by Larry Magid

Most adults I know use their cell phones primarily to make calls. But ask any teenager and you’ll soon find out that that’s only one of many things they’re doing with today’s cell phones.

One thing they’re doing is texting. That’s where they’re using their thumbs to type out messages to their friends. The technology, known as “SMS” or “short message service, has been around for years and it’s long been popular among both adults and teens in Europe and Asia.

Text messaging started catching on with teens in the U.S. a couple of years ago and today it’s pretty common to see kids thumbing their way through multiple messages wherever they are. Texting is also starting to catch on with American adults, though mostly young adults. It seems that the majority of mature Americans don’t feel like learning yet another way to type.

Still, if you have kids, texting may be the best way to stay in touch. The method of sending text varies by type of phone but typically you’ll find a messaging icon on the phone’s main menu, and sometimes you can send a message from the phone’s contact list. (more…)

by Larry Magid

Although it’s always a good idea to take security companies’ dire warnings with a bit of skepticism, it’s clear to me we must take PC and Internet security seriously. It’s not a time to “be afraid, very afraid,” but it does make sense for anyone using PCs to take reasonable precautions to protect their data, their privacy, their security and their PCs. And by “PC,” I mean all types of PCs, including Macs and Unix systems. Macs may be less of a target than PCs, but they’re not exempt, especially to “social engineering” scams that take more advantage of human error and misjudgment than technological vulnerability.

It’s also important to realize the game has changed. In the 1980s, when I started covering “viruses,” the culprits were mostly hackers out to do damage for their own amusement or bragging rights among fellow hackers. Today, the motivation is financial. When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton was famously quoted as saying, “Because that’s where the money is.” Today, the money, or at least a good chunk of it, is accessible via the Internet.

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