Data held hostage by LockBit ransomware

June 8, 2024

🚨 Data held hostage by LockBit ransomware? Don’t negotiate with terrorists. The FBI is giving out 7,000 free decryption keys you can use to unlock your data without paying a ransom. If you’re affected, you’ll probably know it (i.e., you won’t be able to access files on your computer). Go to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center to snag your free key.

Tags: computer, data, files, internet, Internet Crime Complaint Center, ransomware

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Use the NewsBreak app? Delete it. Here’s why

My husband, Barry, is a total news junkie. He has all the major news apps on his phone. That’s why this story stopped me in my tracks. NewsBreak, the most downloaded news app in the U.S., with more than 50 million readers per month, has strong ties to Communist China.

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Kitboga: Behind the scenes of his scambaiter chronicles

Kitboga joined The Kim Komando Show to talk all things “scambaiter.” He shared lots, including the longest time he has spent with a scammer. Find out on the full podcast here.

$400 AI toothbrush

Oral-B’s iO Series 10 is the latest in the “AI-fication” of everything. Its sensors claim to “personalize” your brushing experience. Don’t bother. They stopped supporting their over-$200 Alexa-enabled toothbrush less than four years after launch.

Before you buy a house, watch this

Pat Lawlor and his wife were first-time homebuyers, eager and ready to start the process. Things took a turn for the worse when Pat received an email from his “escrow officer” and sent over their down payment. Catch the full interview here. Buyer beware!

9 years earlier

How soon a new test can predict dementia. The test scans brain connections while you’re at rest to predict dementia up to nine years before diagnosis with 80% accuracy. This could be huge, both for early treatment and prevention.

$100,000 in cash

At the bottom of a lake. A couple of magnet fishers in New York City hooked a metal safe with a small fortune inside. What’s magnet fishing? Finding sunken metal treasure with high-powered magnets instead of hooks, aka your new hobby.

$2 trillion in sales

For the iPhone since 2007. Holy moly, that’s a lot of money. The biggest year was 2022, with $205.4 billion. That’s when the SE, 14, 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max came out. Cha-ching!

What is the Dark Web?

It’s not just hackers and scammers … though, yeah, they are there. Let’s take a closer look.

70% increase in cancer

In young people, and Red Bull might be to blame. Researchers believe taurine (one of the main ingredients in energy drinks) is used as a primary energy source for cancer cells. More research is coming, but this is scary. Talk to your people.

1 in 7 searches

Now show Google’s AI Overview results. They backed way, way off after all the drama around bad, dangerous or just plain dumb answers. Still, I’d take what you read there with a grain of salt.