Tech Talk #187–September 3, 2022 In most cases, when suddenly your password won't work with a website or email address, there is a "Forgot password" link, and this is where it can get scary. The site may want to send you a code to your phone or your recovery email address, or you'll get asked for answers to your security questions. What if the site has an old phone number for you? Or is your
Tech Talk #172–Feb 5, 2022 Along with wills, revocable living trusts, financial power of attorney, and the rest of the paperwork don’t forget your digital life when planning your estate. Your email accounts, social media accounts, PayPal, Venmo, or other digital payment accounts, any websites you own, as well as digital currencies, are all considered digital assets and need to be part of your estate. What? Do you think you’re too young to worry about
Tech Talk #154–May 8, 2021 Yep, passwords again. Once upon a time, say a whole two or three years ago, “they” told us to change our passwords regularly. The thinking was that if someone had your Facebook or email password, they could log in to your account to, I don’t know, check up on your posts and emails? If they had your bank or credit union password, they could transfer money. The theory was that
Tech Talk #144 – Dec. 5, 2020 Along with wills, revocable living trusts, financial power of attorney, and the rest of the paperwork don’t forget your digital life when planning your estate. Your email accounts, social media accounts, PayPal, Venmo, or other digital payment accounts, any websites you own, as well as digital currencies are all considered digital assets and need to be part of your estate. What? Do you think you’re too young to
Tech Talk #132 – June 20, 2020 Passwords and security questions In the old days (a couple of years ago), if you forgot your password for your email or social media account, you could prove you were you by answering some security questions. Then you could reset your password. But there were problems with that method; 1) many people didn’t remember the answers to their security questions (who was my second-grade teacher?), and 2) some
Tech Talk #80 – June 23, 2018 Watch out for mshelper In spite of the ‘ms’ in the name, ‘mshelper’ is malware that runs on a Mac. ‘mshelper’ is designed to hog all the resources (processor time, memory, and hard disk) on a Mac. This can cause your Mac to run hotter and louder and will definitely put a dent in your battery life. No one is completely sure what ‘mshelper’ is doing with
Tech Talk #59 – Sep. 2, 2017 Passwords - the bad news and the good news First, the bad news. Back in 2003, Bill Burr, a manager at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), wrote a paper about computer passwords that eventually became the password mess we find ourselves in today. Burr’s eight-page password recommendation document, titled NIST Special Publication 800-63. Appendix A advised people to use irregular capitalization, special
Tech Talk #54 – June 24, 2017 Passwords and security questions Again with the passwords? Yes, because passwords are important and how we reset passwords has changed. In the old days (a couple of years ago), if you forgot your password for your email or social media account, you could prove you were you by answering some security questions. Then you could reset your password. But there were problems with that
Tech Talk #29 – July 9, 2016 The more time we spend on the internet, the more advertisers and search engines know about us. But what do they know? And what, exactly, are they tracking? When we use Google to search for something or use Gmail, or watch videos on YouTube or conduct any other type of activity through a Google product or service, Google collects data and establishes a personal profile which it uses to distribute
Tech Talk #5 These days every site you visit wants a password. We’re not supposed to use the same password everywhere. Each site has different rules for the password they’ll allow you to have. What to do? Use a password manager. Many people use good old fashioned paper and pencil to keep track of their passwords. This is probably not a good idea if you work in an office where someone else could