A quick break here from security and security solutions to include you in on a little secret. People all over the world, in addition to people I know and love spend money (sometimes mine) on “readings” thinking they are getting inside information on something such as an unforeseen life event or drummed up answers to…
In 2005, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council stated: “The agencies consider single-factor authentication, as the only control mechanism, to be inadequate for high-risk transactions involving access to customer information or the movement of funds to other parties. Account fraud and identity theft are frequently the result of single-factor (e.g., ID/password) authentication exploitation. Where risk…
If you use Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo, you know your email is accessible from any computer or smartphone. That’s because your messages are stored “in the cloud.” What is iCloud? Apple puts it like this: “iCloud stores your music, photos, apps, calendars, documents, and more. And wirelessly pushes them to all your devices — automatically.…
Big companies and big government get big press when their data is breached. And when a big company is hit, those whose accounts have been compromised are often notified. With smaller businesses, however, victims are often left in the dark, regardless of the various state laws requiring notification. One reason for this is that smaller…
Your house isn’t going to catch on fire, right? Well, you hope not, so maybe you even fool yourself into believing it can’t happen. But I’ll bet you have fire insurance, and maybe a collapsible escape ladder, and a fire extinguisher or two. I have all this, and I also back up all my digital…
People steal. Therefore, safes exist. There has always been a need for a place to hide, store, and lock away valuables in order to protect them from thieves. Hundreds or even thousands of years ago, safes were constructed from materials such as wood, granite, cement, brick, and even clay. Today, safes are made with some…
You may have noticed that over the last decade, computers have grown faster and more powerful, with more RAM, bigger hard drives, and improved processors. This is made possible by the development of better, cheaper technology, coupled with a corresponding need on the part of consumers and corporations. It has also come in response to…
Without question, 2011 is the year for hackers of all kinds to get their 15 minutes of fame. But it feels like it’s lasting a lot longer than 15 minutes. With so many different breeds of hackers, each with their own agenda and an endless supply of potential targets, the media has certainly been more…
If someone asked me to go “gold farming,” I’d probably assume we were going to grab a couple pans and head north to a stream in New Hampshire, and with any luck, strike it rich. But gold farming doesn’t refer to literal gold. Rather, gold farmers accumulate virtual currency by playing massive multiplayer online games.…
Is your data in the cloud? Right now as we speak billions are being invested my major corporations to store and back up data in the cloud. It’s cheaper and it’s safer. When you think of a cloud, do you picture fluffy white pillow-things that float in the sky without a care in the world?…
