The Dragon that Guards the Data: No Pet Names in Passwords!


… along with other annoying things. But today I was reminded of these emails when Jody showed me one she got that purported to be from Amazon. The folks who do this stuff know that a whole bunch of people shop on Amazon, so they create a fake email and choose a price that many…
Every advance in technology offers us new opportunities. Some of these opportunities are used constructively, some not so much. AI on the March! There are a number of issues with the use of AI, but this post is more of a warning. Just as some positive activities are enhanced by the use of AI, so…
I normally assume my Windows updates will occur with a minimum of fuss and bother, and in fact it took me several rounds to even realize what was going on this morning. I kept getting an “updates ready to install” notice, and I kept telling it to install. I was too busy with morning activities…
I have made the point before that security and convenience tend to conflict. Having a secure password is harder than having one that’s easy to remember. Generally, if it’s easy to remember it’s easy to crack. Two-Factor Authentication is similarly inconvenient. I was reminded of that today when I was logging into a site and…
The most common security issue I see on various computers and phone is the use of weak passwords. I was thinking about writing something, but then I found this article: The Ultimate Guide to Password Security. You will find that people argue about the details, but this provides excellent advice. There is no perfect security,…
Due to a remote execution flaw in CyberPanel, I had to clean up after this attack. The most useful site I found was Kinsing malware (kdevtmpfsi) – how to kill on CreateIt. The instructions there are useful. Don’t forget to do the full search, as if you have any “kinsing” files left, they’ll get things started…