confidence and the small steps being taken to easy these losses in confidence are only treating symptoms not providing a cure to the root of the problem as they should be. Will this mean a rise in taxes?

2. Our value of the dollar internationally may drop due to the US economy’s weaker performance.

3. Other international markets will continue to be affected as many industries are tied together and affects on one will have effects on others.

4. Gas prices will artificially go down (probably as emergency reserves are tapped) as a measure to provide relief somewhere so it doesn’t seem like everything is going bad, and to re-stimulate the industries and people and to cut costs and provide some incentive to travel and transport.

5. Banks will offer incentives to get people to be economically active and to try to steer clear of negative things. Debts and payments will be re-negotiable more than before so they get something versus nothing.

6. The Fed will continue to hold or lower interest rates to either steady things out or to stimulate spending a bit.

7. Unemployment will hold steady as long as the above hold steady, though it will probably move up by a percentage or two as companies try to cut costs and make up for losses.

8. Small business entrepreneurship will continue to rise and people grow tired of this whole big business syndrome and want to be self employed and more in control of their financial future. This will help the economy, but not big business, but trust they will find a way to leverage it too.

9. People will not get any happier nor take as many vacations, but instead will get a bit more cynical, and

10. Parties in coming elections will change hands as people do what I call pendulum swinging in an effort to fix problems and issues, following the pattern they’ve always followed.

3 Pieces of Helpful Advice in light of all this

I hate being part of the problem instead of being part of the solution. So in all of this bleakness, I need to offer some hope, some confidence, or worst case some key survival measures you must take to be ok financially, and so we can get out of this mess together.

1. Stop spending so much. Budget yourself carefully. Save what you can. Put your money in a credit union rather than a bank. They will have better offers as banks aren’t doing so well.

2. Stay positive and apply sound principles of thought such as the 80-20 rule and what’s detailed in my simple living blog to help you get through this and to make your life better.

3. Ignore the bleakness, and do something creative to make a difference for your own life. Plan for your future by investing in a small business or entrepreneurial idea such as selling your knowledge on the Internet to make money online so you can truly achieve financial freedom and stop putting your confidence in big business and big government, which 80% of the time never stand up for you, the everyday people!

Thinking and Acting Asymmetrically Part 2

Asymmetry in Warfare

There have been tons of articles done on this, particularly in terns of terrorism and counter terrorism since terrorism is recognized as an asymmetric threat. It’s a threat that is unpredictable and unconventional.

A good example was much like the Vietcong were in Vietnam. So much so in fact that people think the Vietnam war was entirely unconventional when it actually was both conventional and unconventional.

But at least units like the Green Berets back then were promoted to fight them on the same asymmetric terms and turn the tide due to their improved asymmetry which became counter-asymmetry or what they coined COIN (counterinsurgency) or counter-irregular warfare.

To do this the Green Berets followed one precept: Know thy enemy. Understand how they eat, sleep, walk, talk, shoot, how they think, why they think it, what they conclude, what they do, habits, traits, characteristics, and everything else down to a science…become them, in a sense, to know how to counter them that is EXACTLY my point here with why we need to learn to think asymmetrically and unconventionally.

Asymmetry in Thought

Conventional thought stifles creativity and effectiveness against anything asymmetric and unconventional. We must think asymmetrical. This requires re-learning or unlearning some of the rules we were once taught in order to achieve the possibility even, of thinking asymmetrically.

No, this is not brainwashing. It is actually thinking more freely and with an open mind, and therefore not as likely to be brainwashed.

In part two I’ll discuss how we can be More Asymmetrical.

Stay tuned for Thinking and Acting Asymmetrically Part 3

Thinking and Acting Asymmetrically Part 1

Why This Article?

I’m not the first to write on this, but the subject fits my current series of articles. I have been focusing on irregular, unconventional, out-of-the-box thinking lately because it is over-hyped but truly under-done by many.

Symmetry vs Asymmetry - Characteristics To Better Understand This Discussion

It is important to understand what defines both of these concepts in order to better grasp the importance of understanding asymmetry, dealing with it, and even adopting it in order to achieve desired results and/or counter undesired results, and perhaps even predict the otherwise unpredictable.

Symmetry is characterized by these qualities

• To be by regular, predictable
• Apparent or obvious patterns
• Usually not difficult to figure out or anticipate
• Intuitive - common sense
• Conventional - where 80% or more of people are

Asymmetry is characterized by these qualities

• To be irregular, unpredictable
• Unapparent, not obvious, random, no pattern apparent
• Difficult to figure out or anticipate
• Counter-intuitive - uncommon sense
• Unconventional - where 20% or less of people are

Stay tuned for Thinking and Acting Asymmetrically Part 2

Unconventional Thinking Means Thinking Outside The Box

Ever Heard of the Term Unconventional Thinking?

Unconventional is synonymous with unorthodox, or a break from the norm. It’s a break from the mainstream and is unique or special, not something to be despised necessarily.

Unconventional thinkers are not ordinary people, they are extraordinary. It was usually an unconventional thinker who became an inventor or who revolutionized a thought or concept.

Examples of Unconventional Thinkers

• Martin Luther
• William Tyndale
• Albert Einstein
• Thomas Edison
• Abraham Lincoln
• Bruce Lee
• Martin Luther King
• Green Berets
• Rosa Parks
• Morpheus and Neo

What it Means to Think Unconventionally

Unconventional thinking means being able to break free from the constraints of set rules and parameters or conditions. It means to not be caught up or constrained by rules, especially our own.

We follow things pertaining to regs and right and wrong but we are not ruled by them. Instead we master them. They become tools not obstacles. They become second nature or automatic. We change things that are just not right. We pave the way.

In part 2 of Unconventional Thinking Means Thinking Outside The Box…

I’ll talk about who our worst enemy probably is, and what we can do about it, so stay tuned!

How to Learn Strategy - Do This First!

What is the first and most important step to learning strategy?

Read. Read plenty. Read the right material. Familiarize yourself with the concepts of strategy by reading the following

• Read Sun-Tzu’s book The Art of War by Thomas Cleary, by far the best translation of this work

• Read the Bible. There are many accounts of strategy and points of wisdom that you can find, and many famous sayings of today originated in the Bible

• Read compilations of wise quotes and words of wisdom from sources such as the website above and from books such as the books of quotations

• Read Confucius (The Analects) and his wisdom and sayings

Also, talk to those who know strategy based on personal experience so you are not just looking for book knowledge. Talk to those who have “been and done”…volunteer at the veterans groups to find some military strategists like at the VFW or American Legion

Avoid those who are only poseurs and “all talk”

Your Own Experience is Important

In end effect, learning strategy is valuable only if it’s applied to your life in a useful and meaningful way. Book knowledge and learning from others teaches you somewhat but real learning comes only from your personal experiences.

You Must Start Somewhere

Start by reading as mentioned, it’s a very necessary first step to learning strategy.