Randolph Telephone Company eNewsletter

Bogus e-mails are being distributed in a massive campaign that pretends to be from LinkedIn, the business networking site. (How massive? According to Cisco Security, at one point nearly one in four spam messages was a fake LinkedIn invite.) Designed to resemble genuine LinkedIn messages, they claim that pending invitations are awaiting the recipient's response and advise him or her to visit the LinkedIn e-mail inbox to view the invitations.

However, the e-mails are not from LinkedIn and the links contained in the messages do not lead to the LinkedIn website. In fact, all links in the bogus messages point to a website that contains malicious software. Clicking the links opens a page that tries to trick you into downloading and installing the software, which may be a rogue antivirus program or other type of malware.

To help avoid this type of scam, LinkedIn recommends you only connect to people you know and trust well enough to recommend them to others. Visit the LinkedIn customer service page for more information on account security and privacy best practices.

Whether you've been our customer for 50 days or 50 years, we at Randolph Telephone appreciate your loyalty and support. We give thanks for our customers during this special time of year, and to show our gratitude we would like to share three phone features for one month at no cost to you. Simply select three phone features that you would like to try, and contact a Customer Care Consultant at 622-7900 to take advantage of this great offer.

Monthly charges will be applied 30 days following new feature activation. Other restrictions may apply. Offer expires 11/30/10.

Put More Jingle In Your Pocket – Get 3 Months FREE On A New Wireless Plan!

You've made your list and checked it twice, now treat yourself for being so nice. Get any new wireless voice plan from November through January, and we'll give you 3 months free! Now you can wish everyone a happy holiday season, and save even more with Randolph Telephone's Unlimited Voice Plans starting at $69.95! Plus, add Unlimited Text Plans for only $20 a month. Visit us on the web to view all cellular and smart phone plans or call a Customer Care Consultant at 622-7900 for more details today!

*Some restrictions may apply. Offer expires 1/31/11.

Randolph Telephone's MyTV and ESPNU bring you the passion of College sports all year long. ESPNU delivers live game action from 26 Division I Conferences including ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC. You get enhanced coverage of 22 NCAA Championships plus original shows like, SportsCenterU, Recruiting Insider, The Experts, BCS Countdown and an exclusive hour of College Basketball GameDay.

As ACC Basketball gears up for another season, you won't want to miss ESPNU on MyTV Channel 73 to watch your favorite teams battle it out on ESPNU! Catch Duke, the 2010 NCAA National Champs, vs. Princeton in their first official game of the season, Sunday, November 14th at 5pm. Then, follow the Cameron Crazies to Cameron Indoor Stadium to watch the Blue Devils take on the North Carolina Tarheels in one of the biggest rivalries at home, at 9pm on Wednesday, February 9th on ESPN Channel 70.

Want more? Go to Facebook.com/ESPNU, the online companion to the ESPNU TV network, is the online destination for college sports content, including news, information, extensive online video and audio and more. ESPNU is now available in high definition - ESPNU HD, the big picture in college sports. To get ESPNU HD on MyTV, call 336.879.5684 today!

Question: I've heard people talk about social engineering with respect to computer security, but I'm confused by the term. Could you explain what it is and give a few examples?

Social Engineering Download Graphics to View

Answer: In computer security, social engineering is a term that describes an intrusion by a hacker that relies on human interaction and manipulation to steal information. This may involve obviously valuable information like usernames and passwords. Or it could be seemingly harmless details (like where you went on vacation or the name of your first pet) that hackers want in order to send you highly targeted spam or try to hack into your accounts.

There are many different social engineering tactics, and these attacks can be done over the phone, in person, or online. Here are two examples of what social engineering hackers may do:

Pretend to be someone from your company's Internet service provider and ask for your employee password in order to "test the service."
Look at your profile on social networking sites like Facebook to extract tidbits of information that could lead to the answers to your "secret questions" on secure websites. These questions are ones like "What is your mother's maiden name?" that are used if you cannot remember your username or password.

To avoid falling victim to social engineering, be diligent about your privacy settings on social networking sites and make sure the answers to your "secret questions" aren't revealed by your profiles or pictures. In addition, don't blindly accept friend invites; review each one carefully. Hackers set up phony social networking profiles and you don't want to accidentally become friends with them!

Turkey Tips And Recipes
www.eatturkey.com – Preparing a turkey dinner can seem intimidating if you've never done it before, but this site makes it easy. With recipes, checklists, and helpful hints, even old pros will find something new. Check out the seasonal menus, wine suggestions, and turkey purchasing pointers. Watch the turkey cooking videos, learn turkey facts and trivia, and learn how to use turkey to "upgrade" your favorite meals.

Ship It Right
www.ups.com/packaging – As you get ready to send holiday packages this year, check out this site for advice on shipping containers, cushioning materials, and proper closure and label placement. Whether you're sending apparel, books, electronic equipment, housewares, toys, or TVs, the tool is easy to use: just provide the type, size, and weight of the merchandise you want to ship, and view the packaging guidelines.

Video Time Machine
yttm.tv – This cool site provides a peek into the past with videos of TV, sports, music, news, and more from each year, going as far back as 1860! You can check out the first Moonlighting episode, experience a Jefferson Airplane performance, or learn about the building of the Oakland Bay Bridge. Just pick the types of videos you want to view, and click on a year to see selections from that year ... or refresh the site to see a random year.

Best Textbook Deals
rentscouter.com – If you have a kid in college, you know how expensive books can be. This site helps you quickly compare prices for buying college textbooks versus renting them, and find the best deals. Just enter the title of the book you want, and get a summary of sources for renting or buying, new or used. You can also sell books, CDs, DVDs, and games. And check out the site's blog for textbook news.

Social Security Essentials
ssa.gov – Everyone knows about Social Security, but have you thought about what it really means in people's lives? You can find out by watching the 75th anniversary contest-winning video at the Social Security Online site. You can also estimate your retirement benefits, apply for benefits, find a Social Security office, watch helpful "how-to" videos, and much more.

Let's face it; there are just times when we could all use a change of pace. If you've been using the same default search engine for years, you may want to consider trying a new one—perhaps switching from Google to Bing. Changing your default search engine is easy to do on your browser, too. Simply follow the steps below.

Changing The Default Search Engine In The Search Bar When Using ...
Internet Browser: Internet Explorer 8
Computer Operating System: Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7

With Internet Explorer open, click your cursor arrow on the down arrow on the right side of the Search Bar (to the right of the magnifying glass) and select "Manage Search Providers" from the resulting drop-down menu.
When the Manage Add-ons window opens, make sure "Search Providers" is selected and then click on the search provider of your choice.
Once you have chosen the new search provider, click the "Set as default" button and your new selection will be labeled "Default" in the "Status" field.
Click the "Close" button to save your changes and close the Manage Add-ons window.
The Search Bar will now show the name of your new search provider.

Changing The Default Search Engine In The Search Bar When Using ...
Internet Browser: Mozilla Firefox 3.6
Computer Operating System: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Mac OS X 10.5

With Firefox open, click your cursor arrow on the down arrow on the left side of the Search Bar field and select one of the other search engine options from the resulting drop-down menu.

Changing The Default Search Engine In The Search Bar When Using ...
Internet Browser: Safari 5.0
Computer Operating System: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Mac OS X 10.5

With Safari open, click your cursor arrow on the down arrow on the left side of the Search Bar field (to the right of the magnifying glass) and select one of the other search engine options from the resulting drop-down menu.

Changing The Default Search Engine In The Search Bar When Using ...
Internet Browser: Google Chrome 6.0
Computer Operating System: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Mac OS X 10.5

With Chrome open, click your cursor arrow on the icon that looks like a wrench in the far right corner of the screen and select "Preferences..." from the resulting drop-down menu.
The Basics window will open. In the "Default search:" section, click on the down arrow to display other search engine options. Select the one that you would like to make as the default.
Close the Basics window to save your changes.

We hope you found this newsletter to be informative. It's our way of keeping you posted on the happenings here. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins, click here.

Thanks for your business!

Best regards

Aaryn M. Slafky
Director of Marketing & Communications

Visit our website at: www.rtelco.net
Email us at: enewsletter@rtelco.net

24 Hour Technical Support

For Internet related support, please contact us at one of the following numbers:

461-9111
464-9111
581-9111
622-9111
879-9111

Please choose number that is local to your area to avoid toll charges.

Randolph Telephone Company
211 West Swannanoa Ave.
Liberty, NC 27298

336-622-7900

©2010 Cornerstone Publishing Group Inc.

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