Jan 16, 2020
Good morning everybody!
I was on with Ken and Matt. We talked about StarTrek and then we got into Tech and what is going on with our Cable Modems. Then we discussed the big vulnerability with Firefox and why you must update it NOW! Also Smishing. So here we go with Ken and Matt.
Microsoft is out with some Critical updates that must be applied.
These and more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com
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Automated Machine Generated Transcript:
One of the most significant vulnerabilities in Windows ever was disposed at noon yesterday by the NSA.
Craig
Good morning, everybody. Craig Peterson, here. I had a great little
chat this morning with Ken and Matt about some of the things that
are affecting us right now security-wise, including your cable
modem, it is probably vulnerable. I gave some tips on what to do as
I always try to do. We had a little bit of fun teasing each other
about William Shatner. So here we go.
Ken
All right, we're back at 738 on the WGAN morning news with Ken and
Matt. Happy Wednesday to you and Wednesdays at 738 means Craig
Peterson joins us now, Craig.
Craig Peterson
Hey, good morning. Why would you guys insult my favorite over actor
this morning?
Matt
Vince Vaughn
Ken
Are you referring to are you must be referring to Shattner
Craig
Yeah, I call him Bill. Yeah.
Matt
I'm sorry, but I believe the mystic name took us here because I
have, for one, complimented his acting in the Wrath of Khan. I did
not, yes I did in Star Trek Five. Although I mean, I liked Return
Home. That's the fourth one with a little nuclear Wessels.
Craig
I don't know if you guys know it, but in upstate New York, a guy
who is an Elvis impersonator, I forget his name. He bought all of
these old Desi-Lu sets, and he rebuilt all the original sets from
Star Trek, the whole thing. They examined the footage to see what
they looked like, as some of the sets were destroyed or lost. But
the entire thing is there, and I went on a tour. I've been there
twice. They have these guided tours of the sets, and they talk
about things, but it is the entire set. They reuse Kirk's
tricorders for this, that and the other thing. There is cork
running up and down the hallways. Now when I look at that original
series, I tend to notice things like they run some of the footage
backward, and that is because the entire enterprise, you know,
where he's running between decks and up and down is maybe 50-75
feet long. There's one core door. And so you'll see, the names on
some of the doorways are backward because they reversed it to make
it look like he was running in a circle around the deck.
Ken
That is a great deal of detail that you're paying attention to
Craig.
Craig
It is Yeah. I did notice that I watched Star Trek six a little
while ago, and they used the warp core from Star Trek The Next
Generation.
Matt
Anyway. While this is quite interesting, you are here to talk about
tech topics, not Star Trek topics. So well kind of
Craig
So well kind of a lot of techs. I mean, let's face it Star Trek
introduced a lot of tech issues. For example, the Motorola flip
phone, right
Matt
from Motorola. Exactly right. Directly inspired. Yes. Dave. That's
how we got came from going to the moon. So let's talk about
technology, shall we? Many people use Firefox today. Now be worried
about using Firefox?
Craig
You know, we've got a few major government warnings out right now.
The biggest one is Microsoft Windows. Huge, huge, huge, one of the
most significant vulnerabilities in Windows ever was disclosed at
noon yesterday by the NSA. And so trick number one, although
there's no evidence it's being used in the wild right now. What
Microsoft There is a specific type of encryption that you can use
in Windows. If you present Windows as an application saying, here's
a file encrypted for me or decrypted for me, there is no validation
at all of the key involved, it is a huge security problem. Now, why
not something massive here, the difference between the Trump
administration and prior administrations, and that is that
previously, the NSA would find out about this and use it against
people. They would use it against foreign governments, etc., who
are using Windows and they'd say, Isn't this great? We have a way
into computers, or we have a way to break encryption or to do
whatever we want to make significant differences. Now, the NSA is
telling us about some of these substantial security
vulnerabilities. So tip one this morning patch Windows early and
often patch it right now. Number two, we've also got the government
warning. And this is Homeland Security about Firefox. Firefox is
one of my favorite browsers. It is one of these privacy browsers
made by Mozilla. It's very, very good, mainly if you are a Facebook
user, because it has some special lockdown features and when it
comes to Facebook. Still, Firefox also has critical security
warning out, so make sure that gets updated with Firefox. All you
have to do is exit Firefox started up again. And it will go ahead
and patch itself all automatically but a vast and critical security
warning for Firefox.
Matt
All right, we're talking to Craig Peterson, our tech guru. He joins
us for our tech update on what's happening in tech around the
world. Now, Craig, I must admit, I've never heard of the word
smishing. Could you educate me a little bit about it? Exactly what
are some examples of this that people should understand? I guess as
they continue to run around paranoid about all things in the world
coming to get them.
Craig
It's like Australia, right? Everything's trying to kill you.
Exactly. The Outback. Exactly. So here's what submission is you
you've known what fishing is P-H-I-S-h-I-N-G where bad guys are
trying to trick you into doing something. Some of the earliest
examples of phishing is the Nigerian scams, where a poor Nigerian
prince needed your help? Well, they have continued to evolve. And
smishing is fishing on mobile devices when we're talking about
texting messages. SMS messages, that's where it gets the name
smishing. Right now, we're seeing an increase in messages being
sent that looked like they are from a bank. In particular, right
now, the US Bank is the biggest at a smishing message. I don't even
know I should have looked this up if there is a bank called US
Bank, but they're they come through is urgent messages. They
pretend they are your bank or Amex or Visa or MasterCard. And they
have a link that you can, and you can click on. So, for example,
American Express dash message.com, which is not a legitimate
domain. What will happen is once you get reported, and you can
report almost anything to their email addresses. It is typically
abuse at American Express, for instance, or abuse at the bank name.
You can notify them once reported and the banks, etc. Find out
about them. These sites like American Express dash message dot com
get shut down. But be very careful nowadays, you unless the text is
coming from me, click on mine, right. But unless a text is from
someone you really know and trust, be careful, because they are
sending out the text messages and you want to pry this is from your
bank. And we're going to see a lot of this more and more. The new
head of the FCC has been working very closely with the various
telephone companies to try and put an end to this. However, because
of the design of the systems, and that is without security in mind,
it's going to take a while before they're ever going to be able to
stop all of this. was speaking to Craig Pixar
Ken
We are speaking to Craig Peterson, our tech guru. He joins us every
Wednesday, 738. You can also catch him on WGAN on Saturday at 1 pm.
What is this thing about cable modems and the attacks on them? I
would think not true. One would be right. I would think so.
Matt
You would, right because of those cable modems?
Craig
Yeah, that's what I was. Yeah, it's a cable company, you might have
the phone company depending on where you live providing your
internet. And what's been happening historically, initially, we had
cable modems, and we just hooked the cable modem up directly to a
little switcher or a hub in our house right and used the internet
from there. And then they got fancier, and the cable modem started
having built into them little firewalls. They did this actually for
the benefit of the cable companies because we're we are still
running out of internet addresses. So they did a little trick
called Nadeem gets kind of complicated, but right now, there are
over 200 million affected modems over in Europe alone. There are
estimated to be at least that many here in the United States.
Here's the big problem. If you're using these cable modem firewalls
in your homes, a lot of them are not up to date. Some of the ones
that you bought yourself and those supplied by cable companies with
names like Sagemcom, Netgear, Technicolor, and Compal models
shipping to broadband subscribers, those are just some of the
infected ones. We've got to be careful with all our equipment, just
like we mentioned this morning, right already, we've got the NSA
warning us about Windows and Firefox. It has issues our cable
modems do too. So if you own your end device there, make sure it
stays patched up. It's up to date. Don't buy the $80 router
firewalls, and you have to spend at least 200 nowadays, to get a
router firewall cable modem for your home. That is going to
auto-update. However, we have pay attention to this as they are
gaining direct access to our security cameras, our computers, all
of our Internet of Things devices, in our homes, in our small
businesses. So my general advice is to go and buy a suitable cable
modem yourself put it in. And when I say I didn't have a modem, my
main one that is has a built-in firewall and is going to update it
shelf automatically for at least a few years. So that means get
them from some of the more prominent manufacturers that are out
there. And if you're interested, you can just email me at Craig
Peterson calm. I'll send you a little list of the current ones out
there that I've been recommending people just drop an email to me
at Craig Peterson calm. Be glad to let you know.
Matt
All right, ladies, gentlemen, that is Craig Peterson. He's our tech
guru. He joins us at this time every single Wednesday, and this
Wednesday is, of course. I appreciate it as always, Craig, and
we'll talk again next week.
Craig
Gentlemen, take care. Bye. Thanks a lot. All right.
Craig 12:05
Hey everybody, I'm going to be sending out an email because I am
working on a fantastic course right now. I would love your input. I
want to make sure I cover everything. It is going to be the
definitive course, and I am sure of it when it comes to protecting
your computers. So keep an eye out for the email that's going to
bet coming. If you're an office manager, if you're someone who has
the responsibility of securing computers in a small company, this
is for you. So keep an eye out. I'm more excited about this than
anything I've done before. I've done these DIY or Do It Yourself
cybersecurity courses before and several other courses. However,
this is the course of courses when it comes to securing your
computer but also administering your computers. I'm going to get
some bonuses because I'm working on it thinking, you know, what
else can I do that's going to help them understand the depth of
maybe how far they need to go. There's a couple of times where I
was doing this saying, and you know what they need to understand
this too. So putting all of that in, this is going to be amazing.
But I do want to make sure I'm covering everything you guys want to
have included. So I don't hear I'm rambling on, but keep an eye on
your email, because I'm going to be sending something out probably
early next week about this as we're finishing up these modules, and
then we'll use your input to polish it up. So thanks again,
everybody, and we'll be back this weekend. Bye-bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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