Data Privacy Day is an international holiday that marked its 10th anniversary on Saturday, January 28th. Created in 2007 by the Council of Europe, Data Privacy Day was adopted by the U.S. a few years later. This day is meant to remind people of the importance of data privacy and...
AVG selling your information?
AVG will now start selling your information starting October 15, 2015 In September 2015, AVG released their new privacy policy which, effective October 15, 2015, makes clear that AVG will collect "non-personal data" such as “Browsing and search history, including meta data.” AVG claims it collects this data “to make money from...
Windows XP End of Support: What the “end of support” means to YOU!
Windows XP End of Support Announced by Microsoft If you don't have the Windows XP operating system then this blog means nothing to you, but you might be interested in what is happening to Microsoft Windows XP users. Unless you live under a rock, you already know that support for Windows...
Internet Explorer 11 Problems – Major Problems!
Having Internet Explorer 11 problems that won't allow you to access the internet properly? Mad Dog Computer has had many clients recently reporting severe problems using the Internet after the installation of Internet Explorer 11. If you have IE 11 and didn’t manually install IE 11, it was most likely automatically...
Computer Backup, Backup, Backup…New RansomWare will take away everything!
You Can't Have Enough Computer Backup Files! It has always a good idea to make a computer backup of your information (and backup and backup) but now, more than ever, it is a necessity. A new RansomWare package called CryptoLocker will encrypt all of your personal files on your computer...
The Trade-Off: Sacrificing Internet Security for Convenience and Privacy for Popularity
Every day when I look at the news I am bewildered by the contradictory nature of society. On one hand, we pay for things like LifeLock, Anti-Virus software, firewalls, encryption and software that makes us anonymous to provide Internet security for our information and to protect our privacy. We use paper...
What is Java and why do I need to install a Java update?
It is critical to keep your computer software up-to-date in order to protect your computer from as much malicious software (viruses, etc.) as possible and that includes putting in Java updates. What is Java? Java was first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. It is a computer programming language and...
New Variety of Malware Dubbed Ransomware Attempts to Extort Money from Unwary Internet Users
Whatever you do, don't follow the payment instructions for any ransomware! The Internet Crime Complaint Center (which is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime Center) has recently been made aware of a new variety of malware (MALicous softWARE) used to deliver ransomware...
Anti-Malware Instructions for the Mad Dog Protective Suite
Anti-Malware Instructions for clients to help protect their computers. Due to AVG's newly disclosed sales of information gathered from your computer, effective October 2015, we are recommending the Kaspersky Internet Security product instead of AVG Free and will be upgrading all of our clients who subscribe to one of our...
Fake browser warnings dupe users into downloading ‘scareware’!
Fake Browser "Scareware" Scam Scammers are spoofing the anti-malware warnings of popular browsers to dupe Windows users into downloading fake security software, Symantec said Monday. According to the FBI, rogue security makers have made at least $150 million by duping the public! Little wonder, then, that the fake security software...