Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Andy: My girlfriend and I have a bet that’s riding on your answer to this question:
Is a six digit PIN really all that more secure than a four digit PIN?
It don’t seem like just two digits could make that much of a difference. She says it makes a big difference if someone ever tries to break into my phone.
So who’s right? [Read more…]
It’s no secret that being connected to the Internet makes our computers and mobile devices vulnerable to hackers.
Passwords have long been used to protect our online accounts from those threats, but those once-trusted passwords are becoming less effective by the day as hacking methods become increasingly sophisticated.
In short, a simple password that’s just a few characters long offers very little real protection against the sophisticated hacking methods that are being used today. [Read more…]
Question from Tina: I currently use the Google Authenticator app on my phone to retrieve the Two-Factor Authentication codes for logging into my online accounts.
I’m getting ready to buy a new phone and I want to make sure I won’t do something that gets me logged out of my accounts with no way to retrieve the codes to log back in.
Is there a simple way to transfer the Google Authenticator app to a new phone without messing everything up in the process? [Read more…]
Question from Carl: I was listening to talk radio the other day and I heard a guy say that the strongest encryption methods in use today are so strong that they will never, ever be broken.
The host didn’t challenge him on that. In fact, he seemed to agree with him. I have my doubts though.
What do you think? Is current encryption technology so good that no one will ever be able to break it?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
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Question from Joyce: I recently bought a new computer with Windows 10 on it to replace my old Windows 7 laptop now that it’s no longer safe to use.
Thanks for the info you provided on that by the way.
My niece helped me set the new machine up while she was in for the holidays but now she’s gone back and she isn’t here to help me.
What I’m wanting to do is remove the login password that she put on it because I live alone and no one else has access to the computer.
Can you tell me how to remove that password? It’s a hassle having to enter it every time I turn the machine on.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]