Social media is the fifth form of mainstream media. At this point, most people know how to use social media, and how to navigate the various websites. But what most users don’t yet realize is how social media can be used against them. Social media identity theft occurs for a number of reasons. 1. An…
Fortunately not all burglars are Tom Cruise like in a scene from Mission Impossible. While some are violent, most of them are bumbling buffoons who need their next fix and just jiggle door knobs and make a quick hit and run to sell your stuff for a $10 vile. One such dumb criminal took advantage…
Whether you’re a road warrior or simply own multiple PCs and want access to all your data from anywhere, here are a few easy ways to do it, and one not so easy option. All of these options are secure, as long as you don’t leave a remote PC logged into your account, or log…
Admittedly, I don’t know EVERYTHING about computers. I know enough to break them and enough to fix them most of the time. But, occasionally I need help. Generally that help comes in the form of remote assistance from Dell, where I buy all my PCs. With each PC I get the 3 year Dell warranty,…
The Ever Present Credit Card Scam When people ask me, “How do I protect myself from credit card fraud?” I tell them, “Cancel the card, or never use it.” Because that’s the only way. Otherwise, all you can do is hope the merchant has a sophisticated system in place to mitigate the fraud. The FBI’s…
The Department of Defense proclaims, “The national security depends on our defense installations and facilities being in the right place, at the right time, with the right qualities and capacities to protect our national resources.” But by relying on Social Security numbers as primary identifiers, this same organization puts the identities of soldiers and their…
The lowest of low life scammers generally prey upon the weaker and often the frail. And all too often that is children or elderly. In this case, snow removal scams happen when we have winters like this one where snow is piling up 6-10 feet over the course of the season. Daily television news reports…
The number of households in the United States that rely solely on wireless telephones continues increasing. More than one in four households had cell phones and no landlines in the first half of 2010, which is an increase of 2.1% since the second half of 2009. And almost one in six households uses cell phones…
Neither, they are just a mechanism to how the Web works. The bigger question is, are the uses thereof good or bad. Microsoft, Google, and Firefox are implementing do-not-track features into their browsers, giving consumers the option to block cookies that may track their surfing for advertising purposes. Most major websites now install cookies on your…
You don’t reach Platinum Medallion status on Delta by sitting on your back porch. I got there by schlepping all over the country, from one airport and hotel to the next. And technology definitely plays a major role in making my trips more manageable. I swear by the following apps: Tripit is a free app…
