safety (115)

Secure your home for the holidays

The holiday season is ramping up. And so are burglars. Even if you don’t get very festive, burglars may still target your home. Your dark, unlit home among all the dazzling festive homes will stick out like a sore thumb. Whether you have 10,000 decorative lights on or none, here’s what to do:

  • Keep all possible entrances (even the second-story window next to the big tree branches) locked at all times with high quality locks in excellent working condition.
  • Put reinforcements on your doors so that th
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How to pwn Anyone

Define Pwn: Pwn is a slang term derived from the verb own, as meaning to appropriate or to conquer to gain ownership. The term implies domination or humiliation of a rival. And when it’s done by hacking email, the person is effectively pwned. No matter how “private” you are on the Internet, no matter how infrequently you post on your Facebook page—even if you don’t have a Facebook account—your life can be hacked into as long as you own just one password—and the ability to be tricked.

Such was the

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Is that Viral Story real?

The Internet has almost as many videos as there are stars in the heavens. And you know that some have to be hoaxes. Sometimes it’s obvious, while other times it’s easy to be fooled. For example, the hoax of the “angel” intercepting a truck just about to run over a bicyclist is obviously fake. Isn’t it?

But what about the video of the man cut in half by a bus while riding a bicycle, lying on the ground, staring at his intestines, talking for a full five minutes, while his pelvis and legs lie catty

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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 family this holiday season, here are some ways to protect your laptop and your personal data:

  • Get a cable lock for your laptop. It’s a great way to deter a potential thief, especially if there are lots of people around.
  • Register with a
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Infrastructures under attack

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 hackers have cracked into the U.S. Department of Energy’s networks 150 times; they’ve stolen blueprints and source code to our power grid as well. Some say they have the capability to shut down the U.S.

The bits.blogs.nytimes.com arti

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Hackers know small companies are more vulnerable to data breaches due to limited resources. Cybersecurity should always be a high priority. But when a company’s IT staff consists of maybe 1-2 people who are provided limited budgets and are constantly solving other tech problems, the focus on security suffers. And hackers aren’t the only problem. One significantly overlooked part of the security process “cleaning” the IT infrastructure.

IT staff being and small business owners must keep on top of:

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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

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7 Ways to protect Yourself Online

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, birt

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One of the reasons you—and many others—don’t have your alarm on during the day is because you know you’ll keep forgetting to turn it off every time you want to step into the garage or go outside. So you just keep it off. And that’s not smart because many home invasions and burglaries occur during daylight hours.

Typically, home security systems require you to push buttons.

  • What if you panic and forget the code?
  • What if you accidentally disable it?
  • What if your naughty visiting nephew messes with it?
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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 PrepareAthon! Day.

If a burglar sees your Facebook status that you are traveling on vacation and then enters your house, and takes $10,000 worth of valuables, it’s safe to say you as the homeowner facilitated the theft.

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Some of us remember college dorm days, when students were envied if they had their own typewriter. These days, college students must have a personal laptop computer, and a smartphone, and their lives revolve around these connected devices.  Such dependency should be proactively protected from loss or theft.  Campus security now means more than just being beware of who might be hiding in the bushes at night.

When you send your college kid off into the world, you want them to be prepared for life’s

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Stay Safe While Traveling this Summer

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 look

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Those were the days when all parents had to worry about was the creepy guy lurking near the playground. Now parents have to worry about creeps all over the world reaching their kids via computer. And there’s more to worry about. Here’s what to teach your kids:

  • Screen names should not be revealing about location, age or even gender. Never use the full name. Choose a name that would never outright point to the user, such as “Chris J,” when everyone knows the user as Tina Jones. “Chris” can make Tin
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Managing Your Online Reputation

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

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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.

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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
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DC Murders as horrific as it gets

The latest report says that Darron Dellon Dennis Wint did not act alone in the arson murder of a Washington, D.C., family and their housekeeper. You might wonder how a $4.5 million mansion—presumably with top-flight smoke alarms—could burn enough to kill the occupants.

A cnn.com report says they were held against their will since the day prior to the May 14 fire. Wint is being held without bond.

It’s too soon, however, to draw conclusions, as other people are being interviewed by police.

Wint was a

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Social Media Scams on the rise

Social media is a conduit for thieves to get personal data (they can use it, for instance, to open up a credit line in the victim’s name). Though many people are concerned their personal information will get in the wrong hands, the funny thing is that they continue posting personal information—way too personal.

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center says that social media is a fertile area for criminals to scam people.

Phishing

You are lured to a phony website that masquerades as your bank or so

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The absolute must for air travel is aviation safety. Proof of the seriousness in addressing the issue of aviation safety is the fact that the US has been taking steps to bring standards to improve aviation safety from almost the very beginning of commercialization of air travel. Aviation being the kind of activity that it is; aviation safety has to be so comprehensive that it should take into consideration all the possible factors that could contribute to a lack of it. This makes aviation safety

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ATM Skimming rising, again

Do you know what ATM stands for? For crooks, it stands for A Thief’s Moneymaker.

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A new report from FICO says that “skimming” crimes have made their biggest spike in the past 20 years. This includes ATMs on bank premises, but of course, public ATM kiosks have seen the biggest spike.

The thief tampers with the ATM’s card receiver; the installed gadget collects card data which the thief retrieves later. “Skimming,” as this is called, also refers to capturing the PIN via a hidden camera.

With the stole

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Tips to being anonymous Online

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

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