TechTeachToo

The Very Real Dangers of Oversharing Online

Dave — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 01:18:06 +0000

February 2010 – Please Rob Me – http://ow.ly/6Tlvs PleaseRobMe.com is a website that uses Twitter’s search functionality to show location-based messages. Their goal is to raise awareness about the potential risks of location-awareness and over-sharing. The issue with location-based information is that it exposes another layer of personal information that, frankly, we haven’t had to [...]

Can You Say “Government Watchdogs?”

Dave — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 01:39:33 +0000

Just this week 2 stories broke on the possibility of governments, the U.S. And Germany, encroaching on the privacy of private citizens. 10/7/11 – “An internal U.S. Department of Homeland Security document indicates that a controversial program designed to predict whether a person will commit a crime is already being tested on some members of [...]

Malware – The Latest Exploits

Dave — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 01:52:50 +0000

These stories, taken from August & September 2011, show cyber criminals exploiting every human emotion to get malware into your computer. The more you know about their methods, the safer you will be. For the uninitiated, an explanation of malware, botnets, zombies, etc is here: http://ow.ly/6Q06N. Read on… Although some Mac owners still think their [...]

Officials Admit Sophisticated Cyber Attacks on Utilities & Industries

Dave — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 22:39:00 +0000

I wasn’t aware that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has “defense labs intended to protect the nation’s power grid, water systems and other vulnerable infrastructure.” That’s a good thing. In this Washington Post article (http://ow.ly/6PYcZ) officials say the experts in these labs responded to requests for assistance 116 times in 2010 and 342 times [...]

Is This the Future of HealthCare?

Dave — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 05:13:42 +0000

Finally, someone is using technology to revolutionize healthcare administration. Every time I’m in a doctor’s office, filling out yet another set of paperwork (on paper), I wonder why I can’t do that at home in front of a computer. I wonder why there are so many forms and why I have to write identical information [...]

10 Consumer Groups, Lawmakers Want Facebook Privacy Investigation

Dave — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 05:43:50 +0000

Australian Nik Cubrilovic recently wrote a blog post entitled “Logging out of Facebook is not enough” (http://ow.ly/6KGi2). In that post Nik revealed that Facebook was tracking users even after they logged out of Facebook. In this post, Nik said: The advice is to log out of Facebook. But logging out of Facebook only de-authorizes your [...]

Generating Electricity While You Walk?

Dave — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:18:58 +0000

That’s the concept of some researchers from from the University of Wisconsin Madison. They think the concept may be able to generate as much as 20 watts wile you walk. Here are some quotes from an article (http://ow.ly/6E6bA) at TechCrunch: “What they’ve done is introduce a fluid made up of tiny metal microdroplets into a [...]

Why You Don’t Need Adobe Reader

Dave — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:47:10 +0000

I recently read an article (http://ow.ly/6E5dr) by one of my favorite security gurus, Michael Horowitz. It’s a bit long but very thorough and contains a discussion of the safety and security of Adobe Reader. I read a similar article by Michael several years ago and switched away from Adobe Reader as a result. Since then [...]

Despite Serious Eradication Efforts, Zeus Malware Still a Major Problem

Dave — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 02:10:46 +0000

Zeus malware has been the malware of choice for many cyber criminals. It’s been responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars of losses (http://ow.ly/6DXXH) from small businesses, governments, and individuals. Yet despite the effort to shut down Zeus, Microsoft says (http://ow.ly/6DYaS) it’s still quite active. How active? Microsoft Security Essentials is cleaning Zeus off Windows [...]

Cybercriminals Enlist Preschoolers to Help Install Malware

Dave — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 09:56:11 +0000

Letting preschoolers on a computer is not a good idea. Letting them or an older sibling download anything unsupervised is a recipe for disaster. If parents need a reason to be wary of such activities, keep reading. According to a recent article in MalwareCity.com (http://ow.ly/6DYs1) cybercriminals are now creating online games suitable for preschoolers that [...]