Saturday, January 18, 2014

Today (A.A. Milne's 132nd birthday)




Today I have a dilemma: I don't know what to do about this blog.  I've never harbored any illusions about its being anything but a mildly entertaining diversion for me and anyone that visits the website, sort of like reading the Sunday funnies. For the last couple of months though, I've become more and more concerned about the privacy factor and security.

This paranoia stems from several things, primarily our credit card numbers being stolen and our email being hacked.  I'd shopped at Target a few times after Thanksgiving, using my credit cards, and a few weeks later, strange charges started appearing on my statements, like Skype charges from Tajikistan.  (Interestingly, someone just today forwarded me a New York Times article indicating that some of this criminal activity is coming from Eastern Europe.)

We'd gotten our credit cards reissued and passwords changed, but then yesterday our email was hacked and emails claiming to be from Jimmy went out to a lot of people.  I hope no one else's computer has been infected by this virus. I also hope that no one wired a substantial amount of money to Hong Kong, as some of the emails requested.

The security setting on this blog is Public, which has never bothered me before, but as I said, all this internet craziness makes me nervous, and I don't want to give the bad guys any more ammunition.  I've been thinking that maybe I should change the setting so it can only be viewed by people I make it available to.  I'd certainly include any interested followers, but I really don't know who reads this thing.  I'd say send me an email, but emails aren't too appealing at the moment. A telegram, maybe?  Morse code?  Smoke signal?

What to do, what to do...ah, the problems we face in this new world we live in...

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Ellen, Love your blog. Sign me up. I too have
had this problem. May i suggest lifeloc. I will try
to call. I am a step relative of Jimmy, a fellow
artist. I ran into a friend of Jimmy's at a N. Ga
airport. John Paul Jones? CPJr.