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Summary

Don't use real information when setting up security questions. That information is too easy to find online. Make something up. Get creative. Lie about your security questions!

Show Notes

UPDATE to last week's Headlines:
US DOJ said it recovered $2.3Mil of Bitcoin sent to Darkside for the Colonial Piepeline attack "saying they were able to track the bitcoin to a wallet for which the FBI has the "private key." (appears to be the affiliate's take, the remainder of 15% going to developers.

Darkside sends message that they are now closed, after servers seized and money transferred.

This Week's Security Tip:
Social engineering is big business. What is it? Figuring out who you are and then using that information to make money off of it.People list password challenge and identity verification publicly on their Instagram, Twitter and Facebook pages and feeds without giving it a second thought. Maiden name? Check. Favorite pet? Check. High school? Check. Town they grew up in? Check. Favorite or first car? Check. Throwback Thursday is a social engineer’s dream! They love this stuff.

Combat this by A) not posting that information online anywhere or B) always giving false password and identity challenge and verification information to the sites and services that require it. Keep the answer file offline. Remember, if it’s a handwritten list, you can still take a photo of it.

Today's Headlines:
JBS & Pilgrims meat processing hacked – ransomware that the FBI attributes to REvil and Sodinokibi

The company's swift response, robust IT systems and encrypted backup servers allowed for a rapid recovery," JBS USA said in a press release on 6/3."  Later on June 10th, confirmed they paid $11mill of demanded $22.5mill to prevent stolen data from being leaked.

Amazon sidewalk goes live – Amazon Sidewalk creates a low-bandwidth network with the help of Sidewalk Bridge devices including select Echo and Ring devices. These Bridge devices share a small portion of your internet bandwidth which is pooled together to provide these services to you and your neighbors.

Mass media plays this up as terrible, specifically because Amazon has set this feature by default to "enabled". Reality is, Amazon actually did their homework.  A roaming wireless device that reaches out and connects to SideWalk has ZERO access to the hosting network it's connecting though, just as the hosting network has ZERO access to the roaming WiFi device's data, data is fully encrypted, and not even Amazon has access to that data.

6 years ago, Microsoft promised Windows 10 would be the last OS, being "refreshed" twice a year forever.  A couple days ago, Windows 11 has been leaked. Some features – taskbar is centralized, similar to Mac vs. Curtrent left-side, no more tiles in start menu – instead , windows will be rounded, like MacOS, overall, a very MacOS vibe.

Next Week's Teaser:
These easy tips will keep your phone safeCall to Action:

We talk a lot about stupid (nothing bad ever happens to me; head in the sand; too busy; I’ll do it later). So what’s smart? Taking this seriously TODAY. Book a 10-minute Discovery Call right now. I’ll ask some key questions and give you a quick score. If you’re doing everything right, you can sleep better at night. If there’s room for improvement, we’ll discuss options. NO PRESSURE, NO STRINGS. JUST BOOK THE CALL!www.mastercomputing.com/discovery

What is Stupid... or Just Irresponsible??

People do the dumbest things! (Myself included) And then get so upset when it blows up in their face. We're here to break down the stupid, the irresponsible, the reckless, and the absurd where technology is concerned. As an added bonus, we'll see if we can't learn something in the process.