I'm looking for the audio book called "Mr. Smith" by James Patterson. Where can I find it?

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August 4th, 2010 - Posted by Kent

The following is an actual user-submitted question:

Q: I'm looking for the audio book called Mr. Smith by James Patterson. Where can I find it?

A: Your mystery had us stumped, but we think we've found the solution. While we couldn't find an audiobook by Patterson called Mr. Smith, it turns out that Mr. Smith is a character in Patterson's novel Cat and Mouse. That audiobook is available on all the audiobook sites we reviewed: Audible, eMusic, Booksfree (on CD), Simply Audiobooks, and iTunes. If you sign up for an eMusic free trial, you can actually get the title for free!

Check out our reviews of the top audiobook providers to see which services we recommend.

How does bsecure work?

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August 4th, 2010 - Posted by Kent

The following is an actual user-submitted question:

Q: How does bsecure work?

A: In our experience, it doesn't work very well at all. But we realize, that's not quite you're asking. You want to know how it functions. Bsecure, like other parental control software products, employs different methods to provide automated supervision for a child's online activities. Primarily it breaks down into three areas: blocking, search restriction, and monitoring. Here's how it works, in theory at least:

Blocking: The blocking mechanism works by running web page content against a list of words, this list is called a "blacklist." If page content matches content on the blacklist, the page will be blocked. Many pages are blocked on their urls alone (Playboy.com, Penthouse.com, etc.). Parents can select which classes of terms they'd like blocked, including sexual, drug, and violence-related content.

Search restriction: All the major search engines have a "safe search" mechanism that employs the search engine's own age restrictions to keep kids from accessing restricted content. Parental control software forces search engines to stay in "safe search" mode.

Monitoring: Want to know what your kids were up to? That's where the monitoring and reporting come in. Depending on the program, and the settings, parents can see all or some their child's Internet activity. It can also monitor activity on other programs such as chat programs.

As we hinted above, we were not impressed with how bsecure handled any of these tasks. It was easy to get around the blocking, the blacklist was poorly implemented, the search was clumsy and difficult, and the monitoring only worked with older programs. It also crashed a number of times when we tested it. It actually got our lowest rating in the category.

To find a better option, check out our parental control software reviews.

How long are the contracts for identity theft protection? Are there any that are month to month?

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August 4th, 2010 - Posted by Tasha

Q:  How long are the contracts for identity theft protection?  Are there any that are month to month?

A: All of the identity theft protection services reviewed on our site offer month-to-month commitments.  Two of them, Trusted ID and Lifelock, have both month-to-month and annual options.  If you choose their annual plan you'll receive a discounted monthly price.  But you can always forgo the discount and select a month to month plan.

We do recommend keeping identity theft protection longer than a month or two, because it's impossible to predict when a crime may occur.  If you want to try them out first, the majority of the companies on this site offer free trials of their identity theft protection service.  To find the right option for your needs, check out our comparison chart.

My domain name was registered by a company and they did not register it in my name but in their company name. How do I get it back?

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August 3rd, 2010 - Posted by Kent

The following is an actual user-submitted question:

Q: My Domain name was registered by a company and they did not register it in my name but in their company name. How do I get it back?

A: If your domain is registered with a web host, and you still have a contract with that web host, the domain is still yours. You're free to transfer it to another web host or registrar (as long as it's been registered longer than 60 days). Unfortunately, if the registration has lapsed (i.e. you aren't with the web host that owned or still owns it), you may be out of luck. You should find out who owns the domain now (you can do a "whois" search on a site like Network Tools to see the current registrar). If it's still your old web host or registrar, they may be rather reasonable about getting it back to you (there are often administrative fees associated with this). Often times, a registrar will dump domains when they're no longer receiving registration fees; when the domain goes unregistered, an unscrupulous party may buy up the domain, and charge an unreasonable amount to resell the domain to the highest bidder. Keep in mind that many of these companies are spammers; be cautious when dealing with them.

Keep in mind that a domain is only yours for as long as it's paid for. Even registering a domain in your own name will not prevent you from losing control over it if the registration lapses. I know, it's happened to me.

iPhone PDF exploit could get you hacked

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August 3rd, 2010 - Posted by Kent

Jailbreaking your iPhone means gaining the ability to use apps that aren't approved by Apple's App Store. It's been around since the first generation of iPhone, but it's always been the providence of the hardcore enthusiast. It required a special software download. Now, all it requires is a visit to a web page. And this has security experts nervous. It's all well and fine if you want to jailbreak your iPhone and bypass Apple's restrictions, but what if someone else wants to jailbreak your iPhone?

That's the story that's going around about a serious exploit in the iPhone 4.0 OS. The process takes advantage of a Safari weakness regarding corrupted PDF files. Such files can create what's called a "stack overload." This is what leaves your iPhone (or iPad, or Touch) jailbreakable and vulnerable. It's as if the phone has a nervous breakdown followed by an identity crisis.

There's no official fix yet. Users should avoid downloading untrustworthy PDFs. Of course, you may not know a link goes to a PDF until it's too late.

This will do-doubt cause a certain amount of iPanic. After all, there's a lot of information on our smart phones these days. However, it's not clear that anyone has actually taken advantage of this exploit, but it is possible. It's important to deal with things we can control. While there's no Internet security software for the iPhone, there is for your desktop. Additionally, Identity theft protection can help protect you from the damage that hackers can do to your life, both online and off.

Yahoo! web hosting discount: 50% off three months

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August 2nd, 2010 - Posted by Kent

Yahoo! has brought back their popular three-month 50% discount for NextAdvisor visitors. The discount brings the first three months down to $4.98, putting the rest of the year at $9.95 per month. While a bit more expensive than some web hosts, we feel it's the best option for beginners. Yahoo! Small Business web hosting combines rock-solid reliability with a clean, intuitive user interface. Particularly if this is your first your foray into web hosting, Yahoo!'s web hosting is our recommended choice.

To see how Yahoo! stacks up against the competition check out our web hosting reviews check out our web hosting reviews and comparisons. To get the 50% discount, follow any link to Yahoo! from NextAdvisor or simply click here.

Giving your credit card to a hotel? Watch your statements

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August 2nd, 2010 - Posted by Robert Siciliano

Robert Siciliano is a NextAdvisor.com Expert Guest Blogger

Personally, I don’t particularly enjoy staying in hotels. Sure, after a long day of travel, the hotel is a relief, but in most cases, I’d much rather sleep in my own bed. Criminal hackers, on the other hand, love hotels.

According to a recent study, 38% of all credit card breaches occur in hotels. Despite several high profile breaches that recently affected payment processors and banks, the financial services industry only accounts for 19% of breaches. Retailers came in third at 14%, and restaurants fourth at 13%.

Over the past five years or so, I’ve noticed a trend in which criminals go after the most likely targets, and those victims beef up their defenses in response. So the bad guys move on to the next most likely target – one that hasn’t learned from others’ mistakes.

Hotels are easy targets because they are all credit card-based. It is possible to reserve a room without providing a credit card number, but they don’t make it easy. And hotels themselves certainly aren’t fortresses designed to keep bad guys out. They’re designed to be open and inviting, with, at best, a bellman whose focus is assisting guests rather than guarding the front door. Maybe that mentality exists in hotels’ IT security departments, too.

The root of the issue is the hotel industry’s insufficient security measures to prevent data breaches. Many rely on older point of sale terminals and outdated operating systems, which are more vulnerable to hackers. When the recession hit, many hotels cut back and decided to hold off on upgrades. While their defenses were down, hackers slithered into their networks to steal guests’ personal financial data. Once thieves have accessed this data, they can clone cards with the stolen numbers and use them to make unauthorized charges.

As a consumer, your only recourse is to pay close attention to every single penny charged to your credit card, and dispute any fraudulent or incorrect transactions, no matter how small. Check your statements frequently and be sure to dispute all unauthorized charges within two billing cycles, or 60 days.

Canada and Mexico have adopted smart cards, which use “chip and PIN” technology, making the credit card data useless to potential identity thieves. Eventually we may see the adoption of smart cards in the U.S., which would put an end to this madness.

Identity theft protection can help foil identity thieves, when you're at home and on vacation.

Robert Siciliano, personal security adviser to Just Ask Gemalto, discusses hackers hacking hotels on CNBC. (Disclosures)

Robert Siciliano is CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com, an identity theft expert, professional speaker, security analyst, published author and television news correspondent. Siciliano works with Fortune 1000 companies and startups as an advisor on product launches, branding, messaging, representation, SEO and media. Siciliano's thoughts and advice on all these matters appear often in both the televised and print news media including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, Forbes and USA Today. He has 25 years of security training as a member of the American Society of Industrial Security. He is the author of two books, including The Safety Minute: Living on High Alert; How to take control of your personal security and prevent fraud. He's also partnered with McAfee to help raise awareness about the growing threat of identity theft and to provide tips on how you can protect yourself.