Information Security Management - News You Can Use

Greetings All!

It is hard to believe that my Information Security Management class is over today. In looking back at my postings in my blog for this class the past 11 weeks, I chose a variety of topics and wanted to use different ones each week that were related to Information Technology. I wanted this experience to be fun and exciting and also wanted this to be a great learning experience for me as well.

Most of the material that I blogged on was from various newsworthy sources/websites that were provided as a link to use for this class. Sometimes, I would search on my own for interesting topics to write about.

To recap, the topic headings in Information Technology - News You Can Use  I wrote about In What's New With Laurie were the following:

• Voting on the Internet - Is it Safe?
• What is this World Coming to? Is it Full of Double Standards?
• You May Change Your Password - a pet's Name, the Month, or a Favorite Movie Just Isn't Enough!
• Watch our for the FBI!
• The Newest Technology Trend for the Ladies-- the iPhone-carrying Bra!
• Did you Ever Regret Posting Things About Yourself on Facebook thst You Realized May Come Back to Haunt You?
• Do You Ever Run Out of Ideas for a Gift to Your Mother on Her Special Day?
• Online Crowdsourcing Game tha Helps Diagnose Infectious Diseases Such as Milaria!
• Chicago's 2012 NATO Summit
• The Stupid Things that People do on Facebook and how They can Fix Them!

Please visit What's New With Laurie for future posts. This class, as well as others I have taken in the past, has motivated me to continue blogging. It is a great way to share useful information with others and it helps you build your writing and communication skills. A win-win situation for all!

Good luck to everyone from this class and maybe we will cross paths in the future!

Bye for now-

Laurie

Information Security Management - News You Can Use

Greetings!

I was just reading about the stupid things that people do on Facebook and how they can fix them.

Facebook is a social networking site that people have chosen to share their lives with. Unfortunately, the social media site can be a constant source of annoyance, embarrassment, and trouble if the wrong decision.

The following is a list of stupid things that people do on Facebook:

1. You don't regularly audit your approved apps.
2. You don't filter your news feeds.
3. You don't manage your privacy settings.
4. You complain about Facebook features you hate but don't fix them.
5. You friend everybody.
6. You let Facebook spam your email inbox with notifications.
7. Your password is insecure.
8. You let Facebook track you.
9. You keep falling for scams.
10. You share too many personal photos that may be used against you later.

The good news is that you can get Facebook under control. Here are some suggestions:

• Visit your app settings page and you will be presented with apps you are using. Go through the list and delete anything that you don't recognize or ant anymore.
• If you have a friend who posts crap to your news feed, you can tell Facebook to filter out anywhere from some to all of the posts.
• Managing Facebook privacy is hard to do. Go to Social Fishing-- this extension works on practically every web browser and gets rid of anything you hate. One example is to turn off chat bar-- always show Facebook message in boxes. Another example is to prevent Facebook from auto-loading posts-- filter out messages you don't want to see. Last, turn off the timeline (for yourself).
• Many people have too many friends lists and they are too difficult to manage. A solution would be to send a message to all your friends to let them know that you are cleaning house.
• People spend too much time on Facebook, and it might get in the way of getting other things done. You can quit Facebook without actually quitting Facebook. You can disable a lot of the features and lock down privacy settings. This way, you can still use Facebook, but can avoid it at times.

Interesting tips for the Facebook user... good luck and be careful out there!

Until next time...

Bye for now,

Laurie

Information Security Management - News You Can Use

NATO SUMMIT

Greetings All-

NATO Media Headquarters

(Photo provided by Chicago Sun Times)

This weekend through Monday is the 2012 NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Summit,  will be bringing in leaders from all over the world,  to McCormick Place in Chicago.  I was reading in an article on eWeek.com that Cyber-Threats are posing challenges during the NATO Conference. Security experts expect WiFi freeloaders, man-in-the-middle attacks and targeted attacks against those working at the Chicago site during the Summit.

Cyber security headaches include attackers targeting laptops and smartphones, as well as WiFi freeloaders piggybacking off of WiFi Signals, security experts told the Chicago Sun-Times. The Sun-Times also reported that Internet, wireless voice  and even electrical outages might occur, and that all Chicagoans may want to back up their data. In fact, most businesses may even close for the business day on Monday to avoid  any disruptions from the NATO Summit, as well as for the safety and security of their employees.

There have been several protesters throughout the city over the weekend and Chicago Police have beefed up security, including some of the force in full riot gear, especially at the end of the NATO protest march today, in 91 degrees weather in Chicago.

Chicago Police at the end of the NATO Protest March

(Photo provided by Chicago Sun-Times)

If you are in Chicago this weekend - BE SAFE!

Until next time...

Bye for now,

Laurie

  

Information Security Management - News You can Use

TO ALL THE MOTHERS IN THE WORLD- HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Do you ever run out of ideas for a gift to give to your mother on her special day?  Flowers are great but get boring after a while. Here are five great Mother's Day gifts under $100 that I think mom would appreciate (especially the "Techy" mom):

1. ChicBuds - Most earbuds are basic black or white-- now you can buy them to match mom's sense of style and color coordination. You can now get earbuds in "blue graffiti", "pink leopard", and "zebra stripes" and they come with a flat, tangle-free cord. The also come with three gel-tip sizes to get the best possible fit. Chicbuds are priced at $29.99  each.
2. Apple TV or Roku LT - The Apple TV or the Roku LT are diminutive boxes that plug in to almost any TV and stream video from various services such as Netflix to instantly watch special selected videos. Both boxes are excellent, but the Apple TV has better AirPlay capabilities. For example, mom can beam snapshots and videos from her phone to the TV. However, Roku boxes support Amazon instant Video and Hulu Plus, which together offer more viewing options than iTunes alone. The Apple TV costs $99.00 each and the Roku LT costs $49.99 each.
3. Amazon Kindle Touch or Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch - The Amazon Kindle Touch is $99.00 each and has received four stars and is also an Editor's Choice from CNET. The Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch was just reduced to $79.00 each in honor of Mother's Day, and also received four stars and an Editor's Choice.
4. Fitbit Ultra - Is your mom trying to get into shape? The Fitbit Ultra is one of the first gadgets that can actually help her get started. This clip-on activity tracker measures just about anything: steps taken, stairs climbed, distance traveled, and calories burned. It can even monitor sleep patterns. The real fun is that mom can track all of her stats online or in the companion Android/iOS apps. It even syncs with popular apps like "Lose It" and "RunKeeper."
5. Creative D100 Bluetooth Speaker - If your mom has a smartphone or a tablet, she probably enjoys listening to her playlists, podcasts, Pandora and more. The beauty of a Bluetooth speaker is that it can go just about anywhere that mom goes, and it can play any audio she wants to hear. There are many Bluetooth speakers to choose from, many priced under $100.00 each.

Happy shopping and Happy Mother's Day!

Until next time...

Bye for now,

Laurie

Information Security Management - News You Can Use

Greetings!

Today I was reading an article on computerworld.com that talked about an online "crowdsourcing game" that helps diagnose infectious diseases such as malaria.

This game is designed to let players help doctors all over the world speed the process of distinguishing malaria-infected red blood cells from healthy ones. Researchers are hoping that the users of this game can help areas like sub-Saharan Africa, where malaria accounts for 20% of all childhood deaths. This disease, however, affects 210 million people annually worldwide, and accounts for almost 40% of all hospitalizations throughout Africa.

(Photo Courtesy of Computerworld)

The "crowdsourcing game" (shown above) is free to play, and works off of the assumption that large groups of non-experts can be trained to recognize microscopic images of infectious disease cells with the accuracy of trained pathologists.  The game was created by researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and the Applied Science and David Geffen School of Medicine, and can be played on any computer device ranging from cell phones to personal computers, and can be played anywhere around the world.

Computerworld reported that "the idea of this game is to use crowds to collectively get a better pathologic analysis of microscopic images, which could be applicable to various telemedicine solutions." Before playing the game, each player is given a brief online tutorial and an explanation of what malaria-infected red blood cells typically look like using sample images (shown below). Then the player goes through the game and is shown multiple digital frames of red blood cell images. The player can use a tool that looks like a syringe that will kill the infected cells one-by-one and use another tool that collects the remaining cells that are healthy in the frame.

(Photo Courtesy of Computerworld)

Typically, malaria is diagnosed by a trained pathologist through a conventional light microscope, and this time-consuming process can overwhelm researchers. The new "crowdsourcing game" is a platform that could be adapted for a variety of other biomedical and environmental tasks.

How impressive!

Until next time...

Bye for now,

Laurie

Information Security Management - News You Can Use

The Newest Technology Trend for the Ladies... the iPhone-carrying Bra!

(photo credit: Joeybra)

I was reading an article today about  this new bra that can carry an iPhone, which was named the JoeyBra, as in baby kangaroo because it has pouches, and created by two entrepreneurial business students at the University of Washington who saw potential growth in the pocketed bra market, as reported in the news. Here is how they described this product on their website http://www.joeybra.com:

JoeyBra was created for women who are constantly on the go and struggle to find a place to put they ID, keys, or phones. From the two female student's own personal experience, they know that women hate taking their purses to dances, bars, or dance clubs. Leaving these items at home can pose a safety risk, but with JoeyBra women will never have to worry losing or damaging their valuables again.

The college juniors claim that the bra with pockets can hold an iPhone, along with an ID, credit cards, and even keys, regardless of your bust size. How great is that!

What's next-- jockey shorts with a pocket for the guys?

Until next time...

Bye for now,

Laurie

Information Security Management - News You Can Use

Watch out for the FBI!

I was just reading today that the World Wide Web could vanish for a lot of people this July, according to the FBI. If your computer is infected with the DNSChanger virus, you better take care of it; otherwise you may lose your internet connection if you don't take the necessary steps to diagnose and disinfect your computer.

This problem is related to malware and it is called DNSChanger. It was discovered back in 2007 and it has infected millions of computers worldwide. In simple terms, when you type a Web address into your browser, your computer contacts DNS (Domain Name System) servers to find out the numerical Internet Protocol (IP) address of the site you are trying to reach, and then takes you there. DNSChanger messed with an infected machine's settings and directed it to rogue servers set up by a crime ring-- servers that handed out addresses to whatever sites the ring chose. These crooks were international cyberbandits that hijacked millions of computers.

Late last year, the FBI disrupted this operation and seized the rogue servers. However, since so many infected computers relied on those servers to reach the Internet, the agent opted not to shut them down and instead convert them to legitimate DNS machines. Running these machines costs the government money; therefore, they are being switched off in July. If your computer is infected with DNSChanger, then you will loose your access the the Web.

To learn more about DNSChanger and to find out if your computer is infected, you can visit the FBI's website at http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/20ll/november/malware_110911.

Also, always remember to install anti-virus software on your computer as a safety precaution.

Until next time...

Bye for now,

Laurie