Just recently, we celebrated Data Privacy Day. I thought that since it is important enough to have a day devoted to it, I might include some tips/idea to protect yourself. We have seen a rise in the number of leaks in private consumer and business data over the past year. Almost daily, the news reports another company or organization who was hacked or somehow had important data compromised. It is a little overwhelming to know how to stay safe in this environment!
I think one of the biggest areas where we are at risk is within our social media accounts. If someone gets illegal access to your Facebook, Twitter, or other account, they can use your friends’ information to send phishing or other types of attacks. One of my husband’s friends showed me the application on his phone that would allow him to compromise someone’s account if they were using an unsecured wireless network and a social media site.
We could see the people that were logged on to the unsecured wireless Internet at the restaurant where were had met. We were even able to click into one person’s Facebook account and make a post as if we were that person. Apparently, the person who was logged in to Facebook had not changed their account settings to only browse secure pages. My husband’s friend even went so far as to go over and show the person how to change his Facebook account settings.
If this does not concern or scare you, it should. We cannot depend on others to keep our digital data private. We must be proactive and take responsibility for it ourselves. If you use a smartphone or tablet, you could also be at higher risk. Scammers are looking every day for loop holes or ways to exploit the apps that are downloaded onto our mobile devices. Just because someone puts a great app out there to be downloaded does not mean that he or she has made a way to secure it properly. Especially be cautious of places that seem “safe”, like your Twitter feeds, LinkedIn updates, and YouTube comments and forums.
You also need to be on guard against the “fake” anti-virus tools. For example, you see a message window pop up telling you that you have infected files and that your anti-virus has expired. It is best to open your anti-virus and run a scan immediately. Do not click on the message window that had popped up. Only renew/update your anti-virus by opening your program and launching it yourself. Or, go to your anti-virus company’s website and purchase the upgrade/update there.
One day in class, I had a great question asked by an executive from a large organization. He happened to be attending one of my software classes but wanted to know more about online learning. His organization was thinking about implementing an online learning segment for some specialized training they were doing. He was trying to figure out if moving to online learning would be the best bet for his team.
I have confessed before that I get much of my reading on technology and business literature done while waiting. Waiting on people to get to a meeting on time, waiting in line, waiting in a doctor’s office, etc. I have a little folder of materials that I collect. One of these days I will make a decision and buy a tablet. I just want to get some more feedback from people to figure out which one I think would work best for me. 
From time to time, I like to include a post with some of my favorite features or fixes from different applications. This time I want to include Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2010. I use these applications all the time! So anything that is a new feature that helps me every day is worth sharing, at least in my book. 
I had a conversation the other day with a fellow trainer. We had talked about what it was like when we did training, just five years ago (when we met). Even over that short a time period, technology has changed and adjusted so much. The speed of major changes is what I cannot seem to get used to, which may be a sign of getting older.
In many of my recent classes, I have seen the stress level building among the class participants. And, that is as they just walk in the door. This is even before I have a go at them…just kidding! 
If you are like me, you are doing some (or all) of you shopping online this year. Because of a rather hectic Fall, I am behind on getting my holiday shopping completed. So, some of my browsing and buying is happening at midnight while I finish up laundry and attempt to keep quiet so that I do not wake everyone in the house, including the cats that like to congregate around my laptop where the warm air vents out. 
