We’re told to change our passwords often to minimize getting hacked. Now we’re told this is a bad thing. But not for any inherent techy reason. It’s because frequent password changing makes many people lower their guard when it comes to creating new passwords. They get lax and end up with passwords like Bear1, Crazy4u…
Bad news for users of the Xfinity home security system: It can report locked doors and windows that have been bypassed by an intruder and miss an intruder’s movements, says an article on wired.com. The intruder circumvents the system by using a radio jammer to block the 2.4 GHz radiofrequency band of the alarm system.…
Everyone has received very obvious “phishing” e-mails: Messages in your in-box that have outrageous subject lines like “Your Account Will Be Suspended,” or, “You Won!” While some phishing attacks are obvious, others look harmless, such as those in a person’s workplace in-box, seemingly from their company’s higher-ups. Researchers point out that an e-mail may appear…
Disasters happen every day. Crashing hard drives, failing storage devices and even burglaries could have a significant negative impact on your business, especially if that data is lost forever. You can avoid these problems by backing up your data. Backing up means keeping copies of your important business data in several places and on multiple…
The computers in your household should have controls on them for security—even if you don’t have children living with you. Chrome OS On the Chrome browser in the upper right are three horizontal lines; click this symbol. Click “Add supervised user.” Enter the name and password for the new account. This allows the other family…
$200 million: The amount people were ripped off by online dating scams in a year. DUI: dating while under the influence…of the quest for love…is costly to countless people. A nytimes.com article notes that this quest impairs judgment, making it easy for con artists to bilk lonely people. Or are some people just plain stupid?…
Here’s one for the know-it-alls: Kids are 35 percent more likely to become victims of identity theft than are adults. Betcha didn’t know that! This startling news comes from a 2015 Javelin Strategy & Release study. Needless to say, the bulk of parents aren’t on top of this problem, unaware that thieves go after children’s…
Some people believe that monitoring your kids’ online activities crosses the line of privacy or trust. But monitoring and controlling online activities is, essentially, no different than controlling access to the cookie jar or TV or even locking a liquor cabinet. Which brings me to a way that parents can always know exactly what their…
13.1 million people were stricken by identity theft last year in America, reports a study by Javelin Strategy & Research which reveals: Many people who don’t trust their banks are unwittingly doing things that make crime easier for crooks. This includes not using the bank’s protection services such as e-mail alerts. Oddly, there are more…
Cyber criminals have been attempting to extort money from individuals and companies for many years, and the latest attempt to take advantage of others is by using Ransomware as a Service, or RaaS. A ransomware virus infects a computer when a user clicks a link and unknowingly download a malicious file. The ransomware virus then…
