Ideas from Mark Stout

It’s tough ending a 22-year relationship. Trust was broken not once, but at least twice. And while ultimately confessions were made, it was not until years later -- after it was too late to repair the damage. Thankfully I had ultimately moved on to something younger and flashier. I’m talking about Yahoo. In September they confessed they had been hacked, and half a billion accounts were exposed. If that wasn’t bad enough, they confessed the penetration had occurred two years earlier in 2014. And then just last week, they announced a possible one billion more accounts had been violated. Worse, that penetration had occurred in 2013 and Yahoo didn’t find out until the U.S. government found out and let them know last month.  From both hacks, hackers stole names, birthdates, phone numbers and even passwords that were encrypted with a weak encryption technique. Are you one of the one billion monthly users of Yahoo?  I am. I started using Yahoo soon after they began i...

If you are not using a password vault, LastPass now gives you one less excuse. Their free level now lets you use it on multiple devices . Before you had to pay $12 a year for that feature. I gladly paid the last couple of years. It made managing a multitude of passwords for my many sites easy when using either my PC or my phone. LastPass is well regarded.  You should consider using it to help keep yourself secure. Signup for LastPass

If you are into tech as I am, it is a never ending cornucopia of new apps to try, new gadgets to covet and new capabilities to instill that “We live in the future” feeling. Alas, like everything though, there is a certain amount of housework to do.  Without the drudgery of protecting our devices and networks from viruses and attacks, the fun soon comes to an end, and what should be a friction-free environment for work and fun gets bogged down and aggravatingly useless. Anti-virus and their ilk are boring to think about. I’ve even put this column off for months as I found more entertaining things to write about. If you are running an antivirus on your PC already, give yourself an atta-boy.  Then go check to see if it is indeed still running. Many of us get a free 90-day subscription to McAfee with our PCs.  Problem is that after 90 days we get nagged to pay for the subscription and, instead of paying, often just turn off the nags. If you did pay, find ...

I hate it when the world mocks a recent column. Two weeks ago I extolled the virtues of the Internet of Things devices. This week, they helped cripple large parts of the Internet for the better part of a day. On Friday the 21st, users were unable to reach sites like Twitter, Pinterest, CNN and many others. These sites all used the DYN Corporation to manage their DNS services. When you type in an Internet address, like InsideNova.com, the request is first routed to a Digital Name Service server. There the name is found in a database, and a number is returned to your browser. That number tells your browser where to find the actual InsideNova web server on the net. If that DNS server is down, then your browser will not find the content you are seeking.    DYN manages the DNS servers for the companies that became unreachable Friday. DYN was attacked by an unknown entity using a denial of service attack, or DOS for short. In a DOS attack a site is flooded ...

Have you planned on things going wrong in your tech life?  They will.  Better to plan on it now and be ready. And if you are sending a student away to school with a laptop, plan now on it breaking or getting stolen or some other catastrophe. In July we talked about backup options.  Have you started using one yet? Have you setup your student with an automatic, offsite backup system so they do not have to think about it? You will need it. That is almost a certainty. What about anti-virus, for the the PCs at home and those going to college?  Get them installed now, and if there is a subscription, make sure it is paid through the end of the school year. For the college students, check the school’s bookstore or website. Often schools have requirements for anti-virus software for all PCs that use their networks, and site licenses to provide it to students for free. Before you buy any software for students, check with the university. Besides site license...

You wake up one morning to find an ominous message on your PC. All your files are now encrypted, it says, and you are forbidden access to them unless you pay thousands of dollars.  This nightmare has crippled hospitals, businesses and individuals. It is called ransomware, and the  FBI reports  it is on the rise. It used to be that trying to fool you into giving up information, so someone could steal your identity was the No. 1 goal of online crooks. Now it is ransomware. This column is to help your director of family IT keep all your PCs and devices safe. While the likelihood of someone encrypting your PC is relatively low, it is painless for the perpetrator and could cost you thousands of dollars if you choose to pay the ransom. A user is tricked into installing a piece of malware on their PC. The malware runs in the background and encrypts your files using a strong encryption algorithm. It then posts a message instructing you to send money via Bitcoin within a short per...

General Michael Hayden (former NSA and CIA director) said in an interview at Disrupt NY 2016, that he disagrees with Federal Law Enforcement's desire to break encryption. “The arc of technology is in the direction of unbreakable encryption and no laws are going to get in the way of that reality,” He goes on to tell those people “My advice is, get over it. There’s still a lot of things you can legitimately do to make America safe through electronic surveillance,” He also had some interesting things to say about the candidates.   He said Trump’s national security understanding is at “a level of sophistication that’s a half-a-level below bumper stickers,” and that Trump’s discussion of keeping Muslims out of the country provided fodder to jihadist narratives. He also doesn't like Clinton much either, "referring to her decision to operate her own email server out of her home as the “original sin.” This is an important read about privacy, encryption, and security. ...

Following the recent attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, some politicians are again trumpeting the need to give law enforcement access to all encrypted messages. The theory is, if we could read the texts and email terrorists send and receive, we would know their plans. A law would require makers of encryption products to build a backdoor into their software that law enforcement would access. FBI Director James B. Comey has long advocated law enforcement be given this tool. The New York Times reported recently it appeared Comey had lost an internal struggle within the administration to force Apple, Google and others to decode messages for law enforcement. It is unclear how, or even if, security software made in other countries could be compelled to provide backdoors to U.S. law enforcement. The easiest way to understand how this might work is to look at a physical system. The Transportation Safety Administration requires the ability to unlock suitcases for security inspecti...

Are you are going away for the holidays and do you plan to share your adventures via social media? There is a group who will pay rapt attention – and most importantly – when you will be home. Burglars. I’ve always found it unsettling how much information about being away from home some share online. Recently, a young couple we know avidly documenting  their cruise. Another friend, who travels frequently on business, uses Tripit to manage his various  itineraries. Tripit will share your travels to Facebook, if you choose. I always know  when he is leaving, and I am alerted when he’s on his way home. I worry about the  wife and teenage daughters when he leaves at home. A recent Facebook post from county police confirmed the danger of sharing your  travel information online. It points out posts mentioning travel or showing check-ins  at airports or airline lounges can indicate travel – to bad guys. Read the rest at www.FamilyTechOnline.com

A new Family Tech column is out.

I've written about LastPass before as a good repository for your passwords. LastPass is urging users change their master passwords  after a recent intrusion. Doesn't sound like this is the end-of-the-world for LastPass users, but I have changed my master password, and suggest everyone follow LastPass' advice.

How To Geek has a great post today warning about free Antivirus apps .

Had a friend ask today how kids in her high school could locate a lost or stolen smartphone.  Instead of answering by email, I decided to write it here for all. These methods will work only if your phone is turned on, and is in a place it can make contact.  If it isn't these methods can wait until the phone is visible on the cell network. iPhone On a PC, go to icloud.com Login with the phone owner's iTune username and password When this page appears, click "Find My Phone"

I finally broke down and started using a password manager.  What took me so long? It's a good idea, and the topic of this  Family Tech column .

One of the scariest things that can happen in our online lives, is to lose control of our email account.   What do you do if it happens to you? That is the topic of the Family Tech just published to the web.

I don't think anyone reading this blog would fall for this, but alert your less tech saavy family and friends that Microsoft will never call them to tell them there is a virus on their PC. There's a scam apparently that's been going around for a few years that could cost users money, control of their PC and time. The Family Tech for March 21, 2013 covers it.

There are spy cams everywhere.  Would they help in your home?  Are you being recorded in meetings? All this in this week's Family Tech column .

A friends teens love to find their Mom's Facebook account open, so they can do some mischief.  They are good kids.  But others could do you real harm.  This is the topic of last Sunday's Family Tech column .

Too often we consider passwords a pain and a hindrance to our online life.  in reality, they are the keys and locks protecting our lives in the twenty-first century.  This is the topic of this week's Family Tech column .