Since we get phishing emails all day long most of us recognize them immediately and delete them, but apparently phishing fraud continues to be a major problem. One great resource is the federal government website OnGuardOnline.gov which offers advice about Phishing and how consumers can protect themselves:

When internet fraudsters

Continue Reading Phishing Fraud Still Prevalent

The US government now claims that Iran was behind the recent cyber attacks against US banks that impacted millions of customers. The New York Times reported that these “hackers chose to pursue disruption, not money: another earmark of state-sponsored attacks.“ Apparently Iran has retaliated from economic sanctions:

Since September, intruders

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The FTC and Google reached a landmark agreement regarding allegations of antitrust behavior by Google regarding Google search engine. But also the settlement allows competitors of Google’s “on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms – to patents on critical standardized technologies needed to make popular devices such as smart phones, laptop

Continue Reading FTC Concludes that Google Does Not Violate Antitrust Laws


Although in mid-December the Washington Post reported that there was an apparent antitrust settlement with Google and the FTC, Google reached out to me to let me know otherwise. Google sent me an email  with a link to former FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle’s article and a Forbes article which

Continue Reading Google US Antitrust Settlement, Not so Fast



IDG reported that the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) issued guidelines for smartphone users which for the most part are common sense. But apparently many smartphone uses need this advice. The FCC report is entitled “Ten Steps to Smartphone Security” which includes the following:

  1. Set PINs and passwords.
  2. Do


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The FTC reported that 80% of apps used by children contained the ability to access the Internet (compared to 62% in 2011) and 13% had the ability to access user geo-location (compared to 10.5% in 2011). The New York Times reported:

Several hundred of the most popular educational and gaming

Continue Reading Children’s Use of Apps – Alarming News About Privacy