In another haunting hack from the past, Time Inc. has confirmed the theft of 427 million passwords from MySpace, the aging social networking site the media company acquired just three months ago.
The records were offered for sale on the dark web by the same hacker who posted for sale a trove of 117 million stolen LinkedIn passwords nearly two weeks ago. The posted price for MySpace credentials is 6 bit coins or about $3,200 at today's rate.
The MySpace incident is tied to a June 11, 2013 hack, according to LeakedSource, while the LinkedIn episode dated back to 2012. LeakedSource is the same web site that confirmed the LinkedIn theft.
The important similarity of these dated incidents lies in the fact that hackers could use these recently posted stolen passwords to break into current accounts of victims who re-use passwords across many sites, including banking and health services.
Read John Fontana's complete article at www.zdnet.com/article/myspace-hack-puts-another-427-million-passwords-up-for-sale/.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Saturday, May 28, 2016
How Mobile Pay Works and Why You Should Use it Now!
You may be on the fence about using mobile pay with your smartphone, but consider this: Mobile pay is safer, can be used in more places now than ever, and can save you money.
Still, you probably have a ton of questions about how mobile pay actually works – like what’s the difference between Apple Pay, the new Samsung Pay, and Starbucks Mobile Order & Pay.
That’s why the PC Mike podcast is happy to bring you one of the industry’s top experts: Silvio Tavares, president and CEO, The CardLinx Association, a nonprofit working to educate all about various forms of electronic payment and loyalty programs. CardLinx recently sponsored a report called “Mobile Wallets 101.”
Tavares and PC Mike Wendland talk about how mobile pay is in the process of changing forever the way goods and services are bought and sold in the U.S. They also discuss, among other things:
See veteran technology reporter Mike Wendland's article and listen to his podcast at pcmike.com/pcmike-33-how-mobile-pay-works-and-why-you-should-use-it-now/.
Still, you probably have a ton of questions about how mobile pay actually works – like what’s the difference between Apple Pay, the new Samsung Pay, and Starbucks Mobile Order & Pay.
That’s why the PC Mike podcast is happy to bring you one of the industry’s top experts: Silvio Tavares, president and CEO, The CardLinx Association, a nonprofit working to educate all about various forms of electronic payment and loyalty programs. CardLinx recently sponsored a report called “Mobile Wallets 101.”
Tavares and PC Mike Wendland talk about how mobile pay is in the process of changing forever the way goods and services are bought and sold in the U.S. They also discuss, among other things:
- Why mobile pay services are safer than traditional credit cards
- How mobile pay services like Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay work
- How retailers like Starbucks use their own mobile pay services – and customers can save money
- How banks are allowing customers to use mobile pay
- What happens if you lose your phone set to work with mobile pay
- Where mobile pay can be used today
- Why mobile pay suddenly seems to be so hot now
- How mobile pay will change in the next 12-24 months
See veteran technology reporter Mike Wendland's article and listen to his podcast at pcmike.com/pcmike-33-how-mobile-pay-works-and-why-you-should-use-it-now/.
Friday, May 27, 2016
It's official: We now get most of our news from social media
The scale is tipping from traditional media to social media as a source for news. That’s the conclusion reached in a new study published on Thursday by Pew Research Center.
Pew surveyed over 4,600 people who told them that they’re increasingly using their favorite social media platforms — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and even Snapchat — as their go-to sources for news. According to the study, News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2016, 62% of all Americans now get news from social media.
Read Lance Ulanoiff's complete article at mashable.com/2016/05/26/pew-news-social-media-study/#rskRwGchkgqE.
Pew surveyed over 4,600 people who told them that they’re increasingly using their favorite social media platforms — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and even Snapchat — as their go-to sources for news. According to the study, News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2016, 62% of all Americans now get news from social media.
Read Lance Ulanoiff's complete article at mashable.com/2016/05/26/pew-news-social-media-study/#rskRwGchkgqE.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Thinking about a new smartphone? You should read this!
PayPal drives another nail into Windows Phone and Blackberry coffins.
In February, PayPal launched a new version of its mobile app, 6.0, and it wants iPhone and Android users to upgrade to it until the end of June. Windows Phone, BlackBerry and Amazon Fire users, however, are getting a different message: Paypal is discontinuing the app on these platforms on June 30.In an announcement post Wednesday, PayPal VP Joanna Lambert explained that Windows Phone users will still be able to access PayPal on the mobile web, through both Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge. Likewise, Amazon Fire and BlackBerry users are advised to switch to the mobile web experience, though the post notes that on BlackBerry, you can continue to use the BBM app to send peer-to-peer PayPal payments.
Read Stan Schroeder's complete article at mashable.com/2016/05/26/paypal-windows-phone-blackberry-support/#0J4NPvF7wiqA.
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Bill Gates of hell: Windows 10 hijacking computers
Microsoft has turned “nasty” in its campaign to coerce hundreds of millions of customers to upgrade to its Windows 10 operating system, a program critics condemn as privacy-invading, data-swiping and “brimming with freemium services and ads.”
Microsoft has been trying to lure computer users into its new operating system for months, bombarding them with unending pop-up screens. But many users are comfortable with the systems they have, have no interest in learning new operations and have simply clicked the “X” to get rid of the unwanted solicitation.
You can’t do that anymore.
Microsoft changed the coding on the “X” so that clicking it now instructs MS to “upgrade” your computer to Windows 10. Yes, really. [emphasis added]
In fact, the two options on the page, “OK” and “Upgrade Now,” do the same thing as the “X.”
To avoid the forced “upgrade,” a user has to go into the fine print.
Inside a logo box in the ad is a scheduled date for a mandatory upgrade. The user must look in the tiny type just below that line and find where it says “here” and click on that to avoid the upgrade.
Read Bob Unruh's complete article at http://www.wnd.com/2016/05/bill-gates-of-hell-windows-10-hijacks-computers/#5xTsiLl4eVjjPODW.99.
Microsoft has been trying to lure computer users into its new operating system for months, bombarding them with unending pop-up screens. But many users are comfortable with the systems they have, have no interest in learning new operations and have simply clicked the “X” to get rid of the unwanted solicitation.
You can’t do that anymore.
Microsoft changed the coding on the “X” so that clicking it now instructs MS to “upgrade” your computer to Windows 10. Yes, really. [emphasis added]
In fact, the two options on the page, “OK” and “Upgrade Now,” do the same thing as the “X.”
To avoid the forced “upgrade,” a user has to go into the fine print.
Inside a logo box in the ad is a scheduled date for a mandatory upgrade. The user must look in the tiny type just below that line and find where it says “here” and click on that to avoid the upgrade.
Read Bob Unruh's complete article at http://www.wnd.com/2016/05/bill-gates-of-hell-windows-10-hijacks-computers/#5xTsiLl4eVjjPODW.99.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Apps to track your kids and family members
If you want to feel a bit safer about knowing where your kids are when they leave the house this spring and summer, or you want the ability to keep track of your family and friends, a number of apps can make it happen.
Mike Wendland has more details about three apps at http://pcmike.com/apps-track-kids-family-members/.
Mike Wendland has more details about three apps at http://pcmike.com/apps-track-kids-family-members/.
Monday, May 23, 2016
People are absolutely awful at picking passwords
How good (secure) are your passwords?
We know that people are awful at picking passwords — and the huge hack of LinkedIn confirms it.
The professional social network was breached back in 2012, but it has come back into the news this week as we finally learned the true scale of it: A whopping 167 million accounts were compromised, including 117 million passwords.
The passwords were hashed — encrypting hem so that they can’t be read — but researchers at LeakedSource have been able to decrypt them. Their findings show just how much the same passwords get used over and over (and over and over and over and over) again.
The single most popular password? 123456. That was used by more than 750,000 accounts. In number two is the unimaginative “linkedin” (172,523), followed by “password” (144,458), and “123456789″ (94,214).
The complete article, including the top 49 passwords is available at https://kopitiambot.com/2016/05/20/the-massive-linkedin-hack-proves-that-people-are-absolutely-awful-at-picking-passwords/.
We know that people are awful at picking passwords — and the huge hack of LinkedIn confirms it.
The professional social network was breached back in 2012, but it has come back into the news this week as we finally learned the true scale of it: A whopping 167 million accounts were compromised, including 117 million passwords.
The passwords were hashed — encrypting hem so that they can’t be read — but researchers at LeakedSource have been able to decrypt them. Their findings show just how much the same passwords get used over and over (and over and over and over and over) again.
The single most popular password? 123456. That was used by more than 750,000 accounts. In number two is the unimaginative “linkedin” (172,523), followed by “password” (144,458), and “123456789″ (94,214).
The complete article, including the top 49 passwords is available at https://kopitiambot.com/2016/05/20/the-massive-linkedin-hack-proves-that-people-are-absolutely-awful-at-picking-passwords/.
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