Tony Blair didn’t get his first mobile phone until after he’d left office in 2007. A year later, on becoming president, Barack Obama was asked to give up his Blackberry and refused. Hillary Clinton, as is rather well known, occasionally used her own private email account.
While he was prime minister, Boris Johnson carried on using the same mobile phone number he has had for decades. It was well known to practically everyone in politics and the media, who had been texting him on it for years, and had been hiding in plain sight on some corner of the internet. He is, apparently, using it again now.
Suella Braverman has not merely been emailing classified documents to people who are not cleared to see them, via her private Gmail account. She has also been accidentally emailing said documents to people she did not even intend to send them to, and then sending a follow-up email asking them to “delete and ignore”.
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Adult children who do family tech support know the drill. Your parents call about a problem with their smartphone, maybe spam texts or something wrong with Facebook. You try to talk them through fixing it remotely with mixed results and mutual frustration.
Next time you see your parents in person (and really, you should visit more often) do everyone a favor. Take 30 minutes to borrow their phone and clean house. A little maintenance now can prevent future problems with security, scams, confusion or misinformation. You are going to clear out old junk, fix any small problems and customize it so everything is a little easier for them to see and understand.
This is advice for adult children whose parents or other older relatives use a smartphone, but anyone can attempt these maintenance tasks on their own devices.
“The first thing I do is check for what I call check engine lights,” says Abbie Richie, the founder and CEO of tech-support company Senior Savvy. “I look for red notification badges, especially in the Settings app.”
Apple and Google release regular small updates and annual big updates to their smartphone operating systems, iOS and Android. Don’t avoid them, even if you’re worried about adding confusing new features. They often include key security patches and bug fixes. If you do a major operating system update, set aside time to walk them through the new look and options.
Set the phone to run software updates automatically in the future.
Delete and reorganize apps
Go through page by page and ask your parent what they use and what they don’t use — you’ll be surprised how many of us have apps installed we don’t remember. Delete anything that looks suspect, scammy or confusing.
Move the apps they use most to the first screen on their device. Richie recommends putting their four most used apps in the dock at the bottom of the screen and putting any other biggies in the top left or right corner. Move any apps they don’t use often but that are useful to have into clearly labeled folders, then store those folders on the last page of the home screen.
Ask them if there’s anything they want to do on their phone but can’t, like online banking. Install new apps if…
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A Canadian man linked to an international network of ransomware attacks affecting the senior living industry during the COVID-19 pandemic has been sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $21.5 million.
Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins was part of the NetWalker hacker ring that extorted at least $27.6 million from dozens of businesses, healthcare providers, law enforcement and educational institutions all over the world. The Justice Department said the attacks specifically targeted the healthcare sector during the pandemic, taking advantage of the global crisis to extort victims.
Lorien Health Services, which provides assisted living, skilled nursing and rehabilitation services at nine locations in Maryland, was one of NetWalker’s alleged victims, as previously reported by McKnight’s Senior Living. The data breach in 2020 reportedly exposed the personal information of almost 48,000 residents. It included names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, and health diagnoses and treatment information.
Lorien reported the matter to the FBI, notified potentially affected residents, and hired cybersecurity experts to aid in its response to the incident.
“The defendant in this case used sophisticated technological means to exploit hundreds of victims in numerous countries at the height of an international health crisis,” U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida Roger B. Handberg said in a statement.
Vachon-Desjardins was extradited to the United States this spring after being arrested by Canadian authorities in January 2021 in Quebec. During a search of his home, Canadian law enforcement discovered and seized $742,840 in Canadian currency and 719 Bitcoin valued at $21.8 million at the time of seizure and $14.5 milion today.
He was indicted in February 2021 on conspiracy to commit computer fraud and wire fraud, intentional damage to a protected computer and transmitting a demand in relation to damaging a protected computer.
In February, an Ontario court judge sentenced Vachon-Desjardins to seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty to five counts tied to 17…
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MADISON, Wis. — A senior citizen lost nearly $1,000 last month after falling for a phone scam, according to a release by the Madison Police Department.
The 67-year-old woman told police a message popped up on her husband’s computer last month about a tech support issue. The woman said she wrote a check for $999 to a tech company and late realized she had been scammed.
The woman notified police after scammers called her home last week trying to get her to send $3,000 for computer security software.
Madison police are reminding the public that tech scammers want people to believe there is something wrong with their computer, like a virus. These scammers then try to get people to pay for services they do not need to fix a problem that does not exist.
Scammers will often ask people to put money on a gift card or prepaid card or use a money transfer app since these payments can be hard to reverse.
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