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Tech News and Commentary
Dave and the team discuss Google killing a Senator (kind of…), Prime Day helping other retailers, Netflix’s new UI, Uber vomit fraud, Shark Week sales, and more.
Our guest this hour:
Dale in Elmer, New Jersey asked: “A little bit of tech rage, attached to my favorite app – the Beyondpod podcast app. It was working fine and then they did an update. And while I had to go through a process to sideload it so I can still use it on my Samsung S7 – boy, did I have to go through a nightmare. Also have a question. The Have I Been Pwned website – Is it safe and what should I do if my e-mail address comes back as being positive for being pwned? I changed my passwords right away but is that enough?”
Dale, that’s pretty much all you can do short of getting a new email address.
Keep in mind that you will need to change any password that was the same as your email account’s password. For example, if your password for your email was the same as your password for your bank and you use your email address to log in to both, it’d be easy for someone with access to your email password to guess that that may be the case and try.
Other than that, you can also turn on two-factor authentication for anything that will take it. Having another device prove your identity when you log into a sign gives you an important second layer of security.
Beverly in Atlanta, Georgia listens on AM920 The Answer and asked: “
I want your opinion on using Chromebooks for banking. I’m terrified of doing online banking and I heard that if you use a Chromebook, you’re pretty safe. Also – I heard you talking about the camera from Guardzilla – the 360 degree. I bought the camera. Is it better to install the camera where it can be seen or not? I heard two trains of thought. One is that if people see the camera, they are emboldened to see what you have inside your house, and the other thought is that it prevents criminals from getting in your house.”
Beverly, Chromebooks are not a bad option for online banking.
They are subject to all of the same phishing schemes that any other computer or phone is subject to, since that’s mostly a problem with the user, not the technology, but they have one big advantage.
There’s virtually no malware for Chromebooks, since they’re so extremely limited in what they can do. They’re really just a web browser in a laptop’s exterior.
They are also for the most part always updated, as long as they’re supported by Google (which is not forever), and you don’t have to do much of anything to keep them up-to-date.
There’s virtually no malware for Chromebooks
As long as you turn them off, or restart them (which takes no time), they’re good to go.
They’re not a bad option, but don’t be too paranoid about online banking. For all the fear, have you ever heard of anyone’s account being emptied out by malware?
About the placement of your camera – I think it should be visible. You want any bad guys to know that you are keeping an eye on your property. What I usually tell people is to make sure you can see the camera, but mount it high enough so that it can’t easily be reached. If it’s out of reach, your less likely to have someone try to come up behind the camera and do something to it. Although, with these 360-degree cameras, there is no “behind” the camera, so you should be good.
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