The 2001 Anthrax Attacks led the USPS to begin scanning and tracking our postal mail. All USPS mail is photographed and/or scanned as it passes through sorting machines and sent on its way. This mass surveillance program is called Mail Isolation Control and Tracking, or MICT for short. Eventually (in 2017), the USPS decided to … Read more
Right now, government agencies are warning about a significant ransomware attack being directed at US Hospitals. And I hear that the ADA is reaching out to dental offices, telling them to be alert and to make sure their data is backed up. As the current threat expands, any healthcare-related office needs to be on guard, … Read more
An ISP in Wales recently solved their town-wide DSL problem by locating and disconnecting a resident’s old TV. It’s an extreme example of a common problem with DSL service: DSL signal is very touchy and vulnerable to interference. And that interference can be caused by so many different things along your phonelines. If you have … Read more
A common email scam starts with a message, stating you made a purchase, when you truly didn’t. The Thank-You-for-Your-Purchase Scam may appear to come from Microsoft or any number of well-known companies. Click here or here to view some examples of this scam. $500 for “Microsoft Windows Defender Firewall Online”? Many people will miss that … Read more
UPDATE: In May 2023, this app was retired. For more info, please see: The Commonwealth of Virginia now offers an app that will help in the fight against COVID-19. If you install and activate this free app, it will notify you if you might’ve been exposed to (someone with) the coronavirus. For more information and … Read more
Faxing is almost extinct, but a few companies and industries still ask customers to fax them. This can be a real inconvenience, since most of us no longer have a fax machine. Or a landline, for that matter! If you need to fax without having a fax machine of your own, consider: Many libraries, some … Read more
Some AT&T users are receiving emails and texts this week, telling them to upgrade their phones or lose service. Some people are asking if the messages are scams (because of the grammar and spelling). And others are getting annoyed because their phones are not that old. These messages are legitimate. And yet, they are not … Read more
An email client is a program that is used to view your email on your computer. There are many email clients, like the Windows 10 Mail app, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Microsoft Outlook. But the one that many just can’t give up is Windows Live Mail. Microsoft made that program as a successor to Outlook Express … Read more
If you’re looking for the quickest way to contact a large company, check out GetHuman at https://gethuman.com/ . You do NOT want to Google for a support number, unless you really know what you’re doing. That’s how a lot of people find and call fake companies and scammers. But GetHuman is trustworthy, and will only show legitimate … Read more
Google Meet is another option for videoconferencing, and is now free for *all* to use. https://meet.google.com/ All you need to use it is a Google account. To start a meeting, visit the site and click the big meeting button, and click Continue. Underneath “Meeting ready” is a URL for your meeting — share that with … Read more