Author archives

Pete Weiss, formerly a Systems Engineer in Teleprocessing at The Pennsylvania State University

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, February 3, 2024

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: How to lock out your ex-partner from your smart home; Google is Still Failing to Protect Privacy of Abortion Seekers; Citibank fails to protect customers from fraud, N.Y. AG’s lawsuit contends; and Listening to LLM responses through leaked GPU local memory.

Subjects: AI, Cybersecurity, Healthcare, Privacy, Search Engines

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 27, 2024

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Sen. Wyden Releases Documents Confirming the NSA Buys Americans’ Internet Browsing Records; Inside a Global Phone Spy Tool Monitoring Billions; AT&T is trying to kill all landlines in California, which would have devastating effects; and the Continued Threat to Personal Data: Key Factors Behind the 2023 Increase.

Subjects: AI, Copyright, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Healthcare, Internet Trends, Legal Research, Legislative, Privacy, Search Engines, Social Media

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 20, 2024

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: More Police Are Using Your Cameras for Video Evidence; How to Opt Out of Comcast’s Xfinity Storing Your Sensitive Data; The worst privacy washing of 2023 and trends to expect in 2024; and Each Facebook User is Monitored by Thousands of Companies.

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Email Security, Privacy, Social Media

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 13, 2024

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Swatting: The new normal in ransomware extortion tactics; EFF Unveils Its New Street Level Surveillance Hub; IRS has ‘unconscionable delays’ in helping identity theft victims, taxpayer advocate says; and Outlook is Microsoft’s new data collection service.

Subjects: AI, Criminal Law, Cryptocurrency, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Data Mining, Financial System, Healthcare, Privacy

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 6, 2024

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Delete your digital history from dozens of companies with this app; How hackers can ‘poison’ AI; Meet ‘Link History,’ Facebook’s New Way to Track the Websites You Visit; and Google Groups is ending support for Usenet to combat spam.

Subjects: AI, Big Data, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Commerce, Privacy, Social Media

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 30, 2023

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: The Worst Hacks of 2023; Think Twice Before Giving Surveillance for the Holidays; How to Check If Something Online Was Written by AI; and This ‘Pig Butchering’ Scam Has Victims on Both Sides.

Subjects: AI, Cryptocurrency, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Financial System, Privacy, Spyware

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 23, 2023

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Google brings privacy washing to Android; Xfinity discloses data breach after recent Citrix server hack; How to Check If Something Online Was Written by AI; and Artificial intelligence can find your location, alarming privacy experts.

Subjects: AI, Criminal Law, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Financial System, Government Resources, Information Management, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines, Search Strategies, Spyware

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 16, 2023

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: How QR codes work and what makes them dangerous – a computer scientist explains; Without a Trace: How to Keep Your Phone Off the Grid; Your Smart TV Knows What You’re Watching; and Verizon fell for fake “search warrant,” gave victim’s phone data to stalker.

Subjects: Big Data, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Privacy

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 9, 2023

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Privacy First: A Better Way to Address Online Harms; A Bold New Plan for Preserving Online Privacy and Security; Automakers’ data privacy practices “are unacceptable”; and Gmail is now much better at detecting spam following major upgrade.

Subjects: Cyberlaw, Cybersecurity, Education, Email Security, Healthcare, Pornography, Privacy, Social Media

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 4, 2023

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: How to Make Your Web Searches More Secure and Private; OpenAI’s Custom Chatbots Are Leaking Their Secrets; Inside the Operation to Bring Down Trump’s Truth Social; and Hamas-Linked Group Revives SysJoker Malware, Leverages OneDrive.

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Privacy, Search Engines, Social Media