Welcome to another edition of IT@NUS. Let's start with a story. A few years back, a group of strangers walked into a large firm and walked out with the company data. How did they do it? Well, read about it in Social Engineering. Do you need to transfer your data and settings to a new PC? Do it the FAST way in The FAST Way to Files and Settings Migration. Wondering if anyone is gathering data from your PC? To prevent it and learn about it, Fighting Spyware is what you should read. In a New Life for Old PCs/Notebooks, we would see what we could do with your old PC.

Read on.

Are you aware that you may have unknowingly installed software on your computer that is capable of gathering data and sending it to its host company? Generally known as spyware, it is commonly used by companies to track online activities for marketing purposes. Spyware can also be used for more insidious objectives such as hacking. So how do you become a victim of spyware in the first place? Spyware is usually spread through its association with file swapping software including BearShare, KaZaA and MusicCity Morpheus. It normally comes with a seemingly attractive option such as no license fees.

The easiest method to fight spyware is to avoid downloading such shareware. If you think you already have spyware on your computer, you may wish to download an anti-spyware tool. Lavasoft Adware is one such tool that is able to effectively scan your computer's memory, registry and drives to detect and remove spyware. Lavasoft Adware can be downloaded right here at https://security.nus.edu.sg/aaw6.exe. For more information on how to fight spyware, please visit The Trouble With Spyware or contact ccecert@nus.edu.sg with your queries.

In the fast-paced digital age, we frequently upgrade our PCs and notebooks as often as once every couple of years. Stretch the use of the PC's life-span to 4 years across the faculty/department and upgrade the RAM memory along the way. While it may have outlived its usefulness, it may be the life saver for some cash-strapped student or charity. Second-hand PCs are just what society needs to bridge the digital divide.

To donate your PC to charity, here are the steps you need to take. Faculties or departments may contact Teng Heng if they have their own contacts or need to arrange for delivery to recipient organizations. If donating to your own contacts, please also inform Teng Heng for record purposes.

If your PC is unsuited for donation, you will need to dispose of it properly as computer equipment contain large amounts of hazardous materials such as cadmium, lead, and mercury. A typical CRT monitor contains five to eight pounds of lead, a heavy metal highly toxic to water systems. Hence, to prevent these hazards, it is necessary to dispose of the PC properly.

Please refer to the link for more information on "Fixed Assets Guidelines on: Retirement of Fixed Assets" and "Disposal of Assets".

Social engineering is the gaining of unauthorized access to systems or information for the purpose of fraud, network intrusion, industrial espionage or simply to disrupt the functioning of a system. We may be more susceptible to social engineering in our everyday lives than we realize. Common techniques used by hackers at the workplace include shoulder surfing (watching an employee type in his password or pin), via phone (imitating someone in authority to retrieve information), dumpster diving (retrieving sensitive information such as memos, company phone directories, disks and policy manuals from the trash can), and online social engineering (obtaining passwords through bogus forms or authentication requests).

Social engineering succeeds because it plays on the natural human tendency to trust. So the next time someone requests for personal or sensitive information from you, be alert and question if the request is authentic and necessary. For more information on social engineering, look out for a detailed article coming your way soon.

When your computer is being upgraded, you often need to spend lots of time configuring your new computer with all the setups you did to the old computer. The tasks involved may range from trivial setup such as selecting a wall paper, to essential configuration like creating an Outlook signature file. On top of that, you also need to locate and transfer data files from your old computer to the new computer. The process of migrating files and configuring various settings on the new computer could be very time consuming and challenging. The Files and Settings Transfer (FAST) Wizard that comes with Windows XP helps automate most of these migration tasks by gathering the files and settings from the old computer, and transferring them over to the new computer. The settings that the wizard is capable of locating and transferring include appearance settings (screen saver, wall paper, desktop, etc.), internet explorer settings (home page URL, favorites, security and proxy configuration, etc.), mail settings (signature file, personal folder, rules, contacts, etc.), and others (network drives and printers, Office settings, mouse and keyboard settings, and some other application settings). It also allows users to migrate files by file type (.DOC, .XLS), folder (C:\My Document), or specific file name (C:\data\research1.sav). Click here for a step by step guide on how to use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.