5 phishing scams you need to be aware of | Fox News

Phishing uses the name of a trusted entity – often financial institutions – to get sensitive personal information such as passwords and credit card details via bogus email or texts. 



“Scam or phishing emails typically have one of two strategies: fear or greed,” Jonathan Penn, Director of Strategy at security software firm Avast, told Fox News. “Fear includes email notifications that your account has been locked, there are charges that you didn’t make, or just that there’s been suspicious activity you need to check. Greed includes notifications about free gifts, trips, or gift cards; stock advice or debt consolidation or financial advice."



Phishing scams are often presented as a call for immediate action. That should always be a tip off.



“Consumers should remember that urgent requests for personal information or call for immediate action are almost always a scam,” a Bank of America spokesperson told Fox News. 



Needless to say, never click on links inside suspicious emails. Here are five of the most common phishing strategies.



Your account has been disabled or suspended 



This arrives as an email or text that claims a user's account has been or will be locked, disabled or will expire and asks for login credentials.



A very recent example is an Apple text/email phishing scam that states: “Your Apple ID is due to expire today.” This is one of the more sophisticated scams since it contains no glaring grammatical or spelling errors, a frequent failing of scams.



AppleID's do not “expire” and the malicious URL, in the case, does not point to a real Apple domain.



Irregular or fraudulent activity detected 



This scam poses as a "security" update. The scammer will claim fraudulent activity has been detected on your account or your account has been subjected to a “compulsory ‘security update’ and you need to login to enable this security update,” Symantec, a Internet security company, told Fox News.



Tip: If a login link is provided, it's invariably a scam.



Online retailer scams 



With the holiday season just around the corner, these scams have the potential to be effective because they can appear as relatively innocuous and appeal to greed rather than fear.



One that has increased over time is fake orders associated with Amazon. “If you received correspondence regarding an order you didn't place, it likely wasn't from Amazon.com,” the tech giant wrote on a customer-help page on its website. 



Fake pop-ups 



While not technically phishing, fake pop-ups are an old trick and still widespread. 



The ultimate net effect can be similar to phishing if the scammer gets you, in the end, to provide sensitive information.



"The scammer will typically attempt to get the victim to allow remote access to their computer," said Malwaretips. "After remote access is gained...the scammer relies on confidence tricks...in order to gain the victim’s trust to pay for the supposed 'support' services, when the scammer actually steals the victim’s credit card account information."



Taxes



While not necessarily one of the largest scams, one that is increasing in popularity is tax-themed phishing.



Themes range from updating your filing information to IRS warnings that you owe money. “One thing that’s for sure is that the IRS doesn’t communicate via email or text message, they still send snail mail,” Symantec told Fox News.



For detailed information on email security threats, see this Symantec Internet Security Threat report issued this month.



See the original article here

You can now navigate Windows 10 by walking around a virtual mansion | Popular Science

The Fall Creators Update is here for Windows 10 and it's heavy on the Mixed Reality elements.

By Stan Horaczek

Microsoft believes mixed reality could eventually become the standard way for users to interact with their PCs.



Microsoft

The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is just starting to make its way to the public, and while most new OS versions are about as exciting as pleated, beige pants, this one has some key features Microsoft has been hyping all year.



Mixed reality has been a big talking point for Microsoft all through 2017. The company is putting a lot of emphasis on the platform—it’s a mixture of augmented reality, that overlays interactive virtual objects into the real world, and traditional VR, which transports the user to an entirely different place. Mixed Reality is now a fundamental part of the Windows 10 environment across all compatible devices, and it officially starts with the latest update.

The home base for Mixed Reality is a virtual home called the Cliff House and makes navigating windows more like walking around a swanky dwelling with a nice view. Want to watch a movie? Head into the home theater. Want to use regular windows apps? Head over to the virtual desktop and get a 3D Windows experience.



To get the full-on Mixed Reality experience, you need a headset like the ones made by Lenovo, Dell, and Acer. Unlike typical VR headsets, these have a pair of cameras on the front to capture actual reality and bring it into the virtual world. Motion sensing controllers in your hands let you navigate around the virtual Windows world, but you will still want a real keyboard to do much typing.





If you don’t need the full immersive experience, however, you can use a Windows 10 PC or tablet with a webcam as a Mixed Reality Viewer. You point the camera at a scene and virtual objects will appear on the screen as if they’re real, a pretty standard augmented reality experience like you get from Apple’s ARKit.

The $400 Lenovo Explorer headset is built for Mixed Reality with front-facing cameras to integrate the environment.





Microsoft

Right now, the challenge is finding enough interesting stuff to actually do in Mixed Reality. There are a few games out there like Halo Recruit VR, but overall support is spotty. It’s early in the platform’s lifecycle, though, and some bigger partners are on the way, including massive online game seller, Steam. They should be up and running to dish out VR content by the end of the year, at least in beta form.

While Mixed Reality is the major update for the Windows 10 Fall Creators update, there are some other features worth noting. Here’s a rundown of things to look out for after you install it.





Fluent design

Fluent Design You’ll notice that things look different in the new version of Windows, and that’s thanks to Microsoft’s switch to what it calls Fluent Design. You’ll notice new animations, blur, and a look that has a similar look and feel to the new Xbox Dashboard.

Controlled folder access to protect against ransomware Remember when the WannaCry ransomware attack tore across the world, capturing data and holding it hostage? Microsoft sure does, and this new feature monitors important folders (like those that contain pictures or documents) and blocks programs from modifying them unless you authorize them.

Photos app redesign

The stock Photos app now matches the rest of the fluent design scheme and also adds some dynamic effect options like animations and adding objects to photos. It’s a step away from pure photo editing and a step toward making photos into digital art. That makes sense now that MS Paint is no longer a bundled app and has been relegated to the Windows Store.

OneDrive Files on Demand

If you use Microsoft’s cloud storage service, OneDrive , you can now see the files—even the ones stored only in the cloud—through the Microsoft file system.

Find My Pen

I lose the Surface Pen all the time, but there’s now a feature that will show you the last place you used it as long as you have your location services on. It’s not going to help when it’s buried under dozens of flash drives in my office drawer (this happens a lot), but it will help if I actually forget it somewhere.

Most of the other updates are typical minor OS stuff that fixes bugs and integrates other features that I don’t use much.

See the original article ...

How to download the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update right now | PCWorld

The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update launched on October 17, stuffed with all sorts of cool new features. That doesn’t mean you’ll get it immediately. Microsoft staggers the rollout of big updates across various waves. But the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is available right now if you’re the impatient type.



And bold: Microsoft only pushes the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update to PCs if it knows your computer won’t run into technical issues or nasty bugs, like the broken webcams, Kindle-induced crashes, and system freezes that followed in the wake of Windows 10’s Anniversary Update in 2016. In fact, Microsoft actively discourages workarounds like the one below even though it makes them available.



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Chrome 62 Released For Desktop

The release of Chrome OS version 61 may have been grossly delayed (no doubt due in part to the Pixelbook launch) but that has slowed neither the development nor the launch of the next update to Chrome for desktop.



Right on schedule, Chrome 62 for Windows, Linux and Mac began rolling out yesterday and with it came a heap of updates that look to be laying the groundwork for the Google Assistant’s arrival to Chrome and Chrome OS.



The update brought with it 35 security fixes and netted developers over $40,000 in bug bounties for reporting the possible flaws. In addition to these patches, Google has pushed forward with alerting users to non-secure web pages.



Read More...

Away From Adobe: Foxit PhantomPDF

Adobe's Creative Cloud is bulky, expensive, quarrelsome and always breaking.  I got fed up with the nonsense involved in using their products and in finding suitable replacements I came across Foxit PhantomPDF.  I edit PDF files for numerous reasons, various clients and different methodologies, it's a vital part of my businesses. It's worth checking out, you get a 14 day free trial!



Foxit PhantomPDF offers users with a very robust set of features and capabilities. It can perform functions you expect from a PDF application, such as creating PDF documents, converting PDF documents to other document formats and vice versa, edit, share, and digitally sign PDFs over the web.



Apart from traditional features and capabilities, Foxit PhantomPDF supports up to 41 languages, which is a remarkable feature. It allows international companies and users from other countries to fully leverage the system in their language. Aside from converting documents from PDF to other document types and back, Foxit PhantomPDF incorporates OCR technology that allows users to edit and work on scanned documents.



Foxit PhantomPDF Reviews: Overview, Pricing and Features

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