It has been all over the TV news and reported by bloggers and news sites. The hacking onto Home Depot is potentially much bigger, more widespread, and most costly to the merchant, to the credit card companies, to banks (and to their insurance companies) than the Target break-in 8 months ago. This is a major crime event. If you haven’t become familiar with the incident, this story in ComputerWorld is a good, detailed overview of what seems to have happened: Data shows Home Depot breach could be largest ever. This is a cautionary tale for all marketers. If a corporate giant is not able... [...]

Outlook, Microsoft’s email management system, has been around for over 10 years, and is used by many of us to keep our email under control. Well, “control” is relative. I have had 500,000 emails in Outlook, and have only managed to whittle the number down to 390,000. And Outlook has many features to assist you in making your email easier to manage. But one man, David Gewirtz, decided that it wasn’t up to the task any longer. He has decided that Gmail is a better solution for him. Today, ZDNet.com published his story detailing why, after using Outlook from its early days... [...]

As you probably know, today is the day that Americans celebrate our freedom. On July 4, 1776, we declared ourselves free from British rule. In small towns across America, there will be parades, concerts and civic unity. It’s also going to be a great day of picnics, baseball, fireworks and fun as well. For example, we have our grandchildren visiting us, and they have helped Grandmother make a cake shaped and decorated like an American flag. Along with hot dogs and potato chips we have our lunch ready to go in an hour. For example, we have our grandchildren visiting us, and they have helped... [...]

There’s buzz about Heartbleed all around the web. It has the potential to damage the reputations and the bank accounts of millions of people. This is the biggest scare since the Java vulnerability that was announced a couple of yers ago. The issue is that OpenSSL, software used by thousands of commerce sites, has a bug, and a crook found out about it. With that knowledge, Heartbleed was created to steal userids, passwords, name and other personal information from sites running OpenSSL. This week, in Canada, a 19-Year-Old Canadian Arrested for hacking into government computers using the... [...]

We tend to think we are more sophisticated than most people online, and to a degree that’s probably true. But that attitude of superiority can be our enemy if it causes us to drop our guard. Target Stores were certainly no novice in online commerce, but their store systems wre the victim of a major data theft through a virus planted on their POS terminals. You and I can have our sites hacked, too, if we are not hyper-vigilant. We can be attacked by viruses on our personal computers. And we can be victims of phishing. Phishing is the sending of emails, appearing to be from legitimate businesses,... [...]

InfoWorld.com reports that there’s a new threat growing out of the easy extensibility of Google Chrome with add-ons. It has always been possible for someone to create a malicious or adware plugin and attempt to place it on the Chrome Web Store. Google worked hard to assure that such apps didn’t see the light of day or at the least were removed immediately. But there’s a back door Google apparently hadn’t considered: What if a good app goes bad? That’s what happened to two such add-ons, Add to Feedly and Tweet This Page. Once considered useful extensions downloaded... [...]

A marketer sends me email regularly that violate the common sense rules for building a trust relationship with readers. 1. He (or she) never gives his name. The only signature is “admin” . In my inbox the from column also has only “admin”. 2. His subject lines are usually deceptive. Here’s a sample:  * You requested a new password for access id #82181  * Check #PP3241682KY Issued  * Daily Electonic Transfer (Confirmed)  * A deposit has been made to Acc ID : [my email address]  * Re: $257.00 Tranferred to Bank Local 3. In the last 30 days,... [...]

Once in a while we learn about tragic events in our world that tug at our hearts. The destruction in the Philippine islands from Typhoon Haiyan, even though geographically distant from most of us, hits close to home. It could have been our families that were killed, maimed or rendered homeless. Some concerned marketeers have developed a plan to assist in the recovery from this devastation. They have organized a huge sale of marketing training, software and mentoring, and they pledge to give all proceeds to relief efforts in the Philippines. They have explained their plan at : http://www.internetmarketersunite.com/.... [...]

For 15 years, Google has occasionally changed their iconic search logo for a day, to celebrate a particular historic event or person. When you go to their search page, http://google.com, if you arrive on a day when the logo is changed you will see modified logo, which is usually whimsical and often amusing. Cnet (http://CNET.com) has created a slide show, chronicling the history of these Google Doodles: http://news.cnet.com/2300-11386_3-10018261.html It’s a warm trip down memory lane. But it’s more than that. It illustrates: • Google’s awareness of the larger society •... [...]

In my office, I have some dead spots, where the WiFi signal doesn’t reach very well. The result is that the speed drops significantly, or sometimes even stops altogether. That can be bad news for your efficiency. So, I am interested in whatever can be done to improve our WiFi results, including an article I read today. As reported on DailyFinance.com, there is a “simple change” you can make to improve your WiFi reception so you can reach your whole area at a normal speed. It involves “improving” your router’s antenna with a home-made reflector. The problem?... [...]