Life Happens 365 - Are You Managing the Risk?

 By Diane Tait Image courtesy Pixabay If you enjoy surfing the web to view newsfeeds, then you know you must take what you see with a grain of salt.  That's because everything you read online isn't necessarily accurate or unbiased.  During the past few years, fake news has grown from a curiosity to a nuisance that threatens to undermine the usefulness of the Internet.  Face it, fake news has been used to manipulate everything from public opinion to election results.  It can also affect your health, if you believe fake news about dubious COVID cures, or your financial future if you take to heart any spurious stock tip you find online.  In short, fake news could short circuit the information all of us peruse on the Information Superhighway.  As bad as all that sounds, there's a more insidious form of digital fakery that's even more dangerous.  Called deepfakes, this technology can be used to create digital duplicates of virtually anyone to convince ...

 By Diane Tait Image courtesy Pixabay Being in the Information Age means always being in danger of having your web-enabled devices hacked, cracked, and cyber-attacked.  That's why I keep no less than three levels of cybersecurity on my laptop, tablet, and smartphone.  While that puts me head and shoulders above most mere mortals these days, I recently read a newsfeed that got me thinking that maybe there's another way for hackers to get me right where they want me.  You see, while my sense of cybersecurity is top-notch, it turns out that some of the doctors I see on a regular basis may not be cyber secure.  At least that's what a recent report from Brookings.org led me to believe.

By Diane Tait Image courtesy Pixabay If you live in Florida and own a motorcycle, you no doubt enjoy being able to ride it nearly all year around.   That being said, there are some notable differences when it comes to insuring a bike as opposed to a car in Florida.   In the Sunshine State, it isn’t even mandatory to carry insurance to register a motorcycle, whereas the state requires you to carry insurance to register a car, truck, van or SUV.   That doesn’t mean a motorcycle owner isn’t going to be held financially responsible for any damage and/or injuries caused if they’re involved in a crash.   Far from it.

  By Diane Tait Image courtesy Pixabay If you’ve like to surf the web, then you realize cybersecurity is a very pressing necessity.   That’s because you can’t read a newsfeed without bumping into a post about hackers.   Everyone from Fortune 500 companies to consumers and kids are being hacked these days.   That’s because hacking is big business.   The FBI recently reported that hackers cost the US economy more than $4.2 billion in 2020.   Hackers use every kind of trick in the book to put a hook in their victims.   Everything from phishing and clickbait to ratting and ransomware is being used to break into web-enabled devices of all kinds.   Sad to say, if you share and receive data, make payments and shop online, you risk having your personal and financial data compromised.   While you may have one or more layers of cybersecurity software on your devices, if you inadvertently accept a poisoned email or click on a corrupted link, you could...