Tag: wearable tech

The Importance of Having a VPN at Home

On April 19, 2021

In Blockchain, Chika Wonah, Digital, Internet of Things, Technology, Uncategorized

Anyone who’s been on the internet has heard of VPN services in the past couple of years. However, the average internet user might not truly understand the need to have a VPN. You should consider these reasons why you should start using a VPN service on your internet-connected devices.

Restricted Content

Whether you’re using Netflix or Hulu, you can access a catalog of content that can specific to your country. This means that you could be blocked access from the movie or TV show that you want to watch while another user in a different country gets access to that content. Fortunately, a VPN service can help out with this issue.

To solve this, a user needs to subscribe to a VPN service that offers a server in the country that their streaming content is available. From there, users can watch any restricted content as long as they are using it through their VPN service.

Public Networks

If you need to use the internet while traveling, you might be thinking of using a public network somewhere like an airport or a coffee shop. This might seem simple enough, but you can run into intruders that are on the same network. Having intruders on the same public network as you means that you could have your details and files leaked to them as you browse the internet. Fortunately, a VPN can prevent you from these attacks.

To protect yourself, make sure that you’ve subscribed to a VPN service before accessing your public network. You should then be able to connect to your VPN at any time to create a secured connection on both ends. With a secure connection, intruders won’t get any private details from you since packets coming from your computer and VPN network are encrypted.

Blocked Websites

Getting past restricted streaming content can be great, but you might be wondering more about websites that are blocked in your country. In countries like China, users can go through social media websites like Twitter and YouTube without getting a blocked message. Fortunately, having a VPN lets you bypass this.

You can bypass website restrictions on a VPN because the packets are encrypted in a way that isn’t if you are using a typical network. However, users should find out if any laws make this a criminal offense anywhere they may be living or traveling.

The Risks of Login Codes Sent via Text Message

By Chika Wonah

On April 19, 2021

In Blockchain, Chika Wonah, Digital, Internet of Things, Technology, Uncategorized

Two-factor authentication can seem very useful for securing your essential accounts from intruders. However, more and more hackers have been getting into accounts that use text messages for two-factor authentication. Look into these reasons why you should switch over the type of two-factor authentication you operate away from text messaging.

Routing Messages

When you’re holding your phone close to you, you might be thinking that an intruder will have to get into your phone by getting you to install malware. For the past couple of years, though, intruders have been more clever into how they get into mobile phones. They can do this by going directly to your mobile phone carrier.

The way they do this is by first finding some personal details about you. These can be as complicated as your social security number or as simple as the address you live on. From there, they call up your phone carrier.

Depending on the phone carrier, they can be easily convinced that you’re locked out of your mobile device, and you need your number transferred to a separate phone. Intruders can accomplish this by giving up their details and paying a small fee. If it goes successfully, an intruder will have full access to any phone calls or text messages coming your way, with no way to stop them until you’re able to call your phone carrier again. This all is why you shouldn’t ever use text messaging for your two-factor authentication.

Notifications

Sometimes, an intruder might not even be far away to the point where they can be looking at your phone screen in public. Depending on your mobile device settings, you might have notifications popping up with security codes on any screen of your device. Intruders can come up with a plan to get a security code this way.

For example, you might be live-streaming a game on your phone to the internet. Intruders will use this to their advantage by logging into your account online and checking your stream for when the phone notification appears. After that, they can log in to your account and do enough damage before you even have the chance to change the passwords on your accounts. Notifications are just another reason why you shouldn’t be using text messaging linked to your two-factor authentication.

Understanding if Your Device Has Been Hacked

By Chika Wonah

On February 15, 2021

In Blockchain, Chika Wonah, Digital, Internet of Things, Technology, Uncategorized

From social sites to banking, smart devices are increasingly becoming part of most people’s daily lives. Unfortunately, they are also exposing them to data snatchers, popularly known as hackers. The hackers may gain access to a device in many ways, but we will discuss how to know when that happens.

Receiving Random Pop-ups

Random pop-ups are not annoying, but they are among the most popular signs that a device got hacked. If one is getting random pop-ups from their browser, something has compromised their device with adware. Adware is popular with hackers when trying to force someone to view certain websites to drive revenues through viewership.

Draining Battery without Any Reason

If one notices that a device battery is quickly losing power for no reason, that is a sign that it has malware. This sudden loss of battery power is due to malware or spy-app that is operating from the background. The spy-app uses a lot of battery power to scan the device and transmit it to the hacker.

Poor Performance

One may notice that their device is suddenly crashing all the time or loading web pages much slower. When such happens, first try shutting down the machine, and take notice of what happens. If the device has gotten hacked, it may fail to shut down correctly or not shut down at all.

One can also notice slowed functionality of some operations, such as making calls or receiving text messages. Such things shouldn’t take long unless the device has a spy-app.

Increased Data Usage

Another indication of a compromised device is the exceptionally high data usage. The usage may be a result of a background running app communicating to a third-party.

Contact List Gets Call and Tests That the Owner Didn’t Make

When a device gets hacked, the hacker leaves the malware in the gadget and may use the contact list to spread it. One’s email list, text messages, or instant messages may transmit the malware to his contact through messages with links or attached files. Check out for complaints from the contact list about notifications that they supposedly received.

The Device’s Settings Change

If the hacker physically accesses a device, they may manually change its settings. For instance, one may notice that their device Bluetooth is on, despite them not switching it on. Such settings change maybe a sign of malware interfering with the device settings to spread it to other devices.

There are many ways to know when a device has gotten hacked. To prevent losing data or money, always take preventive measures. For example, one can run a malware scanner on their device.

Smartwatches and Fitness Trackers Made Us Neither Smarter nor Fitter

By Chika Wonah

On March 10, 2017

In Internet of Things

Once phones got “smart” and were added to the Internet of Things network, the natural progression was to the watch. We wear watches all the time to track the time and day, so adding features like text messaging, heart rate tracking, calorie counting, and steps taken were a wise next step. Smartwatches and fitness trackers were going to be perfect for the information age and for giving average citizens ownership of their data. In a TED talk in 2014, statistician Talithia Williams advocated for keeping track of your body’s data, arguing that “knowing your body” will give you more evidence for backing up the feeling that something’s not right.

Between the Internet of Things’ bunny-like reproduction and the frenzy to produce, harvest, track, and analyze personal data, smartwatches and fitness trackers should have been widely accepted and effective at helping people become more fit, right?

As it turns out, though, fitness trackers have done little if anything to improve the health of those who wear them. A recent study in The Lancet demonstrated that people who wore fitness trackers did exercise a little bit more, but not nearly enough to produce any real counterattack against chronic diseases. Another study went even further and published findings indicating that fitness tracker wearers became less healthy than those who logged their health data on a computer manually.

The 10,000 steps aspect of most fitness trackers has drawn particular scrutiny lately. You may have experienced a coworker pacing around the office to get her “steps in” to reach her 10,000 step goal. However, as Steve Blakeman noted in a linkedin pulse article, the decision to make 10,000 steps the goal was all but arbitrary, plucked from a study done in Japan in the 1960s on how many calories the average man burns while walking.

Roman Mars pointed out the issue with averages in an episode of his well-loved podcast 99% Invisible. While we tailor many of our studies and much of our production to the “average,” very few people actually are average — many are close, but the number of people who fit the bill of an “average citizen” is negligible. This came to light specifically when the US was building fighter jets for soldiers based on the average measurements of various body parts, but the army found that not a single soldier exhibited all the measurements of the average soldier. Specifically regarding the 10,000 steps, it’s a fine number, but not all steps are created equal, and not all steppers will benefit from 10,000 steps the same way.

Additionally, smart watches have utterly failed to take off, despite the wild promises made about how the wrist-worn technology was going to fundamentally transform the way we live and function. It appears, however, that most consumers find smartwatches redundant, since for all intents and purposes, a smartwatch is a smartphone that sits on your wrist. And since most consumers already had a smartphone, it was difficult to justify the cost of a smartwatch. As Extreme Tech noted towards the end of 2016, “The vast majority of smartwatches have retailed for more than $200 and as much as $700 or $800 for the fancier models. This is smartphone money, so for that people quite reasonably expect a device to make a similar impact on their lives. Smartwatches don’t do that.”

Part of the problems? Smartwatch and fitness tracker manufacturers were way behind the eight ball when it came to appearance and wearability. Wired magazine ran an article drawing attention to the phenomenon that the section of the wearable technology market dedicated to tween and teenage girls had performed remarkably better in terms of sheer visible pleasure. Fashion and function have to work in tandem in teen girls’ wearable technology, but in adult design, these two aspects are considered separately, leading to well-working ugly jewelry, or attractive but useless pieces.
Wearable tech has a long way to go before the Internet of Things is ready to deem it a good addition. Until then, smartwatches and fitness trackers will struggle for a place on the modern consumer’s wrist.