Dr. Keen

Dr. Keen
Cyber Defender & Diagnostics Lab Technician

Dr. Keen is in charge of Diagnostics and has the equipment and knowledge to fix most computer related problems.

Abandoned by her computer hacker parents when she was a child, Dr. Keen focuses on helping others overcome the attacks of cyber criminals just like her parents.

Favorite Quote:

You can't direct the wind but you can adjust the sails
- Anonymous

Favorite Food:

French fries

Interests:

Inventing, watercolor, playing fetch with Scout

Scout

Scout
Cyber Defender & Dr. Keen's robot assistant

Scout is in charge of keeping the Cyber Defense Force's security measures up-to-date. His computer brain carries fixes to most security and computer problems that can be administered at any time.

Scout is always eager to help make Cyberspace a safe and fun place.

Favorite Food:

Memory chips

Interests:

Fixing computers, making antidotes for malware, playing fetch

July 12, 2010

Time Paradoxes

Humans, I want to tell our past selves many things, but I do not know if I should. Say, for example, I warn them about some future problem like the Y2K bug Maya wrote about. What if they prevent it from ever happening? And, what if the way they fix the problem creates a worse situation? This sort of problem is known as a time paradox.

For example, say you went back in time and stopped your grandfather from meeting your grandmother. That would stop them from having your parents, which would prevent your birth. If your birth is prevented, how could you go back in time to stop them from meeting in the first place? I don’t know about you, but my circuits hurt just thinking about it!

Robots don’t do well with paradoxes. In fact, a paradox fried my predecessor’s CPU so bad he can barely function now! Some thoughtless individual went up to him and shouted “The following statement is true! The previous statement is false!” What a shame.

I’m going to think about my paradox problem a while longer before I decide what to do.

posted by Scout
topic: Miscellaneous

June 4, 2009

Cyber Defense Tips: Malicious Search Results

These Cyber Criminals are getting trickier every day! Their latest wicked deed involves seemingly harmless Internet searches. For example, you could try to look up information on Flag Day using your favorite search engine. You click on a link that looks interesting and suddenly your screen fills up with bogus warnings like the ones Scout talked about last month. Sometimes the Cyber Criminals will have the website redirect you to another website that is full of malware!

So how do we protect ourselves against this? Well, some of the search engine companies looking for these fake search results and removing them. Other than that, make sure your anti-malware software is up to date and, if you can, only go on well-known and trusted websites.

posted by Dr. Keen
topic: Cyber Defense Tips

May 20, 2010

Cyber Defense Threats: Rogue Security Software

Hello Cadets! Use your strange human imaginations for me. Imagine one of your squishy organs is hurting you and you need to go to a repair person – sorry – I mean a doctor. This doctor says, “Sick person, you need medicine!” and gives you some medicine to take. You take the medicine for a few days, but you’re still in pain. In fact, you feel worse than before! As it turns out, the doctor you saw is a fake and the medicine you took gave you the flu!

Luckily for you, this never happens to humans. Unluckily for me, it always happens to machines! Rogue security software is exactly like it sounds – software that claims to keep your computer safe but in fact, infects it with all sorts of malware. If you’re going to use shareware or freeware anti-malware programs, do some research first! Make sure that the program is legitimate before installing it on your loyal, hardworking computer.

posted by Scout
topic: Cyber Defense Threats

April 20, 2010

Cyber Defense Threats: Social Networking Scam

I do not understand your human fascination with social networking sites. Why can’t you operate like us machines? When we want to network, we just set up a network! All it takes is a handful of Ethernet cords and a spare server and then we’re ready to exchange data packets! Just the other day, the printer sent me a hilarious joke. It started like this – 01110111011010000111100! Get it? I nearly shut down I was laughing so hard!

Anyway, there is a new scam going around on a certain popular social networking site. It appears to be a message from the site administrator informing the user that her password has been reset. It then asks the user to click a link to receive their new password.

ERROR! DOES NOT COMPUTE! Do not click on that link! Clicking on the link will install a password stealer onto your machine, and no decent machine likes that sort of thing! If you are targeted by this attack, report the message to the real site administrators immediately and then delete the message. And, as always, keep your antivirus software up to date. It’s like a machine’s immune system!

posted by Keen
topic: Cyber Defense Threats

February 18, 2010

How Computers Work: : What is Defragmenting?

Defragmenting (or defragging, as we usually say) is an important part of keeping your computer healthy. Over time, the files in your computer can break down and their pieces can get scattered around your hard drive. This makes it harder for your computer to run your files because it first has to find all the right pieces before anything can run. Defragging your computer helps your computer run better by taking all the scattered pieces of your files and reorganizing them.

It’s like when you clean your room and you put all of your socks back in your sock drawer. Instead of rushing around before school and finding some socks in your drawer, some under your bed, some in your closet, some in the refrigerator, and some clinging to your ceiling, all you have to do is open up one drawer!

So remember, Cadets, if your computer is running slow, it might be time to reorganize its sock drawer!

posted by Dr. Keen
topic: How Computers Work

January 14 2010

Cyber Defense Threats: Scareware

WARNING!!!! YOUR COMPUTER IS INFECTED WITH A DANGEROUS VIRUS!!!! IF YOU DON'T DOWNLOAD OUR ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM RIGHT NOW, YOUR MONITOR COULD EXPLODE!!!!

Okay, usually scareware isn't that obvious. But I bet you know exactly what I'm talking about! Have you ever had one of those flashy pop-ups that try to scare you into downloading something? Well, that's called scareware.

Sometimes the scareware will just try to make you download a relatively harmless file. Other times, the downloaded file could be some type of malware. One of the scariest things about scareware is how official the pop-up can look. They usually look like a Windows file and can even open up a real window on your screen.

The best way to protect yourself against scareware is with a pop-up blocker, a tool within your Web browsers that prevents a pop-up from displaying. And, as always, keep those anti-virus programs up to date. If malware does make it onto your computer, you'll still be able to defend yourself!

posted by Keen
topic: Cyber Defense Threats

December 23, 2009

How Computers Work: Interactive White Boards

Interactive White Boards (IWBs), also known as Smart Boards, are amazing! It's like a computer screen and a chalk board combined! Personally, I like to use my IWB to look at pictures of my friends and draw moustaches on them. (Don't tell Officer Ward) But you don't care about that. You want to know how they work.

IWBs are based on something called resistive technology. Basically, their screens are two thin layers of plastic with a pocket of air trapped between. When you press down on the plastic, the computer senses the pressure, which lets you use your finger like a mouse! And that does it for me this month! Sorry if I seem . . . goofier than usual. I just love this time of year! Happy Holidays!

posted by Dr. Keen
topic: How Computers Work