Bitlocker improves security but can complicate things A password or PIN normally protects the contents of your Windows computer from prying eyes. But what happens if someone removes the hard drive (or SSD) from your computer and attaches it via USB to another computer? In the past, it has been trivially easy to access the …
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Category:Security and Privacy
Posts concerned with different aspects of the security of the system. Also, the privacy of the user when using different systems, programs, and apps.
Using Bookmarks Manager to back up Chrome bookmarks
If you use Chrome bookmarks a lot then it can be a real nuisance to lose them There can be several reasons why you might wish to back up your Chrome bookmarks Amongst them are: If Chrome has problems and you need to re-install it then you will probably want to re-install your bookmarks as …
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Deleting browser data upon exit
Chrome may no longer be deleting data when you close the browser I’m sure that there used to be a setting in Chrome that was relatively easy to find for deleting browser data when closing the browser. It’s just taken me fifteen minutes to find where they’ve now buried this setting. If you …
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Variation on a theme of an email scam
It’s a good idea to be aware of this scam used by email hackers A couple of months ago I received an email from a client (apparently) that revealed a bit of a twist on a well-known email scam. This client had suffered an email hack about a year previously (through having a weak password). …
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Password checkers
Are password checkers safe, accurate, and useful? Many websites offer password checkers. You type in a password and the checker will tell you how long it would take to crack that password. Here are three reputable password checking sites: https://www.passwordmonster.com/ https://password.kaspersky.com/ https://bitwarden.com/password-strength/ I created a really rubbishy password (the sort you shouldn’t ever use). It …
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Upgrade to Windows 11?
Windows 10 is nearing “end of life” What if your computer will not run Windows 11? The main reason probably lies in a piece of hardware that your computer lacks. It is called Trusted Platform Module: level 2.0. If your computer lacks this then it is likely to be at least five years old and …
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Would you benefit from using a VPN?
What are VPNs and what do they do? VPNs hide your IP address. Otherwise, your IP address allows the sites you visit (and others that track what you do on the internet – such as Google and Facebook) to tie together your visits to different places and at different times. All of this helps them …
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Different browsers for different things
Using different browsers for different things has many uses. Keeping Google in its place Recently, I have been visiting Google’s AI offering – Gemini – several times a week. I’m still curious about it and it has helped me out several times. However, to use Gemini you have to log into a Google account. Fair …
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Version History in OneDrive
Since the end of 2022, OneDrive has supported version history for all file types Previously, only Microsoft Offices files (eg Word documents and spreadsheets) retained earlier versions in OneDrive. My experience of Microsoft’s cloud storage facility – OneDrive – is that it is a bit of a curate’s egg. The basic idea of automatically backing …
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Why you might not want to download images in emails
One man’s privacy is another man’s paranoia Email clients and webmail services allow you to choose whether to automatically download images in emails. If you don’t allow the downloading of images by default then you still have the choice to download them in each specific email that contains them. You can, of course, ignore the …
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