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

December 15 2008

Cyber Defense Threat: Unsafe Forms

Unsafe forms are those that ask for personal information. Cyber criminals can trick you into giving them your personal information by filling out a fake form online. You may think you’re downloading a free game or signing up for joke emails, but you're really giving them everything they need to steal your identity or your money.

Not all forms are fake, though. Sometimes it's necessary for a Web site to request your personal information, like when you are registering for an account or buying something online. These forms will require a lot of personal information, including your full name, address, and credit card number, so it's best to get a trusted adult to help you. (Besides, you'll probably need to use their credit card anyway!) They can help you decide if the site is safe or not by making sure the site is secure, the information is encrypted, and that the privacy policy states they will not share your information with a third party without your consent.

Refer to Maya's post Using the Web: Online Shopping Reliability for more tips to help you and your trusted adult decide if a site is safe.

posted by Scout
topic: Cyber Defense Threat

December 3 2008

Giving Thanks

I'm so happy that Jax and Sparky were able to join us for the Thanksgiving Day feast. They have really blossomed under Officer Ward's guidance, and the apple fritters they brought to the meal were absolutely fantastic. I'm afraid I may have eaten far too many of them!

Scout spent most of the meal talking to Alan and Sparky about online gaming. He has recently become curious about games and the notion of "fun," so Alan and Sparky were trying to explain to him what makes a game fun. He came to me today to ask for a subscription to a MMOG, to "experiment." I hope he doesn't become so caught up in his experiments that he forgets to charge himself up at night!

posted by Dr. Keen
topic: Miscellaneous

December 1 2008

How Computers work: The Hard Drive

Most computers and digital devices contain one or more hard drives, which are used to store digital information in a relatively permanent form. Hard drives have a hard, disk-shaped platter made of a magnetic material, and they use magnets to store digital data on the platter. The magnetic material allows the computer to easily erase and rewrite the data whenever it needs to.

Hard drives store data in the form of files. Files are a collection of bytes, little pieces of digital data. They might be codes for the characters of a text file, the color of a pixel in an image file, or even a part of a song. The capacity of the hard drive is determined by how many bytes it can hold. For example, a 40 Gigabyte (abbreviated GB) hard drive can hold 40 billion bytes.

Problems with hard drives can occur if they get physically damaged, overheated, or wear out. Hard drive problems can also be caused by malware. You may get error messages about a hard drive failure or your computer simply gets stuck trying to access a certain file. If your hard drive is damaged, there’s very little you can do to save it. You can use data recovery tools to try and retrieve some of the data on it, but most of the time the hardware will need to be replaced.

It's a good idea to protect your hard drive from physical damage and to keep malware off your machine, but all hard drives will eventually wear out, so backup your data regularly just in case. Refer to Cyber Defense Tip: Back up your Data and Cyber Defense Tip: Remote Backup Services for more information on how to do this.

posted by Dr. Keen
topic: How Computers Work