Posts Tagged ‘email’

Let Technology Help You

Friday, January 1st, 2010

BlackBerry’s, iPhones, Google’s android and other smart-phones are great for keeping journal entries.  While you can certainly purchase specific applications, creating either a note or a daily appointment works great for monitoring your progress.

Assign different ring tones to your cell phone so you will be able to distinguish if the phone needs to be answered.

Turn off the phone while reading, meditating, concentrating or exercising.  Everyone needs “me” time.

If you’re driving and the weather is not good or the traffic is heavy, turn the cell phone off.  A distraction for even the briefest of moments could contribute to an incident.

Set your email not to automatically send and receive email.  Take control by manually checking your email when it is convenient for you.  Set aside specific times of the day which work best for your schedule.

Think before you press the send or submit button.  Make sure the message you are sending will be beneficial.

While technology is great, it is meant to compliment our lives, not intrude upon them.

Stay Safe From Phishing Expeditions

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Many of the computers which have viruses or other malware are a result of someone falling for a phishing email.

Phishing emails are designed to look like they are from a legitimate company such as a bank or financial institution, or an online business which you may have used in the past. A phishing email could also look like it is from a friend or family member.

So how do you determine if an email is legitimate or phishing?   If an email request you update or verify your account it is in all likely-hood a phishing email.  There are virtually no companies which will send you and email requesting you log in to your account and input your user name and password.

If you still want to proceed, then close the email, open a browser window and manually type in the address to the company.  Once there you can see if they have any notices about recent phishing incidents, or you could send in a comment to their IT or security department.  You could also call them.

Under no circumstance should you ever enter any personal information into a link provided by an email as it usually leads to bad things.

In the event you have clicked on a link embedded in an email and entered a user name and password, the best thing to do is contact the company by phone and have them reset your password.  You may also want to bring your computer in to a professional to have them make sure there are no compromises on the system.