Avoid

Internet February 6, 2023

Otherweb can help people avoid fake news embarrassment By Techagents

There is nothing more embarrassing than sharing or forwarding something you think is true and then being criticized because whoever received it knows better and thinks you are an idiot.

When I worked for a multinational company, I used to send out an email newsletter of things that I found interesting and relevant to our work. As long as I forwarded something about my company that wasn’t even remotely true because I didn’t verify the source, people were fine with it. That was the end of my newsletter, and suddenly I had a whole lot of executives convinced I was an idiot. This didn’t do my career any good.

This was before we had the internet, though we had email, and things have gotten worse since then. Now we can announce our stupidity not only to our boss and colleagues but to family, friends and thousands of people we have never met on social media.

None of us have time to research or fact-check every piece of information that comes our way. If you’re like me, you find a lot of things that aren’t true.

Today, fake news covers politics, medicine, investing, cryptocurrencies, science, and even dating (here’s a boy in Oregon using dating apps to kidnap and rape women). Also, there are frequent competent attempts to trick us into providing information that could result in identity theft.

How do you fix this problem? OtherWeb is a fascinating effort to help people access the truth, not by moderating fake news, but by helping you fact-check it yourself, so you can determine whether or not the information is fake as you process it. are part of.

Let’s explore the otherweb this week. Then we’ll end with our product of the week: a new smartphone from Samsung that’s a cut above the rest when it comes to video making.

fake news

Right now, one of the problems with fake news is that many people use that designation for anything they disagree with or feel bad about when the term should only be used when the news is false or misleading. Are. Furthermore, there is often disagreement as to whether a piece of information is incorrect.

For example, there are a number of stories that indicate that Earth’s core has not only stopped rotating but may have started rotating backwards — and recently, another credible source says it’s all BS. Is. Now, if you’ve seen any of the movies that suggest the event will end the world, having the Earth’s core spin backwards is certainly scary.

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Recently, I read an article on Forbes that argued that all other articles are BS because the people who wrote them didn’t understand the study they based their articles on. Can you imagine casually bringing up this topic with someone you were trying to impress, only to have that Forbes article shoved in your face with the implication that you are clueless?

I’m not saying that either situation is perfect, though, since while we’re still here, the “end of the world” scenario looks off the table (good news for a Monday). But had you known both articles existed, you could have nuanced your comment, chosen another topic, or taken a side and made a more credible argument – repeating fake news Rather than getting caught, even if you heard it from what some consider to be a false reliable news source.

An obvious improvement is to stop bringing up topics you don’t directly know about. Sometimes, it just seems like the safest route. But we still make decisions based on what we read, so knowing the risks of taking what we read as truth allows us to make better choices not only about what we share but how we share it. meets.

wrapping up

In my business, fake news is a career-ender, so I’m always on the lookout for services and sources that can help me identify and avoid it.

Right after 9/11, I saw “Loose Change,” a very well done conspiracy video that argues convincingly that the US was behind the attack on the twin towers. I almost became a believer because I had never seen such a well made fake story. Luckily, the one person I spoke to about it immediately set me straight, and I haven’t written a column that will forever make me an idiot. But it was a very close call.

While still in its infancy, it seems that Otherweb does a pretty good job of helping me determine if a story is fake, thus protecting my reputation from otherwise silly mistakes.

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Another interesting aspect of this service is that it is completely open-source and collaborative. So that anyone wanting to do something similar but with a different spin can do so, showing that the people behind this app are less interested in revenue than in fixing the fake news problem.

Check out otherwebs if you get a chance. Log-in is required, so you must sign up with the site in order to use the service. We have very few people and companies focused on making the world a better place, and I want to see that change.

Maybe you too can avoid that next embarrassing moment where you face criticism for repeating a fake news story you didn’t know, but you should have known, was a hoax.

samsung galaxy s23 ultra

Samsung is an interesting company and one of the few that has the potential to compete with Apple head-on. To date, Samsung has underperformed its potential because making its stuff work together doesn’t seem to be a priority, at least for now. I think this was the big news at the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event last week. It’s started working “better together”, and it’s doing it better than Apple.

The difference is that Samsung products still work with other vendors’ products but still work better with other Samsung products, whereas, often, similar offerings from Apple Only Apple products that substantially limit Apple’s total addressable market (TAM).

For example, the Apple Watch, which is still the best smartwatch on the market, won’t work with Android phones, which limits the TAM for that watch to about one-third of what it might otherwise be. Samsung usually avoids that limitation, and its smartwatches are catching up to Apple’s.

But Samsung really hit it hardest last week with its Galaxy S23 Ultra. The picture and video quality of this new phone can output up to 200 megapixels for photos and 8K and 30 fps for videos, which is in line with professional cameras and can be used on almost any kind of high quality professional-grade camera. Can be used to make movies and pictures. Light.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra will be available on February 17, 2023. (Image credit: Samsung)

Its seamless connection to laptops, especially the Book3 series announced at the event, will make a professional photographer take notice because they’re transferring RAW files, not the compressed files you usually end up with. I was a professional photographer, and even my experts couldn’t do what this phone could do.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra has a Pro-Video mode that opens up all the settings. Assuming you know what you are doing, this allows you to create amazing pictures; If you don’t, it uses AI to do all that for you. I’m pretty sure a non-photographer with this phone could go way beyond what I could do as a pro at the time.

decent mechanical digital image stabilization, advanced high-speed focusing, nightography to take great pictures in low light, and the fact that it uses Qualcomm’s most advanced technology which is a processor solution designed jointly with Samsung As it appears, this phone really stands out. Outside.

The performance jump compared to last year’s phone is pretty extreme, too, with a 34% jump in CPU performance, a 49% jump in NPU performance (AI), and a 41% jump in graphics, making it a gaming flagship. Smartphones and showcasing is a big part of it. How far has it come. Oh, and it has a 1,750-nit display that’s huge and should allow you to do things in bright sunlight that you can’t do with your current phone.

Granted, as you’d expect, it’s not cheap to date, with a list price of just under $1,200, but if my heart doesn’t have lust for this phone, this is my product of the week.

Well, I’ve been impressed with the amount Samsung spends on launch events in the past, but less impressed with the execution. Samsung executed this latest launch event almost perfectly, and credit goes to the team that prepared it. They spent more time pointing out why you want a certain feature than device speed and feed, which has always been a best practice. Nicely done! it’s worth seeing.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ECT News Network.

7 cloud migration planning mistakes to avoid By Techagents

Running a business without some cloud support is rare these days. Yet, when crafting a cloud strategy, companies seem to make some common mistakes. There are several of them here.

Making Your Cloud Strategy Only IT Strategy

Gartner said this week at its IT Infrastructure, Operations and Cloud Strategies conference that a successful cloud strategy requires support from IT outsiders.

“Business and IT leaders should avoid the mistake of building an IT-focused strategy and then trying to ‘sell’ it to the rest of the business,” Marco Minardi, vice president analyst at Gartner, said in a statement. “Business and IT must be equal partners in the definition of cloud strategy.”

“Technology for technology’s sake is generally not a good idea,” said David Smith, vice president analyst at Gartner.

“Anytime you do something, you want a clear vision of why you’re doing it, what the business reason is,” Smith told TechNewsWorld.

“People look at it and say, ‘It’s technology. Let the technologists deal with it,'” he continued. “What happens then is that people focus on the adoption phase – which is about how you do things and when – which is different from the strategy part, which focuses on whether you What are you doing and why are you doing it.”

Change in exit strategy

Organizations often do not have an exit strategy in place with a cloud provider because they do not envision leaving the cloud. Furthermore, formulating such a strategy can be difficult. “People don’t like the answers they’re going to get, so they avoid it,” Smith said.

During the early days of the cloud, vendor lock-in was a significant fear, but that’s less the case today, said Tracy Wu, an analyst at Forrester, a national market research company headquartered in Cambridge, Mass.

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“Some companies will prefer to be locked down with a specific vendor to get to market sooner or take advantage of specific pricing or services,” Wu told TechNewsWorld.

Still, she said, “organizations should always think of a plan B whether it’s the cloud or some other option.”

“That being said,” he continued, “it’s rare to hear of companies that actually pull out of a specific cloud provider completely.”

Confusing cloud strategy planning with cloud implementation planning

Organizations should always have a cloud strategy plan before implementation or adoption. Strategic planning is created during a decision phase in which business and IT leaders determine the role of cloud computing in the organization. Next comes a cloud implementation plan, which puts the cloud strategy into effect.

“If you call something a strategy, and it’s really an adoption plan, you end up with hundreds of pages of details that aren’t of interest to business people, so you scare them away, Smith explained.

“A good cloud strategy should be a short and consumable document, consisting of 10 to 20 pages or slides,” Meinardi said.

Some areas commonly overlooked in cloud strategy planning, as identified by Wu, include key goals, targeted revenue targets, new revenue streams, and the new business or traction the organization wants to build using the cloud.

“Too often, companies get into a rush to adopt the cloud and only think about the implementation aspect without thinking of the higher goals or the larger strategy at hand,” he said.

Comparing a Cloud Strategy to Migrating Everything to the Cloud

Minardi explained that many business and IT leaders shy away from formulating a cloud strategy because it would mean they would be forced to use cloud computing for everything. “Organizations should keep an open mind and partner with a non-cloud technology expert, such as an enterprise architect, who can bring a comprehensive perspective to the definition of your cloud strategy,” he advised.

On the other hand, some organizations believe that moving to the cloud is an easy task.

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“One of the biggest challenges companies face is they think they can take what’s going on and move it to the cloud,” said Jack E. Gold, founder and principal analyst at J.Gold Associates ” IT Consulting Company Northborough, Mass.

“To get the best benefits from a cloud implementation, you need to rethink your applications, solutions, architecture and strategy,” Gold told TechNewsWorld.

“They also don’t do a great job of deciding which apps should stay on-premises and which should move to cloud environments,” he added.

“There are a lot of apps that will never go to the cloud,” he continued. “They’ve been around for 10 years. They’re going to be around for another 10 years. Why bother?”

Outsourcing Evolution of Your Cloud Strategy

As tempting as it may be for other business and IT leaders to build a cloud strategy, Gartner doesn’t recommend it. Outsourcing is very important, it said.

“It makes sense to outsource during the adoption phase where you may need outside expertise,” Smith said. “What happens, though, is that it’s all too easy to put yourself in a position where you’re allowing your vendors to define your strategy.”

“If you want to go out and get help from someone who knows what they’re doing, that’s fine, but you have to look at what they’re doing,” Gold said. “You don’t want to just throw checks at the wall. You need to be involved in figuring out your strategy, even if someone else is helping you put it together.

Wu agreed. “I wouldn’t say that outsourcing strategy is a bad idea unless the entire strategy is being outsourced, with absolutely no direction from the company,” she said. “It’s really a big part of what leading global systems integrators do when they help design and implement cloud strategy.”

Comparing cloud strategy to ‘cloud first’

Gartner explained that the “cloud first” approach means that when someone wants to create or own new assets, the public cloud is the default place to do so.

“But cloud-first doesn’t mean cloud only,” Mainardi said. “If businesses and IT leaders adopt a cloud-first principle, their strategy must work on exceptions to the default option that will apply elsewhere besides the cloud.”

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Wu notes that some of the assets best placed outside of the cloud are data with heavy residency requirements (data cannot leave a specific region or country), data that needs to be physically located outside of the location being processed for latency or performance reasons. Must be relatively close, and where data exits is very expensive, such as in big data applications and AI.

Believes it’s not too late to design a cloud strategy

Gartner argues that it is never too late to develop a cloud strategy. “If organizations drive cloud adoption without a strategy in place, it will ultimately lead to resistance from those who are not aligned on the key drivers and principles of the strategy,” Meinardi said. “As a result, this resistance will slow cloud adoption and potentially jeopardize the entire cloud project.”

5 Cyber Safety Tips to Avoid Internet, Hackers and Scammers By Techagents

Navigating the Internet can be a troublesome journey. Bad actors constantly hide behind emails, websites and social media invitations with the intention of exploiting uninformed users. Even your Wi-Fi router and the now-ubiquitous QR code are danger points. Add to that, the never-ending virus and malware threats.

Computer and mobile device users are often unaware of the danger zone. However, the Internet does not require a continuous journey through the Badlands. To stay safe online, it’s important to know what to avoid and how to protect yourself.

Here are five things you have under your control to help keep your digital activity safe.

1. QR Codes, Easy But Potentially Harmful

These postage-sized image links can be convenient for websites. Simply point your smartphone’s camera at it and instantly visit a website, tech support location, discount offer on purchases, or restaurant menu.

However, QR codes can also take you to a nefarious place where malware or worse is waiting. QR codes can be programmed to link to anything, putting your privacy and security at great risk.

Think before scanning the QR code. If the code is displayed on a website or printed document that you trust, it is probably a safe one. If not, or you’re unsure, check it out.

You can download reputed QR reader apps that will do security checks at the endpoint of destination of the QR code. One such security tool I use is the Trend Micro QR Scanner app, which is available for Android and iOS.

2. Avoid ‘Unsubscribe’ Email Scams

This is a popular ongoing scam that has a high success rate for hackers. Potential victims receive an email asking for a product offer or other business invitation. The opt-out action move is enticing, looks familiar, and feels appropriate. “Don’t want to receive our emails? Click here to unsubscribe,” it prompts.

Sometimes annoying repetitive emails asking if you want to unsubscribe from future emails. Some even provide a link for you to unsubscribe.

Do not select any option. Clicking on the link or replying confirms your active address.

Never enter your email address in the “Unsubscribe me” field. More senders will follow.

A better way to remove unwanted email, especially from an unknown sender, is to mark it as spam. This moves it to the spam folder. You can add that sender to your email program’s block list, or set a filter to automatically remove it before it reaches your inbox.

Finally, check out the free service Unroll.me. There you can unsubscribe from unwanted emails, keep others, or receive the rest in the Daily Digest.

3. Lockout Facebook Hackers

Other villains try to usurp Facebook accounts. Hackers can change your password, email address, phone number and even add a security code to lock you out of a pirated account. Before trouble strikes, be proactive to prevent these situations. Facebook provides the following security settings that you need to enable.

Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) to require your login approval on a different device.

To do so, log into your Facebook account on a desktop computer and navigate to Settings & Privacy. Next, select Security and login. Then scroll down and edit the Two-Factor Authentication option.

You will need to enter your Facebook password to complete this step.

Activate these two additional features to block Facebook hackers:

Enable the code generator feature in the Facebook mobile app
Set up login alerts in your email

First, open the Facebook mobile app and tap on the magnifying glass, enter the word “code generator” and tap the search icon. Tap on the Result Code Generator to navigate to the next screen, then tap the “Turn on Code Generator” button to receive a 6 digit code that changes every 30 seconds. You will need to enter this code within that short amount of time to login to your account on another device.

Next, set an alert about unfamiliar logins. You can do this from a computer or mobile device.

Computer: Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Security & Login > Receive alerts about unrecognized logins (see screenshot above).
mobile application: Tap Menu > Settings & privacy gear icon > Settings. Then tap Password & Security. Next, scroll down to Set up additional security > Receive alerts about unfamiliar logins > Tap to select your preferred notification methods.

If you’re having trouble logging in, visit facebook.com/login/identify to have the problem fixed. If you are unable to log in there, go to this Facebook help page instead and fill out the request form for Facebook to review your account. You will need to answer a few security questions to prove your identity. This may include providing proof of ID, like a picture of a driver’s license.

4. Secure Your Wi-Fi Router

The influx of people working remotely since Covid has put home Wi-Fi routers among the target sites of hackers. As a result, malware attacks on home Wi-Fi networks are on the rise because residential setups often lack the level of security and protection found on enterprise networks.

One nasty attack tool, called ZuoRAT, is a remote access Trojan designed to hack into small office/home office routers. It can affect macOS, Windows, and Linux computers.

With it, hackers can collect your data and hijack any site you visit on your network. One of the worst factors of ZuroRAT is that once your router is infected, it can infect other routers to spread the hackers’ reach.

Follow these steps to better secure your home/office Wi-Fi network:

Be sure to enable WPA2 or WPA3 encryption on your router. The default factory setting is often the old WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) security protocol, or is set to none. See the user manual or the router manufacturer’s website for instructions.
Change your router’s SSID (Service Set Identifier) and password. It is critical. Typically, the factory setting shows the make or model of the router and has a universal password such as 0000 or 1234. Change the name of the SSID to not identify you easily. Avoid names that include all or part of your name or address. Make sure the password is very strong.
For added security, change the router’s password regularly. Yes, this is a major inconvenience as you will also have to update the password on all your devices that use that Wi-Fi network. But considering that it will keep hackers away, it is well worth the trouble.
Keep the router’s firmware up to date. Refer to the user manual and/or the manufacturer’s website for steps on how to download the latest update.

general question
How do I create a password that is hard to hack?

The strongest passwords have all these characteristics:

Long – the more characters, the better
mix of upper-case and lower-case letters, numbers, and special characters
No jargon words or anything related to personal information