March 2018 Edition
Thousands of people have lost millions of dollars and their personal information to tax scams. Scammers use the regular mail, telephone, or email to set up individuals, businesses, payroll and tax professionals.
The IRS doesn’t initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text messages or social media channels to request personal or financial information. Recognize the telltale signs of a scam.
February 2018 Edition
Password recovery or reset often requires answers to questions that were answered when the account was set up, possibly years ago. Many questions are not well thought out. Such as; “What country would you like to visit?” This may not be the same answer forever. If you answered this sort of question 10 years ago, you may have different travel dreams now.
January 2018 edition: Often while helping clients with their computers I am asked “How did you do that?” This usually happens when I use a Keyboard Shortcut that saves me from having to use the mouse to click on something to get something done.
December 2017 edition: Black Friday and Cyber Monday are behind us, and the holiday giving season is directly ahead. For many this means new computers, tablets, or cell phones. Now we need to address getting our important documents and files moved from an old device to the new one. It also means that we need to think about how to best dispose of the old equipment.
November 2017 edition: It is time to review and update the security section on all your online accounts. Most online accounts have a section called “Security”. This includes your password, your Security Questions & Answers, and other means for ensuring that you are the rightful owner of the account.
October 2017 edition: In September, we learned that Equifax had been hacked and the sensitive personal data of 143 million American consumers was stolen. 209,000 of the records stolen also included Credit Card Numbers. What should you be doing to protect yourself?
September 2017 edition: 1 out of 10 folks I work with has a backup of any kind. That’s taking a big risk with important files. If a hard drive fails, and there are no backups, everything is lost.
OneDrive can help.
Many home users and businesses have the feeling that they don’t need to worry about Cyber-Security. They don’t do things on their computer that are questionable, and they have anti-virus running on their computers.
Back in the early days of personal computers, we accepted the fact that we would have to wait (and wait… and wait some more) for things to get done. Today we have little patience for having to wait and watch spinning wheels and slow response times.
The way that these types of news stories play on emotions is powerful. Emotional responses are spur-of-the-moment and often cause us to drop our defenses. We have a “need to know more” response because of the headline… and we click on it to find out more.
Maybe when we think of Spring Cleaning, we don’t think about our computer, or what should be done to help it serve us, well into the future.
The IRS has a webpage that lists scams which are costing US Taxpayers millions of dollars.
One deeply disturbing “2 Stage” scam targets Tax Professionals, and then uses information stolen to scam the individuals that have used the Tax Pro.
Ransomware is a big threat that nearly every tech company is tracking and gearing up defenses against.
If you are like me and sometimes sit down at the computer without your reading glasses, this might be a great help for you.
Can I get the free upgrade if I don’t want to upgrade this month? Seems like a simple question.
Speaking with customers provides a unique viewpoint on the uncertainty felt about the Windows 10 upgrade.
You may know someone that has been scammed by a phone call from someone saying that they are a Microsoft Tech Support specialist and that they are calling because the person’s computer is infected. Microsoft doesn’t make unsolicited calls.
Many home users and businesses have the feeling that they don’t need to worry about Cyber-Security. They don’t do things on their computer that are questionable, they have anti-virus running on their computers, or maybe they use a Mac, so there is not much to worry about.