PHISHING SCAMS - KDSI WILL NEVER REQUEST YOUR USER NAME OR PASSWORD VIA EMAIL
"Phishing" is a kind of credit and debit card fraud. By pretending to email from a bank or similar site, scammers "fish" for account numbers, passwords, Social Security numbers, etc. They trick customers into divulging sensitive information so that unlawful charges can be made on the customers' account.
These schemes change frequently and often have links or attachments with links. Users who click on the links are taken to a look-alike or "spoofed" sites where they are asked to enter personal data.
Types of emails are not generated from KDSI and should be deleted immediately! Remember that we will NEVER request your user ID, password or any other personal information via email. If we ever need that information we will request it over the phone.
If you have any questions, please contact us at support@kdsi.net
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What is cyberbullying, exactly?
"Cyberbullying" is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones. It has to have a minor on both sides, or at least have been instigated by a minor against another minor. Once adults become involved, it is plain and simple cyber-harassment or cyberstalking. Adult cyber-harassment or cyberstalking is NEVER called cyberbullying.
It isn't when adult are trying to lure children into offline meetings, that is called sexual exploitation or luring by a sexual predator. But sometimes when a minor starts a cyberbullying campaign it involves sexual predators who are intrigued by the sexual harassment or even ads posted by the cyberbullying offering up the victim for sex.
The methods used are limited only by the child's imagination and access to technology. And the cyberbully one moment may become the victim the next. The kids often change roles, going from victim to bully and back again.
Children have killed each other and committed suicide after having been involved in a cyberbullying incident.
Cyberbullying is usually not a one time communication, unless it involves a death threat or a credible threat of serious bodily harm. Kids usually know it when they see it, while parents may be more worried about the lewd language used by the kids than the hurtful effect of rude and embarrassing posts.
See the full article here.
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Four Really Good Free Desktop News Ticker Apps
By Tina on Jan. 26th, 2010 www.makeuseof.com
Today, news are reported from all over the globe and there is no shortage of diversity. Entire TV channels have been dedicated to reporting the latest developments. You could probably watch, read, and listen to news all day every day without ever getting the same story twice. Of course that’s not an option, so you filter.
How do you keep up with the latest news? And how do you weed out what you don’t care for? Do you scan the newspaper, visit different websites, or do you watch TV news? Isn’t that difficult and time consuming?
A more convenient way is to bring all sources you care for together in one place. That could be a website or a RSS reader. In this article, I introduce four excellent and free desktop news ticker applications that will stream custom news right to your desktop.
If you just want quality news from a reliable source and cannot be bothered to set up your own feeds, you’ll be very pleased with the BBC’s Desktop Ticker. It’s easy to set up and you can choose news topics from a long list of news and sport feeds. Upon its first launch, it will guide you through every step of setting it up properly.
The ticker has two options. You can either view the latest news headlines in a ticker at the bottom or top of your desktop. Or you can receive hourly updates.
The hourly update contains a list of headlines in the menu on the left and a summary of the selected headline in the window to the right. You can snooze the hourly updates for up to two hours.
From the system tray icon, you can open the Content Options window. This is where you make your selection of categories and customize the ticker. For example, you can change the scrolling speed under Ticker Settings in the bottom right.
Overall, this is a simple and convenient free desktop news ticker that is quick and easy to set up. The big drawback of this client is that you cannot add custom feeds.
To see the rest of the list check out the full article here.
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Share Your Desktop Remotely With Multiple Viewers Easily With LogMeIn Express
By Tim Lenahan on Jan. 15th, 2010 www.makeuseof.com
I’ve been a fan of LogMeIn Free for quite some time and I know that it has been mentioned several times in MakeUseOf articles. LogMeIn, if you haven’t heard, is a remote desktop application which allows you to access and control a computer from any other computer with internet access and a browser. The uses are multiple but a few have to do with accessing information at home from a remote location (hotel or such) and remote IT support (if you ever need help when you’re away from the office).
Well, now LogMeIn has come up with yet ANOTHER free product for us to try called LogMeIn Express. So far I love LogMeIn Express because it overcomes one tedious obstacle that LogMeIn Free has, and that’s the installation on the PC to be controlled.
Say your grandma who lives in Florida calls and needs you to show her how to find a lost Word document or how to update her status on her new Facebook account. And say YOU live in Maine. Well, you’re not there with her to install the LogMeIn program for her and she doesn’t have the “know how.” Read this article to see how easy it really is for her to share her desktop remotely with you using LogMeIn Express.
If you want to share your desktop with someone, head on over to the LogMeIn Express website, click the “share” button, download the very small file (under a meg), and run it.
For full article click here.
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Identity Theft on the Rise
M. E. Kabay, Network World www.pcworld.com
Identity theft has been a major and growing problem in the United States for several years. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a "nonprofit consumer organization with a two-part mission -- consumer information and consumer advocacy" has an excellent survey page with pointers to years of published studies and point-form summaries of many of their findings.
For example, they point to valuable research reports from Javelin Strategy & Research, where one can find dozens of reports on fraud (some costing as much as $3,000 but some available free). The "2009 Identity Fraud Survey Report: Consumer Version" dated February 2009 has the following key points:
• "Identity theft happens when your personal information is accessed by someone else without your explicit permission."• "Identity fraud occurs when criminals take that illegally obtained personal information and misuse it for their financial gain, by making fraudulent purchases or withdrawals, creating false accounts, or attempting to obtain services such as employment or healthcare. Personally identifying information such as your Social Security number, bank or credit card account numbers, passwords, telephone calling card number, birth date, name, address and so on can be used by criminals to profit at your expense."• "Almost 10 million Americans learned they were victims of identity fraud in 2008, up from 8.1 million victims in 2007."
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a collaboration of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) also distinguishes credit-card and financial fraud from identity fraud:
For full article click here.
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If Your Kids Are Awake, They’re Probably Online
By TAMAR LEWIN www. nytimes.com
The average young American now spends practically every waking minute — except for the time in school — using a smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device, according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Those ages 8 to 18 spend more than seven and a half hours a day with such devices, compared with less than six and a half hours five years ago, when the study was last conducted. And that does not count the hour and a half that youths spend texting, or the half-hour they talk on their cellphones.
And because so many of them are multitasking — say, surfing the Internet while listening to music — they pack on average nearly 11 hours of media content into that seven and a half hours.
“I feel like my days would be boring without it,” said Francisco Sepulveda, a 14-year-old Bronx eighth grader who uses his smart phone to surf the Web, watch videos, listen to music — and send or receive about 500 texts a day.
The study’s findings shocked its authors, who had concluded in 2005 that use could not possibly grow further, and confirmed the fears of many parents whose children are constantly tethered to media devices. It found, moreover, that heavy media use is associated with several negatives, including behavior problems and lower grades.
The third in a series, the study found that young people’s media consumption grew far more in the last five years than from 1999 to 2004, as sophisticated mobile technology like iPods and smart phones brought media access into teenagers’ pockets and beds.
For full article click here.
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What Is Your Auto-Reply Email Telling People About You?
Posted January 17, 2010 - 10:00 by Linsey Knerl in Technology www.wisebread.com
It’s a common practice: You leave the office for any amount of time (a week, an hour, etc.) and you set up a nice little out-of-office email reply so people don’t wonder why you haven’t replied back in a timely fashion. You think you’re being proactive, even professional. But could you be risking your personal information and possibly even your safety?
How Companies (and others) Get Your Info
I’ve managed several newsletter subscriptions for companies (including my own) over the years. For the most part, I’ve never required that people give me much of their own information to sign up and receive the emails — an email address and possibly a first name will get the job done. What is surprising (and a bit disturbing), however, is that many people will willingly volunteer very personal tidbits of information to me, a stranger, via their email auto-replies.
My company’s newsletter goes out…your full name, address, company name, work number, cell phone number, and your schedule for the next week (as well as names of the co-workers who will be handling your job while you’re gone) come back. Scared? You might want to listen up.
Most companies don’t read the auto-replies that they get from their mailing list subscribers. In fact, many times you can’t automatically reply to mailings from companies because they come from some sort of auto-responder, and you may find that you just get an error message in return.
However, are you aware of how many mailing lists you may be on? As an avid sweepstaker for over 10 years (and a freebie hunter), I know that I’ve probably been on as many as a thousand lists at any one time. I use my personal email account (one that’s specifically set up for these types of communications) and I NEVER use an auto-reply. Ever.
What Should You Do?
For full article click here.
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KDSI DISCLAIMER: Please note, KDSI Tech Tips and News from outside sources are provided to you for informational purposes only, without any KDSI representations or endorsements, express or implied.
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