PALM BEACH – Sometimes I just hate Google, and I must admit, those times come a heck of a lot more often these days than they did in the past. I personally used to consider Google an ambiguous friend; always quietly working for me in the background, creating all new interesting ways for me to beat-out the competition. Assigning me that "competitive edge" through working smart and not hard. Allowing experienced know-how to tear through competitors and level the playing field … [Read more...]
885 Million Customer Records Exposed by Country’s Largest Title Company, FAF
PALM BEACH - Earlier this week, it was reported that one of the country's largest titles companies, First American Financial Corp (NYSE: FAF), unknowingly exposed up to 885 million files related to real estate title insurance records dating from 2003 to 2019. Anyone with a URL for a valid document could view other documents by modifying a single digit in the URL. The records exposed by the website included critical financial information and documents such … [Read more...]
Personal Info of 500 Million Guests Exposed in Marriott’s Starwood Reservation System
NEW YORK, NY - One of the world's leading global hotel groups disclosed that a guest reservation database, which covers a number of major hotel brands, suffered a large data breach. An internal investigation showed that unauthorized access had been occuring since 2014. The intrusion went unnoticed for four years by Starwood, which was acquired by Marriott in 2016 for $13.6 billion. It was uncovered in early September, when a security tool alerted Marriott officials to an … [Read more...]
Two New Alternative URLs Hit Superhighway
NEW YORK, NY – If you’re looking around for a few good ways to confuse new prospective customers, you’ve got two new great opportunities to completely derail even your best marketing efforts; .LUXE and .PAGE new gTLDs have just worked their way into the mix. Minds + Machines, the company behind .LUXE domain names, which are intended to serve the Ethereum, blockchain and security industry, has released the .LUXE domain which opens for general availability on November 6, … [Read more...]
New Facebook Data Breach Effecting 50 Million Accounts; Doubling Security Staff
NEW YORK, NY - On Friday, September 28, 2018 Facebook said that an attack on its computer network had affected the personal information of nearly 50 million users. The attackers exploited the "View As" feature that allows users to see their Facebook page the way someone else would. This could allow the attackers to take over Facebook accounts. Facebook has fixed this issue and informed law enforcement. They also do not know if the affected accounts were misused or if user … [Read more...]
Why You’ll See Me at the MERGE Digital Asset Conference Again This Year
NEW YORK, NY – I’m happy to report that I will again be visiting beautiful and sunny Orlando Florida this September 14-19 for the Merge Domain Conference, rightfully dubbed the “Merge Digital Asset Conference”. MERGE serves as a five day multi-conference event focused on Digital Assets, Domains, Hosting, E-Commerce, Content Management, Security, Intellectual Property, Stock Photography, UX, Design, Blockchain and Crypo-Currencies and more. To me it’s just another … [Read more...]
The Politics of Facebook: Zuckerberg to Testify Before Congressional Lawmakers
NEW YORK – You have to admit that it an amazing time in history when a computer programming entrepreneur must face the United States Government due to his innovative social network becoming one of the most powerful influencer tools in the World. Beginning tomorrow, Tuesday April 10, 2018, Facebook Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Marc Zuckerberg will testify before lawmakers in what is expected to be a two-day heavy-hitter grilling on the very serious privacy and … [Read more...]
Wouldn’t You Gladly Give-up a Little Bit of Privacy for So Much Better Security?
NEW YORK, NY – Imagine a World in which you allowed, or even specifically created your own little environment where all of your private communications and discussions could be monitored and recorded; all day, every day, till the end of time. Sounds like something you would never do? Welcome to Google Assistant; ready to help you wherever you are. Your one Assistant extends to help you across devices, like Google Home, your phone, and more. Who owns Google these days … [Read more...]
Bad News: Beware and “Be Aware” of “Meltdown” and “Spectre” Vulnerabilities
NEW YORK, NY - As the title suggests, you should both Beware, and "Be Aware" of these new security vulnerabilities that effect pretty much every Intel processor since 1995. I say "Be Aware" because although their patches available, there is not much that can be done to fully mitigate this issue until all or most computer hardware is redesigned. This is bad news because everyone is effected, and all computers are going to need to be replaced, it seems. Meltdown and Spectre … [Read more...]
Be Prepared for Clever Scams & Tactics
I often write about security, privacy and other important personal safety issues such as being and keeping aware of security vulnerabilities, email threats and phishing scams..... It is often very simple precautions you can take which will save you a lifetime of headaches. With this type of material in mind, I received the following tips by email over the weekend from a family member and they are seem like they are worth sharing (rather than just deleting) as they will keep … [Read more...]
New Threat to WordPress Sites Designed to Bypass All Ordinary Security Measures
NEW YORK, NY - It seems like a new security threat is born each day; maybe that is because there is. For those who operate WordPress sites, including myself, there is a new threat to consider that is designed to bypass ordinary security measures; a simple back door, you have already left wide-open, by choice. WordPress Plugins are great additions to any WordPress site as they create all sorts of easy plug-and-play options and make often complicated features simple to … [Read more...]
Misfortune Anyone? This Dangerous Vulnerability Could Be Lurking In Your Network Router
NEW YORK, NY - Misfortune Anyone? Today, WordFence [I really love these people], a company whom distributes a popular security plugin for WordPress websites, released a great article about a vulnerability on computer networks that is being exploited. With the article they also included a simple button which you can use to scan your network's vulnerability, so that if you are vulnerable to this Internet router exploit, you will know about it ASAP and can begin hounding … [Read more...]
New York Releases Tips to Avoid Falling Victim to Cybercrime; Commemorates National Data Privacy Day
NEW YORK, NY - A host of New York State government agencies today announced important tips consumers and businesses can follow to protect their online privacy and information from unscrupulous scammers. These helpful steps and reminders from the Department of State, Office of Information Technology Services, Department of Taxation and Finance, Department of Financial Services and the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services help commemorate National Data Privacy … [Read more...]
No More Procrastinating on Two Factor Authenticating Protect Your Domains
There is one thing that can come between you and your business regardless of whom you are and how safe you feel your security procedures might be and that’s theft – especially in the domain business. There is a lot that can go wrong in the Internet business as it is, but likely nothing would be as bad as someone stealing your entire Internet address. Poof, all the sudden your entire business is gone. In a brick-and-motor business, it’s not likely that someone will come along … [Read more...]
11 Tools to Market, Maintain, and Improve Your Website; Measure Your Competition
Below are ten great online tools which will help you be successful online. They are invaluable tools for both marketing and research and can help save you lots of time as well help you make critical decisions with much more insight then without them. Although there are probably thousands of tools online, these are the ones I like to use most and can help you gain a competitive advantage over your competition. A List of 10 Great (and mostly free) Tools to improve your … [Read more...]