Tech Table Wednesday, January 1, 2014
January 1, 2014
Justin: Welcome to MPA’s Tech Table. I’m Justin.
Diana: And I’m Diana.
Justin: And we’re your hosts. We’ll be serving up a heaping spoonful of all things tech.
Diana: We promise it’ll be easy to digest.
Justin: It is New Year’s Day.
Diana: Happy New Year!
Justin: The first day of 2014.
Diana: Welcome in the New Year.
Justin: I remember, it seems like just a few years ago, I remember when we were saying Y2K, what’s going to happen when we switch from 1999 to 2000?
Diana: I think we did alright.
Justin: Yeah, apparently, or maybe we’re living in some sort of parallel universe and we didn’t do alright at all.
Diana: I saw something the other day about a hologram, like there’s been some scientists who think our world is actually a hologram.
Justin: Like we’re parallel, yeah. That’s something. Think about that for a while. Happy New Year! So, today we’re going to talk about how you can stay safe online.
Diana: Yes.
Justin: You know, start some new habits, don’t do anything risky online, and there’s so many things that you can do that you don’t even realize are risky.
Diana: I know. I was reading this list and I didn’t know about some of these.
Justin: Yeah, it’s really interesting. One of the important things, I think, and this is not even just about safety. It’s about privacy, I suppose, but it’s also about, like they always say, if you’re going to have a job interview, don’t put things on the Internet you don’t want people to see, like everyone. So, don’t post anything online that you wouldn’t share with the world. No emails, no pictures, no videos that you aren’t okay with everyone seeing.
Diana: Everyone.
Justin: Everyone, and that’s future employers, that’s wives.
Diana: Parents, kids, anyone.
Justin: Anyone. Your mom.
Diana: Yeah, so if you’re not okay with all the people in the world seeing it, don’t put it up.
Justin: Yeah, because once you put something online, even if you delete it, it’s still there, and so that’s just a security and that’s a safety thing for yourself, you know, and photos provide information, too.
Diana: True.
Justin: Alright, what else do we have, Diana?
Diana: Well, don’t use the same password for all of your websites. Now, I mean, I think we’re all guilty of this because you just want to remember it easily and quickly. But what we recommend is that you use a password manager like LastPass, and you can get that at lastpass.com. All you have to do is remember one secure password, and it will keep track of all the rest. Now, if that doesn’t work for you, consider using a password that you can remember and then attach the first four letters of the website. For example, instead of just using “mypassword” at every site, you can say “mypasswordface” for Facebook and “mypasswordtwit” for Twitter. Just kind of changes it up. It’s not the same thing.
Justin: That’s interesting.
Diana: Here’s one thing: connecting your accounts. Sometimes you can log into something using your Facebook. You should avoid doing that because then all anybody who wants to go in as you and be fraudulent, they just have to know your Facebook password and they can get into everything else.
Justin: Right, you really shouldn’t connect things, but for social marketing purposes, we do connect a lot of things.
Diana: I know, yeah.
Justin: We do. And when making purchases online, always make sure that the site starts with the “https.” The S is very important at the end of that, “https” in the address.
Diana: S for secure.
Justin: That’s right, and it has a padlock before the site name. Before giving your credit card information or billing information, you need to make sure it’s a secure site.
Diana: And then, here’s something cool, really fast. Use false information. So, instead of actually using your mother’s maiden name when it asks you for that, just create a document that you can keep fake stuff, so pretend that your mom had a maiden name of Miller, even if she didn’t. And you can remember that. Then people who actually know what your mother’s maiden name was, they won’t guess Miller if it’s not, but you can keep that.
Justin: Boy, I’d be so confused.
Diana: I know, right?
Justin: Well, until next time.
Diana: Take care.
Justin: Tech Table is brought to you by MPA of Bloomfield, Iowa, and God’s Country Radio. You can visit us online at AskMPA.com.
Diana: If you have questions or comments, please send them to questions@askmpa.com. That’s questions@askmpa.com.
Justin: And thanks for listening.
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