Tag Archive for: Don’t

More seniors are using computers and the internet than ever before. Those who don’t are missing out, say the experts | Opinion

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I miss my typewriter! I miss the sound and the feel of it. But, alas, they tell me, “it’s the 21st century, get with it.” My response is, “I could pick a century out of a hat and get a better one.”

I admit it — I am technologically deficient. So I asked the experts to tell me why this 78-year-old hack of a reporter needs a computer, why do I need to know how to “surf the internet? And here’s what the techies at a company called Avast had to say. They bill themselves as “a global leader in digital security and privacy” and I figured they would have the answers.

Q: I’m a senior citizen. I read newspapers and magazines, listen to the radio and watch TV. I get my information the old fashioned way. Why is it so important for me to learn how to use a computer?

A: The major benefit of using computers is simply the ability to stay connected in the modern world. Online banking, social media, many government services and much more are moving increasingly, if not entirely, online. It may soon be impossible to access any of these services without a computer. In other words, if you’re not digitally proficient, you can’t fully participate in society these days. Once people find how technology can facilitate them in their passions and hobbies, they would find their own reasons to learn.

Q: I know how to turn on my computer, find information on the internet and receive and send emails. Isn’t that enough… doesn’t that make me digitally literate? What else do I need to know? 

A: You need to learn how to stay safe online, practicing ‘defensive internet use,’ and understanding what happens with your data. It includes knowing how to set and manage strong passwords, keeping on top of privacy settings, and having a basic understanding of what’s safe and not safe to click on or visit online. If you can do that, you have a baseline for digital literacy.

Q: You say,…

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Students in Israel Don’t Carry Guns to Class, Contrary to Social Media Posts

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Quick Take

Israel has established strict measures in response to armed attacks on its schoolchildren. But social media posts falsely claim there have been “no school shootings in Israel” and use a photo to misleadingly suggest students carry weapons to class. Only guards and other specific personnel — not students — can carry arms in Israeli schools. 

Full Story 

A mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 24 was the deadliest at a U.S. school in a decade, and has once again sparked debate about gun laws and how to protect children in the classroom.

Legislators, educators and others are proposing a variety of measures to curb the violence, including arming teachers or placing armed guards in schools. 

Comparisons also are being made to gun laws or regulatory measures taken in other countries, such as Israel, a nation that has a low number of school shootings as compared to the U.S. But as we’ve written before, some social media posts have spread misinformation about school security measures and gun control laws in Israel.

On May 29, the Independent Firearm Owners Association — which describes itself as “a gun rights, pro-privacy, pro-freedom organization” — shared a photo on Facebook showing young women walking with military-style guns. The caption reads, “No school shootings in Israel. Must be great gun control? What, they carry guns to class – oh no, not that!” The post received over 13,000 likes and 8,000 shares.

The photo has appeared in similar tweets, also claiming there are “no school shootings in Israel.”

But the Facebook post and the tweets misrepresent the individuals in the photo. And it is not true that there have been no school shootings in Israel.

We don’t know when the photo was taken. But through a reverse image search, we found the photo had been posted in 2011 on Defence.pk — a self-described “one stop resource for Pakistan defence, strategic affairs, security issues, world defence and military affairs” — with the heading, “Pictures of Women in the Armed Forces.” 

We also found the image used in an article from 2020 published by SHTF Blog, a survival blog website, titled “Israeli…

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Some computer security programs don’t work well together

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Q: Hi Geek, I have a fairly new HP laptop with Windows 10. I use Bitdefender Antivirus Plus and use the VPN when I’m away from home. The company sent out an ad about new capability called anti-tracking and ad blocking. Just went into the settings and enabled them to see if they worked. When I activated the VPN, a notice popped up that said I had to disable Secure DNS in order to use those features. I’m not sure that’s a good idea. What say ye? Thanks for all the good work.

– Curtis R., Fort Walton Beach

Jeff Werner

Jeff Werner

Previous Geek column: Your computer’s first line of defense against spam is you. How to stop hackers? | Geek to Me

More: Hackers are using victim’s computers to help them mine cryptocurrency | It’s Geek to Me

A: Hi back to you, Curtis. I like your question a lot, because you’ve thrown out some advanced concepts and terminology that gives me the opening to teach some things to the rest of my readers before answering your question. Hopefully that will give everybody a chance to learn.

First of all, let’s talk about the meaning of VPN. This is an acronym that stands for Virtual Private Network. A VPN is a means to give you privacy, and a level of anonymity while online. It uses end-to-end encryption to virtually extend the private portion of your computer’s network across the public internet. This effectively masks everything about your connection, including your location and IP address. This makes your activity online virtually untraceable.

You’re wise to use a VPN while travelling, Curtis, because public Wi-Fi in hotels and other public places are rife with hackers waiting for an opportunity to steal information and passwords from you. But do you realize that they offer the same type of protection when you’re at home? You might feel safe behind your home network’s firewall, but you can still benefit from having your IP address anonymized, and all the data travelling over your internet connection encrypted.

Additional cybersecurity help: Your computer’s first line of defense against spam is you. How to stop hackers? | Geek to Me

Protect yourself from hackers: Hackers are using victim’s computers to help them mine cryptocurrency | It’s Geek to Me

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Threat actors don’t have to compromise assets to attack an organization or its customers

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Digital supply chains, M&A, and shadow IT create a hidden attack surface

Most cyberattacks originate miles away from the network; web applications comprised the vector category most commonly exploited in hacking-related breaches. Unfortunately, most organizations lack a complete view of their internet assets and how those assets connect to the global attack surface. Three significant contributors to this lack of visibility are shadow IT, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and digital supply chains.

Shadow IT

Where IT can’t keep pace with business requirements, the business looks elsewhere for support in developing and deploying new web assets. The security team is frequently in the dark regarding these shadow IT activities and, as a result, cannot bring the created assets within the scope of their security program. Unmanaged and orphaned assets can become a liability in an organization’s attack surface over time.

This rapid proliferation of digital assets outside the firewall is now the norm. New RiskIQ customers typically find approximately 30 percent more assets than they thought they had, and RiskIQ detects 15 expired services (susceptible to subdomain takeover) and 143 open ports every minute.2

Mergers and acquisitions

Everyday operations and critical business initiatives such as M&A, strategic partnerships, and outsourcing create and expand external attack surfaces. Today, less than 10 percent of deals globally contain cybersecurity due diligence.

There are several common reasons why organizations are not getting a complete view of potential cyber risks during the due diligence process. The first is the sheer scale of the company’s digital presence they’re acquiring. It’s not uncommon for a large organization to have thousands—or even tens of thousands—of active websites and other publicly exposed assets. While IT and security teams in the to-be-acquired company will have an asset register of websites, it’s almost always only a partial view of what exists. The more decentralized an organization’s IT activities are, the more significant the gap.

Supply chains

The enterprise is increasingly dependent upon the digital alliances that form the modern supply…

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