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| Dear Craig,
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Welcome to
CN Consulting's "Cocktail
Talk".
Cocktail Talk is a casual monthly newsletter intended
to arm you with amusing bits and bytes of information on whats
happening in the computer world. Topics sure to break the ice
and capture an audience at many a social or business event.
There are buttons below
to do things including unsubscribe. If you unsubscribe you will be
immediately removed from our email list and may end up hanging
around a soggy fruit tray sipping warm beer, alone, at your next
Cocktail Party.
But that's your call, and
that's Cocktail
Talk.
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Well Placed
Fear
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 Its been said that the two greatest motivators
in the world are greed and fear.
We've all been locked into
a course of action just because someone pointed out an inherent risk
we wish they wouldn't have. It put us in that "I told you so" zone
and played on our fear.
Manipulating others through the use
of fear is one of the cornerstones of terrorism and I
certainly don't approve of that so read at your own risk.
The
Internet is a vast and wondrous place where all things
are available to those who want them. We build firewalls
around our home computers and those in our businesses and
limit what the innocent may blindly stumble onto.
Law and
order has been slow in coming to the Internet, and while things are
getting better we're far from safe. www.whitehouse.com, not to be
confused with www.whitehouse.org, is no longer an adult site. Nether
is www.nasa.com (.gov is the gov't site). They both used to be and
you can bet some 5th graders, and parents, got an eyeful doing
homework.
Now that we've explained the fact that you're an
innocent victim of Internet baddies lets look at some of the bad
neighborhoods to avoid.
gmail
(and others) - Google's free email allows and encourages you
to never delete your mail. gmail indexes for quick reference and you
never have to worry about space. The Feds can have your gmail data
in a New York heartbeat. Years of correspondence you thought was
private all indexed for quick searches.
"Personal" Computer - Remember, its
a "Personal" Computer. Make sure nobody else can get on your
computer. Data Discovery software, like lawyers and police use, is
available to everyone.
The last Data Discovery software I
evaluated indexed my server quite well. Searching on the word
"sex" I found several references. It seemed like every PDF
file pertaining to my trip to Mexico was dirty. As it
turned out the government wants to know what sex you are on or your
Passport Application. It was a working vacation and I have a $600
cell bill to prove it.
NSFW
- Not Suitable For Work. Use your work email for work and a
personal email for personal use. You just don't know who might
send you what. Or who's looking at what you get.
Memberships - Membership data can
be sold, lost, or stolen. Join with caution. Even getting Victoria's
Secret emails can be bad at work. The risk of getting
subscribed without your knowledge is high. Bridal registry is
particularly bothersome, but usually clean.
MySpace & Facebook - Does
"Miranda" ring a bell? Colleges and employers are looking at your
"space" on the web. You have no rights once you post to a public
place.
Mayor Carmen Kontur-Gronquist posed in a black bra and
panties on a firetruck three years before becoming Mayor, used the
pictures on her MySpace Page, and is no longer Mayor of Arlington
Oregon.
Whatever you put out there is fair game and may even
be there after you're dead. Sadly enough, murdered 18 year-old
Kansas college student Emily Sander, who posed as "sexy" teen Zoey
Zane, still lists thousands of hits on Google. Her exposure may have
gotten her killed as well.
You can put the "Personal" back in
Personal Computer if you try. But thats your call, and that's
Cocktail Talk. |
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Craig Phillips
CN Consulting, Inc.
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