Technology

Tidy up your tech: Spring-cleaning tips for safeguarding your data

Published

2 weeks ago

April 22, 2024

Tidy up your tech: Spring-cleaning tips for safeguarding your data

‘CyberGuy’: Springtime backup

Safeguarding your digital life with a reliable physical backup isn’t just a precaution, it’s a necessity. Kurt Knutsson provides the essential backup checklist.

It happens without warning. Suddenly, access to your personal data gets interrupted by a simple hardware failure, nasty virus, cyberattack, software glitch, accidental deletion or human mistake. It’s clearer than ever that our personal data is vulnerable.

As an advocate for privacy and security, and the editor behind the popular CyberGuy Report, which you can subscribe to for free at CyberGuy.com/newsletter, I have always emphasized the importance of personal responsibility when it comes to data security. My top recommendation for protecting your precious memories, critical documents and the mountains of personal data we accumulate is straightforward: utilize a personal drive for backups.

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Woman on laptop (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

Choosing the right backup tools

Spring is traditionally a time for cleaning, and this should extend to digital hygiene as well. Each year, I undertake a thorough cleaning of my personal data, making sure to back up documents, family photos and other irreplaceable items. There’s nothing quite like the peace of mind that comes from having a physical backup, which places control firmly in your hands, irrespective of whether you use a Mac, PC or even a Chromebook.

Man on a laptop (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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Back up, unplug, store your portable drive in a secure place

In addition to regular ongoing backups either on the cloud or another drive, I use this WD drive that plugs into your Mac, PC or Chromebook as an extra copy of my important data that can be disconnected and kept in a safe place away from hackers and other threats.

Man typing on laptop (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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What to back up: A digital checklist

When deciding what to back up from your computer, it’s crucial to prioritize documents, files and memories that are important and irreplaceable. Here’s a comprehensive list to consider.

1) Personal documents: Include items like birth certificates, passports, social security cards, marriage certificates, wills and other legal documents that could be difficult or time-consuming to replace.

2) Financial records: This category should cover bank statements, tax returns, investment records and other financial documents that are essential for personal record-keeping and legal compliance.

3) Photos and videos: Family photos, vacation videos, special events like weddings or graduations and other personal memories that cannot be recreated.

4) Work and educational documents: If you use your computer for work or school, ensure you back up important projects, research papers, presentations and related correspondence.

5) Emails: Some emails might contain important information, agreements or attachments that you may need to refer back to. Consider backing up important emails or archiving them.

6) Contacts: A backup of your digital address book can save you a lot of trouble in case you lose access to your devices.

7) Music and media collections: For those who collect music, movies and books digitally, backing up these files ensures you don’t lose your collection.

8) Software and app data: Back up settings and data for apps that you use frequently, especially if they help manage your schedule, finances or health.

9) Website bookmarks: If you rely on bookmarks to navigate the internet efficiently, backing them up can save time if you need to restore or switch to a new device.

10) Game saves and profiles: If you’re a gamer, backing up your game saves and profiles can prevent loss of progress in case of system failure.

11) Creative works: Include writings, artwork, design files, coding projects or any other personal or professional creative work.

The reality of digital threats, whether from ransomware attacks, viruses or even technical glitches in the cloud, is not a matter of “if” but “when.” By maintaining a physical backup of your most crucial data, you ensure that in the event of a digital catastrophe, what matters most remains safe in your hands.

Woman on phone and laptop (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

Kurt’s key takeaways

Remember, safeguarding your digital life with a reliable physical backup isn’t just a precaution, it’s a necessity. This spring, take the time to protect yourself from potential future data disasters. Unplug your backup drive and store it in a safe place. It’s a simple step that could save you a lot of heartaches.

What’s your “data disaster” story and what lessons did you learn about digital backups from it? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.

For more of my tech tips & security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.

Ask Kurt a question or let us know what stories you’d like us to cover.

Answers to the most asked CyberGuy questions:

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

Tesla’s Supercharger layoffs couldn’t have come at a worse time

Published

6 hours ago

May 3, 2024

Press Room

Tesla’s Supercharger layoffs couldn’t have come at a worse time

Bounced emails. Stalled projects. Delayed adapters. These are the immediate effects of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s “absolutely hard core” approach to cost cutting, which has resulted in at least 500 layoffs from the company’s Supercharger business, including the division’s top executive, Rebecca Tinucci.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. Tesla was on the verge of making its vehicle charging plug the de facto standard in North America, and its competitors and stakeholders are counting on a smooth ride. But Musk claims the leaner team will focus less on deploying new Supercharger locations and instead focus on “100 percent uptime.” How that will translate into reality is unclear, with laid-off employees telling InsideEVs that reduced manpower will affect their ability to respond to outages.

Emails to contacts at Tesla’s charging division have been bouncing back

Just a few weeks before, Tesla was touting its Supercharger advances in quarterly documents filed with the SEC. In the document, the company said it planned to increase its charging infrastructure teams in order to expand the network to support EVs from other manufacturers. Tesla had also accepted $17 million in federal EV charging grants before gutting the Supercharger team.

In reality, Tesla is doing the opposite of expanding its network. Sources told Electrek that Tesla canceled four New York-area Supercharger locations, backing out of the leases, giving credence to Musk’s prediction of slower installations. Meanwhile, emails to contacts at Tesla’s charging division have been bouncing back, a contractor who works on the company’s charging station installations told E&E News. As the contractor was heading to a site in Dallas, Tesla’s construction lead called to say the whole team was laid off.

Elsewhere, projects to install Tesla’s slower Level 2 destination chargers at apartment complexes have also been affected. A condo owner named Don Burke posted on X that his building was in the middle of installing four chargers when the project stalled. Burke said his emails to Tesla employees have bounced back, and there’s no indication that there’s anyone left at the company who can help.

Over on Reddit, a commenter posted that their $7,000 project is also in limbo since Tesla needs to fix the software, but no one is responding. Another contractor related how his project building a 43-charger station has been canceled after their contact at Tesla said the entire team was fired.

Tesla also has a big contract with Hilton to install up to 20,000 chargers at hotels, but it’s unknown if the project will be affected. A spokesperson for the hotel chain did not respond to a request for comment.

Tesla’s cuts are also affecting the availability of CCS-to-NACS adapters that are supposed to be sent to owners of Ford, Rivian, and GM electric vehicles this year (and eventually to every major automaker), allowing them to use the company’s Superchargers. Some Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning owners took to Reddit sharing emails sent from Ford that their complimentary fast-charging adapter is delayed “due to supply constraints.” Some have moved from May to June, others as late as September.

Tesla’s Supercharger network is widely accepted as the gold standard on how to build electric vehicle charging infrastructure, one that other EV networks can’t seem to match in size and reliability. According to BloombergNEF, Tesla accounts for 74 percent of all fast chargers in North America.

Part of Tesla’s success is owed to Tinucci, who oversaw Tesla’s portfolio of Supercharger locations, led business-to-business destination charger projects, and spearheaded Tesla’s Magic Dock-capable Supercharger installs so other manufacturers’ EVs can plug in without needing to bring an adapter.

According to a former employee who spoke to The Washington Post, Tinucci met with Musk privately before the layoffs to express her opposition to the magnitude of the layoffs. Now with Tinucci out, along with most of the Supercharger team, Tesla’s big lead is at risk.

Technology

FCC asks for more money to help telecom providers replace Huawei and ZTE gear

Published

13 hours ago

May 3, 2024

Press Room

FCC asks for more money to help telecom providers replace Huawei and ZTE gear

The Federal Communications Commission is asking for more funding to help internet service providers rip and replace equipment made by Huawei and ZTE. In a letter to Congress, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel says the government has only allocated $1.9 billion to reimburse providers, which is $3.08 billion less than the $4.98 billion the FCC estimates it will need.

After designating the China-owned Huawei and ZTE as national security risks in 2020, former President Donald Trump signed a law forcing telecom providers to “rip and replace” the equipment from their networks. However, a lack of funding has slowed the project. In January, the FCC reported that only five program participants had fully removed, replaced, and disposed of the equipment in their networks that was manufactured by Huawei or ZTE.

In the letter, Rosenworcel says almost 40 percent of providers in the program can’t afford to replace their equipment without additional money. She adds that several companies may have to shut down if they don’t receive additional funding to replace equipment, potentially leaving some areas without service.

“Moreover, the inability of any Reimbursement Program recipient to fully remove, replace, and dispose of its covered equipment and services would raise national security concerns by leaving insecure equipment and services in our networks,” Rosenworcel writes. The FCC is required to first distribute funds to providers with less than 2 million customers, and it can only cover 39.5 percent of their costs due to the funding shortfall.

Companies that have started to receive funds have a deadline to finish removing and replacing covered equipment. The deadlines range from May 29th, 2024, to February 4th, 2025, based on when companies first received their funds.

Technology

How to shut down Facebook’s nosy ‘People You May Know’ suggestions

Published

13 hours ago

May 3, 2024

Press Room

How to shut down Facebook’s nosy ‘People You May Know’ suggestions

Are you tired of Facebook’s constant nudges about people they think you may know? Facebook employs algorithms that analyze your engagement patterns, your uploaded contact lists and your existing friends to suggest potential new connections.

These suggestions appear in your “People You May Know” section, which can be found in your News Feed or under the Friends tab.

While Facebook’s goal is to encourage more connections, increasing users’ likelihood of using the platform, this feature might seem annoying if you are not interested in expanding your friend list.

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The “People You May Know” feature on Facebook (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

How to temporarily hide the ‘People You May Know’ feature on Facebook

Unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t offer an option to disable the “People You May Know” feature permanently. However, you can temporarily hide it, which prevents it from appearing in your News Feed for some time. Follow these steps to hide the “People You May Know” feature on Facebook.

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How to disable ‘People You May Know’ notifications on the Facebook app

Open the Facebook app
Tap the three horizontal lines in the bottom right corner
Scroll down to find and tap Settings & Privacy
Tap Settings

Steps to disable “People You May Know” notifications on Facebook (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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Click Notifications
Look for “People You May Know” and toggle off the “Allow Notifications on Facebook” option
Confirm your choice by clicking Turn Off

Steps to disable “People You May Know” notifications on Facebook (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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How to disable ‘People You May Know’ notifications on Facebook on your computer

Now, let’s sort out those notifications on your computer:

Log into your Facebook account
Click on your profile picture in the top right corner

Steps to disable “People You May Know” notifications on Facebook (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

Click on Settings & Privacy

HOW TO REMOVE FACEBOOK ACCESS TO YOUR PHOTOS

Steps to disable “People You May Know” notifications on Facebook (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

Steps to disable “People You May Know” notifications on Facebook (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

Scroll to Notifications and click on it

Steps to disable “People You May Know” notifications on Facebook (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

Find People You May Know and toggle it off

Steps to disable “People You May Know” notifications on Facebook (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

Toggling off “Allow Notifications on Facebook” will turn off all notification forms, including push notifications, emails and text messages.

Steps to disable “People You May Know” notifications on Facebook (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

While Facebook hasn’t provided a specific time frame for how long the feature will remain hidden, it typically stays out of sight for a substantial period before reappearing.

We contacted Facebook about the “People You May Know” feature but did not hear back from the social media company.

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Kurt’s key takeaways

With these simple steps, you can enjoy a Facebook experience without the interruption of unsolicited suggestions. It’s all about personalizing your social media to suit your preferences and comfort.

How do you feel about social media platforms using algorithms to suggest connections? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.

For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.

Ask Kurt a question or let us know what stories you’d like us to cover.

Answers to the most asked CyberGuy questions: