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'Geek Word O' the Day'!

Money Mule:
Money mules are the sometimes unwitting people who fall for a work at home scam and assist cyber criminals by laundering their ill-gotten gains. Please see our Tip of the week for a good article about this problem.


Welcome to the City of Seattle's Information Security Homepage!

Protecting the city's computing systems, computer networks and the information that these systems host is critical for the successful delivery of city services.

This website is designed to help you as citizens of Seattle or visitors to our site learn what you can do to help protect against the many emerging threats found in today's computer and network environments both in the workplace and at home.

Be on the Lookout!
Information Security bulletins about the latest threats to your computer security are now posted on our site.

We have decided that you, our subscribers, would be better served if we simply update this news bulletin with timely and important messages as they arise. New and significant threats don't tend to wait until we have time to publish our newsletter!

So, we will be posting new items as they arise and as we are able, and will only use email notifications if there is a particularly dangerous threat. We will keep notices on this letter for about a week and then archive them.

You can find our newest information security news in our current newsletter

NOTE: We now provide the ability to subscribe to an RSS feed. The summary above is being fed by that RSS system to give you a preview of some of the items in the latest newsletter. Enjoy!

In case you don't know how to subscribe to RSS feeds and missed the tip where I gave instructions on how to do so - I've archived that tip here.

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City of Seattle - Your Internet Safety Partner

New Cyber Security Mailing List
Newsletter with tips and stategies to stay safe
The City of Seattle's Office of Information Security (OIS) has setup a computer security mailing list. We will post a periodic newsletter with cyber security tips and strategies to keep you safe on your work and home computers. We'll also send out notices of critical new threats and information on how to protect yourselves.

If you would like to sign up for this new service, please click on the following link and then create a New User account.   
Computer Security Mailing List

New Security Tip O' d'Week! - Google's Privacy Policies

In a recent article on CNN Tech.com Doug Gross talks about dealing with Google's new privacy policy:(How to prepare for Google's privacy changes).

He does a good job of explaining how you can take control of the information that Google is able to capture about you. Here are some of the main points - check out the full article for more information and step by step directions on how to follow his suggestions.

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Don’t sign in. Many of Google’s services – most notably search, YouTube and Maps – don’t require you to sign in to use them. If you’re not logged in, via Gmail or Google+, for example, Google doesn’t know who you are and can’t add data to your profile.

Remove your Google search history. Deleting your history will not prevent Google from using the information internally. But it will limit the amount of time that it’s fully accessible. After 18 months, the data will become anonymous again and won’t be used as part of your profile.

Clear your YouTube history..

Clear your browsing history on Google Chrome.

Gmail Chat. When you start a chat with someone, you can make the conversation “off the record.” Off-the-record chats will not be stored in your chat history or the history of the person with whom you’re talking. All chats with that person will remain off the record until you change the status.

And finally, one that he doesn't mention, Use the incognito browsing option in the Chrome browser.

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Last Updated: March 13, 2012
Website Contact:

David MatthewsDavid Matthews

Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft Watch the Video
Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America. Ivan Orton, Deputy Prosecutor for King County, talks about ways to reduce risks of identity theft and protect personal information.

Community Computer Security Training

The City of Seattle's Office of Information Security has initiated a series of computer safety training classes in communities around the City. Our inaugural class was held on Saturday, July 19th, 2008 at the beautiful Raineer Community Center.

Other classes were given on September 10, 2008 at the Northgate Branch Library and September 17, 2008 at the High Point Branch Library.

Since then we have done similar trainings at several housing centers and will continue to offer these in the community.

We want to thank the folks have taken these classes. We hope you found them of value and will encourage your friends and relations to attend a future session. The materials from the presentation are available here: Home Computer Security Handouts

Stay tuned to this site and/or sign up for our mailing list for announcements of future classes in your community.