PALM BEACH, FL - Right at the start of the year's busiest shopping season, retailer Macy's notified impacted customers (by letter) that an unauthorized third party was able to access sensitive customer payment information from the Macys.com checkout and wallet pages. The following information may have been accessed if it was typed into the affected web-pages by a customer: Payment card numbersPayment card security codesPayment card expiration datesFull … [Read more...]
Will Sale of Dead News Site “Examiner.com” Attract Authentic Bidders at GoDaddy?
PALM BEACH, FL – A domain name, that by itself, could potentially fool even one of the most complex computer algorithms such as Google's rankings technology, into trusting that a site is a “big brand”. There is probably not a lot of them out there that could easily be scooped up, however, that’s pretty much what’s for sale at GoDaddy auctions this week, with the bidding for the domain name previously used by the defunct news site “Examiner.com” reaching $69,666.00 - so … [Read more...]
U.S. GDPR: The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Goes Into Effect January 2020
PALM BEACH, FL - The US's answer to European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), enacted in 2018, will create new consumer rights relating to the access to, deletion of, and sharing of personal information that is collected by businesses. It also requires California's Attorney General to solicit broad public participation and adopt regulations to further the CCPA's purposes. The proposed regulations will establish … [Read more...]
FTC Warns Consumers of Fake Equifax Data Breach Websites for Settlement Claims
PALM BEACH, FL – The Federal Trade Commission is warning Internet users, all 147 million people who were affected by the Equifax Data Breach in 2017, to beware of fake Equifax settlement websites which have been setup by thieves trying to steal consumers information when they attempt to file a claim online. Typically, users are sent an email that a class action lawsuit has resulted in a settlement making them eligible for credit monitoring services and/or a cash claim … [Read more...]
German Police Raid Hosting Facility Dubbed “CyberBunker”; Seize Domains, 200 Servers
BERLIN – Thirteen people were arresting during a raid in Germany on September 27, 2019. According to Brian Krebs, a security journalist and investigative reporter for Krebs on Security, the raid targeted the physical premises of a Dark Web hosting operation that described itself as a “bulletproof” hosting provider that was willing to provide web site hosting services to any business, no matter how illegal or unsavory. This past Friday, 600 military equipped officers … [Read more...]
Half of All U.S. Households Likely Victims of New Data Leak; 80 Million Records Exposed
PALM BEACH – A new data leak will likely make victims out of what has been estimated at approximately half of all adults in the United States; 80 million records of those over age 40. This new leak is the cause of an undisclosed company which hosts its database with Microsoft services and the information was freely available on the Internet for those who knew the location of the data, until this week according to Forbes.com's Kate O'Flaherty who contributes as a … [Read more...]
What’s Next? Could Eminent Domain Be Used to Steal Your GEO Domain Name?
NEW YORK, NY – This will be a controversial subject for many if not all domain name owners, however, in light of the France.com domain seizure, every Geographic domain name ‘taking’ could be imminent. Sound insane? Read on. While researching how in the world this atrocity could have happened to the owner of France.com, (Jean-Noel Frydman), as a GEO domain name owner, I wanted to research the possibility of this happening to others, myself included. Since I’m in the … [Read more...]
Shortcut to GDPR Preparation for Sites and Services That Do Not Target EU Users
NEW YORK - As you are probably well aware due to the number of emails you are receiving, by next Friday, May 25th, 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) will go into full effect. You should be preparing to update your Privacy Policy even if your site does not target EU users. I wanted to share what I have learned so far as I prepare to update some of my United States websites. I urge you to seek out your own advice and council on what to do to bring your … [Read more...]
The Politics of Facebook: Zuckerberg to Testify Before Congressional Lawmakers
NEW YORK – You have to admit that it an amazing time in history when a computer programming entrepreneur must face the United States Government due to his innovative social network becoming one of the most powerful influencer tools in the World. Beginning tomorrow, Tuesday April 10, 2018, Facebook Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Marc Zuckerberg will testify before lawmakers in what is expected to be a two-day heavy-hitter grilling on the very serious privacy and … [Read more...]
GDPR: The Entering of a New Era; User Data Privacy and Protection; Are You Ready?
NEW YORK, NY – The clock is counting down on a new set of rules to be enforced this May, which will affect not only UK based businesses, but all businesses operating in the digital realm, in the event they handle user data from UK based residents, to near any extent. There is a lot of preparation going on right now, and has been over the last year, in anticipation of these new rules. Some businesses may even disappear altogether. I for one, actually shut-down and sold-off … [Read more...]
Wouldn’t You Gladly Give-up a Little Bit of Privacy for So Much Better Security?
NEW YORK, NY – Imagine a World in which you allowed, or even specifically created your own little environment where all of your private communications and discussions could be monitored and recorded; all day, every day, till the end of time. Sounds like something you would never do? Welcome to Google Assistant; ready to help you wherever you are. Your one Assistant extends to help you across devices, like Google Home, your phone, and more. Who owns Google these days … [Read more...]
Round Two: .COM Domain Values List, “Domainer Domains”, Not Much Change
NEW YORK, NY - Yesterday, we looked at how some commercial interest .com domain names have changed in value over the last decade. There really was not too much to see with about half of the domain names going up in value (46%) and half going down (51%). I guess it is fair to say that more declined than went up, but it was pretty close to even. Today I wanted to look at domains with less commercial value, so we will looked at pure domainer domains. This list examines 35 … [Read more...]
Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”) for “CEOs” – ln Layman’s Terms
NEW YORK, NY - About twelve years ago when “search engine optimization” was beginning to get popular, a competing news publisher invited me to lunch at his restaurant to brainstorm about collaborating. It never materialized, but while there and after getting to know each other for a little while, he then turned to me, changed his posture in his chair a bit, sort of gathered his thoughts, and asked me straight out, “sell me on search engine optimization”, “what is it” and “how … [Read more...]
210 Online Tools to Run Your Domain, Development and Online Business
NEW YORK, NY – There are a lot of tools out there which make running your online business more efficient, reliable, secure and productive. Listed below are some of the services I use or have used in the past. They are all great services and are the ones I use currently, or have used in the past (My collection of goodies). This list was updated on 8/3/2024. If I have used an online tool and it makes my work easier, it's here. Domain Names (32) Publishing Resources … [Read more...]
Uptrend: Revisiting the Competing Sites for the “Most Valuable Domain Name”
LONG ISLAND, NY - At the end of last year, based on what was happening in the online automotive industry, I took a good look at some of the major automotive websites as there was a steep industry decline in web traffic for the 4th Quarter. This is an update to where these sites are now and what's changed. The 3rd domain name on the list happens to be Cars.com, which was recently valued at a staggering $872 Million Dollars. If you are interested in a breakdown on just how … [Read more...]