AS HEARD ON: WGAN Mornings with Ken and Matt: Cyber Insurance, Opting Out of Facial Recognition, Dangers and Warnings on SmartTVs and more

Good morning everybody!

I was on with Ken and Matt. We talked about the reasons that you should consider cyber insurance and the limitations of these policies.  We also discussed the drawbacks you must consider when using biometrics and especially facial recognition.  Then we discussed the new FBI warning on Smart TVs.

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These and more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com

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Related Articles:

The Convenience of Facial Recognition is not All Its Cracked up to be

Protecting Company Assets and Cybersecurity Insurance

Smart TVs, Security, and the FBI

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Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Matt Gagnon
And now we have Craig Peterson. Craig, are you here?

Craig Peterson
Hey, good morning! I am here

Ken Altschuler
Thank you for joining us. And by the way, I should mention that you will also be heard on WGAN on Saturday at one o'clock.

Matt Gagnon
Nicely done, Sir.

Ken Altschuler
Thank you. 18 years. I don't know if you know that. Hey Craig, I did not realize there was such a thing as cyber insurance. Can you tell us about that? Is it something we should be buying?

Craig Peterson
Yeah, this is a big deal with some businesses may be aware of homeowners, etc. Or you might want to listen here for a minute because first of all, many homeowner policies have already got his cyber insurance clause in them. And so if you have homeowners policies, double-check on that if you know for your personal computers, see if you have it, maybe it's a writer you might want to add to it, but a lot of them do. But the cyber attacks increasing now. Businesses have to pay a lot more to this whole cybersecurity risk, we have quite a few companies now that have cyber insurance, but it's not even half of them so far. So this is a very, very big deal. Make sure you have it, but also remember that not all cyber insurance claims are paid. If you are not taking reasonable efforts, which have, you know, have you defined those to try and keep the bad guys out, they may not pay. Even the big guys like Merck, the drugmaker, and the American food processor, Mondelez. They are both suing their insurance providers because the insurance providers did not pay for damages from a big virus called not pet shop back two years ago. So this is a big deal. It could save you could help your business. And just a word of warning. Those businesses that do get cyber attacked about 20% percent of them filed for bankruptcy the very next day. So be very, very careful if everybody can I do think cyber insurance is a good thing for every business and including in particularly regulated companies, like your law practice and, and many of the other companies here in Maine.

Matt Gagnon
We're talking to Craig Peterson. He is our tech guru, and he joins us now to talk about what's happening in the world of technology. Greg, you're spooked, you're freaked out by facial recognition you want out? You don't want to be facially recognized. What can I do to do the same thing, and why are you so hesitant about it?

Craig Peterson
Well, you know, we talked before a little bit about what Homeland Security is doing with facial recognition and how they have some of these cameras right now with gates at airports, they've been arresting people who approach the gate at the airport. Their face does not match the on the identification that they presented. So we expect more and more that as time goes on, but I get concerned about it because of it right now guys if you get notified that for instance, that a hack happened to a site that you use, you can go and change your password. Right? You probably have done that already.

Matt Gagnon
Yes.

Craig Peterson
Yeah. So changing your password is an easy thing. Think about this. Some buildings and businesses and require IDs to gain entrance to get in to get through the doors?

Ken Altschuler
Not so much anymore. But I did use to have to do that quite a bit when I worked on Capitol Hill.

Craig Peterson
Exactly. You get into the bigger cities down into Boston or New York, and you're going to see that all the time. And so businesses, many of them were trying to have some physical security. And so they'll give you these cards, or there might be swipe cards, etc. And you come up to the little gate, you use the passcard, the gate opens, and you go, well, it's part of the problem. They are offering facial recognition. Even for those types of admittances. So all you do is you walk right through the gates, the computer recognizes you based on your face. And here all set. What happens when they steal your face data? Remember, the movie Face-Off, and you might remember seeing this

Matt Gagnon
Face Off. It's one of my favorite movies of all time.

Craig Peterson
So, you know, it's an excellent movie. So both of those guys may be able to do a little face trick, but we can't. What do we do when they steal our face data? And real between us? Frankly, that's one of the big problems I have with the REAL guys are talking about that a little earlier here on the news. But Cal main has this Real ID-compliant identification. Well, it's one thing for the federal government to have all of our faith and maybe some other biometrics for passport, and hopefully, they'll take care of the data. We've got 50 states of are we sure the state of Maine isn't going to lose that information. And I get concerned about this. So I opt out of it every time I potentially can. And if the business that I work at it says hey listen, guys, you have this optional facial recognition. Instead of that card. I would go for the card every time.

Ken Altschuler
We are talking to Craig Peters son joins us every Wednesday at 730 and also, by the way, WGAN on one at one o'clock on Saturday, I have a couple of dogs that we live in the house. And you know, sometimes I worry that maybe they're going to rip up a pillow or use the facility inside instead of out so way that I can serve them.

Craig Peterson
Some people might pass but there there are a lot of really cool things. There are pet shaders and waters that have cameras built-in And this is part of the Internet of Things. So make sure you segment your network, okay? Just get a little techie here on people, because you don't want those remote cameras to be able to be used as a launching point to attack the rest of your networks. But there's a cool new one out right now that I wanted to mention. And it's called Ebo, and you can find it on Kickstarter right now, Ebo.com. It is a little robot that live-streams HD video of it. It is really for cats. It's a little ball basically with a couple of wheels on the bottom, and it comes out and plays with your pet. It has a laser in it, and it shoots a laser around for the pet to kind of chase it runs around and back and forth and plays your dog, or your cat has to chase it around. You can even with a collar that Ebo has, also track your pet steps. It has a series of light and sounds, and you talk to your pet.

Matt Gagnon
I think this might be over the top, but if you love your pets, wouldn't you buy them something like this? Yes. Yes, yes.

Craig Peterson
Good. Yeah. I was going to say, and I'll tell you I have a great dane and just one chomp, and it's gone.

Matt Gagnon
Indeed. Alright. Well, ladies and gentlemen. We're talking to Craig Peterson, our tech guru, and he joins us right now to talk about technology updates. Craig, one quick question for you before we let you go. I should be terrified of my smart TV, true or false.

Craig Peterson
You know, we certainly have been concerned about all kinds of Internet of Things devices. Remember that our TV use that you bought here recently has built into a computer. And the FBI now is warning us about smart TVs and how it opens up security vulnerabilities. So here's what I been doing. I got a smartTV. One of my daughters gave it to me for Canadian Christmas, which I've told my children is like three weeks before the real Christmas, you see. So they've already given me the TV, and I've got it up on the wall, and it's a smart TV. I hooked it up to the internet long enough for it to go and get updates. Then I went to the software update screen, and then I had it forget the web so it could not connect anymore. I use an external box for all of my Roku type of You know, an Apple TV box. For all of my streaming services, like Netflix or Hulu or whatever. I found it at Walmart for 180 bucks the other day, Apple TV. I know I've said this many times about Apple, they are the only one trying to do security-first. Do not use a smartTV. Some TVs, many of them now and I think most of them have cameras in them. And many of them are watching you watching TV. They have third party programs and apps that contain vulnerabilities, which makes them hackable, many of these remotely, and if you're not keeping the software up to date, you've got problems. But the more significant issue is that even if you try to keep the software update, the vendors are not updating these TVs. So the FBI has been warning us the types of smart TVs are They're dangerous little hacks right now or rare, but that doesn't mean that can continue to be. So do not connect the TV to the internet. The internet is my advice, but use an external box for all services.

Matt Gagnon
Tech guru joins us every Wednesday 738, and every Saturday, one o'clock doesn't join us but joins WGAN. Thank you, Sir. We'll talk to you next Wednesday.

Unknown Speaker 10:25
Take care, guys. Bye-bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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