A Good Partnership?

Reuters announced that the National Security Agency (NSA) will partner with US banks to deter cyber attacks within the banking industry according to an article on Reuters.

The financial industry has been taunted and attacked by hackers from other countries, mainly China. The financial industries have security resources in place, but "tremendous vulnerabilities" remain.  Threats include individuals positioning themselves inside a business to negatively impact operations and malware. 

Given the impact of the value of information on financial institution networks, the loss or compromise of this information as well as the impact to investors it is imparative that our resources are protected.  History has shown that the hackers strike when a business is most vulnerable, such as during a crisis.

It was interesting to read the comments on the article.  Many people were not pleased that a federal agency was assisting the financial/banking industry, asking when their company could get help from the federal government to fix their problems, etc.  Not many positive comments.  We are a bunch of complainers, aren't we?  I think this is a great step.  Hillary Clinton's book, It Takes a Village describes the number of caring people that make up the lives of children, from parents, grandparents, teachers, friends, neighbors, law enforcement officials, government officials and others.  Looking at the resources of our country, these children need the support of friends, neighbors, law enforcement, goverment officials and others.  We're all in the same boat.  When one aspect fails, we all fail.

Mama always said you should watch what you say!

Marc Bechtol's facebook post cost him a two semester suspension and ban from the Catawba Valley Community College (CVCC) on Oct 4 according to a CBS report.

Bechtol had to sign up for a specific bank account to receive grant money.  He began receiving unwelcome spam from credit card companies shortly after the account was opened which he concluded were directly related.  He posted "Did anyone else get a bunch of credit card spam in their CVCC inbox today? So, did CVCC sell our names to banks, or did Higher One? I think we should register CVCC’s address with every porn site known to man. Anyone know any good viruses to send them?”on the CVCC facebook page.  Moments later he added a post “OK (sic), maybe that would be a slight overreaction,” under his first post.

It was too late.  His comments yielded a letter from campus informing him of his suspension and campus ban.  CVCC indicated that the post was disturbing and "indicates possible malicious action against the college". 

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) came to Bechtol's aid by intervening on his behalf.  Rober Shibley, the senior VP of FIRE, found CVCC's reaction to the post to be extreme.  He asked the school to put Bechtol on notice and provide him the opportunity to be heard by the administration before suspending him.  Bechtol's suspension has been revoked and he is now able to go back to campus, however, he has not done so yet.

So, we all know you can't take back your posts but we can learn from them.  What could Bechtol have done to deal with his suspicion about the spam?   The best response, ignore the email and delete it immediately.  Another option asked to read the CVCC's and Higher One Bank's privacy policy.  As a customer you have the right to see what kind of information they're sharing and opt out.  It really makes sense to read all the words of a contract before signing anything.  My final advice is to create a secondary email account that you provide when you suspect you might get unwanted email.  A good time to use this is when you order from an online retailer.  Many retailers require your email address to complete an online order.  You will get shipment information related to your order but you'll also get regular (unwanted?) email from the retailer.  Provide your secondary email account when ordering so you're aware of the shipping information but the extraneous email is not clogging up your primary email account.

I'm sure Mr Bechtol learned from this painful and public experience.  Listen to Mom.

Apple releases new iOS for iPhone, iPod and iPad

Apple is scheduled to release the newest operating system, version 5, on Wednesday, October 12.  In conjunction with the OS update, an updated version of iTunes was released today, October 11.  The iTunes update, version 10.5 fixes 79 flaws in the Windows edition according to ComputerWorld.  The update is free.  If you plan to run the new OS, you must update iTunes so you can sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod. 

iOS 5 has some nice improvements:

You don't need a PC or Mac to configure the device out of the box.  You can activate the device wirelessly.

The new OS has a notification center showing you your new email, texts, friend requests, stock market updates, weather and more.

Apple also released iMessage, a messageing service allowing users to send text messages from their i-device.  iMessage is an encrypted system.

Another improvement in the new OS is iCloud service (coming soon). iCloud stores your contacts, calendar entries, photos, music and television programs on Apple servers in the cloud which makes your content available on your i-devices "anywhere, any time".  iCloud supports up to 10 devices at no cost and provides up to 5 GB of storage.  Additional storage will cost you to upgrade.

iOS 5 has a Newsstand feature to allow users to subscribe and manage publications.  Users can read the latest version of current magazines and newspapers.

The new operating system brings improvements to the camera, picture editing, Safari browser, mail, calendar and the game center.

I got an iPad at work and am anxious to get clearance to install iOS 5 on my iPad.

Scam

I posted a cell phone for sale on Craigslist Tuesday night.  About 5 minutes after I posted ad I received a short email asking if the phone was still available.  I wasn't expecting anyone to buy the phone that fast, my heart was racing as I typed a quick "yes".  I didn't get any return response that night...

This evening I got an email message from the individual:
 ___________________________________________________________________________
Hello,
Thanks for your mail, , i dont know what happened to my yahoo account, i cannot reply the   message i have in my inbox so thats why i couldn't get back to you. The price of the item is fair to me and i wouldn't want to loose it so it would be my pleasure to add another $20 to the asking price so you can sell the item to me and also tell other interested parties that it has been sold to avoid competitions. I don't have much  time to come over to take a look because of my Business i have limited time, i am ready to make money order to you but i need you to get back with your full details as
  1)Full name for Payment
  2)Full Address
  3)city
  4)State
  5)zip code
  6) cell or home Phone Number(also let me know the best time to reach you on phone)
I will be waiting to get those infors from you later today so i can make money order  out to you immediately, Please don't bother yourself about the pick up, i know a forwarding courier in your state, they will handle the pick up immediately you inform me that you got your money order  cash, then i will contact them to come for the pick up of the item at your location at your own best time....
I will be waiting for your quick response tomorrow latest.
Stay Blessed.
 ____________________________________________________________________________
Would you sell your phone or respond to this person?  If you answered "yes", you would likely be the victim of a scam.  How do I know?:

1. The first email came from xxxxxx@att.net.  This email came from xxxxxx@yahoo.com.  I noted the discrepancy.  Pay attention to the recipient email address. 
2. Misspellings and poor punctuation are typical in scams. 
3. The buyer offers me more money than I am asking for the phone.  He is testing my greed factor. 
4. The buyer offers to send me a money order.
5. The buyer offers to send a courier to my state so I won't need to send the device to him.  Since he's not picking it up, an unknown party will pick it up so he remains anonymous. 
6. He wants a quick response. 

So, if I respond to this guy and accept his generous offer, he will send me a mail order check then task an unknown person to pick up the phone from me.  For the scam to work, the check will look real but it will be fake.  I won't know that until the bank contacts me about the bad check I deposited.   The bank will charge me a bad check fee and I will have given away my phone.  It's a potential loss for me.  I'm not buying it, so game over buddy. 

Please be careful when selling equipment on E-bay or Craigslist, watch for signs that might indicate that the potential buyer is a scam artist.  
 

Rest in Peace Mr Jobs

The legendary Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, lost his battle with pancreatic cancer October 5 at the age of 56.  Most young people associate Steve Jobs with the creation of the iPod, iPhone and iPad but his contributions span beyond these devices...

Steve Jobs was born in 1955 and grew up in California with an interest in electronics.  As a teenager he contacted William Hewlett, President of Hewlett-Packard, to request parts for a school project and ended up getting the parts and a summer job.  He was a visionary man with an nonconforming life including a brief experience in college before dropping out, a short job designing Atari video games, backpacking across India and experiences with psychedelic drugs.  His experiences influenced his creativity and ideas throughout his adult life.

Steve became friends with Steve Wozniak while working at HP.  Jobs and Wozniak partnered together to launch Apple Computers with two others.  They built their first computer in 1976 in Steve Job's parent's garage.  The product was sold unassembled, had no keyboard or monitor and cost $666.66.  The following year Apple created the Apple II which was a big hit in the market.  The Macintosh computer was launched in early 1984. Two years later Jobs left the company then started a marginally successful computer company, NeXT Computer.  Jobs then bought Pixar Studios from George Lucas where he shared his visions and led the successful animation company.  In 1996, Apple bought NeXT which brought Jobs back to Apple.

In 2001, Jobs introduced the iPod followed by iTunes, the iPhone, the App Store and the iPad.  Steve Jobs left this world early but has left a legacy that will live in the memories of many...