Do you have internet?
Just asking for a friend.
Some days I think we all wished that Al Gore had skipped inventing the internet. (Dad humor in case you don’t get the joke).
In case you think it is just a joke Al Gore was a tech geek and his influence on Congress was important beginning in the 1970s through the creation of Mosaic in the early 1990s.
If you think the internet is in your life today just wait until 5G gets here. As I wrote last week 4G is a one lane highway. 5G is a 100-lane highway.
I bring this up again as one of our clients recently had an employee give her a “Password Book”.
You might laugh at this, but I cannot tell you how many of our clients come to a meeting and need a password and they either:
- Reach into there purse or wallet for a well-folded worn piece of paper.
- Answer that’s easy all my passwords are the same or a simple variation of the basic password.
- Open a notebook and go to the last page(s) where everything is listed.
- All of the above
It’s a multiple-choice question with only one answer.
Yes, the obvious answer, unfortunately, is d) All of the above.
How many passwords do you have?
To give you a look into our life, Tina and I share over 175 different sites and password with our password manager.
YES 175 PASSWORDS
How do you ask?
Everything we have today is available through internet.
Order lunch from Panera – Online
Pay the gas bill – Online
Pay the Water bill – Online
Book a hotel room – Online
Netflix – Online
Pay with PayPal – Online
Book a flight – Online
Buy tickets to concerts – Online
Get Uber or Lyft to pick us up – Online
That doesn’t even mention the bank and credit card accounts or the online accounts we use for our business.
Why do I bring this up?
Every day the hackers get more sophisticated in how they are trying to pry on our simplistic approach to internet security
Today, I received an email with a “Missed Voice Message”.
At first, I wondered what it was, then with a simple google of the phone number, I found it was a Social Security Scam. DELETED
Also today, Jennifer Livingstone told us about the latest scam where people are actually calling and trying to impersonate your children and tell you that they are in jail and they need a credit card to get them out.
The hackers are getting more aggressive and persuasive.
How do you stop them?
Use a sophisticated password manager and layer up by adding multi-factor authentication. It could save you a lot of trouble in the future.
Not sure which password manager to use?
Take the time and read The Five Best Password Managers for CPA’s
Have a great final weekend of June.
The year is halfway through as we take another trip around the sun.
It’s a hang on kinda ride, whispin’ in through space and time,
Rockin’ this big old rock just tryn’a have fun
So let’s drink another beer, here’s to another year,
Let’s take another crazy trip around the sun – Kenny Chesney
Michael Tannery CPA CDFA® AIF® ● CEO
Registered Principal
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