I Love Twitter

So this article about Twitter implementing a standard to fight phishing is good news for me. I appreciate it (and applaud it) when companies implement strategies and software so that their consumers can have a better experience. I use twitter a lot, and I would prefer to not receive emails that could potentially hack my account. DMARC - the technology being used by Twitter now - is also being used by Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, Facebook, Paypal, and Amazon. I was excited to see this news, which is why I am sharing it with you all. Going along with my security focus in this blog, be sure to always check thoroughly who is sending you an email, especially if they're asking you to re-login on a site. If you ever have any doubts about the email, contact the company directly and get verification. It's not worth losing access to your accounts and the data that you may have shared with any of them!

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2028993/twitter-implements-dmarc-standard-to-fight-phishing.html

Younger Attackers

Not surprisingly, more malware and viruses are being created by children and teenagers. According to an article on PCWorld, an 11-year old Canadian boy was the creator of a piece of malware that was being used to acquire passwords to games. There are easy interfaces being created that allow children and teenagers to learn how to program and engineer these pieces of malware, so of course they're going to take advantage of it. Being so young, they may not have any real malicious intent, but that will be most likely to change as they get older. Children play more and more games that require higher skills, and so they're tempted to try something with a little more "thrill" to impress their friends. Again, we all need to be sure that we are keeping our devices protected from all different types of threats.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2027782/malware-also-the-handiwork-of-children-security-firm-finds.html

Big Data...

It's all the rage, and this article points out the challenges that are being faced by companies when it comes to collecting data. Consumers (like me!) are realizing that they don't always want their data being collected and tracked, and they are limiting what companies will collect. However, some companies are starting to take advantage of that, by allowing customers to have control and willingly share information that they are comfortable with giving the company. It's brilliant, in my mind, because then companies will be able to gain more specific information that pertains to the consumer, and it will allow the company to focus more directly on what matters to the customer. The article mentioned that, and I think it's a great idea. Consumers are looking to keep their data private and secure, and they want to make sure that information about them isn't being used in a way that's not acceptable. I recommend reading the article, because as much as there is a demand for data analysts, I feel like it's going to subside at least a little bit due to consumers protecting themselves.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2027789/big-data-collection-collides-with-privacy-concerns-analysts-say.html

Protecting Your Wi-Fi

This article gave instructions of how you should change your wi-fi password. The nitty-gritty details weren't what I was too interested in, but I did enjoy that they pointed out that even the password to your network will need to be changed often, not just the ones to your accounts on online sites. People can still cause damage to you if you're not protecting the access to your network, so it's good to make sure that you have taken every necessary precaution to protecting yourself. It's not easy to have everyone in your household go and change their password, and they may all get really annoyed with you, but the protection that you gain from it is worth it.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2026340/change-your-wi-fi-password-on-various-devices.html