You’re dreaming of a white Christmas, and hackers are dreaming of a green Christmas: your cash in their pockets. And hackers are everywhere, and are a particular threat to travelers. Prior to leaving for your holiday vacation, have an IT specialist install a disk encryption on your laptop if you plan on bringing it along;…
Have you ever wondered what kind of superpower you’d have? I’ve always wanted to send messages and ideas with my mind to others. My dream can sort of come true with near-field communications (NFC). You’ve might not have heard of NFC, but if you have a smartphone, there’s a good chance you’ve used it. If…
Charles Cullen of New Jersey may have murdered up to 400 people, though around 35 murders have been confirmed. He’s currently serving a sentence of 127 years. As a nurse, he killed patients at the hospitals he worked at. A form or mercy killing as he believed his actions to be. Unlike some serial killers…
A criminal can do a lot with “only” your Social Security number, says a report from darkreading.com. Okay, so he doesn’t have the name that goes with the number. Big deal—he’ll just make one up to go with it! This is called synthetic identity theft. And this crime has proven worthwhile for the crooks. Nowadays,…
How does my mobile phone know I like tools, electronic gadgets and tarantulas? It keeps showing me ads for these products! Christmas is coming and my kids like bugs, big bugs. How does it know? It’s called “supercookies”. And they aren’t yummy. If Verizon is your carrier, that’s why. Verizon uses a “unique identifier token…
“Don’t be afraid of the dark” is a reassurance that burglars never need; they need to hear, “Be afraid of the lights.” A house that’s often dark sends a flare to burglars that nobody’s home, or, at least, that nobody will see the burglar doing what he does best. Most people know of the automatic…
Are you one who believes you’re too smart, too savvy, to get your identity stolen in the social media world? Nobody thinks this will happen to them, and Stephanie Francis, 24, was no exception to that way of thinking. A report from firstcoastnews.com that the Jacksonville, Florida woman claims her identity was stolen—on social media…
Whoever thought that one day, paying with green paper would be viewed as primitive as a horse and buggy? We seem to be getting closer to that time, especially since the security of making payments via smartphone is always being improved. One way is with fingerprint scanning. Some smartphones already have this biometric feature. But…
Many Americans, says a recent survey by Gallup, worry about a data breach connected to the use of their credit cards. Interestingly, many people use a credit card for everything under the sun: even just a soda and bag of chips from the convenience mart. The more you use a credit card, the more likely…
The video of Carlesha Freeland-Gaither, 22, being grabbed on a street corner and forced along a sidewalk to her assailant’s car gripped the nation, bringing more attention than ever to how easy it seems for an unarmed man to abduct a woman. There are things a woman can do to help prevent such a situation,…
