online privacy: How to avoid Online Fundraising Scams
- 11/09/15 10:05 PM
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 Now” button and donate $50. So just how do you know that family who died in the fire really existed?
Gofundme.com and similar sites are loaded with “campaigns,” just tons of them. Think of the logistics involved if these sites hired people to verify every campaign. This would require enormous amounts of time and … (1 comments)
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online privacy: How to prevent your Pics from being lifted: Part 2 of 2
- 10/24/15 11:48 PM
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 a porn site. A person who runs a racy dating site might take your image and use it to advertise his service. Scams
Someone might use, without your knowledge, a photo of your house for a rental scam. Your motorcycle, jet ski, boat, puppy…you name it…could be used for scam for-classified … (2 comments)
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online privacy: How to prevent your Pics from being lifted: Part 1 of 2
- 10/12/15 11:40 PM
You need not be a celebrity or some big wig to suffer the devastating fallout of your online images (and videos) being stolen or used without your permission.
So how does someone steal your image or use it without your permission?
Hacking
Hacking is one way, especially if passwords are weak and the answers to security questions can easily be figured out (e.g., “Name of your first pet,” and on your Facebook page there’s a picture of you: “My very first dog, Snickers”). Malware can be installed on your device if the operating system, browser or security software is out of date. But … (2 comments)
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online privacy: How to Stop Sharing Your Location Information
- 10/02/15 12:05 AM
The Internet helps us connect and share with people around the world, but there are some people with whom you definitely shouldn’t be sharing your information. Although it’s not pleasant to think about, it’s not just friends and family that can see your online posts, bad guys can too, including criminals and even sex offenders.
So, when you take a photo of your kids in your backyard, know that if you post that picture on social media, a predator can potentially obtain the GPS coordinates of where that picture was shot.
This is because every time you take a picture, technical data is … (8 comments)
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online privacy: Mother Nature can ruin your business: Ready for natural disasters now
- 09/28/15 12:02 AM
September is almost over. This means National Preparedness Month is nearing its end. Nevertheless, you must be prepared all year long to stay safe. National Preparedness Month culminates September 30th with National PrepareAthon Day.
In the boxing ring, if you focus on the knockout punches too much, the quick sharp jabs are what may bring you down. This is how some businesses approach their security. They put too much emphasis on preventing that mountainous data breach, while smaller everyday threats sneak by.
Those smaller threats may be difficult to get at, and they can knock you out for good. A company may have all eyes … (14 comments)
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online privacy: 7 Ways to protect Yourself Online
- 09/27/15 11:52 PM
The biggest mistake that you can make to threaten your online safety is to treat the online world different—as far as your private information—than you would treat the physical world. In other words, if someone walked up to you and said, “Hi, can you please provide me with your name, address, birth date, home phone, cell phone, email, usernames, passowords all your friends names and all their contact info?” I think not.
What sane person would pass out cards with their Social Security number, birth date, full name, home address and bank account information to every stranger they walk past on the … (10 comments)
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online privacy: How to prepare for Digital Disasters
- 09/20/15 11:58 PM
Editor’s Note: In this week’s guest blog security expert Robert Siciliano explains how to protect your IT systems and your business from hardware failure. To learn more, download our new e-book, “5 Things Small Businesses Need to Know about Disaster Recovery.”
It is September and that means National Preparedness Month: an ideal time to get involved in your community’s safety. Make plans to stay safe, and this includes keeping ongoing communications alive. National Preparedness Month culminates September 30th with National PrepareAthon! Day.
I can’t believe that people who heavily rely on a computer for business will still suddenly report to clients, “My computer crashed; … (3 comments)
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online privacy: 10 Ways our Privacy is invaded
- 09/20/15 11:53 PM
Once you become active online…and especially once you become “connected” with a smartphone…your privacy will be in sizzling hot demand—and in fact, you can bet that as you read this, it is already being invaded in ways that you couldn’t possibly imagine. Here are some of those ways, provided by wired.com:
Someone could be collecting information on you via a keylogger: It’s a little tool that records your keystrokes, that someone secretly inserts into your computer. A keylogger, however, can also be deposited by malware that you unknowingly downloaded. Tracking technology that retailers use. You are in a large department store … (3 comments)
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online privacy: How to stop Browser Tracking
- 08/17/15 11:35 PM
Maybe you don’t mind the ads for that bicycle rack following you around in cyberspace after you visited a site for all things bike, but browser trackers (“cookies”) also create a profile of you that gets sold to other advertisers and third parties.
Are you doomed to be stalked forever by bike ads? This is caused by third-party cookies. You can use third party software such as CCleaner, which can identify third-party cookies and clean out the cookies in your hard drive. It’s the third-party cookies that are the enemy. The first-party cookies come from the site you visit so that your … (11 comments)
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online privacy: Stay Safe While Traveling this Summer
- 08/05/15 11:52 PM
So, when you think about summer travel safety, what comes to mind? Which beach you’ll be lounging on? Sunburns? Shark attacks? While sunburns and vacation plans are rational concerns most have when traveling during the summer, shark attacks are a new one.
With all of the news of recent shark attacks, people are now anxious about wading into the waters, despite the fact that the chances of getting mauled by a shark are a whopping one in 3.7 million. No guarantees, of course, but your odds are looking pretty good.
Conversely, the odds of getting your identity stolen or your other valuable information compromised while on … (0 comments)
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online privacy: App Tells Who’s Digging into Your Personal Data
- 07/30/15 11:54 PM
Did you know that sometimes, the apps you use for your smartphone have access to your personal information and are capable of sharing it? Are you aware that your privacy can be invaded across the network board? That includes Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+ and more.
And how can you tell which applications can do this? MyPermissions can tell you. Once you load this and do some setting up, you’ll see which apps on your device has access to your information.
For instance, it’s not just a matter of who can get your information, but how often and just what, such as your … (17 comments)
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online privacy: How to sign out of all Google Accounts
- 07/28/15 12:23 AM
Let’s cut to the chase (never mind how you misplaced your phone): There are several ways to sign out of your Google accounts remotely. It takes three steps, and you’ll need the desktop version of Google.
On a mobile use a browser opposed to the Gmail/Google app and sign in at gmail.com. Seek out “Desktop version” at the bottom of the window/browser. Click it. You may need to login again. At the very bottom you will see “Recent Activity” in the right corner. Look below that to see “Details.” Click that. A window will pop up giving you information about your … (2 comments)
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online privacy: Managing Your Online Reputation
- 07/24/15 12:15 AM
You’ve been “Googled.” No matter how small a speck you think you are in this universe, you have without a doubt created an online footprint that is attached to your name. Chances are high that someone out there has followed this footprint of yours via a Google search.
Whether by a business colleague, family member or even a significant other, it’s reasonable to assume that your name will be “searched” online for personal information about you. But, what are the results of these searches? Are you comfortable with what they might have discovered?
Online reputations are a part of everyday life that should … (0 comments)
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online privacy: Time to tighten up Google Privacy Settings
- 07/20/15 11:20 PM
There is good news for the tech-unsavvy out there: Google has made their privacy settings easier to work with. This day has not come a moment too soon. “My Account” is Google’s new dashboard.
When you use any Google account, the giant company collects information on you. The new dashboard will reveal what information this is. My Account also has other privacy related features; check it out first chance that you get. It has the following three sections.
Security
If you get locked out of your Google account, Google will contact you via the phone number and e-mail address you’ll see in this … (12 comments)
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online privacy: Tips to being anonymous Online
- 06/17/15 11:48 PM
One of mankind’s greatest inventions (besides the wheel) is the Internet.
Unfortunately, with this marvelous invention comes the drawback of privacy—or shall we say, lack of.
The Internet is a wonderful tool, but users must fight to remain as anonymous as possible, because getting too much of yourself “out there” could lead to trouble. In fact, it’s a big business all in itself: tracking users’ data and selling it to advertisers. Now this may sound rather benign, because no matter how much or how little of you is “out there,” you’re always going to see ads anyways.
But it’s the idea that other entities … (3 comments)
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online privacy: How to keep a Clean Online Presence
- 06/10/15 11:40 PM
At any given time, someone, somewhere, is probably googling you. This could be a former classmate, a neighbor, someone you’re trying to do business with, a relative, who knows?
Are you confident that whatever they find will be information that’s truly representative of you? Maybe if you have a really common name, it may be lost in cyber muddle, but the more unusual your name is (or how the first name is spelled), the easier it will be to find you. If you want a clean online presence, there are things you can do.
Search yourself on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Google … (2 comments)
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online privacy: The most horrible Craigslist Killing ever
- 05/20/15 11:15 PM
Beware. This is tough to read. An expectant woman had spotted an ad on Craigslist asking for baby clothes, so she contacted the ad placer—a woman—then went to her Longmont, Colorado house alone.
The woman stabbed the would-be seller and removed the seven-month-old fetus. The baby died but the victim survived.
When police arrived, the 26-year-old victim was there but the fetus was gone. The 34-year-old psycho supposedly did not know the victim. She had her husband drive her to the same hospital that the victim went to, claiming that the fetus, which she had with her, was a miscarriage.
Oddly, the stabber has … (5 comments)
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online privacy: Consumers sacrificing Privacy for Convenience
- 05/05/15 11:13 PM
It’s hard to believe that, according to a recent poll from the Pew Research Center, most Americans aren’t too upset that the government can track their e-mails and phone calls. There’s too much of a blasé attitude, it seems, with people thinking, “I don’t care if I’m monitored; I have nothing to hide.”
This blows it for those of us who actually DO mind that the government is snooping around in our communications, even if we’re as innocent as a butterfly.
Privacy experts believe that governmental monitoring of online activities is just such a fixed part of Americans’ lives that we’ve come to … (1 comments)
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online privacy: Protect Yourself from Online Fraud
- 04/28/15 11:57 PM
Yes, it’s possible: preventing fraudsters from getting you via online trickery and other stealthy actions. Yes, it’s possible to be thinking one step ahead of cyber criminals. Let’s begin with e-mails—the conduit through which so many cyber crimes like ID theft occur.
Imagine snail-mailing vital information like your SSN, bank account number, a duplicate of your driver’s license and your credit card number. At some point in the delivery process, someone opens the letter and see the contents. Electronic messages are not entirely private. Recognize this risk before sending knowing that in transmission there is a chance your information can be … (2 comments)
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online privacy: Trolls get Dose of Reality
- 04/27/15 11:54 PM
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 collectively male.
Recently Schilling tweeted how proud he was that his daughter, Gabby, will be playing softball as a pitcher for Salve Regina University. Schilling got a lot of responses. And some were disgusting, including one that mentioned assault (yeah, I’d like to see the dude who posted that try to mess with … (3 comments)
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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.
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