Want to remove your name and other personal info from a Word document? Here’s a simple trick to do just that. more
Seven Power-Saving Tips
Check out these seven simple tips to cut your power consumption and maybe save yourself a little money. more
Infosec: Malware to grow tenfold in 2008
The number of online threats will have grown tenfold by the end of 2007, according to researchers at anti-malware firm Kaspersky. more
529 Tips for Better Computing
Crafted by our analysts and editors and tested in the PC Magazine Labs, our vast list of tips starts with the fundamentals of computing and then moves on to multimedia, mobility, business, and online solutions for maximizing your digital life. more
Ever wondered where NOT to drop anchor?
An interesting map of undersea cables here
Turn Excel Data and Charts into JPEGs
Got lots of Excel data you’d like to share? There’s an easy way to change it all into small, easy-to-copy pictures. here
Australians want what’s bad for them: Biometrics
A study conducted by callcentre.net canvassed the attitudes of 216 Australians’ towards security and authentication when interacting with call centres. According to the study, the threat of identity theft is driving demand for the introduction of voice biometric authentication processes at call centres — a process typically conducted by call centre staff.
Forty-two percent of those surveyed said their preferred method of verification is voice biometrics, ahead of using PINs, passwords and personal history, such as mother’s maiden name, according to Dr Catriona Wallace, managing director of callcentres.net.
“Identity theft and fraud is an issue for consumers we research. The results of this study suggest not only for younger consumer but across all age groups advanced technology such as biometric voice identification appears to be a viable and preferred option to more traditional methods such as PINs and passwords,” she said.
The report also found conflicting attitudes towards the use of SMS messages as a second factor of authentication alongside PINs and passwords — the system in use by most Australian banks to verify transactions over a certain amount.
“Twenty-three percent said they were totally secure with SMS but 22 percent said they felt completely vulnerable,” Wallace told ZDNet.com.au.
The reason for this fear, according to Wallace, was that information sent by SMS can be easily uncovered by hackers.
But while SMS authentication is viewed as easy to intercept, a recent proof of concept attack on biometric systems by UK security consultant, Matthew Lewis, has shown that biometric systems are similarly vulnerable.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/australians-want-whats-bad-for-them-biometrics/
How much money do we waste by leaving a monitor on for 16 hours?
I want to encourage members of my staff to turn off their monitors overnight. more
Internet addiction classed as mental disorder
Excessive gaming and email/text messaging should be added to psychiatry’s official guidebook of mental disorders, according to an article in this month’s American Journal of Psychiatry.
(You’ve got to hand it to these guys, they’re good at spotting a money making proposition. I can see their new slogan: “If it moves, drug it!”)
Data creation outstrips storage for first time
Digital information is being created at a faster pace than previously thought, and for the first time the amount of digital information created each year has exceeded the world’s available storage space, according to a new IDC report.