The Digital Sheepdog

Smishing Scams (SMS Fraud)

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Many who are now using smartphones are utilizing this technology to notify us when any suspicious activity is taking place with any of our financiall accounts.  Many banks offer this SMS service for free, as a way to protect ourselves from identity thieves who attempt to access our accounts.  …

Phishing Scams

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Two Great YouTude videos about phishing scams and how to recognize them and not fall victim.







Darren

The Digital Sheepdog

How Are Scammers Using Facebook

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Great YouTube video on how modern scammers are using Facebook to steal your information or scam you out of your hard earned money:



Darren

The Digital Sheepdog

For Businesses With Digital Copiers

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Free Parental Control Solution

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OpenDNS is offering a free Internet filtering option called "Family Shield" that protects all digital interconnected devices that can gain access to the Internet, via the home router, from adut content sites.  Unique in its approach to protection, OpenDNS protects at the router and provides easy step by step directions that anyone can follow to get their protection in place.  …

Free Browser Security Check

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Here's a link to a legitimate Internet company that offers a free scan of your Internet browser and if security issues are identified, offers fixes to these identified concerns.  According to the company:


"Qualys BrowserCheck is a cross-platform and cross-browser SaaS service that scans the user's browser looking for vulnerabilities in the browser itself and its plug-ins. 

The Big Three Security Blogs

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For those of us who use Facebook, Google, and operate the number one operating system in the world, Microsoft (i'm a Mac OS user :) ) here are their security blogs that provide much needed information on how to set their security settings and keep them updated:


Keeping Your Smartphone Information Safe

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One of the coolest things about the Internet is how enabling it is to the user, and how you can find almost anything to read about on-line.  The challenge however, this enabling capability is also something that the criminal element utilize to share information with one another on-line as well.


QR Codes... Be Careful

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QR (Quick Response) codes are going to be very popular this holiday season and can be found in magazines, posted in store windows, in bus stops and even on advertising signs.  A legit QR code is designed to take you to a website of a product being sold , provide more information on a product, offer discount coupons or even provide you with a map to find the product at a cheaper price at another store.


Recovering From a Facebook Hack

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In an earlier posting I shared a new Facebook (FB) utility called "Trusted Friends"  that can be very useful if you need to recover from a FB hack (account takeover) which is becoming more and more common.  

Although Trusted Friends is a great utility, if we could make it harder for a person to hack our FB account, then using the Trusted Friends utility should be a rarity rather than the norm. …

LinkedIn Sharing Information

Earlier this year, like Facebook, LinkedIn announced that they would be using user's information (name and photo) in advertising.  The good news is that there is an easy way to "opt out" of this and prevent LinkedIn from sharing this personal information with others, and here's a YouTube video to show you how:


Facebook "Trusted Friends"

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Have you ever been locked out of your Facebook page, well now Facebook has created a program called "Trusted Friends" that will help you unlock your account.


According to Facebook:

"Trusted friends are friends you can reach out to if you ever get locked out of your Facebook account (ex: you turn on 

2011 WWW X-Mas Scams

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Security Company McAffe, has just released their annual "12 Scams of Christmas" that everyone who participates in the digital echo-system should be aware of:


McAfee’s 12 Scams of Christmas

1. Mobile Malware:  A recent National Retail Federation (NRF) survey, dated October 19, found that 52.6 percent of U.S. consumers who own a smartphone said they will be using their device for holiday-shopping related activities—whether it’s to research products, redeem coupons, or purchase holiday gifts. …

Mobile Banking Dangers

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A fellow Internet safety expert  by the name of John Silios, who specializes in the area of identity theft, wrote an article about why we shouldn't be using mobile banking on our cell phones just yet.   Seven reasons that John outlines include:

Cleaning Your Facebook Page

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A new app that has just come out on the Adroid platform (iOS soon to come) is a producted called "Exfoliate for Facebook".  For those who have attempted to clean your Facebook page/walls of "embarrassing"  information that is dated, but still viewable by all, you have probably found that it is not as easy process. …

How Facebook Is Helping Student

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Even though there are some privacy and security issues with Facebook, this social network also offers several benefits to students.  Here's an interesting infograhic that highlights some of these benefits:


Facebook University
Created by: Online PhD


Mobile Use By Students

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Interesting Infographic by Hackcollege.com:

Generation Mobile
Created by: HackCollege



Have You Been Compromised

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A new website called "Pawned List" has been created to allow us to check to see (for free) if our email addresses have been stolen or compromised. Known as being "pwned" in the hacker's world, this site will advised if your personal information, including email addresses, logins for baking sites or social media passwords may be in the hands of hackers

 © Personal Protection Systems Inc 2011