John Simek

Firm/Organization: Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
Blogs: Your IT Consultant

Latest Articles

The price of success is the target you present. Mac-based malware (Yes it does exist!) finally landed a spot on WatchGuard’s Top 10 list of the most common types of malware for Q3 2018. As stated in a DarkReading post, Mac users can no longer assume that the operating system offers more security than other operating systems. Corey Nachreiner, WatchGuard’s CTO, said, “Mac users that haven’t installed a security suite on the endpoint need…
The bad guys keep changing tactics in an effort to steal identity or for financial gain. The Attack Takeover Attack (ATA) is a growing concern. Why try to spoof an email when you can just compromise the account and send it from the real source? One way this is done is through the use of hidden rules. The verification email that one normally gets is automatically sent to an attacker and then deleted. If you…
Internet Explorer is no longer a major player in the browser market. Microsoft moved from IE and released a new version of the browser called Edge. Shocker, but users didn’t jump over and suddenly support the new Microsoft browser. For those of you sleeping under a rock, Google’s Chrome is the leading browser in use across the world. It appears that Microsoft sees the writing on the wall and will most likely support Chrome extensions…
Life will be getting simpler for users of Google messaging services. Google has announced that going forward, it will only support five messaging apps. Messages, Hangouts Chat, Hangouts Meet, Duo, and Google Voice will continue to be supported. Hangouts and Google Allo will ultimately be shut down. In case you are wondering, Hangouts and Allo will join the Google messaging app graveyard along with Google Talk, Google Spaces, Google Wave, Google+ Messenger, and Google Buzz.…
It seems like I read at least one article a week that predicts the death of passwords. I don’t share that belief, but there are alternative authentication methods. As an example, you can now use your face or a security key fob to logon into your Microsoft account. Technically, you are using Windows Hello biometric authentication, which also includes fingerprint readers. This means that passwordless logons are possible for Outlook, Office, Skype, OneDrive, Xbox…
Do yourself a favor. If you need to bring up a Wi-Fi network, don’t just buy the cheapest device you can find. Like all things in life, not all Wi-Fi systems are created equal. BGR has some good advice to help you will your Wi-Fi equipment purchase. TP-Link produces the best affordable router. BGR identifies the TL-WR841N router as a really great deal for less than $20. It’s a device that can easily cover a…
It really doesn’t matter what operating system you use. There are a ton of great apps for your smartphone. Tech Viral has composed a list of the world’s ten most popular apps for 2018 downloaded from the Google Play store. WhatsApp Messenger – Text and Video Chat for Free TikTok Facebook Instagram Helix Jump Facebook Lite Merge Plane Happy Glass Messenger Lite E-mail: jsimek@senseient.com  Phone: 703.359.0700 Digital Forensics/Information Security/Information Technology https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnsimek https://amazon.com/author/johnsimek https://www.senseient.com      …
Using a VPN is a great idea to protect your privacy. That is unless the VPN isn’t trustworthy and is capturing your information. Softpedia News reported that using a free VPN app on your iOS or Android device is not a good idea. Simon Migliano, Metric Labs’ Head of Research, the company behind the Top10VPN service said, “The most popular have amassed hundreds of millions of installs between them worldwide and yet there appears to…
Today, you should be using the most secure setting for Wi-Fi networks. That would be WPA2 encryption even though there are known vulnerabilities to the specification. The good news is that vendors have patches to fix the problems with WPA2. The better news is that the WPA3 specification has been approved. Now we have to wait for vendors to implement and support the new Wi-Fi standard. Microsoft hasn’t officially announced WPA3-Personal (SAE) Support in Windows…
It’s no secret that cost of storage continues to go down. One of the better deals around is the Western Digital external 4 TB drive for $71.97. The best part is that the drive is USB 3.0 and not the much slower 2.0 model. Need another backup drive? Check it out. E-mail: jsimek@senseient.com  Phone: 703.359.0700 Digital Forensics/Information Security/Information Technology https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnsimek https://amazon.com/author/johnsimek https://www.senseient.com       Related Stories Encryption Flaws in Popular Solid State Drives Extend …