Home Security and passwords

One of my clients telephoned me recently with some very sad and disturbing news.  
For the second time in 2 years her house had been broken into and her laptop, work mobile and some cash were stolen.  The back window, which was locked, had been forced and the back door was then unlocked, allowing entry.

The police had asked her for the serial number of her laptop.  I was able to tell her the make, model and processor details of her laptop, but, unfortunately, I had never had reason to take a note of her serial number or service tag.  

One of my first thoughts was passwords, email, facebook, twitter.  The list of accounts we use in one day is extensive.  We spent quite a while going through as many accounts as she could think of.  Most browsers have a handy facility were they will save your passwords for convenience.  All very well if you are the only person that is using your device, but in cases like this it gives full access to the full range of accounts.  

I have recently started using a password manager so that I can use my many and varied passwords across both my devices and also it will suggest new passwords for new accounts or for password changes.  The only one I have to remember is the master password and the password manager does the rest.  

The one I am using is called LastPass Which is found here.  It is free for home use and I have found it to be useful and quite user friendly.  

I will be updating my list of serial numbers for the Lamas equipment.  Whilst this will not bring the items back it will assist the police in tracing the equipment if found or sold.   

Return of Murphy

Its been busy here at LAMAS HQ!

I am on my third XP to windows 7 upgrade, with no 4 and potential 5 sitting on the floor.

I have written about Murphy's PC before - anything that can go wrong, will!

Murphy's PC is currently sitting on the bench going through its post upgrade updates (all 149 important and 6 optional) and it's going well!  (Grabs wooden workbench and holds on for dear life!)

Some of the upgrades I have done have been fiddly in as much as the hardware was just not quite up to the task, but for now  the client wanted it done.

(Spoke too soon, 70 updates just bombed out!)

I have also been getting the junior Lamas interested in coding and refreshing my own HTML/CSS skills.  This has been as a result of the hour of code and codeacademy.

Remember to check with family and friends, especially the older ones, that may still be using XP and remind them that support finishes on 8th April 2014 and they need to be upgrading soon.