IT Insights Blog — cybersecurity

A week ago I received a phone call from an individual claiming to be from Microsoft. He said they were “monitoring my computer and detected that it is performing at a very slow speed.” As an implacable nemesis of Bill Gates, I was immediately suspicious. Even more so when he directed me to read him my IP address.

March 29, 845 A.D. The scene is Paris. Five-thousand Viking warriors plunder and occupy the city. The French king, Charles the Bald, wanting to get rid of these unwelcome intruders, offers a ransom of 7,000 livres (5,670 pounds), payable in gold and silver, if they agree to leave. As part of the deal, the Vikings promise they’ll take the loot and never return. Charles, eager to avoid a drawn-out and destructive fight and faced with a great many other kingly problems, settles up, hopeful that he’s seen the last of his northern visitors.

I recently received one of those emails no one wants to find in their inbox. It was from Yahoo!, recommending that I change my password. Apparently, back in 2014, the info for 500 million users was hacked (Nice of them to tell me now! Who knows how many exiled Nigerian princes and Russian mobsters have already used my information to subscribe to Netflix.