Probe Post

Minimize Articles and Posts Ranking Well With Search Engines – What Does It Take?

Don’t start your day like one of my customers did, with dozens of calls and emails asking if she is alright and on her way home from England. She never was in England but literally everyone in her online address book had received an email that she had been arrested, her money and credit cards were stolen and she needed help to get cab money and a way home.

So what happened? Someone had hacked her Prodigy account and mass emailed her entire address book this distress message. Then they arrange for the believing audience to wire them money for helping her out, usually a wire transfer using Western Union because it is irreversible and untraceable.

The day started out like a scream and never let up. Finally her phone answering message simply said something to the effect of, “I haven’t been to England, I didn’t send the email and I am OK”. She had LOT’S of friends making it even more difficult.

Here are the 3 tips:

1. Extreme Caution using public WiFi connections.

A new WiFi access card by Sprint or Verison called a MiFi allows you to carry a virtual WiFi center in your pocket. Turn it on and you can provide internet access to anyone within 33 feet of you. If you are in Panera, a person in the shop can have one of these turned on with a name of Pannera or some variation. If you accidentally log in on his instead you can find yourself open to him probing your computer for personal information.

He can create a Panera look-a-like login page that then deposits a not so nice file on your computer. From that he can see your Facebook log-in, email accounts and worse, watch you log into to check your bank account.

Never check your bank account from a public WiFi set up, at the airport or coffee shop. You are asking for disaster. This leads me to tip #2.

2. Locking Down your computer from Sharing.

I was setting with a geeky group of people in a coffee shop and as we were discussing business things one guy just got a huge grin on his face. While talking and multi-tasking from his laptop he could see all the computers connected to the business WiFi and of 6 or 7 there, he could get into 2 of them. Their computers were not locked down from sharing.

This guy was not a crook, just for recreation he enjoyed hacking things and did nothing with what he found. Not everyone is not so generous with found treasure.

3. Free Scanning software – don’t do it.

A screen pops up on your computer that looks like Microsoft warnings and it says that a virus has been discovered on your computer. The warning then says you need to update your virus software to get rid of this new virus. Don’t do it, it’s bogus. If you OK it, the program will actually download a snoop virus or other nasty things to your computer.

For many people all of the above is in the “well, duh” category. There seems to be millions of people on the other end of the spectrum that keep these malicious people in business in a very wealthy way. Don’t be one of them.

For a very complete list of ongoing cons, Wikipedia seems to keeping a nice tally.

Now as I write, a number 4 bonus tip surfaces – so important I don’t want to skip it…

4. Do you have WiFi in your office or home? Lock it down!

Roughly 50% of home on wireless have not locked down their router with a long, hard to remember access code if at all. Drive through the average neighborhood with your laptop and keep looking for network access locations. Chances are that within 5 minutes you can be inside someone’s computer poking around. So many suffer from the “it won’t happen to me” syndrome that it’s ridiculous.

If this is you, stop reading right now, log into your router and lock it down. If you don’t know how call someone who does and get it done. Is it done yet? Well? How about now? Don’t be like a deer with a bull’s eye birthmark over your heart area.

About the Author

John is President of Wow Web Works, a web design and business marketing company in Kalamazoo, MI. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University.