Filler Text

Have you ever seen the following in a document or on a website?

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis a fringilla risus. Etiam tincidunt pharetra risus, vel blandit orci scelerisque ut. Aliquam varius metus nec diam egestas eu auctor urna pretium. Ut non dictum purus. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Nunc diam arcu, pellentesque eget sollicitudin non, tempus ut risus. Etiam tempus magna et justo interdum vulputate. Nulla lacinia mauris non ligula facilisis accumsan. Donec vestibulum laoreet nisl in fermentum. Aliquam ultrices viverra eros id ornare. Nam dictum arcu vel nulla viverra iaculis.

No, it is not a secret code. It is filler text used when designing a site or creating a presentation or a pamphlet. You want to set up the formatting but do not have all the content yet, so you need some filler.

It is Latin in its origin but nonsensical; a random group of words used by typesetters since the 1500’s.

Well look no further than http://www.lipsum.com. Just enter the number of paragraphs you need and click Generate Lorem Ipsum button. A new page appears with your text ready to be copied.

Watch out for this kind of email

What is wrong with this picture?

1. The From address is @usps.com and the US Post Office is a .gov
2. The To address is not you!
3. Dear customer -- they would always identify you by name
4. Attachment -- they would not send you an attachment. If you upzip it your are subjecting yourself to malware

WARNING!

Just because the name in the from box in your email is someone you know, it may not be safe to assume it is really from them.


Here is an email I received this morning. I know Vicky and might be tempted to click on the link and see what she has to show me that she found on the Internet. Then I notice the + next to her name. I use Yahoo and that means she is not in my address book. Well, that is funny. I know she is so I mouse over here name to see the address she sent it from.



Hey, that is not her!

Had I assumed it was her because of her name, I would have clicked the link and opened my computer up to untold issues. And had I added this new address to my contacts I would not have known when this erroneous address would be used again to suck me into another trap.

Some basic rules I use when looking at my emails even when I know the sender is legit’:

• If something looks funny, I don’t open it
• if there is a link, I mouse over it to see where it will take be first
• If there is a link to open a video and it is not from YouTube, I do not open it
• If there is an attachment that is from some email pass-a-long, I do not open it
• If it look slegit and it is from one of my financial or insurance companies, I go directly to the company Website to find out about it instead of taking the link off the email
• If a company I do business with sends an email that does not have my name in the email but instead reads like Dear Customer, it is probably not from who I think and I do not click on any links

When downloading apps I look for them on some legit site like cnet and not from the result of a search directly. And when installing apps I avoid adding toolbars and search engines to my browser. They not only reduce the amount of room in my browser window, they add numerous background tasks that slow down the system.

In other words, I try to use common sense and not subject myself to potential threats. And I try to run the following apps once a week:

• ccleaner
• malwarebytes
• defraggler
• full antivirus scan