The Blog of James Powell

Breaking the Internet

Most people who read this blog will know that I work in technology. Technology is a very large field with many brilliant people working it it. These people build tools that allow us to view news from around the world, communicate with friends and family, and even stream TV shows. At the end of the day the people making the decisions about how technology should be used are not technology people. They are executives and politicians who really have no idea what they are trying to regulate. It is hard for people in technology to understand parts of it. Technology is a big field.

So, given that technology is so large and complex. When matters arise about a given technology and its effect who do you trust? I trust the experts who developed and work with that technology on a daily basis. What are the experts of a given technology saying? In the case of this story, those experts are being pretty vocal that this is a bad thing. It is something that will lead to less security and not more. Check out the details and decide for yourself.

Should I Change My Password

Between Sony and Citibank a large number of personal details have been compromised. Given the large number of accounts that were compromised it can be hard to tell if you part of the compromised data. Adam Dachis has an article about a service called “Should I Change My Password.” While it won’t help you pick strong passwords it is a good starting point for determining if your account has been compromised.

Citibank Pulls a Sony

Citibank was hacked and around 200,000 customers’ information was compromised. Citibank pulled a Sony in that they waited a month to let customer’s know that their information had been hacked. If you are a Citibank customer there is a chance that your information has been compromised. Citibank has said that they will be contacted the compromised customers directly. However, given the information that was obtained from the hack these customers are very vulnerable to phishing and spoofing phone calls. These phishing attacks will more than likely be phone calls from individuals pretending to be Citibank. Check out the details in this article from Tim Brookes (makeuseof).

Lock Down Your Computer Like the NSA

Computer security is something that can be obscure and tricky. Adam Pash (Lifehacker) wrote an article describing the security guides written by the NSA for Windows 7, Linux, and Mac OS X. The guides are clear and concise. Check them out.

- James Powell