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

February 17 2009

Date?

I noticed Dr. Keen wearing different clothes the other evening, and putting something red on her lips. I'm not used to her with red lips. I asked her why her lips were red and she said something about going on a "date" with Officer Ward. I don't understand what she meant. I told her the date was February 14th. She just laughed.

What does it mean, going on a date?

posted by Scout
topic: Miscellaneous

February 16 2009

How Computers Work: What is a Motherboard?

The motherboard, also called the logic board or mainboard, is a board with electrical circuits printed on it that holds many components essential for a computer’s function. The electrical circuits on the board allow the components to receive power and communicate with each other.

A desktop computer motherboard usually contains the microprocessor chip and the main memory, and you can attach video and sound controllers, external storage, and other peripherals to them with cards or cables. It’s also very common for manufacturers to integrate some of these components directly onto the motherboard itself.

Integrated boards are easier to manage and usually less expensive. You also don’t need to buy any components separately; everything comes in a nice, tidy package. But they don’t offer the best performance and you can’t upgrade the components. You also can’t really replace broken components on an integrated board, so you usually have to replace the whole board instead.

posted by Dr. Keen
topic: How Computers Work

February 3 2009

Cyber Defense Tip: Watch out for Internet Scams

One of the easiest ways for cyber criminals to steal is to simply trick people them into trusting them. They create elaborate scams, deceiving people by gaining their confidence and then stealing from them. Using Social Engineering techniques, they can trick people into giving them money or their personal information by offering great deals, free offers, and lots of money in return if you just trust them.

Here's a few tips for recognizing if something is a scam:

  • The company doesn't reveal their name, address, or phone number
  • They make lots of claims about their product that they don't back up or provide links to reviews about it
  • They go on and on about how rich you are going to be without really revealing the details
  • They say that it is not a scam
  • What they're offering sounds too good to be true, like a free laptop computer or promises of millions of dollars
  • They're offering to let you in on a secret that only a few people know about
  • You have to pay a fee to find out the details of the offer
  • They ask for your credit card number or a donation

Be on the watch for Internet scams. There are many of them out there. Consumerfraudreporting.org has a list of the top 10 Internet Scams of 2008, and maybe you’ve even come across some of them.

You have to be careful when buying things on the Internet and only use reliable sites. Refer to Maya's post Using the Web: Online Shopping Reliability for tips on determining if a site is a reliable place to shop, and be extra careful about offers that sound too good to be true. They usually are.

posted by Dr. Keen
topic: Cyber Defense Tips