Wednesday, December 25, 2013

two factor authentication for microsoft too

Consider using 2 factor authentication wherever you can take control of access to your online information.  Put this on your New Year's Resolution list, or even better, do it now.

This past week facebook told me someone tried to reset my password six times.  But they won't be able to log on without the second authentication info (on the fb app on my phone), and even if they did,  I get email notification that someone logged in from a new location.

I know this will sound like a broken record.
Here goes anyway.
Broken record.

Note that Microsoft also has a 2 factor authentication capability now.  See the FAQ at:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/two-step-verification-faq

If this sounds familiar it should, if you have been paying attention, I mentioned this earlier this month on this post about setting up restrictions on access to facebook and google:
http://burdenon.blogspot.com/2013/12/two-factor-authentication-for-fb-gmail.html

The way I have things set up it is actually trivially simple, I don't have local apps, xbox, or windows phone, etc to authenticate. If you do, once you turn on 2 factor authentication, you will receive an email to help you set up:
Now that you've turned on two-step verification for [email protected], make all your apps and devices work with it. If you use any of the following, we'll help you set them up:
Outlook desktop app for your PC or Mac
Email apps on an iOS, Android or BlackBerry device
Office 2010, Office for Mac 2011, or earlier
Windows Essentials (Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Mail)
Zune desktop app
Xbox 360
Windows Phone 8 or earlier

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

good poor, bad poor


When a million Irish died during the Great Famine of the 1850s, many in the English aristocracy said the peasants deserved to starve because their families were too big and indolent. The British baronet overseeing food relief felt that the famine was God’s judgment, and an excellent way to get rid of surplus population. His argument on relief was the same one used by Rand Paul.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/opinion/egan-good-poor-bad-poor.html?_r=0

from 
December 19, 2013

Good Poor, Bad Poor
By TIMOTHY EGAN

On Sundays, this time of year, my parents would pack a gaggle of us kids into the station wagon for a tour of two Christmas worlds. First, we’d go to the wealthy neighborhoods on a hill — grand Tudor houses glowing with the seasonal incandescence of good fortune. Faces pressed against the car windows, we wondered why their Santa was a better toy-maker than ours.