Geofencing is used for a variety of applications, but it is commonly used in direct to consumer marketing. When customers and their mobile devices enter a defined geographic area (e.g., within a specified range of a store location), they are shown a marketing message, such as a discount or coupon,…
The good news about robocalls is that their numbers are decreasing, down 17% in June 2019 from an all-time high in March 2019. The bad news? There were still 4.35 billion robocalls in June! However, a new call authentication technology seems to be helping to reduce the number of nuisance…
“You Won’t Believe What Obama Says In This Video!” It turns out that you shouldn’t believe what Barack Obama says in the linked video because he didn’t actually say it. The video reveals that the voice is that of filmmaker Jordan Peele and the video has been altered to make…
The capture of the Golden State Killer in April 2018 drew attention not only because his crimes were committed decades earlier, but for the way he was identified. Law enforcement used familial searches of DNA databases to track down the killer. Familial searches are based on the idea that family…
Wired magazine reports that 94% of organizations currently monitor their workers in some way. Monitoring and analytics software may measure how often you’re away from your desk, how quickly you respond to emails, what’s on your computer screen and more. The purposes of employee tracking may include better allocation of…
According to a 2016 study, people aged 50 and greater hold 83% of the wealth in the U.S. That makes them prime targets for scammers, along with the fact that doctors have found that even older people without identifiable cognitive impairment may experience brain changes that put them at “special…
Most of us carry a big part of our lives around on our mobile phones. Phones store our contacts, photos, and more—including banking information, passwords and other sensitive personal information. If the phone is lost or stolen, our data and identity are at risk. In this podcast, we will look…
Consumers routinely turn to Google Maps when they are looking for a locksmith, an urgent care facility, home repair services, or other local businesses. However, what they find may be fraud. Experts say that hundreds of thousands of false listings appear on Google Maps each month, adding up to about…
When you use your face or your fingerprint to unlock your phone, you are using biometrics. Today many employers are using biometrics for “providing secure building access, tracking employee time and attendance, activating machinery, and authenticating users’ identities for increased computer and mobile device login security.” According to a 2018…
As more medical devices go online, there are more dangers of the data being hacked or compromised by bad actors. Researchers at Ben Gurion University demonstrated this by developing malware that could infect CT and MRI scanning machines used to diagnose cancer. Their intent, of course, was not to infect…
Although email and telephone scams are nothing new, as consumers have caught on to the tricks used by scammers the bad guys have gotten more creative. Scams are now more personalized to trick victims into falling for them. Instead of sending the same badly-written email to millions of people, criminals…
The proliferation of new digital platforms has created an abundance of information sources. As of 2017, 93 percent of Americans said they receive news online. This increased access to news sources has also led to the dissemination of disinformation and hoaxes, aka “fake news.” This issue is especially important with…
Communication companies claim that new 5G networks could be up to a hundred times faster than current wireless networks. This speed would also reduce or eliminate latency (i.e., the time between instructing a computer to perform a task and its execution). As a result, there will be demand for and…
Whether you are traveling for work or pleasure, it is important to secure your data and protect your privacy when you are on the road. In this podcast, we talk about safely using Wi-Fi away from home, how to keep your data from prying eyes when crossing international borders, whether…