Technology

Five smart, simple tech changes to make 2024 better

Published

2 years ago

January 3, 2024

Five smart, simple tech changes to make 2024 better

New year, same you. And that’s OK! You don’t need to makeover your entire life to have a good 2024.

But I can tell you firsthand it’s totally worth it to spend a few minutes cleaning up your tech life. Keep reading for steps to banish junk mail, make your phone less annoying and improve your cybersecurity. You got this!

I share tips like this every day in my free newsletter, The Current. Join 500K smart people who read it. You’ll be glad you did!

TWO MINUTE TECH TRICKS: START THE YEAR WITH A CLEAN INBOX

1. Automate a no-brainer security step

You forget to lock your computer when you get up. Welcome to the club. Be smart and tell your Windows or Mac to do it for you! You can set your computer to auto-lock if you’ve been inactive for a certain amount of time.

On Windows:

Open Settings and go to Personalization, then Lock Screen.
Click Screen saver settings and select any option (except “None”) from the Screen saver dropdown menu.
Set a time for Windows to wait before locking. Check the box for On resume, display logon screen. Hit OK.

On a Mac:

Click the Apple menu > System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Save > Screen Saver. Use the slider to choose a time.
Click Show All to go back to the main System Preferences window.
Click Security, then Require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver.

Man looks onto his computer (Cyberguy.com)

You can also set up your PC to lock based on where your phone is. Think about it: If your phone’s nearby, so are you — and so your computer stays open. You walk away, it locks.

2. Say goodbye to group chats that drive you up the wall

Group chats are fun when you’re happy to be there and awful when you don’t care about the convo. The adult move is to ask whoever added you to remove you …

Or do the ol’ Irish exit if you have an iPhone. Tap the thread, then select the group icon at the top. Scroll and tap Leave this Conversation. Save this for when you’re desperate.
You can also go the subtle route and mute the convo. (This is what I usually do.) Tap the group text message, select the group icon at the top of the thread, then scroll and toggle on Hide Alerts.

YOUR SMART ASSISTANT IS LISTENING, BUT DOES THAT IMPACT THE ADS YOU SEE?

On Android, muting is your best option — unless you’re up to telling Aunt Kathy you’re out.

If you use Google Messages, open the group text, then tap the three-dot menu > Group Details > Notifications. Select Silent. Ahh, better.
For other Android apps, look through your messaging menu options for an option to mute the conversation.

3. Fix the home security mistake even I was making

Back in the day, I turned off all my home security alerts because they were annoying — bad move. What you want to do is adjust your camera’s sensitivity (or upgrade to better cams) if yours are always going off accidentally.

Ring cameras are used by most people to capture footage around their homes. (CyberGuy.com)

You can usually find controls to adjust motion sensitivity in your security system app. Systems go by different names, so I’ll cover the steps for two.

Adjust your camera sensitivity with SimpliSafe

Open the SimpliSafe app and tap Cameras at the bottom of the screen.
Tap the gear icon at the top right of the screen.
Choose the camera you would like to change.
Choose Motion Detection and make your adjustments to the sensitivity.

FIVE DUMB TECH SECURITY MISTAKES YOU’RE MAKING

Adjust your camera sensitivity with Ring

Open the Ring app and tap the gear icon for a camera.
Tap Motion Settings > Motion Sensitivity. Adjust the slider.

4. Organize your cords and cables the way pros do

When everything’s jumbled up, it’s impossible to tell what goes where. Try this super-smart trick.

Get some stickers. These can be labels you write on or color-coded dots. One of my readers, Tony, suggests using colored foil stars.
Create a system that works for you. Write on the labels or use colors to represent the cord type (e.g., red for USB-C, blue for HDMI).
Affix the same label or colored sticker to the cable and the port on the device. When you plug in the cord, simply match the cable’s sticker to the port.
Place the sticker in the same position on each cable. Try putting it on the top of the cord to quickly find the correct orientation into the port.

5. Less junk mail to deal with

Is your mailbox overflowing with unsolicited credit card and insurance offers? You can thank the big four credit reporting bureaus: Experian, Equifax, TransUnion and Innovis.

Closeup of two modern black and brown metal red flag mailboxes at single family home in residential suburbs with nobody and house in background (iStock)

Each bureau provides lists of consumers, based on specific criteria, to credit and insurance companies for prescreened offers. Yes, it’s completely legal. But don’t worry, there’s a solution: Opt Out Prescreen, a tool developed by these very credit bureaus.

Visit optoutprescreen.com. You can choose to opt out for five years or forever, then fill in the form.
Opting out permanently? You’ll have to use snail mail, but it’s worth it. Print, sign and mail a confirmation form.

Keep your tech-know going

My popular podcast is called “Kim Komando Today.” It’s a solid 30 minutes of tech news, tips, and callers with tech questions like you from all over the country. Search for it wherever you get your podcasts. For your convenience, hit the link below for a recent episode.

PODCAST PICK: Billionaire doomsday preppers, p*rn copyright trolls & nasty Amazon scam

Plus, my 2024 tech resolutions and ways to have AI help you craft yours. California bans this ultra-weird product from Amazon — and yes, it involves donkeys. Peloton tablet goes obsolete, and I’ve got five tech road trip tips.

Check out my podcast “Kim Komando Today” on Apple, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player.

Listen to the podcast here or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for my last name, “Komando.”

Sound like a tech pro, even if you’re not! Award-winning popular host Kim Komando is your secret weapon. Listen on 425+ radio stations or get the podcast. And join over 400,000 people who get her free 5-minute daily email newsletter.

Technology

The Live Nation trial restarts with a ‘velvet hammer’

Published

7 hours ago

March 17, 2026

Press Room

The Live Nation trial restarts with a ‘velvet hammer’

After a chaotic week following the Justice Department’s mid-trial settlement with Live Nation-Ticketmaster, the antitrust trial picked back up surprisingly smoothly on Monday — this time, with dozens of states leading the case.

This isn’t the outcome the states originally wanted. Out of concerns about being able to effectively take over the case and fear that the jury would be prejudiced by the shakeup, they requested a mistrial, which would have restarted the court battle at an unknown future date. But an irritated Judge Arun Subramanian seemed likely to deny the request, and once the states figured out how to retain the DOJ’s expert witness and were able to quickly hire up, they withdrew their mistrial motion. After the new faces were introduced, the trial restarted from roughly where it left off more than a week ago, with testimony that included how Live Nation deployed its “velvet hammer” against rivals.

Subramanian welcomed the jurors back from their “spring break” and asked if they had read or encountered any news about the case when they were out, which is forbidden by the jury instructions. They either shook their heads or remained silent. He reminded the jurors that the US had resolved its claims, as had a handful of states, but the rest were proceeding to trial. Jurors shouldn’t make any inferences from the fact those parties are no longer in the case, he said.

With the DOJ out of the picture, the lawyers who questioned early witnesses were gone, replaced by a new team co-led by Jonathan Hatch, an attorney from the New York AG’s office, and Jeffrey Kessler of Winston & Strawn, who represented college athletes in the landmark Supreme Court antitrust case against the NCAA over compensation.

The states’ attorneys picked up questioning of Jay Marciano, the COO of AEG, a competitor to Live Nation on multiple fronts. While Hatch refreshed jurors on parts of Marciano’s prior testimony, it was otherwise a fairly standard examination. Marciano testified about ticketing models he prefers in Europe, where multiple ticketing services often work at a venue, unlike the norm in the US where venues tend to accept exclusive ticketing contracts, often from Ticketmaster.

On cross examination, Marciano spoke to an incident the jury heard about early in the trial: a call between the Barclays Center’s then-CEO and Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, who responded to an attempt to abandon Ticketmaster by saying it would be harder for the arena to get concerts with the new UBS Arena nearby. While Barclays interpreted this as a threat to protect Ticketmaster, Marciano affirmed that it’s common as a concert promoter to play venues against each other to get more favorable terms, and that the UBS Arena likely would attract artists away from Barclays as the new venue in town.

Live Nation’s president of US concerts, Robert Roux, addressed a separate allegation: that Live Nation uses its broad control over US amphitheaters to maintain its monopoly power, leaving no other real options for artists looking to play large outdoor venues. Through Live Nation’s own business presentations, plaintiff attorney Josh Hafenbrack demonstrated that the company made big strides to gain power over four of the top five amphitheaters in the US by ticket sales between 2016 and now. A 2018 presentation showed a largely highlighted list of the top 100 amps worldwide, with the green highlights representing the 62 Live Nation owned, operated, or exclusively booked venues at the time. Since then, Roux confirmed, the company has added several more on that list.

Live Nation denies it acted anticompetitively, and argues the states ignore other kinds of venues that compete for the same shows. But Roux wrote in a 2015 email that many non-superstar artists come in wanting to play amphitheaters — many of which, evidence shown in court has suggested, are controlled or exclusively booked by Live Nation. He also wrote that in those cases, there was “room for tighter negotiations and deals.”

“Either we are together or we are competitors”

Other emails described how Live Nation thinks about its competition when contemplating otherwise lucrative deals. In a 2018 email exchange, Rapino questioned why Live Nation should give shows to a promoter in the South it considered acquiring, Red Mountain Entertainment, before it actually owned it. Roux wrote at the time that the message to Red Mountain should be, “Either we are together or we are competitors.” He described the approach as a “velvet hammer.” On the witness stand, Roux said the message wasn’t meant to “antagonize” the promoter, but to be firm and send a clear message. In a separate exchange that mentioned Red Mountain, Roux wrote that Live Nation shouldn’t get “complacent” and “let small guys encroach from the edges.” Roux said the comment was a general one, and not specific to the promoter. Live Nation acquired Red Mountain in 2018.

In 2020, Rapino advised Roux against letting Radio Disney and concert promoter Superfly into a Live Nation venue, even after they offered a contract that would yield at least $400,000 in profit for Live Nation for renting out the amp. One executive had raised a concern about allowing a third-party promoter into the amp, even though the “money is great.”

Finally, Roux testified that Live Nation’s profits per fan have multiplied in recent years, with profitability in large amps, a key market in the case, growing more than other venue categories between 2019 and 2024. Before certain costs were factored in, the company made $386 million in profit from large amps in 2024, nearly triple the amount it made in that segment in 2019.

Besides the delay in the case while the states’ team sorted out its next moves absent the DOJ, there wasn’t a noticeable change in the flow of trial and how the new litigators operated, compared to the first week of trial. The case is still expected to run several more weeks, though both sides said they’ve worked to trim their witness lists to help make up for lost time. Toward the end of this week, one of the trial’s most high-profile witnesses is expected to take the stand: Live Nation’s CEO.

Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.

Lauren Feiner

Technology

How debit card fraud can happen without using the card

Published

7 hours ago

March 17, 2026

Press Room

How debit card fraud can happen without using the card

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Every so often, we receive an email that stops us cold. Not because it is dramatic. Not because it is careless. Because it feels impossible.

Sheri M. from Georgia recently wrote to us with this question:

“Yesterday I learned that someone had stolen my debit card information. I was alerted by my bank about 10:00 p.m. last night that someone tried to use my card in Brazil. I am in the Southern United States and have never traveled outside the country. What I have trouble understanding is that this particular debit card has never been used and has never been out of a locked vault. It has been activated, and once activated, I locked it up. No one had access to it, no questions about that. It is just not possible. So how could someone have my card information? I asked this question at my bank, and after speaking to several people, they are at a loss as to what to tell me. I hope you can shed some light on this.”
— Sheri M. from Georgia

GHOST-TAPPING SCAM TARGETS TAP-TO-PAY USERS

Debit card numbers can be compromised digitally through system breaches or automated number-guessing attacks. (fizkes/Getty Images)

Sheri, first, we are glad your bank flagged it. That alert tells you fraud monitoring worked. Now let’s address the part that feels unreal. How can someone use a debit card that has never left a locked vault?

If you have asked that same question, you are not alone. This type of debit card fraud happens more often than most people realize. And it almost never involves someone physically touching your card.

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How debit card fraud happens without using the card

When a card is compromised without being used, the issue is typically digital. Here are the most likely explanations.

1) The number was exposed before you received it

Debit cards move through multiple systems before they reach your mailbox. Third-party vendors manufacture, encode and ship them. That means the card number exists in databases long before you open the envelope. If one of those systems is breached, criminals can obtain card numbers in bulk. They never need the physical card. They never need your home. In that case, it has nothing to do with your vault.

2) A BIN attack may be responsible

Every debit card starts with a bank identification number. Criminals use software to generate the remaining digits at high speed. They test thousands of combinations using small transactions or foreign authorizations to see which numbers work. This is known as a BIN attack. They are not stealing your specific card. They are guessing valid numbers mathematically. If your card was activated, even if it was never used, it becomes part of the pool that can be tested. A foreign attempt, like one in Brazil, is often a test authorization. It feels personal. In reality, it is automated.

WEB SKIMMING ATTACKS TARGET MAJOR PAYMENT NETWORKS

A customer completes a transaction at Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington, on May 28, 2025. Financial security specialists recommend canceling compromised cards and monitoring accounts immediately after a fraud alert. (M. Scott Brauer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

3) A processor or network weak point

Sometimes the exposure does not originate at the bank itself. The weak link can involve:

A payment processor
A card network
A digital wallet backend
A servicing vendor

Frontline bank employees often do not have visibility into these system-level issues. Patterns can take time to surface internally. That is why you may not receive a clear explanation right away.

4) Backend systems assign numbers early

Many banks pre-assign card numbers or connect them to digital systems before you ever swipe the card. If that backend data is exposed, the physical card remaining locked away does not matter. That is why debit card fraud without using the card can still occur.

Why did the transaction show up overseas?

You may wonder why the attempt came from Brazil. Foreign authorizations are often used as test transactions. Criminal groups run small or unusual location charges to see which numbers are active. If the charge clears, they escalate. The good news is your bank blocked it.

What you should do right now

If this happens to you, act quickly.

Cancel the card completely. Do not just lock it. Make sure the number is permanently closed.
Request a new card number. Confirm it is not a reissue of the same digits.
Monitor your checking account daily for at least 30 days.
Freeze your credit with all three credit bureaus.
Add identity monitoring to detect broader misuse.

That final step is often overlooked.

WHY SCAMMERS OPEN BANK ACCOUNTS IN YOUR NAME

Experts say debit card fraud often occurs without the physical card ever being used or stolen. (Nikos Pekiaridis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Why identity monitoring matters

Debit card fraud can be isolated. It can also signal a larger data exposure.

If your card number surfaced through a breach or vendor leak, other personal details may be circulating too. Email addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers often appear together in stolen datasets. That is where early detection becomes critical.

Our top Identity Theft Protection recommendation monitors credit activity, financial accounts and dark web marketplaces for signs your identity is being misused. You receive fast alerts so you can respond before small incidents turn into larger problems.

Instead of waiting for a late-night fraud alert, you gain earlier visibility.

See my tips and best picks on Best Identity Theft Protection at Cyberguy.com.

Ways to stay safe from invisible debit card fraud

You cannot control global criminal networks. You can reduce your exposure.

Keep debit cards locked in your banking app when not in use
Turn on real-time transaction alerts
Use credit cards for online purchases when possible
Freeze your credit as a preventative step
Avoid storing debit card details across multiple retail sites
Use identity monitoring for broader protection

Layered security gives you more control.

Kurt’s key takeaways

Sheri’s experience feels impossible because she did everything right. The card never left the vault. It was never used. No one had access. Yet the number was still tested from across the world. That is the reality of today’s financial crime. It is automated, remote and system-driven.

If this can happen to a card locked in a vault, what does that say about how secure our financial system really is? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Technology

Sony’s AI graphics upscaling for PS5 Pro games is getting a big update tonight

Published

19 hours ago

March 16, 2026

Press Room

Sony’s AI graphics upscaling for PS5 Pro games is getting a big update tonight

Sony’s upgraded PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) technology is rolling out to several titles on the PS5 Pro, including Cyberpunk 2077, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Silent Hill 2, and more. Digital Foundry got a chance to test some of them and found that the “new upscaler delivers the kind of upgrade we were looking for from PS5 Pro.” Problems with shimmering, flickering, and other visual artifacts have been addressed, and they said it now delivers crisper and more consistent in-game graphics.

This is the first upgrade we’ve seen from AMD and Sony’s combined Project Amethyst work on improving the effect of rendering a game at a lower resolution, then using AI trained on graphics to analyze each frame and upscale it, delivering improved quality on the same hardware without reducing the framerate. The upgraded PSSR is included with the latest PS5 system software update, which will start rolling out “in phases” on March 17th at 1AM ET, and Sony says its improvements will also improve AMD’s next FSR update when that rolls out.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Cyberpunk 2077 will also get a patch with the PSSR update in the “coming weeks,” while CrimsonDesert will adopt the tech when the game launches on March 19th, according to Sony. You can also toggle the updated tech on or off for PS5 Pro games not on this list that already support PSSR, though Sony notes that “results may vary by title.”