Gift cards should never be used to pay bills or the government for taxes, etc. Gift cards should always be used to buy gifts.
This goes to show you the wisdom of the elders: if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Don’t let your guard down.
Report Gift Cards Used in a Scam | Federal Trade Commission – YouTube
Reminder: Phishing is still the method of compromise most widely used. 91% of cyberattacks use phishing emails. With ransomware, the number is about 70%.
Phishing is really sophisticated sometimes. You may get phishing emails that look exactly like the real thing and the sites they lead to can have images and layouts stolen from the mimicked website.
Spearphishing is a targeted attack against certain individuals at an organization. Whaling is directed at big names at an org, typically a CEO or CFO–or someone with purchasing power since money transfers are the goal.
Smishing uses SMS (text) messages to get you to click and vishing uses phone calls or voice messages to get a target to do something the threat actor wants.
Don’t click. Don’t open attachments. Don’t even respond.
I am struck by those whom I know who are insistent that the election was fraudulent, but you have to hand it to the Democrats. They got out the vote like they never had before. Now his star is waning.
Merry Christmas.
CISA “published an emergency directive on Friday urging all government agencies to immediately ‘patch’ computer systems to address the Log4j flaw. ‘The Log4j vulnerability is the most serious vulnerability that I have seen in my decades-long career,’ CISA Director Jen Easterly.”
“Even the Microsoft-owned online video game Minecraft has been affected. Some hackers were apparently able to breach victims by typing a single line of code into the game’s chat box, according to Wired. Microsoft says it has since fixed the issue and is urging players to update their Minecraft software.”
Why is the Log4j cybersecurity flaw the ‘most serious’ in decades? (nypost.com)
Want.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097CNP994/ref=asc_df_B097CNP9941639738800000
I bought some of these for my mom, but nope, didn’t last long. I’m not one who loses their stuff, but I recommend this one if you do.
https://www.amazon.com/Tile-RE-20002-Pro-2-Pack/dp/B07W73NGMW
Sweet power source Batman!
https://www.amazon.com/Jackery-Portable-Power-Station-Generator/dp/B07D29QNMJ
Also for camping, but I had a small solar panel and it was not impressive.
https://www.amazon.com/Jackery-SolarSaga-Explorer-Portable-Generator/dp/B07PGS2WN8
I do need a new tablet. (I have an old, unused iPad.)
https://www.walmart.com/ip/SAMSUNG-Galaxy-Tab-A7-32GB-10-4-Wi-Fi-Gray-SM-T500NZABXAR/882296471
But if I were to get a Surface…This one is $200 off.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/d/surface-pro-8/8qwcrtq8v8xg?icid=deals-page_Store_COUNTDOWN22_R1_CP4_SurfacePro8_121721&activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab
And if you like ear buds
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Google-Pixel-Buds-A-Series-Truly-Wireless-Earbuds-Audio-Headphones-with-Bluetooth-White/620970985
——
Wired has this story about how Macy’s, Target, Bloomingdales, The North Face, Old Navy and other retailers are on the heels of Amazon with free shipping and 25% off.
https://www.wired.com/story/move-over-amazon-catching-up-macys-target
UPDATE 12/15/2021: A second vuln in log4j (patch for the first vulnerability was “incomplete.”) It’s been exploited in the wild.
As Daniel Miessler says “Analysis: What’s so remarkable about this vulnerability is not just its criticality or reach—but the root cause at the developer incentives level. Like Heartbleed—the project had very few eyes on it, and all those eyes were volunteers. What we should be thinking about isn’t just log4j. What we should be thinking about is how many other projects are out there that have similar characteristics:
Cybersecurity official warns software vulnerability could affect millions of devices (msn.com)
Saw this little page on brain chemicals.
Dopamine rewards you when you’ve done a good job.
Oxytocin thanks you as the “love hormone.”
Serotonin gives you cheer and good feelings about yourself.
Endorphins get you high near the finish line or when in danger.
So I had a hard-learned lesson with WordPress history in Elementor. If you want to review or roll back to a prior version of the site as you work on it, remember to select the starred revision, or other revision you would like to save, before you close it! Specifically:
At right at the bottom, you can see the history button, which is the circle with arrow denoting time rotating counterclockwise. Select that and you see the Actions and Revisions tabs.
Actions is only the history of your current session, which is erased at end of your session.
Revisions are steps that have been saved either manually in your session or automatically at the end of your editing session.
Again, when you are finished viewing the revision make sure you select the correct version you would like WordPress to keep upon saving. It’s really sad when you lose everything after your work of X number of days.
A neat little thing I learned in WordPress is custom responsive styles in the Elementor editor.
If you make a change and then switch to tablet or mobile view and make changes there, you will also change the regular desktop view. (See wrong button at bottom of image with red ‘X’ at right.)
Instead you have to change each style setting using the little device icons next to each setting. See examples right.
Just make sure to check each layout before publishing!
Just dipping into WordPress the last few days and after the client installed the subdomain, the rest of the site is having issues relating to (perhaps) DNS or a missing SSL certificate.
I have primarily worked with Drupal (and more recently Wix), but there are some similarities (e.g. PHP) and this is a great learning experience. The community seems to answer faster than Drupal.org. They’re on Stack, so that’s good.
Congruence with meta is this:
Hold on to your meta while I hold onto mine,
And we hold onto ours.
And what is ours?
Freedom, Culture, Peace and Prosperity.
Associating with those at odds,
Share how you feel at home.
Jump in.
We fight for the same agreement.
If you receive a call, text, or email that says one of the following, it’s a scam:
* Threatens to suspend your Social Security number, even if they have part or all of your Social Security number
* Warns of arrest of legal action
* Demands or requests immediate payment
* Requires payment by gift card, prepaid debit card, internet currency, or by mailing cash
* Pressures you for personal information
* Requests secrecy
* Threatens to seize your bank account
* Promises to increase your Social Security benefit
* Tries to gain your trust by providing fake “documentation,” false “evidence,” or the name of a real government official Continue reading “Social Security scam and protection recommendations”
I was thinking about politics in regard to TG Day. It’s a series of memes. So my sister and her bf are coming to have dinner tomorrow and they’re also bringing their dog Oliver and my pup Jax back. They both differ in their politics from my mother and me, but are decent.
And if my brother were here? Not a guarantee of peace.
So I think there’s some humor in how the past and current presidents had their positive memorable phrases or slogans:
Reagan – A shining city on a hill
GHW Bush – A thousand points of light
Clinton – Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow
GW Bush – Compassionate conservatism and mission accomplished
Obama – Yes we can
Trump – Make America great again
Biden – I have no idea
That last one could be enough of a jump off point to a shallow argument. But slogans do not make the man. They do make for good argument material though. Why someone could not just keep their mouth shut and love their family is beyond me.
So I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and drop a note to say what you’re doing. Blessings!
Objective journalism is all but dying (dead?) here, but it’s been dead for a while in the U.K., the difference overseas now is that “activist journalism” is understood. The editor-in-chief in BBC’s “The Press,” Duncan Allen (played by Ben Chaplin) is the ruthless stereotype of what is, in today’s journalism.
Ironically, while trying to expose corruption, he too is exposed for his sordid private life. So it’s anti-climactic when he reveals his ideas to change society. Why shouldn’t it be that they create horrible news stories to create change? There is not even a mention here of objectivity. (Hence the disappearing difference between the U.K. and the U.S.)
Journalism was comedic with His Girl Friday and Switching Channels, tragic in Citizen Kane, and disconcerting in The Press. But taking part in the story you’re writing should not be part of your reporting. That means taking part by putting your opinions in as well.
Can change happen without this in real life? I hope so.
This is some gall and ominous. But the news today is about China warning about Taiwan. So far, I have little faith in what our administration is doing.
China builds mockups of U.S. Navy ships in area used for missile target practice | Reuters
Their inroads are significant. But the big problem is that they are graduating tens of thousands into cybersecurity and IT.
China’s next generation of hackers won’t be criminals. That’s a problem. | TechCrunch
H/T Daniel Miessler
Happening right now!
Six catalytic converters stolen over the weekend in Coronado. For one guy three different times and insurance only covers once.
When we moved here in the 70s, there was still farmland, according to my mom. Check this out. –>
Another macOS zero-day giving root access, Google warns hackers used macOS zero-day flaw, could capture keystrokes, screengrabs | ZDNet also on iPhones. A watering hole attack relies on profiles of a website’s typical visitors to create the attack. For companies, note the websites of your industry’s conferences, standards bodies, and vendors.
Pretty sophisticated code I guess because analysts were looking at the quality as being like that of dev team: “…[u]sual-suspect traits of malware built for spying on a target, including device fingerprint, screen captures, the ability to upload and download files, as well as execute terminal commands…also record audio and log keystrokes.”
Just be wary where you are following the same sites as co-workers. Beware email lures. Get secure email and malware solutions for your business.