General
Travel Tip : Use a reliable VPN when connecting to WIFI
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“2667”]Image by EFF Photos used under Creative Commons License [/caption] As a security professional, I know the risks of using WIFI, particularly when using WIFI outside of work or home. It can open you up to an entire world of hurt from hackers and bad actors. They can steal information and trick you into visiting questionable websites. But WIFI is how most hotels offer internet connectivity these days. WIFI allows you to connect to the wonderful world wide web when flying 30000 feet in the air using services like Gogo.
Travel Tip: What food can I bring back
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“2592”]Image by Antony Stanley used under creative commons license [/caption] Frequent and infrequent travellers usually are confused about what food products they are legally allowed to bring back. Since many of my readers are American, I will write about USA regulations. Americans coming back home with food It is important to ensure you comply with these import control rules as breaking them can be punished with a slap on the wrist of a very severe high cost fine.
Security Researcher claims to have downloaded 13M accounts from MAC Scamware apps
If you visit shady internet sites from an Apple Macintosh computer, you may have already seen an add from a product called MacKeeper. The researcher in question said: "I have recently downloaded over 13 million sensitive account details related to MacKeeper, Zeobit, and/or Cromlech." Reddit He said the information collected includes "names, email addresses, usernames, password hashes, computer name, ip address, software license and activation codes, type of hardware (ex: "macbook pro"), and type of subscriptions." And he provides this screenshot as proof of his claim :
Travel Tip: Find safety tips for your travel destination
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“3330”]Image by Manoj Vasanth used under creative commons license [/caption] The Paris Terror attacks were a stark reminder that the world is a dangerous place. It is now and has always been but this should prevent you from exploring this great big beautiful world of ours. There are tips to stay safe, of course, and one of those is to “Be Prepared”. In my previous blog post, Travel tips when travelling alone, I talk about doing your homework but it’s important enough for me to re-mention it here again.
Trace Me Luggage Tracker will make sure you never lose your bags again
As many of you gear up for holiday travel, you may have the lingering concern of losing your luggage. Most airlines will credit you a couple of hundred dollars for a lost and unrecoverable bag, but this rarely covers the actual cost of the contents. You can also buy insurance but that doesn’t help when you are standing around the carousel waiting to start your vacation and your luggage never shows up. Do bags really get lost? SITA’s baggage report 2015 provides some interesting industry information.
Travel Tip : Show up to the gate early
In an effort to meet departure times, some airlines (worldwide) seem to have adopted an earlier than printed (on the boarding pass) boarding start process. This doesn’t seem to be happening at every airport with every airline but I have been hearing about this more and more from readers, airline employees and frequent flyer contacts. This means that if you aren’t there a bit early, you may not board the plane early enough to get space in the coveted overhead bin.
Afterlight photo editing app for iPhone & iPad free
After light is a wee designed and easy to use photo editing application that offers 74 filters, 78 textures and 128 frames. Overall a well stocked application that any iPhone photographer should have. Now you can download this app for free (normal $US1) courtesy of Apple's Apple Store iPhone or iPad app. You can download the Apple Store App from the iTunes store (link) Open the application Scroll down until you see the free app offer <img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/9b80b01865.jpg" alt=""> Click on the offer.
The secrets of the 80/20 rule you need to know now
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“3181”]Image by Jacob Bøtter used under Creative Commons License [/caption] We live in hectic times. For most of us, there will always be more work than hours in a day and we need to find some mechanism to prioritize work and stay sane. There are hundreds of books on time management (my personal preference is the Getting Things Done methodology by David Allen). Regardless of your chosen time management framework, there is an important time management principle called the 80/20 principle.
How to deal with stupid negotiators in business and life
In addition to Information Security, I have negotiated hundreds of contracts over the last 20 years totalling in the billions of dollars. There are many schools teaching different “techniques” but the worst of the worst are those that have a win/lose strategy. These dinosaurs negotiations models believe in “winning at all costs” and are very easy to spot in the wild. Techniques of the stupid negotiator The win/lose strategy negotiators are the stupidest of the bunch. As previously mentioned, the techniques are easy to spot and I wanted to share some of them with you here:
How to visually become more productive and improve your efficiency
Whether I’m coaching a junior fresh out of school or a seasoned executive with 30 years of experience, almost everyone tells me they are overloaded and that their personal life is suffering. We have been raised to separate (or try to at least) our work and personal lives. After all, they are very separate things. Right? WRONG! A good example is improving your health. Improving your health means eating better and exercising more but it also means reducing stress. So to holistically improve your health, your plan must include both personal actions and work time related actions.
Beware of LinkedIn SpearFishing Attacks
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“800”]Image by king dams used under Creative Commons License [/caption] We have been tracking an organized spearfishing attack occurring on LinkedIn since early October 2015. Since many of my contacts weren’t aware, I decided to publish this quick post. This is a simple attack where a “bad actor” creates a fake LinkedIn page with actual connections. Pretending to be a recruiter, they encourage applicants to visit a special CV submission page which infects your computer with malware.
WIFI Security Video everyone should watch
Great easy to understand and easy to watch Sophos video about WIFI Security. Are you letting hackers easily compromise your security?
Telegram Messenger isn't as secure as you think
Right after the horribly tragic terror attacks in Paris, we started to read badly written articles by journalists trying to attract readers with sensational headlines. The easiest target was encrypted communication tools and one of those is Telegram Messenger. It was said ISIS/ISIL used Telegram to chat securely and that they considered it a good solid secure and trustworthy platform. Does it really deserve that reputation? I wrote a article on March 2014 that explained some of the shortcomings of this messaging platform.
Pushbullet takes customers hostage
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“1200”]Image by PSParro used under Creative Commons License [/caption] Pushbullet is an immensely popular multi-platform (Chrome, Firefox, Windows, Mac, Android, IOS) app that allows you to push content from one device to another one (or multiple other ones). As a free service, it quickly became a de facto app on most power-user devices. Watch any technology podcast and you are sure to hear at least one of the hosts talk about it every now and then. It has over 170,000 installs on the Google Play store.
Get a cheap shareable 2nd number for your mobile phone
There are many situations where I don't want to give away my personal cell phone number (work, selling something, dating, etc). There are about a dozen apps that provide "burner" number but what if you need something semi-permanent? Something you can destroy but that you can also keep and use for 30/60/90 days or longer. This is where Too comes in. You install the app, pay the fee to reserve the number and voila. You can choose numbers from a list of regions in Canada, USA & UK.
Best compression bag/sack for travel or camping
Over the past 20 years, I have spent thousands of hours in the air. Travelling is definitely as thrill and allows you to live new experiences. Travelling is incredibly enriching, but do it long enough and you start to look for cheats or tricks. After buying dozens of different types and brands of luggage, I finally found the one I fell in love with and I recommend, the RedOxx AirBoss. I wrote a review about it here (link). After travelling around the world several times, it still looks sharp and brand new.
Quote about Hope
Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness #DesmondTutu#quote#life#success#coach
Quote about positive thinking
Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will. - Zig Ziglar
Quote about leadership
Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.
Quote about the simplicity of life
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. - Confucius