If You Have a YouTube Channel, Watch Out for This Email Scam
Last fall I wrote about and made a short video about a phishing scam in which the sender pretends to be from YouTube support. Yesterday, I saw a new variation on that same scam appear in my inbox. As you can see in the screenshot above, the email subject line is Copyright Warning.pdf and the […]
How to Use the Google Authenticator App With Twitter
In what appears to be an on-going quest to drive users away, late last week Elon Musk Twitter announced that it would soon start charging for two factor account authentication done via text messaging (SMS). That doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to use two-factor authentication for free, it just means that you’ll have to do […]
Reminder – Two-Factor Authentication Saves Frustration
I’ve noticed a pattern lately that whenever I don’t check my Facebook account for more than a day, I get notifications that someone is trying to access my account via password reset. Fortunately, I use two-factor authentication on all of my accounts. (In the case of Facebook I’m forced to use two-factor because of the […]
An Update to Unraveling an Email Scam
About a month ago I published a video and blog post in which I explained the process that I used to unravel an email scam in which someone claimed to be an intellectual property attorney pursuing a case against me. That blog post turned out to be one the most popular things that I’ve published […]
A Neat Way for Students to See What Their Computers Are Connecting To
Knowing just a few commands to use in the command terminal can be quite helpful in diagnosing problems with your computer and or the network that your computer is using. (Bonus, it’s an easy way to make yourself look “super techy” in front of non-techy friends). One of those helpful commands is the Netstat command. […]
How to See What’s Hidden Behind a TinyURL
Last week I wrote a blog post about how to see what’s hidden behind a Bitly shortened URL without actually clicking on the link. The trick is to add “+” to the end of the Bitly URL to see what’s behind it without clicking on it. A few people emailed me to ask if the […]
Your Password Isn’t as Strong as You Think It Is – And Other Lessons in Cyber Safety
Last night I got an email from a former colleague who I hadn’t heard from in a while. The email didn’t have a subject line and simply read “Here’s the summary for Monday” and a PDF was attached. My Spidey Senses were triggered and I deleted the email without viewing the PDF. Obviously, his old […]
Fifteen Digital Citizenship Resources for K-12
As it is Safer Internet Day it’s a good time share the following excerpt from my free Practical Ed Tech Handbook. Common Sense Education (often referred to as Common Sense Media) offers an extensive set of free lesson plans for teaching digital citizenship to all K-12 students. The lesson plans are listed by grade level […]
Terrible Passwords, Password Security, and Protecting Your Online Account
Last week Splash Data revealed their annual list of worst passwords of the year. Many of those passwords will not be a surprise. Using “123456” and common words or names as your password is always a terrible idea. We all know that it is a terrible idea yet we all know someone who uses terrible […]