It can be tough being a responsible adult sometimes, and managing these responsibilities isn’t always a chore that I want to deal with. Can you relate? Managing life takes focus and effort, and managing your online life is no different. Most of us are lazy with our online accounts, ... Views: 910
“I had my earphones in and didn’t know he was there until he threw me to the ground,” says Taela Davis, 25, of Australia in a heraldsun.com article.
Big Mistake: Wearing earbuds while walking about in public. Even if you’re a big bruiser MMA fighter, you should not ... Views: 910
Disgruntled employees act out in lots of ways. A guy I knew who hated his boss “played” on his work computer all day. The computer was strictly for constructing company graphics. But he installed all kinds of games and wasted lots of time. His boss never knew he blew off half the ... Views: 909
A bear in the wild that wants to protect its young from another predator isn’t worried about manners. This is how people should feel when in circumstances that don’t feel right. The bear has a gut instinct not to let its young near a predator.
A woman who feels funny about getting ... Views: 908
Bad guys hacked bad guys. Hmmm, whose side should we take?
Ashleymadison.com got hacked. This site helps and suggests married people cheat. The hack threatens millions of users, potentially revealing their credit card information, addresses, real names, pictures and content of their chat ... Views: 908
These days, who doesn’t travel with their laptop? But commonality doesn’t make it inherently safe for your sensitive information that’s stored in the device. In fact, traveling with your laptop is inherently unsecure.
Whether you’re traveling for business or to visit ... Views: 908
Curl up in a chair at your favorite coffee house, the aroma of premium coffee filling the air, take a few sips of your 700 calorie latte, and then enter cyberspace. Little do you know that you could have a stalker. Or two. Or 3,000. Because public Wi-Fi is there for the picking for hackers. ... Views: 907
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 ... Views: 907
It’s one thing to bust into your kid’s diary and read it, but if your kids want the privilege of engaging in the cyber world, they need to understand that parents are justified in “spying” on them. Or are they? Depends on whom you ask and how far they go at “spying” on their kids.
Frankly ... Views: 907
Well, you know that old saying: The viciousness of an online bully’s attack is inversely proportional to the size of his (you fill in the blank), I was thinking ego.
Many online bullies are female, but in the case of former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling’s daughter, the trolls are ... Views: 907
A bug bounty refers to the reward a bad-guy hacker gets upon discovering a vulnerability, weakness or flaw in a company’s system.
This is akin to giving a reward to a burglar for pointing out weaknesses in your home’s security.
But whom better to ask than a burglar, right? Same ... Views: 907
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, ... Views: 906
What would you rather have happen to you? A Russian ring of hackers has infiltrated your computer and smartphone and is hell-bent on taking control of your finances, social media life, even the smart gadgets in your house…OR…you’ve just been diagnosed with paranoid psychosis, ... Views: 906
As the holiday season creeps upon us, research shows that an astonishing 24% people who are buying online have been duped by scammers. Whether you are buying shoes, electronics or the latest fashions and accessories, research companies are showing that you are at risk of being duped.
When you ... Views: 906
Why are so many burglaries hounding the town of Los Altos in California? There were 79 reported in 2013, but 118 for 2014. This past January and February there were 36. At that rate, by Christmas 2015, it’s unthinkable what the total number of burglaries will be.
In a report on ... Views: 906
Worried about your teen causing a car accident from drinking too much? How about from being distracted too much? According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, distracted driving accounted for 58 percent of medium to severe wrecks involving teenagers, based on analysis of about 1,700 ... Views: 905
What a disgrace: A private investigator, Eric Saldarriaga, 41, got nailed for hacking into peoples’ e-mails. He may get six months in the can. Is six months reasonable for this, though?
A recent online New York Times article quotes a prosecutor who points out that hackers could be ... Views: 905
Who has time to think about identity protection when planning a wedding? And why, for that matter? Well, there’s good reason: Marriage begets a change in identities. The months preceding the big day should be when the couple starts taking action to avoid identity theft.
If ... Views: 903
Everyone’s heard of spam as it pertains to emails. Spam isn’t necessarily a malicious message designed to trick you into revealing your credit card number or PayPal login information.
But spam is an unsolicited message, sometimes referred to as junk mail. Spam can be ... Views: 903
If you have a cell phone, and you use it in any way associated with accessing online accounts (and many do), you are putting yourself at risk of getting hacked. With only a phone number and a bit of information, which is easy to get through social engineering, a hacker can break into your ... Views: 903
After Santa has gone back to the North Pole to take a long rest, don’t think for a second that burglars too will be resting in January.
True, the holidays are a prime time for many burglaries, knowing that underneath that gargantuan Christmas tree in the picture window is surely a pile ... Views: 902
“Wes” is a professional man who, if you saw walking on the street, you‘d easily imagine being jumped by a few teen punks and getting beaten up for his wallet. Wes is nearing retirement age, has a potbelly, doesn‘t work out, has grey hair—hardly an imposing figure.
But ... Views: 900
If you haven’t yet heard, Equifax, one of the three major credit bureaus in the United States, has been hacked. What does this mean for you? It means that your Social Security number, and possibly even your driver’s license information, could be in the hands of hackers. Some are ... Views: 899
If I wanted to crack one of your passwords, I could probably make a series of educated guesses and get pretty close. Why? Because people tend to stick with simple, easy to remember passwords, but these are the passwords that are easy to hack. According to Bill Carey, VP Marketing for ... Views: 899
Zeus is no longer a god of malware; he’s been taken down by law enforcement agencies spanning six European nations. Five people were recently arrested—believed to have infected tens of thousands of computers across the globe. There have been 60 total arrests pertaining to this ... Views: 899
A phishing e-mail is sent by a cyberthief to trick its recipient into revealing sensitive information so that the crook could steal money from the recipient or gain access to a business’s classified information. One way to lure an employee is for the crook to make the e-mail appear like it ... Views: 898
Crimes against women are often “crimes of opportunity”. The predator doesn’t care if the opportunity presents itself in a major bustling city or in a tiny town with a population of only 400. If he sees prey and nobody else is around, he’ll strike—big town, medium town or small ... Views: 897
Who’d ever think that 50 years ago, your money was safer in your bank account than it is today in this “modern” age: remote theft. If you bank with a large or small bank, your account may be at risk by hacking rings.
However, most of the time, but not always, if your account ... Views: 897
Most experts in cybersecurity suggest that computer users utilize a password manager, and I think they have a great point. These managers ensure that you can use a unique, strong password for all online account. On the flip side, there are naysayers that state a password manager isn’t as ... Views: 897
There’s only one entrance to the house: a steel door two feet thick. If someone from the outside touched the door—even with a battering ram—they’ll get an electric shock. No bad guys could get through, right?
Well, suppose the bad guy tricks the homeowner into opening ... Views: 896
To help keep your home and property safe from crime, the New Castle County Police Department provides the following guidelines:
Sounds like a no-brainer, but so many people do otherwise: Keep your doors locked at all times. People will actually go to sleep with the front door ... Views: 896
That’s a horrible question to ask. There is a very alarming report on nbcsandiego.com, about a dad who regularly checked on his kids in the middle of the night, and one night at 2 a.m., upon checking his 12-year-old daughter’s room, saw that she was gone. The window was open.
He ... Views: 895
At least one woman is happy that her driver drove like a drunk. That’s because his erratic driving caught the attention of troopers who pulled him over. They then heard a woman calling for help—from the backseat. She was bound and gagged with a bag over her head.
The 41-year-old ... Views: 894
It’s been stated more than once that WWIII will most likely be cyber-based, such as dismantling a country’s entire infrastructure via cyber weapons. And don’t think for a moment this doesn’t mean murdering people.
A report at bits.blogs.nytimes.com notes that foreign ... Views: 894
If the person you are sending an e-mail to pretty much instantaneously receives it, how on earth can you unsend or cancel it? Well, you have several options.
Criptext
This is a browser plug-in that works for Chrome and Safari.
Your message including attachments will be encrypted.
You ... Views: 893
Talk about getting taken to the cleaners: Imagine you spot a great summer rental property advertised online. Looks wonderful. The deal sounds too good to be true, but the owner tells you (via e-mail or even phone) that the fee is correct. You apply for the rent and send in the required upfront ... Views: 892
So, who’s on your holiday gift list this year? That list is a lot longer than you think; consider all the names of hackers that have not yet appeared on it. Scammers will do whatever it takes to get on your holiday gift list! Here’s how to keep these cyber thieves out of your ... Views: 891
You have likely heard of the dangers of using unsecure public Wi-Fi, so you know that hackers are out there snooping. It is pretty easy to hack into a laptop or mobile device that is on a public Wi-Fi connection with no protection. Hackers can read your emails, steal passwords, and even hijack ... Views: 890
There are many reasons someone might right-click on your image and “Save image as…”
Porn, Sex and Dating Sites
A woman might steal your blog headshot and use it for her dating site profile.
A perv might take the picture of your child off your Facebook page and put it on ... Views: 890
Gone are the days of the fat wallet bursting at the seems, since smartphones can now contain most anything that a wallet does—except the driver‘s license. But don‘t write that possibility off just yet.
Forbes.com reports on a story from the Des Moines Register that the Iowa ... Views: 889
Sexting is the act of sending images of a sexual nature via cell phone, often naked pictures. Because texting technology is so readily available and easy to understand, parents should be quite leery of telling themselves, “Oh, MY kid would never do that!” Studies showy your kid ... Views: 889
National Preparedness Month is happening right now. It’s the perfect time to take action for you and your community. It’s all about making plans to remain safe, and when disasters do strike, to keep communications going. September 30th is the culmination of NPM, with the National ... Views: 889
Do we really get wiser with old age, or just more vulnerable to all the scammers out there? Here are the top scams directed towards senior citizens.
IRS
The phone rings; it’s from the IRS, claiming you owe money.
Caller ID says IRS (spoof technology).
Caller says if you don’t ... Views: 889
Scamerama is here to stay! Scams are as old as time, and evolve as inventions and technology evolve. Top scams, according to a report on FraudAvengers.com, are as follows:
Scammer “accidentally” overpays you for an item you sold online; you cash the crook’s phony check and ... Views: 889
#1. Keep everything up to date. You know those annoying popups telling you updates are available? Do you ever click out of them? Don’t. Always update at the time these appear.
#2. Two-step verification. Two-step verification or authentication should be set up for all your accounts that ... Views: 888
Of all the weird things that can happen to your iOS device, the latest is a relatively benign situation in which a string of text is sent to the phone…and it causes the phone to crash.
The phone will reboot if the particular nonsensical text string is received while the phone is locked.
Data ... Views: 888
Is it easier for crooks to prey on senior citizens, or is it that most targets are the seniors?
Well, one thing’s for sure: A disproportionate percentage of identity theft complaints come from people 50-plus (though I’m sure some readers would hardly consider 50-somethings to be ... Views: 887
Just when you think it was safe to believe your Social Security number can’t get stolen…news breaks of the Anthem data breach. Over 80,000,000 patient records were compromised, including SSNs and home addresses. Like a meteor striking the earth, a disastrous ripple effect is ... Views: 887
There are many ways that you or a small business could get caught up in a social media disaster. Can you think of any off the top of your head? If you are like most of us, probably not. Here are 14 ways that you could be in danger:
A Terrible Online Reputation – Do you keep a watchful ... Views: 886
You’ve probably heard of the gofundme.com site, where all sorts of stories are posted of people seeking donations. Some are tragic, others are trite. You may be touched by a particular story, perhaps one in which an entire family is killed in a house fire.
You click the “Donate ... Views: 886