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This year, many of us got a much more up close and personal relationship with our families, our houses, and our things. And many of us realized: we have way too much of all three. While you can't get rid of your 6-year-old or your spouse, there are plenty of places you can go to unload excess stuff.
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Pre-COVID most of us had never even heard of Zoom. Now many of us spend time on this app every day. And while you may be pretty Zoom-ed out by now, the reality is that even when the pandemic is over, virtual meetings, school sessions, and family gatherings will probably continue to be a bigger part of our lives than they were before. Seeing that it's an inevitable part of our futures, here's how to make the most of virtual communication:
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Anyone that has been around computing for a period of time knows the name Citrix.They have been around for a lllloooooonnnnggg time and have lead several tech segments including computer connectivity and remote computing.Sadly, it has been reported that this amazing company has had its systems compromised and the compromise lasted for approximately five months.
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This past year, it seemed like just about every week there was a new headline about some serious privacy breach, intentional or otherwise, occurring at a major organization. With the increasing popularity of technologies, from genetic testing to health tracking apps and electronic payment services, we're putting more of our important personal information online, and we have less and less understanding of what's being done with that information or how to keep it safe. Here are a few important takeaways from the year in digital privacy, and a few things you can do to make your information safer this year.

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I'm reading more-and-more about Cyber fraud in the news and Insurance Trade Journals.Earlier this week, my favorite security-blogger, Brian Krebs published a report of a dispute between a Texas manufacturing firm and Chubb Insurance Group where the TX firm is suing Chubb to recover $480,000 that was scammed from them by criminals that pretended to be the CEO of the firm.You can read the whole blog here if you want the details, but the short version is that the employee that made the wire transfer relied on an email and telephone call and a pledge of secrecy and the firm was bilked out of $480,000 by wire transfer.The employee got suspicious when the thieves requested an additional $18 Million to complete the deal, otherwise the loss would have been much greater.

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My favorite security author (Brian Krebs) published a blog post this morning that struck me right between the eyes.The full article is available here and is titled "Windows 10 Shares Your Wi-fi with Contacts"... WHAT!?!Here's the opening paragraph: Starting today, Microsoft is offering most Windows 7 and Windows 8 users a free upgrade to the software giant's latest operating system -- Windows 10. But there's a very important security caveat that users should know about before transitioning to the new OS: Unless you opt out, Windows 10 will by default share your Wi-Fi network password with any contacts you may have listed in Outlook and Skype -- and, with an opt-in, your Facebook friends!
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Brian Krebs from Krebsonsecurity.com fame is one of my must-read bloggers.IMHO, Brian is one of the sharpest internet security analysts around and he's also a prolific and excellent writer on security issues - I highly recommend that you subscribe to his blog.Today's article was about ATM skimmers and the slick methods that thieves use to steal the information in the magnetic stripe on the card; it also goes into detail about how they can steal your PIN # and it turns out that one of the methods involves putting a micro-camera in the skimming device so it visually records your keystrokes when you enter your PIN #... here's a valuable tip extracted fromt the article:
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Your home or small business wireless network comes with security but it won't work if you don't turn it on.Doing so is a little involved but most of us, even the most timid, can accomplish the task.The software with most wireless routers includes a security, called WPA or WEP with newer routers, which will allow you to randomly generate an encrypted 'network key'.This key is required to access your wireless network.Each computer using your network will need to be configured one time with the key.After that everything is automatic.
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