The FCC has issued the Public Notice and Order requiring EAS units to be held to a much tighter security standard than in the past (a discussion of the FCC actions is here). Ken Fine has utilized an A.I. structure to provide a simple password generator over which you have […]

All too often, especially with governmental agencies, you see and hear the policy “One size fits all.” But that is really rarely the case. Broadcasters come from large consolidated companies as well as small-town mom & pop operations. One size does not fit all. Kirk Harnack offers some guidelines and […]

You may never look at a USB thumb drive or cable the same way after reading this. What was just a precaution that seemed like overkill now may be a warning we need to know. See how this all progressed. USB devices are so common that most people plug them […]

A whole generation has grown up that never experienced Y2K, an abbreviation for the Year 2000. We give commands to our computers to do things at a certain time, and track everything from email to transmitter events in accurate time (assuming we set systems for the right time zone). But, even as we […]

They are not all sitting inside nice racks. Lurking under desks and sales cubicle counters, hiding inside cabinets, or nearly forgotten behind control room furniture are the computers that run broadcast stations. Along with the rest of the station’s Spring Cleaning efforts, here are some thoughts that might be some good computer maintenance […]

Whether you are working alone or with a competent IT department, it is getting harder to stay truly safe when dealing with the Internet. Here, we offer a list of ten mistakes many folks make that puts them in danger of loss of files – or more.    There was a time when […]

It used to be that email was an easy way to communicate across town or across the world. But, like many things, email users need to be much more careful these days because there are a lot of bad actors out there – and now with AI, it is even more dangerous. When […]

Cowboy has been involved in designing and writing computer programming and security for over three decades, including one of the first – and still rather effective – anti-spam filters. Unfortunately, he still sees many of the same security problems he wrote about 20 years ago, even as the bad guys have become more […]

Every company has its policies on cyber security. Depending upon the size of the company and network, procedures can be relatively simple and rely on each user, or there is an IT department with policies that can make things easier or harder. Seeing the purpose of the policies and working with them makes […]

IT security is not a simple equation. Among the many levels of security, some devolve on the individual user while others involve the IT specialists and network administrators. However, everyone needs to work together to keep everything tight and secure. Last week I got an email from a friend saying “I almost forgot […]