You have a master password, from your password manager, for 28 accounts. Life has been so easy since! But then you lose this master password. First off, you can’t fix this like you would if you forgot your password for PayPal or your credit card’s site. Plus, each password manager service has a different solution.…
Have you ever had the chicken pox? This common childhood illness has another name—the varicella zoster virus. Like all viruses, varicella replicates itself, spreading though the body, and eventually appearing as itchy red blisters all over the body. But the virus doesn’t stop there; it can spread to other people through physical contact and through…
Gee, it sounds like something out of one of those 1970s TV shows about government spies, but it’s reality: Plug this little thing into a wall socket and it records the keystrokes of a person nearby typing into a Microsoft wireless keyboard. The little gadget sends the information back to the gadget’s owner over the…
Spring is in the air (if you’re in the northern hemisphere) and it’s traditionally a time to clean every nook and cranny and get rid of excess stuff in your house. But it’s also a good time to clean up your digital life. Just like your house, your digital life needs a good cleaning once…
WARNING: Removing this video surveillance camera to kill evidence of your robbery will do you chickenfeed because the video of you is being stored in the cloud! Today’s security systems are so much more evolved than they were 20 years ago, even 10 years ago. We’ve all heard of the bright light that goes on…
What’s it called if, for example, someone runs up your credit card line without your permission? Identity theft. ID theft isn’t necessarily someone going around impersonating you. But it is considered someone taking over your accounts. Account takeover is also someone hacking into your computer and getting the password for your PayPal account, then sucking…
The IRS isn’t your biggest enemy during tax season. It’s the criminals who pretend to be IRS reps and then con people out of their money. They contact potential victims chiefly through phone calls and text messages. Typically, the message is threatening in tone and/or content, informing the target they’ll be arrested if they don’t…
Logins that require only a password are not secure. What if someone gets your password? They can log in, and the site won’t know it’s not you. Think nobody could guess your 15-character password of mumbo-jumbo? It’s still possible: A keylogger or visual hacker could obtain it while you’re sitting there sipping your 700-calorie latte…
Is it Bank of America’s fault that a hospital was hacked and lost over a million dollars? Chelan County Hospital No. 1 certainly thinks so, reports an article on krebsonsecurity.com. In 2013, the payroll accounts of the Washington hospital were broken into via cyberspace. Bank of America got back about $400,000, but the hospital is…
The Russians have come…again—in the form of hackers. Not long ago Russian cyber criminals busted into the U.S.’s State Department system and mangled it for months. This time, they got into a computer system at the White House. Luckily, this system did not hold any classified information, but nevertheless, the hackers got ahold of President…
