My email normally filters out spam but sometimes those scam emails get through. When the scam emails appear to come from vendors that I use, it can be hard to recognize. I recently received an email and here's how I figured it was a scam:
Although the sender looked like CVSPharmacyNEWS, the email address was from onliinecvseses@althmedication.info
A lot of cybersecurity expert would also inform of spelling errors and there were a few that I picked up on immediately: "onliine" for "online" and "recieve" for "receive"
Finally, I hovered over the button "Check it out now" and the address that appeared also was not from cvs.
What strange emails have landed in your inbox and how did you determine it was a scam?
Since I have been Security+ exam, I have been reading up on the latest cybersecurity threats. Lately, one came to me in the mail!
I received a letter regarding a data breach and that my information may have been comprised.
However, several things concerned me:
The insurance company: I have never done business with Infinity Insurance Company nor (knock on wood) been in any incident with any of their drivers.
The stamped envelope and return address had different locations.
from the first page of the letter
from the envelope
also some other people who stated that this a scam noted the lack of company letterhead on the letter.
Phone number provide 877-316-0057 does not yield a company name when conducting reverse phone number search on https://www.whitepages.com/reverse-phone
Site provided, https://www.experianidworks.com/plus or www.ExperianIDWorks.com/restoration , is not an Experian site. Here is an example of what the other pages on the real Experian site looks like: https://www.experian.com/contact/personal-services-contacts.html#content-04 or https://www.experian.com/consumer-products/identity-theft-and-credit-protection.html which all start with https://www/experian.com not a wholly different domain name.
Also, the letter received has very few typographical errors as the scammer probably copied the actual letter located at https://oag.ca.gov/ecrime/databreach/reports/sb24-539174
If you get a letter like this, please let Experian know:
I have often heard that language is changing. I found it to be true when studying for the CompTIA Security + examination. Every industry has its own terminology or jargon. In 2017, I had taken CompTIA Security+ SY0-501 exam and in the process, learned IT security jargon. Or so I thought!
Currently, I am preparing for the CompTIA Security+ SY0-601 and decided to freshen up with some LinkedIn Learning courses, CompTIA CertMaster Practice and practice tests. It was refreshing to know that I had retained some information but frightening to feel stumped. What do I mean? When the answer selection includes pineapple, pixie dust and POODLE. It made me laugh and thought those were obvious wrong answers.
Well, I was wrong! Those were also right answers as a POODLE is a downgrade attack, pixie dust is a type of attack on WPS protocol for WIFI and a pineapple is another type of attack on WIFI.
I am only halfway through my review but those stuck out to remind me that there is more to come.
However, to develop a website with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP, it would be difficult to test the website using online PHP. Therefore, I downloaded the Eclipse IDE for PHP and Apache Tomcat. (I was familiar with Eclipse IDE for Java which is why I chose the Eclipse IDE).
I have been adding videos to my YouTube channel at Cloudy Sky Today
Sometimes, I use OBS Studio with a green screen in the background to display the images and my webcam. Other times, I have used PowerPoint’s screen capture feature with Photos and microphone to make a video. Then there are other times, I use my phone or my old camera to capture video.
my screen and my green screen
Generally, I use Wondershare Filmora to crop and export to mp4 format. But at times, I use Wondershare Filmora to combine different videos from the different sources even throwing in some images that I create in Photoshop.
Then I noticed that Wondershare Filmora had a text on screen option so I decided to give it a try:
There are other rows to experiment with but that will be another week!
As mentioned in Before the Video Editing, I already had some of the equipment and software for editing. A friend gave some constructive criticism to enlarge the pictures and my brother suggested adding music. I didn't want to get copyright claimed on YouTube for using anybody's music so I tabled for another day. Then I did more research on how to crop video and found https://filmora.wondershare.com/video-editing-tips/how-to-crop-video-files.html
and applied the techniques to Florida Lighthouses RoadTrip - Day 2:
Let me know if the cropping worked. What other techniques should I try in video editing?
It was November 2020 and I noticed that personal hygiene was slipping. My appearance was slipping due to the lack of going out: I wasn't hosting poetry; I wasn't attending art events etc. However, when I know I have a video meeting and have to show my face, my personal hygiene improved.
Before deciding to learn video-editing, I had bought Filmora WonderShare to convert video types and noticed that it could do other functions. I already had a YouTube channel (cloudyskytoday) where I would post privately and share the poetry reading with the participants. Then I participated in a conference where people were demonstrating video editing using another product and there were similarities. Additionally, I had used OBS Studio for streaming. Plus I already had a webcam. Wait, I already had a screen.
After taking stock of what I already have, I did some research on using green screen in OBS Studio and found a video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DzS9OxUqu-A
Then I bought a green cloth (https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07HSYD4HK?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details), ironed it and pinned the screen. It doesn't stay wrinkle-free!
I made a recording in OBS Studio but the slide show would restart after the 6th image so I did the introduction with OBS Studio then I used PowerPoint to record the screen (learned by watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCi7z-bJJXw) while I describe the pictures. Then I used Filmora WonderShare to put the two together.
Florida Lighthouses RoadTrip - Day 1
So far, I have received some feedback and will try editing the pictures larger in the next video.
