As reported in March, the FBI has uncovered a network of rogue DNS servers and has taken steps to disable them. DNS (Domain Name System) is an Internet service that converts user-friendly domain names into the numerical Internet protocol (IP) addresses that computers use to talk to each other. When you enter a domain name, such as www.fbi.gov,…
As summer heats up, so does mobile payment – a hot topic between major credit card companies, mobile carriers, and mobile manufacturers. First, to give you some perspective, let’s cool down and cite some statistics from November of last year, when “Cyber Monday” was the most successful ever; and mobile purchases skyrocketed on Black Friday.…
There are some things in life that require a “professional” to get the job done properly. You wouldn’t let your cousin Larry who’s a landscaper reset a broken bone in your hand right? You can certainly go to a hardware store and buy all the wood to build a deck, but just because you know…
You may have heard the term jailbreaking or rooting in regards to your mobile phone, but what is this and what does it really mean for you? Jailbreaking is the process of removing the limitations imposed by Apple and associated carriers on devices running the iOS operating system. To “jailbreak” means to allow the phone’s owner…
Many employees have come to expect that they should be able to use personal smartphones and other mobile devices at the office. This creates problems for IT managers. A company’s IT staff may have a solid grasp on company-issued laptops, desktops, and even mobile phones, but it is almost impossible to control the results when…
The day after you get your shiny new mobile or tablet, chances are you’ll take it right to work and request the IT department to set it up with your work email and allow access to the company network. “Bring your own device” (BYOD) has become widely adopted to refer to workers bringing their personal…
Location-based services utilize geo-location information tied to your phones GPS and in some cases your carriers connection and even WiFi Geo-location or geo-tagging can be used on PCs, but is primarily applicable to mobile phones. The geo-location software usually obtains its data from your device’s Internet protocol (IP) address or your global positioning System (GPS) longitude and…
The web and especially the mobile web can be a minefield of malicious links luring you to click, so bad guys can infect your device. Search engines do their best to filter these sites out but nefarious criminals have found ways to get their scammy pages to the top of search through a process called…
So-called “gold farmers” play massive multiplayer online games, not for fun, but to accumulate virtual currency, or “gold,” which can then be sold to other players, despite the fact that most game operators explicitly ban the exchange of in-game currency for cash. Gold farming is so lucrative, people in China and other developing nations can…
To understand why EMV credit cards—or “chip and PIN” cards—are safer, first we must understand standard magnetic stripe cards. The familiar magnetic stripe, which can be seen on all credit cards carried in the United States, has been around for more than four decades. The security technology behind the magnetic stripe has been compromised, since…
