12Jan2021

Facebook and Apple Fight is About Monetizing You

If you’ve downloaded and installed Apple’s iOS 14.3 update for iPhones and iPads, you’ve put yourself in the sights of Facebook and Apple. Called “App Tracking Transparency” feature, it labels apps in the App Store, telling users what data those apps collect and whether it’s used to track them for advertising. Facebook, which makes its

• 12 Jan, 2021
• Norman Rosenthal
• 0 Comments
• app tracking, Apple, big data, facebook, iPad, iPhone, online safety, online security, permission,

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12Jan2021

Understanding MFA and Other Security Measures

We recently added a new home-user client through the Nextdoor website, and during our initial conversations, we covered a lot of security issues. The new client, an elderly gentleman, had a really good handle on his online security. There’s a lot for us to unpack as individuals and as those who have elderly parents –

• 12 Jan, 2021
• Norman Rosenthal
• 0 Comments
• 2FA, icloud, keychain, MFA, online security, password manager, strong passwords,

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12Jan2021

The Ill Winds of Solar Winds

Look for a continuing fallout from the breach of Solar Winds, the giant technology management company that was responsible for the high-level federal government systems that were hacked last year. The hack is top of mind because some of our most sensitive systems were hacked, but businesses were affected, too. It’s time to look at

• 12 Jan, 2021
• Norman Rosenthal
• 0 Comments
• big data, data security, hacked, hacker, hacking, online safety,

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08Dec2020

Shopping and Shipping 2020 Style

If you ask us to pick one word to define the 2020 holiday shopping season, we’d say “paradoxical.” With the pressure on to buy early and ship early, there’s no doubt you need to move fast. But at the same time, you should take a step back and carefully consider everything you do. First, why

• 8 Dec, 2020
• Norman Rosenthal
• 0 Comments
• Amazon, christmas, fedex, holiday shopping, online shopping, ups, usps,

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08Dec2020

What I’ll Miss About CES

I used to look forward to CES, the Consumer Electronics Show held every January in Las Vegas. Like everything else in town, it was glittery, glitzy and way over the top. But I always focused on finding the tech experts to learn more about how products worked. Now, it’s all changed. This year’s show starts

• 8 Dec, 2020
• Norman Rosenthal
• 0 Comments
• CES, las vegas, technology,

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08Dec2020

Finding and Thwarting Scammers

We helped a client recently resolve a personal financial issue that involved online banking and credit cards. The story illustrates some of the dangers we face in our online world. We can’t run away or hide from those dangers. Those of us with aging parents face a gut-wrenching dilemma. Without getting involved in anybody’s specific

• 8 Dec, 2020
• Norman Rosenthal
• 0 Comments
• credit card fraud, cyber scam, financial security, online banking, scams,

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10Nov2020

Why Can’t We Vote Online?

We file our tax returns online. Our Social Security system is online. Businesses and financial institutions transfer billions of dollars online every day. Why can’t we vote online? I know this is a politically charged issue, but we need to look at online voting to make our elections more accessible and more efficient. I say

• 10 Nov, 2020
• Norman Rosenthal
• 0 Comments
• AI, biometrics, election, two-factor authentication, vote online,

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10Nov2020

Healthcare and Ransomware

As many of you know, our family has spent a lot of time in hospitals over the past 30 days. Thankfully, we’re all healthy – and the doctors have been great. But looking at their technological support systems as a patient, parent and IT specialist, I could use an electronic sedative. Judging from what I

• 10 Nov, 2020
• Norman Rosenthal
• 0 Comments
• electronic health records, hacker, ransomeware,

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10Nov2020

Websites and the Need to Know

Why do some companies and organizations, especially non-profits, feel the need to post the names of their entire staffs on their websites? The question came up in a recent conversation with an IT colleague. Smaller companies and non-profits seem to get hack-attacked more often, and they tend to list everyone in the company or organization

• 10 Nov, 2020
• Norman Rosenthal
• 0 Comments
• phishing, privacy, ransomeware,

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13Oct2020

The Night the ‘Office’ Went Dark

Two weeks ago, Microsoft’s Office 365/Microsoft 365 cloud-based services, which include the online Office apps, went down for as long as five hours in some parts of the United States, Western Europe and India. As of this writing last week, users were still reporting sporadic outages of some services. So far, our clients have not

• 13 Oct, 2020
• Norman Rosenthal
• 0 Comments
• Azure, Microsoft, Microsoft Exchange, microsoft teams, Office 365, outage, outlook.com, SharePoint,

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