The Current Plus: NSA issues major security tip, shady VPNs caught, free pianos | In partnership with LinkedIn | | A very techy Friday to you! If you're new, welcome. If not, you know what's first: Trivia! Steve Jobs started using the "i" prefix for Apple products with the iMac in 1998. Back then, the "i" stood for "internet." What does it mean now? Make your best guess, and you'll find the answer at the end. That’s not a laugh track. We have such a fun time every Friday on Kim Komando Today. Watch my podcast live here on YouTube at 11:30 a.m. Pacific (2:30 p.m. Eastern), or catch it later on your schedule. Delightful way to end the week, if I do say so myself. Let’s do this! — Kim 📫 First-time reader? Sign up here. (It’s free!) IN THIS ISSUE 🛑 Know how to spot deepfakes 📲 NSA warning about your phone 🫢 Never download a free VPN |
TODAY'S TOP STORY Don’t be fooled Folks, before you even think about writing me a note saying, “You wrote this ‘cause you hate Trump” or “You wrote this ‘cause you love Trump,” don’t waste your time. I’m not talking politics today, and I’m not taking sides. I’m protecting you from falling for deepfakes and the absolute barrage of junk you can expect on social media in the coming days, weeks and months. As you well know, former President Donald Trump was just found guilty on all counts in a hush-money trial. Just like any time there’s a massive news story, hackers and scammers are going to exploit it as much as possible. I’ve got the scoop on how to browse safely, regardless of your politics. Fakes thrive on feeling There’s a reason so many deepfakes go viral. They’re created to stoke your emotions (mad, sad, scared, outraged — you name it) and get you to hit “share.” Almost all the AI-generated junk online is peddled for clicks on social media, not published by major news outlets. These publications still get tripped up, of course, but it’s rare. You need to be extra careful with anything posted by an account you’ve never heard of. What kind of stuff are we talking about? Following the Trump news, I’m expecting it all: Fake fundraisers, deepfake videos, apps that promise the inside scoop, crowdfunding that say all the proceeds or going to this or that political party, malware disguised as games or court proceedings PDFs, and more … a lot more. Really, anything with the name “Trump” on it is ripe for malware and scam targets right now. Stick with news outlets and political sources you already use and trust. How to spot deepfakes Fakes of folks like Trump are particularly tricky to spot because there’s so much public footage of politicians speaking in front of similar backgrounds to copy. But you can still use these guidelines to verify if an image is AI or not: Backgrounds: A vaguely blurred background, smooth surfaces or lines that don’t match up are immediate red flags an image is AI-generated. Watch clothing patterns, too. Context: Use your head. If the scenery doesn’t align with the current climate, season or what’s physically possible, that’s because it’s fake. Proportions: Check for objects that look mushed together or seem too large or small. The same goes for features, especially ears, fingers and feet. Angle: Deepfakes are the most convincing when the subject is facing the camera directly. Once a person starts to turn to the side and move, glitches may appear. Text: AI can’t spell. Look for fake words on signs and labels. Chins: The lower half of the face is the No. 1 giveaway on AI-generated candidate videos. It’s subtle, but check to see if their chin or neck moves unnaturally or in an exaggerated way. Fingers and hands: Look for weird positions, too many fingers, extra-long digits or hands out of place. 🔎 Pro tip: Before you hit “share” on any image or video, try a reverse image search. Open Google and click Images at the top. You can drag and drop or upload a photo from your desktop. Also, if you don’t see the pic in question elsewhere, that’s a bad sign. Legitimate photos are going to end up on a lot of reputable sites quickly. I’m sharing this because I want you to stay safe out there. Now, do the people in your life a favor and share this story to help them out, too. Use the buttons below to make it easy. |
DEALS OF THE DAY Cheers to Dad More Father’s Day gift ideas coming in hot! This time, for the at-home barman: This stainless-steel cocktail muddler ($5.99) may just convince Dad to add mint juleps to his repertoire. A 21-piece cocktail set (15% off, $17) to take his home bar setup up a notch. Stainless-steel whiskey stones (13% off, $13.99) to help him keep his Jack or whatever else from getting watered down. Shot glasses that look like shotgun shells (13% off, $12.99) are pretty funny. For the right kind of dad, they’d be a real hit. A flask that looks like binoculars ($18.89) for when he’s at the game or out with his birding group. |
WEB WATERCOOLER 🚨 Do it right now: The National Security Agency (NSA) has a hot security tip: Power off and restart your phone weekly. Sounds like a “duh,” but it works to combat zero-click exploits and spear phishing. More tips (that I’ve been giving you for years): Keep your OS updated, and disable Bluetooth and location services when you don’t need ‘em. You get what you pay for: Hackers got their hands on 19 million IP addresses by luring people in with “free” downloads like MaskVPN and DewVPN. If you ever downloaded a free VPN, uninstall it ASAP. My pick is ExpressVPN* for a solid, safe option. 🌎 A Swedish joke? There’s Norway I can Finnish it: Scientists developed an AI-enabled bilingual brain implant. One stroke survivor communicates in Spanish and English. It uses neural network technology, essentially a decoding system that transforms brain activity into sentences in both languages. Amazing. This is so fly: Amazon Prime Air's delivery drones have received Beyond Visual Line of Sight clearance to go nationwide in 2025. Pilots can operate them remotely, and drones can legally travel farther. Hopefully, this doesn’t turn into people skeet-shooting for “prizes.” 🛠️ This is not a drill: After thieves stole his construction tools, a Virginia man turned the tables, installing a GPS system on his stuff. The next time crooks struck, they led him right to a storage unit. The police found over 15,000 stolen items in the unit, totaling over $3 million — and from other victims, too! What a hero. Play to pay: At 22, Kyasia Watson is raking in over $100,000 a year from Roblox. Nope, she’s not streaming; she's a digital fashion designer who collabs with big brands to craft in-game items, clothes and accessories for player avatars. Roblox has 77 million daily active users, btw. Cha‑ching! Treble maker: The scam starts with an email about a family death and a free piano. Wait, a piano? Yep. If you reply, they hook you up with a fake shipping company that needs your name, address and phone number. Then — oh! — you need to pay for shipping. That’s when the scammer disappears. Don’t fall for it. 🚀 Still using QuickBooks? Thousands are switching to NetSuite’s all-in-one solution. You get real-time insights so you can make decisions based on data, not your gut. Take a free product tour right now!* |
LISTEN UP | | Ticketmaster hack exposes data of 560M customers Got concert tickets? Your personal info might be on the market. Plus, why Gen Z is ditching driving, the latest malicious apps on Google Play and how an international burglary ring is using Wi‑Fi jammers. Play Now • 46:57 ▶ |
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TECH LIFE UPGRADES I’ve always wanted to learn Spanish: Be your best self and finally learn the language on your list. In just a few weeks, Babbel will get you further than those freebie language apps ever did. Use my link to save up to 67%. You’ll be glad you did! Oopsie: Typo in yesterday’s newsletter! The keyboard shortcut to paste is Ctrl + V on Windows or Cmd + V on a Mac. (Ctrl + P is to print.) A little bonus: Hit Shift along with the other two keys to strip the formatting from whatever you paste. I love free: ChatGPT just made free a bunch of features that were once exclusive to paid plans. You now get real-time web responses, data analytics, chart creation, file upload and the ability to remember you, plus access to custom versions of GPT. The catch? Only 10 requests a day. Learn something new: Take over 1,700 online courses from Harvard, Yale, Stanford and other Ivy League schools on Coursera, whether for work, a hobby, your personal life or just bragging rights. “Last night, I was studying artificial intelligence in government at Harvard.” It’s not just your computer: You need to close all the tabs in your phone’s browser, too. On iPhone, open Safari, and tap and hold the icon that looks like two overlapping squares. From the pop-up, choose Close All Tabs. Done! On Android, say, “Hey, Google, close all tabs.” Please go away: When you see an ad you don’t want to see again on Facebook, look in the top right corner of the ad itself. Find the three-dot icon and tap Hide Ad. If only it was that easy to get rid of annoying people. |
BY THE NUMBERS 60% decrease In high-paying remote jobs in the past year. Wanna make the big bucks? You’ll probably have to do it in person; only 4% of jobs paying over $250,000 annually are fully remote. And in a survey of 1,000 companies, 90% said they expect a full five-day week back in office by the end of 2024. 600,000 routers Destroyed in 72 hours by a mysterious hacker. Last October, thousands of Windstream internet customers reported their routers had suddenly gone dark. A new security report reveals it was a targeted attack using a single piece of malware anyone can find online. The who and why are both still a mystery. 11 years later Gamers are still using their PS4s. The PS5 has been out for four years, but nearly 50 million people are still hanging on to their old consoles. Hey, if it ain’t broke, why shell out $400? |
WHAT THE TECH? I like big rocks and I cannot lie.
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UNTIL NEXT TIME ... The answer: OK, kind of a trick question. Apple nerds say Steve Jobs also said that the "i" stands for "individual,” “instruct,” “inform” and “inspire." At today's prices of anything Apple, it's short for "investment." ✍️ Follow me on social: I’m on Instagram, X, YouTube, Facebook and everywhere else! Drop a comment — I read them all! Thanks for reading, friend. Hit a rating below so I know how I’m doing! Tomorrow, I’m sharing tricks to make your streaming music audio better. Until then, remember: Every day provides us with at least one gift. You’re mine. 🤗 — Kim |
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