12 Scams of Christmas (and Yahoo, too)

Folks, as we approach the Holidays, please be aware, and remind your friends and family, that we are now in the peak scam, ripoff, fraud, and – of course! – phishing season. The vermin are happily and busily creating phony online stores, and filling our Inboxes, Faceboook, and Twitter with bait and lures of all types.

“Holiday shoppers can expect cybercriminals to be out in force this season,” said Michael Kaiser, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance. “Shoppers should be alert to scams and other attempts to lure them to provide personal and financial information that could lead to data loss or the infection of an Internet connected device. We encourage everyone to STOP. THINK. CONNECT. and make sure they have taken security precautions, understand the consequences of actions and behavior and enjoy the benefits of holiday shopping online.”

McAfee has released a list of the most popular scams on the Internet during the holiday season. You can see them here: 12 Scams of Christmas

We should/can take steps to increase our safety, security and confidence online with these simple tips:

• Keep a Clean Machine: All the devices you use for shopping – including smartphones and tablets – should have up-to-date software including security software, operating systems and other key programs and apps.

• When in Doubt, Throw it Out: Links in email, tweets, posts, and online advertising are often the way cybercriminals compromise your computer. If it looks suspicious, even if you know the source, it’s best to delete it.

• Think Before you Act: Be wary of communications that offer amazing deals that sound too good to be true, implore you to act immediately – including indicating a problem with an order or payment—or ask you to view the website or an account via a provided link.

• Protect your Personal Information: Be alert to the kinds and amount of information being collected during transactions. Information requested should only be enough to complete the transaction. Only fill out required fields on checkout forms. Check the website’s privacy policy.

• Use Safe Payment Options: Credit cards are generally the safest option. They allow buyers to seek a credit from the issuer if the product isn’t delivered or isn’t what was ordered. Credit cards may limit the monetary amount you will be responsible if your account is compromised. Never send cash through the mail or use a money-wiring service.

• Make Sure the Site is Legitimate: This includes a closed padlock on your web browser’s address bar or a URL address that begins with shttp or https. Check reviews of sites you have never used before.

• Keep a Paper Trail: Save records of your online transactions, including the product description, price, online receipt, terms of the sale, and copies of any email exchange with the seller.

Yes, great deals can be found. I am not saying don’t shop online — but I am saying now is the time to double-up on your “paranoid common sense”. Nobody’s protecting you; there’s no “Internet police”. But there are *scumbuckets* intent (focused like a laser beam) on stealing from you. Thousands and thousands (and thousands!) of them.

This looks suspicious to me too

Um… But I don’t have an Am Ex Merchant Account…

There’s a whole stack of other depressing news, too. But I’ll spare you. I’ll just say – again – let’s be careful out there. Be well, at your earliest easement.

Update: I’m on my third day of Yahoo Mail uh, um, ‘technical difficulties’ (which they first called “routine maintenance”). I’m not alone. Yahoo forced to acknowledge Yahoo Mail problems in worst failure yet

“After a public UI and technical failure with its October redesign, Yahoo Mail miraculously gets worse as it goes. And then, Yahoo acknowledges delivery failures stretching back to November 25.” Read more..

Do you Yahoo? It’s a good (and valuable) read even if you don’t.

Today’s quote: “When the pupil is ready, the teacher appears.” ~ ?

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.

An Assortment for your TGIF

Folks, here are a few items I found interesting this past week

First up, a video someone sent me. Loyal readers know I tip my cap to all who serve/have served, but I have to confess there’s one “branch” of service I don’t think of often enough..

(What do you bet, if you asked him, he’d say, “I just did my job..“)

Next, a few changes are happening in the tech industry..

* Did we all just witness Windows start to die?

“Surface RT’s failure calls the whole “Windows 8 Project” into question. As a result, the “death of the PC” may end up taking Windows with it…” Read more..

[best line in that article: “The market wants a 7″-8″ device, with … no requirement of the user to undertake any cognitive loading at all.” {braindead devices for braindead people? Wonder why that might be..}]

* Campaign Launched To Kill Off The Password

“The Petition Against Passwords calls for no more password login” Read more..

[Could that be because after umpteen years (decades) of “awareness training”, and enforcement, people still use easy to guess passwords, and the same one everywhere? Um.. yeah. Maybe.]

* I Hate Porn… But Don’t Block My Right to Get It!

“In his very public battle against child pornography and pedophilia, British Prime Minister David Cameron is facing critics ranging from ISPs and free speech advocates to some law enforcement professionals.” Read more..

[.. uh .. er.. I have a “Right” to view porn online? Whadya know.]

* NetSol Outages Beleaguer Web Workers & It’s Going to Get Worse

“Last Wednesday I, like many, spent part of my workday online. But Wednesday was not any old workday on the Internet. Instead, it served as an unpleasant reminder of how much we take for granted in today’s rich-content, always-on web workplace.” Read more..

* The opposite of Privacy.

“It seems that we have arrived at the point where people just don’t care about their privacy or security on Facebook. The many stories about this subject, on Facebook and elsewhere, have inured the average user; or else users have simply opted.. Read more..

And last, but certainly not least, Enterprises gain an ‘F’ grade in protecting themselves against cybercrime

“According to new research, the majority of enterprises gain an “F” grade in security.” Read more..

* Related: Worst IT fail ever? US agency spends millions in useless security

“A branch of the U.S. Commerce Department recently trashed perfectly good computers and wasted millions on a bogus malware infection. How did this happen?” Read more..

Is there such a thing as an “F-“?

Well, I hope that helped you get a little closer to the 5 o’clock whistle. TGIF!

Today’s quote: “Never mind searching for who you are. Search for the person you aspire to be.” ~ Robert Brault

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.

More on Hotmail phase-out (and other things too)

Items of Interest

* As I wrote about recently (see, The End Of Hotmail) there is/are change(s) coming to Microsoft products. For those of you who have a Microsoft “Live ID”, or Hotmail account, the following article is a ‘must read’: Microsoft’s Hotmail phase-out: What’s a user to do?

“Microsoft is moving all of its Hotmail users to Outlook.com by this summer. Here’s what the hundreds of millions still using Hotmail need to know about the transition.” Read more..

[oh, and btw.. Outlook.com outage leaves users locked out of accounts

“Numerous users of the online email service Outlook.com were locked out of their accounts on Monday after a service outage.” Read more..]

Further, Microsoft Office is changing/has changed, too: Office 2013 licensing changes increase IT angst

“It has been about a month since Microsoft released Office 2013 and Office 365 under a new licensing regime. Unfortunately, this new scheme has raised a few eyebrows among users and IT professionals alike. Let’s see if we can figure out what it means.” Read more

* I don’t normally point out good deals, but.. this one is kind of amazing.. a WD 4 TB, USB 3.0 external harddrive unit (w/automatic backup) for $169 (plus free shipping) .. see it here.

* On the tablet front.. Ubuntu’s Touch OS preview released for Nexus tablets and phones

“Ubuntu Touch is here, but users have been warned not to run it on their primary device, as it has number of kinks still to be worked out.” Read more..

and Hands-on with the HP Slate 7

“How can a tablet that feels so good be so … not good

What do you do if you’ve long since past being a laughingstock in the mobile business? You failed at Windows Mobile. You bought Palm and put webOS out to pasture. And now, if you’re HP, your first real foray into Android is a tablet that’s nice from afar, but far from nice. Such is the HP Slate 7.” Read more..

* For those waiting on more of my Working With Apple series, sorry for the gap. More will be more coming; but the only thing I really have to say right now is, I’m finding more bugz and glitches than I would have suspected… but it’s been a mildly boring “shift” otherwise.

* I really cannot believe as many people think “clumping” cat litter is no bargain as don’t …

* Mondays are busy days, so.. that’s all I’ve time for today. Have a good one everybody!

Today’s quote: “If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.” ~ Joseph Addison

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

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>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

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

Netflix Streaming Outage?

There seems to be a small problem with my Netflix service here where I am (Silicon Valley, CA.) .. like, a total service outage. (Noticed it about 8:50 pm.)

Anyone else?

Wow. Their website doesn’t load, either.. I get a blank (all white) page.. 11:40pm The website is back

I appreciate your input, folks.

(DownRightNow say Twitter is having outages too)

(Cloud computing can be great when it works… but a wee bit aggravating when it doesn’t.)

[update: 6/30, 11:30am: Netflix still appears to be down, Twitter back, and now Facebook and Tumblr down..]

Sorry, there’s a problem with Hotmail right now…

Hotmail seems to be having an outage. Anyone else see this?

They said they have added new features, so please refresh the browser…

2/14/12 @ 10:30pm Pacific

[update: this seems to be a big massive global one.]

[update: While I have no way of knowing the cause of this, I suspect that we can help the Microsoft data center Geeks by giving them time between login attempts.]

Fixed here

[Update @ 11:56pm Pacific refreshing the page (press the F5 key) restored my Inbox (also someone in Rumania reported success).]

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

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Another Netflix Outage

It seems Netflix is totally offline here (SF Bay penninsula) @ 7:45pm

Another outage. Cloud computing is great.

When it works.

Netflix outage

There seems to be a small problem with Netflix here where I am (Silicon Valley, CA.) .. like, a total service outage. (Noticed it about 7:30 pm.)
[update: reported outage in Massachusetts and Wisconsin too. Nation-wide?]

FYI: Don’t bother calling them – they just hang up — “We are experiencing a high call volume. Please hang up and try again later.” click.

Anyone else?

Trouble with device ID and/or “instant” streaming?