This Week’s Items of Interest

Here are a few items for your consideration.

* How Ordinary Skills Led to an Extraordinary Life for ‘Dilbert’ Creator

“While there is a continuous stream of articles toting the amazing qualities of entrepreneurs, the secret traits of successful people and tricks for making it to the top, Scott Adams, the creator of award-winning comic series Dilbert, thinks it’s hogwash.” Read more..

* The First 100% Free Mobile Phone Service

“If you’re shackled by an unwieldy wireless plan that’s costing you an arm and a leg each month – FreedomPop is here to change all that. Unlimited voice, text, and 500MB of data on a 4G network is unheard of – but how can you make history if you don’t break boundaries?” Read more..

* Massive German hack sees one fifth of population’s passwords stolen

“The passwords and other details of 16 million email users in Germany have been stolen- the equivalent of almost a fifth of the German population being at risk.” Read more..

* A few security lessons from the Target breach

“The Target breach points out some facts of life on the Web: We’re all targets (pun intended) of cyber thieves.

Fortunately, there are steps we can take to protect ourselves. Here’s how to protect yourself from the next big breach.” Read more..

* Can a Tweet Put You in Prison? It Certainly Will in the UK

“Tweeting racist or otherwise libelous bile can land you in jail in the UK, but the victim, as ever, is not the target of the tweet but free speech.” Read more..

* Where can you still find a PC running Windows 7?

“If you want a PC running Windows 7, where do you look? Skip your local office superstore or big-box retailer and go where the business buyers go. In those channels, you’ll find that Windows 7 never went away. In fact, it’s not just alive, it’s thriving.” Read more..

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Today’s quote: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” ~ Mark Twain

Copyright 2007-2014 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
And please, never forget – one person can make a difference.

Alert: Automated Verizon Call Is A Fake

Folks, I almost fell for a scam telephone “phishing” phone call reporting to be from one of my cellular service providers. I think hope you are going to want to read my ‘confession’, and forward this warning to all your friends and family.

See, truth is, I did fall for it, but fortunately the trap did not close on me, and I did not give away my personal information, which (probably) would have been used in an “Identity theft”. (Or, they might have just glommed my credit card.) Me! Mr. B. Paranoid.

Here’s how it worked (and why I thought it was real):
I have been very busy helping people un-Windows 8 their new Windows 8 PC’s (bypassing the “Metro” UI, mainly) and so I found the message on my answering machine. It was a ‘recording’ woman’s voice. What I mean by that is it was an “automated” call. Anyone who has navigated a telephone “menu tree” (“para Espanol, pulse dos“) has heard this voice. “She” was, in a way, familiar. And “spoke” perfect robot-English.

The automated message identified me by name, said it was an “Important message regarding changes to my account status”, said I needed to call today, and provided me a 1-800 number to call and told me I would be asked to enter my cell phone number.

It pronounced my names correctly, and identified my Verizon phone number correctly. It repeated itself appropriately, and was – to put it simply – professional and exactly how I would expect an ‘alert’ call to sound. It sounded to me exactly the same as other legitimate calls I have received — such as our County’s “emergency alert system”, and my bank’s “unusual activity detected” calls.

But what really made me “bite” was, I knew that I had been “meaning to get to” paying my latest Verizon bill, but had put it off, then forgotten, in my busy-ness.. Had I delayed too long? Was this a pay-or-get-cut-off call? Could be.

So.. I called the 1-800 number to see what was up. And it rang once and disconnected. Thankfully!

I am not beating myself up too much, as I was juggling a lot of activity (aka “multitasking”), but at that disconnect, I did what I should have done first, I went to my computer and logged in to my Verizon “My account” and looked for any alerts, notices, or big red letters saying “PAY NOW OR GET CUT OFF”.. or anything that might explain that message on my voicemail. I did see a very mild “past due”, but nothing else.

Now I was quite intrigued! So I called the Verizon customer service number posted on the website (1-800-922-0204) and spoke with a young man who asked me several questions.. then asked me to play the message to him.
And he told me, “that’s not us. That’s a scam.”

How did he know? “Our robot voice is different, and that’s not one of our telephone numbers.”

Like I would know those two things.

So.. “in conclusion”.. I am abashed and embarrassed. This call had the earmarks of a phish, but I let those things .. not raise red flags. But this was undoubtedly the most professionally done phishing scam I have witnessed. A truly “pro con” (job). And, I guess I learned that I am not quite as “paranoid” (alert and wary) on the telephone as I am when online, and surfing the web.
And maybe I ought to quit trying to do three things at once, and pay more attention to one thing at a time.. But I feel stupid none the less.

Today, it was Verizon. Who knows what company they’ll impersonate next. I’ll never ‘trust’ another robot voice again!

So be aware. And be wary. They are trying to get us.

Dang. I feel dumb. Go ahead and laugh at me if you want. But I feel darn lucky too. What would I have given away if the call had gone through? What does untangling one’s self from Identity Theft cost these days? Don’t find out.. and don’t let your friends and family find out. Tell them about me, this call, and my dumb move. Let them laugh at me too.. and maybe raise their ‘paranoia’ as a consequence, and avoid scams like this.

I cannot print how I would punish the perps behind this one, if I could get my hands on them, but I can tell you I’d do it on TV.

Copyright 2007-2013 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Android Adventures – Part 3

Welcome to part 3 of my Android series. (Previously, My First Look At Android, part 1 and Playing with an Android – Part 2.) Yesterday, in part2, I ran long listing the features of my new Android smart phone I am finding most neat-o and useful. So let me continue…

7) “Hands free”/voice search/”Genius button”: Along with my phone, I got one of those Lt. Uhura ear doodads (Bluetooth headset), as Kallyfornyah has a much-ignored “Hands-free” Law. With it (or the ‘genius button’) I can tap a button, and say, “call, Joe Smith, mobile” and – like magic – a woman’s voice confirms that I am calling Joe’s cell. Or, I can say “find pizza” and – like magic – my phone will display results, and a map. I mentioned before that I am a dinosaur: so, I am a bit “weirded out” by voice recognition, but the more I use it the more I like it. I have to confess, too, it’s cool.
(The “genius button” is a dedicated “voice recognition” activator. Those w/o such a shortcut might prefer Vlingo.. from what I understand, it has fewer errors than Google’s app.)

8) “Swype”: Being the old dinosaur that I am, I completely missed the the whole ‘texting’ thing, and never learned to “thumb type” on those little-bitty buttons. While I find “touchscreen” keyboards doable, I also find myself using the backspace button almost every other letter. That is why I LOVE “Swype”, and consider it a must have. Here’s a video demonstration..

9) Clock/timer: I am somewhat like the “absent-minded professor” and get caught up in what I’m doing; which makes me a wee bit forgetful, and the ability to quickly set a timer to chime and remind me that it’s time to move the hose, or check the oven, has proven quite valuable to me.
(I still (usually) wear a wristwatch, but I have set each screen on my phone to have a clock ‘widget’; so a glance there is just as good as a glance at my wrist.. well.. my phone’s clock will tell me the temperature too.)

10) Productivity ‘apps’: I have found that get-myself-organized tools, like To Do Lists and calendared appointments (and reminders) are most useful to me when they are actually in the same place I am: it has proven near useless for me to write myself a note, and then leave that note at my friend’s house, or in my car, or some other location I am not.

It occurred to me that, as a full-blooded Geek, I am never too far away from a computer.. so I decided to start using Google Calendar, Tasks, and Evernote (whose slogan is “Remember everything”). I wanted that same ability on a phone. Android is a Google product, so seamless editing/updating of Calender, Gmail, and Tasks was/is a big “selling point” for me. I really enjoy being able to schedule a follow-up appointment, while I am with my client, by just tapping my phone — and having that appointment appear on my computers at home/office automatically (no ‘multiple entry’).
With Evernote, I can use the phone’s camera to ‘snap’ an image as a note/reminder.. which has come in handy a few times already. And I use it kind of like an ‘everywhere sticky note’.

I am curious what mobile “business productivity” apps folks out there are using, and finding “best”. I hope readers will leave their reco’s as a comment.

11) This last one is just plain .. odd. I downloaded a compass/leveling tool to fiddle with, and dang, if the bubble-leveler didn’t come in handy for some household chores I had to do (picture frame leveling).

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Next Great App for Android, iPhone –> Rootkit

Rootkit, SMS text messages used to build a botnet of smartphones

The “hot” tech items to own these days are the (not inexpensive) iPhone and Android “smart phone” devices. (If you doubt that, ask yourself why does the news infotainment departments send reporters and camera crews to film lines of people standing outside the Apple Store when a new model comes out?)

These phones are really not phones anymore, but mini-computers – which happen to make cellular phones calls. They are Internet-connected, so they can send/receive e-mail, text and ‘chat’, and download files.. such as movies. They contain address books of your friends and family… In short, they have everything a cyber-criminal wants to target.

In the interest of making the world a better place, “a researcher at ShmooCon DC this weekend will demonstrate a smartphone botnet spewing spam, and unleash proof-of-concept code that builds a botnet out of Android and iPhone smartphones.”

Yes, that’s right. A “researcher” will show us all how it’s done, and provide the code.

Georgia Weidman, an independent researcher, says her botnet attack evolved out of work she did on making an Android application send SMS text messages transparently such that the user didn’t even know it was happening from his or her smartphone. “As I did more research, I [realized] if I did this in the base operating system instead of in ‘userspace’ where most apps are, it would be a better way to do it,” she says. “If I can remotely control someone’s phone, it can be part of a botnet.”

While there has been plenty of smartphone research that pits one smartphone against another in an attack, she says, a more likely attack scenario would be a user unknowingly downloading an app that contains malicious code. “I think the majority of malware installations will come from a user downloading infected apps,” which can easily be rigged with rootkits given the lack of sufficient vetting of most smartphone apps, she says.

Well.. now that all someone has to do is copy>paste the code, yeah, she’s right. Invisible viruses that turn your smart phone into relay stations for spammers — sending us come on’s for V1@gra and C1al1s, and virus-laden links and attachments are only, I estimate, weeks away.

… and before you get too angry at this particular person, there is a whole industry of people doing this “research”, and several conventions have been going on for years. I believe that (some of) these people actually believe they are doing a good thing.

And maybe they would be.. if they only released the code to the affected device (or software) manufacturers and developers. But you don’t get rich or famous for that. (Maybe you heard about the “teen hacker” who got hired after writing viruses that attacked Twitter? There’s a lot of that kind of idiocy in tech..)

Here is the entire Dark Reading article, Researcher To Release Smartphone Botnet Proof-Of-Concept Code. I suggest you read it. Particularly if you own a smart phone.

In case you don’t know what a “botnet” is, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet…
Or why a “rootkit” is the worst kind of virus, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootkit

Does your smart phone have an antivirus? A firewall? Maybe you want those things?
Maybe it’s important to know that the apps at the app store are not checked (aka “vetted”) for malware? Doesn’t that *smell*?

IMHO, there is something wrong with this whole deal. Top to bottom.

Related:
* iPhone Users Are About to Be Screwed Over. The addition of the NFC chip to the iPhone isn’t for easy credit card purchases, but so the phone companies can control your financial transactions. Be warned. ~ By John C. Dvorak

“There has been a lot of talk about the addition of an NFC (near field communication) chip to the next-gen iPhone. This will allow the phone to be used as a swipe-it-yourself credit card. I consider this technology to be the most onerous ever.”

* CNet’s roundup of security apps for Android.

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Survey says…. The Best Smartphones (and carriers)

Folks, I’m not going to reinvent the wheel today. Instead, I am simply going to say that if you are wondering which smartphone to buy, or thinking about switching providers, I have something for you to read.

The Smartphones You Can Rely On

“Which mobile carriers offer clear, fast network connections? Which can solve your smartphone support problems? And can any device out there beat the iPhone? We surveyed thousands of readers and found definite winners—and losers—among handsets and carriers.”

Dear reader, your fave provider didn’t make the list? Your input is welcome here — leave a comment!

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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Parental Monitoring And Cellular Phones

If you are a parent concerned about what your child is doing with their mobile phone– whether or not they’re talking to strangers, for example– you may want to keep reading. This topic was spawned by a question from such a parent.

And if you’re the kind of person who’s easily agitated about technology and the erosion of privacy, a Luddite, a Big Brother Conspiracy Theorist, or anyone else who hasn’t quite come to terms with the modern age we’re living in– you might want to stop reading here.
You’ve been warned. I will not respond to your e-mail.

Regular readers (and tech-savvy people in general) know that your computer use at work is monitored. And you’ve probably heard of “spyware” and “keyloggers” that record what you type (my readers have, and that’s fer sher). And you know that GPS devices can pinpoint your location.

And you know that cameras (usually hidden) are being installed everywhere– as a crime and terrorism preventative, and to stop red-light runners. Cities compete to have the highest percentage of camera coverage.

And you know that modern phones allow text messaging, the sending of photos and movies, and surfing the Internet. (They are becoming more like little laptops everyday.)

And you know that the Internet can be a dangerous place. Especially for kids.
(read Monitoring Your Teenager’s Internet Usage – Should You?)

And thus the parent’s dilemma. If you have a child, the day will come when they want a phone. I think that happens around the ages of 7-9, these days.
And being kids, they won’t want just any old phone, but they will want a “kewl” phone; one with all the bell’s and whistles. (Your hands are kind of tied on this.. nobody makes a “plain old cellphone” anymore. Haven’t for years.)

“But Mom, everybody’s got one!”

The answer, for you, may be to give your child a phone that allows you to see what they text and IM, control who their “contacts” are, and, maybe, even record their calls. It’s called “parental monitoring”, and the extent to which you use it is up to you.
[note: if reading that made your blood pressure go up a notch, refer now to the second paragraph.]

You don’t need to buy a special phone.. or even a new phone, to monitor your child’s activity.
* There is commercial software that can be installed on every type of phone– such as RADAR and MobileSpy. These can notify you in “real time” if a parameter you set is being broken. iPhone users can look at safe eyes.
[note: did your employer give you your cellphone? Think, people. Think. Let’s add two and two here.]

* There are USB dongles that read a phone’s SIM chip –even if your child’s erased their messages– for $50.

So, if you’re a concerned parent, you have several options that will allow you to find some middle ground. And if you’re a Big Brother Conspiracy Theorist.. well, friend, it’s twice as bad as you dare to realize and it’s only going to get worse.

Today’s free link(s): Concerned parents who have a child reaching the driving age (and Big Brother Conspiracy Theorists) might read my article “What Your Car Is Saying About You.”
Or you can give them a Guardian Angel cell phone which reports their location and speed..

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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