Google tracks your activity
They've been tracking you since you first created that free Drive, Gmail or YouTube account. You can review the data Google tracks and download it. Google also lets you delete some data.
Google tracks via Gmail
Take a deep breath and visit https://myaccount.google.com/dashboard. Login if prompted.
Let’s start with the Gmail link. Google indexes Gmail contents and uses that to help determine which ads will be most interesting to us. Let’s see just how much data Google tracks.
Click the Gmail button.
Click GO TO GMAIL.
Click All Mail (on the left).
Peruse your entire mailbox.
Google reports 4,789 messages in my Gmail account. Although Google reports 4,789 messages, I see only 224 messages in my Inbox, 10 in Trash and 487 in Sent. The rest ... Read More
Predators and thieves see what you post online
Sometimes people aren't as street smart as they choose to believe. They share personal information online and then act surprised when they become victims of a crime.
I am changing my friends’ names here
Ann took a picture of an envelope and posted it on Facebook. This envelope had her name, address, city, state and zip. She also told Facebook she was leaving town for 10 days to visit a friend in Hawaii. Two weeks later, she told Facebook her home was burglarized. I told her she presented valuable information online to a potential thief. "Ah yes, I think you're right, Mark," she replied.
Jen posted her address and pictures of her home on Facebook. She also told Facebook she was ... Read More
Facebook acknowledges recording
It is not a secret. We share more information at Facebook than at most other online services. Sometimes we forget how much we share and that what goes online never really leaves online. I asked Facebook to export my personal information back on December 28, 2019. Their report read like the most thorough diary every compiled.
"Thanks Mark. I now see how they are collecting too much information about us. I am calling my Congressman. That Zuckerberg guy better fess up to what he is doing." I know you are thinking that.
Read the Terms of Service
Actually, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been called into the Principal's Office twice. He testified on April 10, 2018 and October 23, 2019. Congress asked if users could protect ... Read More
Remote Desktop is a big vulnerability
Maybe you use Microsoft’s Remote Desktop feature to connect to your workstation at work from…anywhere. Remote Desktop has been in Windows for 20 years at no extra cost. The network administrator at my target reviews the workstation’s logs through Windows’ Event Viewer. This screenshot is from my research honeypot.
Someone is trying to login to this virtual machine at a ferocious pace
The unlucky soul who has to read these logs finds login attempts are international. My perusal shows login attempts from five IP addresses:
211.72.1.31 in Taipei, Taiwan
24.142.48.215 in Dartmouth, Canada
87.147.195.55 in Olching, Germany
47.185.77.29 in Keller, Texas
91.234.125.163 is in Sosnicowice, Poland
Assuming it is one hacker who either employed a botnet (a series of computers simultaneously tasked with a large task) or is ... Read More
What Facebook knows is a result of what you have shared, and done, on Facebook
When we create that first Facebook account and go through the profile creation wizard, we can hardly see 10 feet ahead of us. We get a smorgasbord of questions
Where and when born?
Grade school?
Education achieved?
High school?'
College?
Marital status?
Spouse name?
Where you work or have worked?
Then we get to the most dangerous ones. Get ready:
Political views
Religious views.
I wisely answered the dangerous ones. I wrote "Everybody vote for me" and "Everybody worship me." Wise before my time, I suppose.
You are the product
I challenge you to look at your profile and see what information you are sharing. Remember Facebook is packaging this and selling it to ... Read More
Are you using Facebook because it is free?
How much are you paying to use Facebook each month? “Haha Mark, trick question,” you may say. "It's free. I am paying nothing.” I beg to differ.
You are paying with your personal information. Let me introduce Tanya, one of my fellow Michigan State University alums. I found her on Facebook. I sent a friend request and she accepted within 24 hours. We both told Facebook we graduated Michigan State University. On the UP side, sharing that information helped us connect. On the DOWN side, we shared information Facebook monetizes.
Highly targeted and branded MasterCard
We both checked Facebook one day and saw ads for a Michigan State University branded MasterCard. The advertisers created the MSU branding and then purchased (or ... Read More
Social media connection requests are not always real
Meet Tom. He sent you a social media connection request. Here's some background on Tom. Single. Medical student. Works part time at a coffee shop in Palo Alto. Plays computer games in his precious free time. Promises to cure dementia, which has stricken his grandmother. Tells friends the country will be screwed up until we elect Bernie Sanders President and he cancels student loan debt.
Would you accept a social media connection request from Tom? He looks decent and honest, right?
Fake profile
Think twice. He is fake. I visited https://www.thispersondoesnotexist.com/ and chose three pictures for my book. I wrote the profiles from scratch. https://www.thispersondoesnotexist.com/ uses a generative adversarial network, defined at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_adversarial_network to create pictures. Wikipedia tells us “a GAN ... Read More
Let LastPass manage your passwords (you have other things to think about today).
We have too many passwords. Keeping track of them mentally or on Post-It notes does not work. Keeping them in a Microsoft Word document is also troublesome. If you change a password and fail to update the document, then the record becomes wrong. Next time you go to that website and use the password in your Microsoft Word document, it won’t work. You did not update the document. Let me introduce LastPass.
Several companies have solutions. I use LastPass, which lets you create a vault that holds all your passwords. You don’t have to remember what LastPass stores in the vault. You only have to remember the master password to access the vault. The ... Read More
Three Mile Island: From Meltdown to Microsoft's AI Power Play
Remember Three Mile Island? That nuclear plant south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania that gave us all a scare back in 1979? Well, it's making a comeback, and this time it's got Microsoft muscle (and money) in its corner.
A Brief History Lesson
Three Mile Island was home to two nuclear reactors. In March 1979, Unit 2 suffered a partial meltdown, causing the worst commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history. While Unit 1 kept chugging along, it eventually closed in 2019 due to economic pressures. Producing electricity there was more expensive than other providers using cheaper natural gas.
New Owner, New Expectations
Constellation Energy now owns three Mile Island. That's not the only nuclear power plant Constellation owns. Here's a partial list:
... Read More
2-factor Authentication helps protect your identity.
You should deploy 2-factor Authentication. This increases your security and reduces your chances of becoming an identity theft victim. Most services encourage 2-factor Authentication and let you deploy it at no additional cost.
Here's a quick question for you.
When attempting to access a website, the website can challenge you based on:
A) What you know (e.g. password).
B) Who you are (e.g. fingerprints).
C) What you have (e.g. phone).
D) All of the above.
Correct answer: D.
How it looks in real life.
Daisy runs a dental office in Folsom, CA. Keeping the practice up and running is her top priority. She runs most of her patient, insurance and vendor communications through her Gmail account. She deploys 2-factor Authentication with the steps at https://myaccount.google.com/signinoptions/two-step-verification/enroll-welcome. She keeps her smartphone nearby. ... Read More