E-mail Security

We've had a few breaches in e-mail around here lately. A couple of those were human error - people replied to a spam message and gave away critical access information. Others were folks who realized their e-mail was being used to send out numerous messages to everyone on their contact list about certain medical options to enhance aspects of their life. And NONE of these are good.

So what can you do?

First of all, never respond to a message and include critical account information. In this particular spam incident, people were asked to provide their e-mail address and their e-mail password. Thinking that they were writing to a system administrator, they did so. And suddenly strangers had full access to their accounts. It was quickly discovered and corrected. But a lesson was learned. If someone sends you an e-mail, they obviously already know your e-mail address! Why would they be asking for it again? And you should NEVER send your password to someone you don't know. The name on the e-mail was unknown, yet people were trusting. Just don't go down that road.

Next, if you have Gmail, Google is providing users with a Gmail Security Checklist. This interactive checklist will walk you through 20 different items you can do to help keep your e-mail (and your computer) more secure. Each step has a brief explanation to help you understand why it is important and how to do it. You don't have to do all 20 at once...Google will track your progress so you can complete it over several sessions.

And you don't even have to have Gmail to benefit. Anyone can go through the steps and many of the things they suggest will apply to whatever computer, browser, software, or e-mail account you have.

A few minutes of your time is definitely better than the time it will take to resolve a security breach and to apologize to all your friends and co-workers for those invitations to purchase select pharmaceuticals.

Customizing Google Search Results

Google amazes me. It does so many things and does them so well, it really wouldn't need to add any features to keep me coming back. However, Google always adds features.

This tip lets you view Google search results by reading level. In working with students, that is a terrific option to help narrow down search results in a way that is meaningful and helpful to them.

So how does it work? When you go to Google to do a search, click on the "Advanced Search" option.

On the Advanced Search page, type in your search words. You can see I've entered "autism aspergers" as my search words. Then, lower on the page, you'll see one of the tools available to you is "Reading level". You can pop open that menu and select from several options:

• no reading level
• annotate reading level
• show only basic results
• show only intermediate results
• show only advance results

I chose to "show only basic results" and clicked the Advanced Search button in the lower right-hand corner.

You can see the results I got...and the options at the top of the page to explore search results at other reading levels.

I picked up this tip from Paul Hamilton at his blog Free Resources From The Net For Every Learner. A terrific blog! And he says he picked it up from Cheryl Oakes, who also has a terrific blog.

Tech Tips For Parents - And Everyone

Google has created a fun and very useful new service called Teach Parents Tech.

The idea behind this service is that younger adults who are skilled with technology often end up in the role of tech support for their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. So to make that process easier, Google staff recorded some very simple videos that explain how to accomplish certain tasks on the computer. The videos fall into the categories of - The Basics, World Wide Web, Communication, Media, and Finding Information. There are 52 videos in all...most of them lasting less than a minute.

So how does the service work? You go to the web page, fill out a basic form where you select where the video is going and what video will be sent. And then you send it off. They get it as an e-mail with the video embedded and ready to watch.

But don't think these videos are just about Grandma. And don't think you have to have one sent to you in order for you to watch. Anyone can just go to the page, click the "View All Videos" link...and watch whatever video will help you do what you want to do!