Now known as Oath, AOL says it will shut down its instant messenger service on Dec. 15 after 20 years.

by Roger Cheng October 6, 2017 7:42 AM PDT | Read Article at CNET

Farewell, AIM.

AOL Instant Messenger, a popular form of communication in the early days of the internet, goes dark on Dec. 15, AOL, now a unit of Verizon’s Oath, said on Friday.

AIM was once one of the dominant instant-messaging platforms on the internet, helped by the massive number of dialup subscribers using AOL internet service. After launching in 1997, it enjoyed its peak in the late ’90s and early 2000s.

But newer services offered by Google and others displaced AIM, and it lost most of its relevancy when users increasingly turned to their smartphones, which brought the rise of WhatsApp, Line, Facebook Messenger and a myriad of other services.

Oath, which also now controls Yahoo, another star of the era when consumers were discovering the internet, said that it’s shutting AIM down to focus on new products and that there would be no replacement for AIM.

The aim.com e-mail domain will still work, Oath said.

Read Article at CNBC

• Yahoo said every single account was affected by a data breach in 2013; originally, the company said 1 billion out of 3 billion accounts were affected.
• Yahoo is now part of a Verizon subsidiary named Oath.
• Yahoo and Oath disclosed the new information on Tuesday evening.

Todd Haselton | @robotodd | CNBC

Published 17 Hours Ago Updated 2 Hours Ago

Yahoo on Tuesday said that every single Yahoo account was affected by a data breach that took place in 2013.

In 2016, Yahoo disclosed that more than one billion of about three billion accounts had likely been affected by the hack. In its disclosure Tuesday, the company said all accounts were likely victimized.

Yahoo included the finding in a recent update to its Account Security Update page, saying that it found out about the wider breach through new intelligence obtained during the company’s integration into Verizon Communications. Outside forensic experts assisted in the discovery, the company said.

“It is important to note that, in connection with Yahoo’s December 2016 announcement of the August 2013 theft, Yahoo took action to protect all accounts. The company required all users who had not changed their passwords since the time of the theft to do so. Yahoo also invalidated unencrypted security questions and answers so they cannot be used to access an account,” Yahoo said Tuesday.

Yahoo said it will begin alerting accounts that weren’t previously notified of the attack.

In 2013, a breach allowed attackers to steal email addresses, passwords, birth dates, telephone numbers and more. The new investigation indicated that stolen information didn’t include passwords in clear text, payment card data or information about bank accounts.

Verizon finished its acquisition of Yahoo in June and is folding it, with AOL, under a new subsidiary named Oath.

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We also offer managed Antivirus as well as advanced Network Monitoring. We monitor numerous parameters of your systems including disk space, backup status, operating system updates, errors. This proactive approach allows us to proactively maintain your systems for optimal performance and minimal downtime.

 

The U.S. government on Wednesday plans to ban the use of a Russian brand of security software by federal agencies amid concerns the company has ties to state-sponsored cyberespionage activities, according to U.S. officials.

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Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke will order that Kaspersky Lab software be barred from federal government networks while giving agencies a timeline to get rid of it, according to several officials familiar with the plan who were not authorized to speak publicly about it. Duke ordered the scrub on the grounds that the company has connections to the Russian government and its software poses a security risk.

The directive comes months after the federal General Services Administration, the agency in charge of government purchasing, removed Kaspersky from its list of approved vendors. In doing so, GSA suggested a vulnerability exists in Kaspersky that could give the Kremlin backdoor access to the systems the company protects.

In a statement to The Washington Post on Wednesday, the company said: “Kaspersky Lab doesn’t have inappropriate ties with any government, which is why no credible evidence has been presented publicly by anyone or any organization to back up the false allegations made against the company. The only conclusion seems to be that Kaspersky Lab, a private company, is caught in the middle of a geopolitical fight, and it’s being treated unfairly even though the company has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyberespionage or offensive cyber efforts.

“Kaspersky Lab has always acknowledged that it provides appropriate products and services to governments around the world to protect those organizations from cyberthreats, but it does not have unethical ties or affiliations with any government, including Russia,” the firm said.

The directive comes in the wake of an unprecedented Russian operation to interfere in the U.S. presidential election that saw Russian spy services hack into the Democratic National Committee and the networks of other political organizations and release damaging information.

At least a half-dozen federal agencies run Kaspersky on their networks, the U.S. officials said, although there may be other networks where an agency’s chief information security officer — the official ultimately responsible for systems security — might not be aware it is being used.

The U.S. intelligence community has long assessed that Kaspersky has ties to the Russian government, according to officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Its founder, Eugene Kaspersky, graduated from a KGB-supported cryptography school and had worked in Russian military intelligence.

In recent months concern has mounted inside the government about the potential for Kaspersky software to be used to gather information for the Russian secret services, officials said.

Richard Ledgett, former National Security Agency Deputy Director, hailed the move. Speaking on the sidelines of the Billington cybersecurity summit in Washington Wednesday, he noted that by Kaspersky, like other Russian companies, is “bound to comply with the directive of Russian state security services, by law, to share with them information from their servers.”

Concerns about Kaspersky software had been brewing for years, according to one former official who told The Post that some congressional staffers were warned by federal law enforcement officials as early as November 2015 not to meet with employees from Kaspersky over concerns of electronic surveillance.

When GSA announced its July decision, it underscored its mission was to “ensure the integrity and security of U.S. government systems and networks” and that Kaspersky was delisted “after review and careful consideration.” The action removed the company from the list of products approved for purchase on federal systems and at discounted prices for state governments.

The directive will also put pressure on state and local governments that use Kaspersky’s products. Many had been left to speculate about the risks of sticking with the company or abandoning taxpayer-funded contracts, sometimes at great cost. In July, The Post found several state or local agencies that used Kaspersky’s antivirus or security software had purchased or supported the software within the last two years.

Tired of spam email? Try this simple technique to reduce your spam.

My INBOX receives over 400 emails a day. Many of these emails are from websites I have either ordered something from,  downloaded something or are just junk mail. The number of emails almost doubles during the weekend and at nite. Now, its not difficult to DELETE these unwanted emails. But it does take some time to do so and I sometimes delete by mistake a good email that I need (Murphy’s law at work!). To be honest I actually find something interesting in those “junk” emails every now and than.

The technique:

About 3 weeks ago, I decided to try an experiment to reduce the spam emails I receive and save me some valuable time. What I came up with is so simple that I was skeptical if it would actually work. What did I do? I scrolled down on every “spam” email and hit the UNSUBSCRIBE button.

How to UnSubscribe:

Not every email has an “unsubscribe” and those are truly spam and need to be deleted. What i found over the last 3 week was interesting. First, not every web site handles the unsubscribe the same way. Most bring you to a web site where you have to OPT OUT of the list you are subscribed. These require you to be careful and read the screen and make sure you select UNSUBSCRIBE ME FROM ALL and not just the boxes with a check in it. Experimenting, I began first de-selecting all boxes and unsubscribing THAN reloading the page (clicking on the link again from the email) and hitting UNSUBSCRIBE FROM ALL – basically doing it twice. After 3 weeks, the double method seemed to work best in removing you from the list. Other sites have you type in your email (yes I thought this is how they confirm you are real, but this was an experiment remember) and again hit unsubscribe. Still other’s required you to CHECK OFF not UNCHECK the lists you no longer want. The best ones send you to a web page that states “you are unsubscribed”.

Finding the Un-subscribe button:

No one wants you off their list as you are a potential customer. So they don’t make it easy. The BETTER more reputable sites have a clear button to click. The less reputable sites don’t have a button but text you read and click. This text does not always show a link with your mouse so you have to click around – sneaky. This text may state “to remove yourself…”, “if you no longer wish to..” or my favorite “you requested these emails if you no longer want them” yes that’s right nothing else after that – even sneakier.

Finally some emails require you to reply with UNSUBSCRIBE in the email – again experimenting, i put unsubscribe in the subject and the body. What i found was that doing both, placing the unsubscribe in the subject and body of the email works best.

What happened after 3 weeks of doing this?

You may think this was a lengthy process and too time consuming – but fear not! It takes less than 8 seconds per email – yes I timed it! So for 3 weeks I diligently removed myself from every email I did not want.

First, some sites state you will be removed in 10 days (sears, homedepot etc..) and some said it will take a few days to process your request –  so be patient hence why I gave this 3 weeks. Some emails continued to come in despite my efforts to unsubscribe. I followed my process may times on each email. Interestingly, some continued to send emails but WITHOUT the UNSUNSCRIBE button – even sneakier – bastards! So i began making the unsubscribe links my favorites and continued to remove myself from the emails. Others immediately send me 2-3 emails right after unsubscribing without the button – like parting shots in a war. But I remained vigilant and continued to remove myself from the lists.

The results were quite astonishing

3 weeks later, my inbox receives less than 200 emails  a day with most if not all being good emails – a 70% reduction! Now at nite, I find myself looking at my phone only to find NO emails for me to delete! Saturday what was over 200 spam emails is now less than 20.

so this process works, costs nothing but some time and has greatly reduced junk mail. As a side benefit, since a lot of junk mail has been eliminated, the incidences of viruses also has gone down.

So if you want less spam and some virus protection, follow these steps – it worked for me!

Anthony Pennacchio
President

Why do you call your internet provider before Bulldog Tech?

 

If your internet is “down” or problematic – our productivity suffers, we lose business and employees sit around “waiting” – in effect we lose money when our internet is down not to mention the frustration we have when trying to have it repaired.

Over the years, we have been working with internet providers (cable/Spectrum, Verizon etc..) and our customers to keep their internet operational. Over the years, we have found that these internet providers love to “pass the buck” when they service your internet.  We receive many calls a day when these providers magically appear at your office and state “your network is bad” or “call your IT people” and they leave with you having no or limited internet. Upon calling us, we find almost 100% of the time that the providers tech person did not set up your system properly.

Now you have the background for this newsletter.

Our clients call us for many reasons (all true):

• “My cell phone won’t dial”
• “My Amazon order was declined”
• “facebook is slow”
• My favorite:  “your man just left and now our microwave does not work”

YET – if you have internet problems, we find that most JUST call their provider, allow them to CHANGE their network and leave without you being operational.

This week alone (yes its just Wednesday!), we have had 3 calls from customers stating our internet provider was here and says its you and we have no internet. Only for us to find that the tech took the router away with them (yes this happened), they did not bridge the modem, or they simply did not plug in the new router to your network.

Things you should know about your internet service and how its setup:

• Always call first if you have or think you have an internet problem: Always call us first, if you have or think you have an internet problem: Always call us first if you have or think you have an internet problem – Did I say call us first?
• The hookup. Your internet is attached as follows if you use services: Cable/Verizon Modem – cat5 cable to your router (Linksys/Cisco, Apple or Sonicwall), cat5 cable to your switch. This is the most common hookup, very few have something different and if you do, the ROUTER is removed from the equation.
• If internet trouble – FIRST – unplug and re-plug your internet modem- wait 2 minutes, THAN unplug & re-plug your router – wait 2 minutes – reboot your computers
• FOR CABLE ONLY – your cable modem cannot be replaced without configuration – if you have it replaced make sure you call to verify if the modem is BRIDGED.
  Bridging puts the modem in PASS THROUGH mode and allows your router to handle all IP’s and security – if your modem is NOT set for bridge mode and its required for your network – no PC will get on line. The technician can set the bridge mode in less than 5 minutes – always verify with us and do not allow them to leave unless you are 100% working
• FOR VERIZON ONLY – Same as Cable
• FOR VERIZON FIOS ONLY – these modems cannot be set to bridge mode and may need PORTS opened – please call.
• Do NOT allow your provider to be ALONE when working on your equipment –  make sure you watch them and verify they leave all your equipment and do not change cables.
• BEFORE you have your provider work on your equipment – LABEL all your cables and write down where they are plugged into – and VERIFY they are replaced in same ports – this will eliminate miss-wiring
• Do NOT EVER allow your internet provider to change settings on your computer and router
• Most importantly, when you do call us, please make sure the provider is STILL on site and you advise us exactly why you called them and what they have done so far – we do not read minds or have psychic powers. We find all to often that we are not told the what, whens or why’s causing you longer down time and longer more expensive service calls.

Our business depends on the internet – by working together with us and keeping us in the loop, we can all make sure we stay profitable!

 

Raise your sales!

Anthony Pennacchio
Bulldog Tech