Google Released a Tool That Lets You Backup Your Entire Computer

After a bit of a delay following its big announcement last month, Google has finally released a tool that allows you to use its free cloud storage to backup all of the files on your Mac or Windows computer.

The new Backup and Sync feature lets you safely store content from your computer's internal hard drive, or from other devices like memory cards or USB devices, in Google Drive.

It's an easy and efficient way to protect your files and photos by backing them up, as long as they're in Google Drive and Google Photos. The tool will recreate your desktop folder ecosystem directly in Drive instead of having to create an entirely new network of folders.

"Just choose the folders you want to back up, and we'll take care of the rest," Google wrote on its blog.

While free Drive accounts only offer 15 GB for Backup and Sync, you can pay for more storage to ensure all of your files are backed up.

Backup and Sync is available for download through Google Drive and Google Photos.

How to Tell If Your Login or Passwords Have Been Stolen

Step 1: Do Some Googling

But given the millions of people affected by major security breaches, how can you tell if your specific information has been leaked? And what can you do about it?

You could start by running a Google search to see whether any site you use has suffered a leak. But that's hit or miss, time-consuming, and even if you find reports that one of them has been hacked, that doesn't mean that your information was actually compromised.

Thankfully, the internet tends to fix as many problems as it causes (in the video below, imagine Homer saying "internet" instead of "alcohol" and you get the idea). Here are some tips to help you stay on top of cybersecurity.

Step 2: Find Out if You've Been Leaked

The simplest way to determine whether your information has been leaked is to visit haveibeenpwned.com. Yeah, it has a weird name (pwned comes from hacker jargon that refers to "being owned"), but it works, it's free, and it doesn't require you to sign up for anything.

Just type in your username or email address, and the site quickly searches the list of known breaches, reporting back to you whether you've been compromised and (if so) through which site. You don't need to provide any passwords or other sensitive information to this service.

Step 3: Double Check at LeaskedSource

Another option is to use leakedsource.com. Both sites do more or less the same things, but they provide dual coverage—so if one site misses something, the other may not.

Step 4: Change Your Passwords Immediately

The first thing you should do is to change your compromised password right away.

Next ask yourself, "Did I reuse that same password at any other sites?" If so, change the password there as well—and this time use a different password at each site.

One of the best rules of online security is, Make every password unique. That way, if one site is compromised, your other logins remain safe.

Juggling dozens of different logins can be a major inconvenience, of course. Thankfully, you can turn to a program designed to manage multiple passwords in a convenient way. For more on this topic, check out Choose a Password Manager to Protect Your Security.

Here's a little tip: If you use a password manager like LastPass or Dashlane (and you really, really should) these programs can warn you if you're re-using then same password on multiple sites.

Step 5: Make Yourself Safer for the Next Breech

When creating a new password, follow the advice of security experts to ensure that you choose the most secure options available.

Your new password should be 12 characters long. It should contain letters, numbers, and symbols (such as ! or ?), and it should not refer to any other information that hackers might easily access or guess. For example, don't base the password on your name, address, phone number, or pet's name.

And once you devised a secure password, let a password manager program remember it and its fellow passwords from your other login sites.

After changing your passwords, occasionally revisit haveibeenpwned.com (or a similar site) to confirm that your login information remains secure. By staying vigilant and working to understand the threat, you can give yourself maximum protection against cybercrime.

Your iPhone Automatically Remembers All Your Passwords for You

Passwords protect your personal information from being stolen, and that's pretty important. Some websites allow you to create passwords that are easy to remember, while others require the works: upper case letters, symbols, numbers, eight characters in length, and your first born child. OK, maybe not the latter.

That's a lot to remember, especially considering the number of websites you visit each day that require passwords. Well, as it turns out, you don't ever need to remember your passwords, because your iPhone does it for you.

If you weren't aware of this feature before, get ready to have your mind blown.

Here's how to find all your passwords you've ever created:

• Go to your Settings
• Click on Accounts & Passwords
• Click on App & Website Passwords

credit: Jill Layton

You'll be asked to enter your Touch ID to access a page that securely holds the logins and passwords for every website you've created them for. There's even a search button to help you find what you're looking for quicker.

So, you don't need to deal with sending a request for a forgotten password ever again—they're all literally right at your fingertips.

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How To Delete A User In Windows 10

Windows 10, like its predecessors, lets you add multiple users to a single system. Windows 10 does try to get you to connect your Microsoft ID to a user account but you can add local users as well. In fact, you can use Windows 10 as a local user and not miss out on too much. That said, when you no longer need a user account on your system, you shouldn’t just leave it as it is. A user account takes up space. If an account is sitting idle then you’re basically wasting that space. Here’s how you can delete a user in Windows 10.

Delete A User In Windows 10

Open the Settings app and go to the Accounts group of settings. Select the Family & other people tab. Here, you will see a list of all users you’ve added to the current system.

Select the user account you want to remove and click the ‘Remove’ button that appears under it. You might be prompted to enter the administrator password. If the Remove button doesn’t appear, or it’s greyed out/inactive, sign in from the administrator account and then try it.

You will get a prompt telling you that all data stored in the user account will be deleted. This includes everything in the documents, photos, music, etc., libraries for that particular user. It will not delete anything else and your own account will not be affected. Additionally, nothing on your other drives will be deleted. If a user saved a file to the D drive, it will still be there. Only files in the user’s own libraries will be deleted.

Click Delete account and data to remove the user. Once you do this, there is no going back. The data cannot be recovered.

Limitations

You cannot delete all user accounts from Windows 10 at once. If you’re looking to create a new, fresh user for yourself, and get rid of your old user account, you need to first create the new account and transfer admin rights to it. You can’t be signed in to the user account that you’re trying to delete.

If you’re looking to delete your current account but you don’t want to or don’t have the option to add a second user, your only recourse is to reset Windows 10. You will have the option to keep all your files but your apps will be gone and you will start out with a fresh Windows installation and a new account.

Wi-Fi encryption can be hacked and anyone can spy on your internet activity

Equifax and Yahoo disclosed major security breaches recently, which are quite scary, especially the former. But security researchers are about to unveil to explain how hackers could hack any existing Wi-Fi connection and spy on all of your data.

The encrypted WPA2 protocol was just breached, putting at risk everyone who uses wireless internet at home or abroad. You can’t fix the issue yourself, but while you wait for network equipment makers to patch access points, there are several steps you can take to protect yourself.

Yes, the issue is serious, but as long as a hacker isn’t specifically looking to spy on your data, you should not worry about it.

The proof-of-concept exploit is called KRACK (or Key Reinstallation Attacks), according to Ars Technica. An advisory from US-CERT explains that the hack should be publicly disclosed on Monday:

US-CERT has become aware of several key management vulnerabilities in the 4-way handshake of the Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) security protocol. The impact of exploiting these vulnerabilities includes decryption, packet replay, TCP connection hijacking, HTTP content injection, and others. Note that as protocol-level issues, most or all correct implementations of the standard will be affected. The CERT/CC and the reporting researcher KU Leuven will be publicly disclosing these vulnerabilities on 16 October 2017.

Until access points are fixed, all Wi-Fi traffic is at risk, meaning that hackers will be able to eavesdrop on all your Wi-Fi traffic and steal data coming from all sorts of home devices that connect to the internet wirelessly.

If you’re worried about your security, various solutions can help you mitigate the problem while you wait for hardware companies to update router firmware.

You can stop using Wi-Fi until your routers are fixed, and switch to Ethernet instead. You should also consider using Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to obfuscate your internet usage, especially if you keep using Wi-Fi, and especially in those places where you don’t control the wireless network. Also, make sure use HTTPS when browsing the web and other security protocols to encrypt all your traffic. However, you might not be able to do anything about the smart devices that connect via Wi-Fi to your home network.

2017 will likely be the worst year ever for cable TV as cord cutting continues

If you ever wanted proof that cord cutting is more than just a fad, look no further than cancellation numbers for pay TV subscriptions. In 2016, Bloomberg reported that cable, satellite and telecom TV services lost a total of 1.7 million paid subscribers that year. That was estimated to be the largest exodus of pay TV customers ever recorded, but according to Exstreamist, that record could be broken as soon as this year.

Based on Exstreamist’s estimates and data gathered from telecom giants such as AT&T, Comcast, Dish, Charter and Verizon, between 1.8 and 1.9 million subscribers could cancel their cable package by the end of 2017.

Considering how expensive cable subscriptions have become, this doesn’t come as much of a surprise. There are also new streaming services popping up every week, many of which include (or focus on) live TV programming. Why pay over $100 for cable when you can get all the same channels on DirecTV Now, Sling or YouTube TV for less than half the price? Plus, with a majority of these services, you can watch TV on any device you own and even record shows on the cloud. And if you ever lose interest, you can cancel any time you want, free of charge.

Some cable providers have begun to fight fire with fire by offering streaming solutions of their own, but none of them have attracted the kind of attention that Hulu Live TV, DirecTV Now and the like have received.

Exstreamist’s estimation for total cancellations this year is just that — an estimation — but data shows that 470,000 people cut the cord in the third quarter of 2017 alone. As streaming services continue to dominate the conversation, this trend is only going to get worse for cable providers. 2018 could be yet another record-breaking year.