How To Keep Mosquitoes At Bay – Russian Hackers In Our Power Grid – Stop SmartTV Tracking: AS HEARD ON – WTAG NewsRadio 580 [07-17-24]

On This Episode…
Do you know your SmartTV is tracking what you’re watching and the video games that you play as well?

Learn more about how to stop this from happening from Craig as he speaks with Jim Polito about SmartTVs, the Russians hacking our power grid, and how he is finally able to sit on his back patio and enjoy it.

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TRANSCRIPT

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.

Airing date: 08/07/2018

How To Keep Mosquitoes At Bay – Russian Hackers In Our Power Grid – Stop SmartTV Tracking

 

Craig Peterson: [00:00:00] Hey good morning everybody. Getting ready to do my rest of my day today. It’s been a real fun time lately. You know shutting down some of the bad guys I guess. I guess I shouldn’t be happy about that but I am. I love it because all of these poor people write these business people who’ve been building their businesses their life savings tied up in it and they get stole and being able to help them out in fact we’ve got a new client that’s an attorney who’s hired us for an insurance company because a company did fall prey to one of these hacks while in this case it was a business email compromise and about hundred thousand dollars in cash was stolen. It’s absolutely incredible and so now you’ve got all the insurance guys fighting with each other as to who’s going to pay what for what. But being able to stop the bad guys before it even happened that makes my day. And even if I have to come in afterwards and clean up and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Wow. In fact I found out this week because we were of course we’re working with some of the top people in the industry when it comes to security. But I found out this week that we are the only company that they are aware of who has not had any of their clients hit by ransomware. Isn’t that amazing. So that made me feel really good. None of my clients. Wow. How long has it been now. Twenty five years. I think that I’ve been very focused on security. We haven’t been hit by anything at all or our clients and none of them hit by ransomware.

[00:01:37] So I guess that’s really good I should feel good about myself. That’s kind of my goal in life right now is to stop it right here I am staring down retirement trying to figure out what should I be doing here when I retire and came to realize that in fact I can help other people who are just like me who have their businesses who have been building their businesses who really want their businesses to survive and do well and be a retirement for them and maybe even pass it on to the family because my business is basically a family business as well. So that doesn’t make me feel really good. And we’ve picked up from 1 to 3 or 4 6 6 new clients in the last month. So it’s been a very busy time anyhow. Today this morning I got to speak with Jim Polito one of my favorite appearances on radio and this morning with Jim we talked about how I am now able to go sit on my back patio and enjoy it. How’s that for a change. We talked a little bit about the Russians and what’s happening in the power industry with them and kind of you know what we’re doing to defend ourselves. I think that’s a really important thing frankly for everyone to understand because these Russian hackers you know could be devastating. And then how to stop your smart TV from tracking what you’re watching and the video games you’re playing. So all of that and more with Jim and here we go.

[00:03:05] Here is our good friend and his weekly segment that is very very popular. He is our tech talker to tell you about my friend Craig Peterson. Good morning sir.

[00:03:21] Good morning. Do you like this weather.

[00:03:24] Well I know it’s basically killing you. You may have to be hospitalized if it gets above 60 degrees. Craig Peterson goes in the shower.

[00:03:35] I’ve been inside for the most part. But you know what I did this year Jim I did something I’ve never done before and I’ve been talking about it forever and ever never ever. And that is we we have a patio out back here. The house it’s really nice it’s all nice.

[00:03:50] Brick patio and we’ve had it now for probably 15 maybe 20 years and I never go outside because I get eaten alive. Yeah.

[00:04:01] And I I’ve been debating back and forth. You know I’ve the technology out there and I’ve tried a few things like those little things that make sound just keep mosquitoes away and they didn’t seem to do much good. But this year for the first time ever we bought mosquito magnet. Now I didn’t want to buy one because the mosquito magnets to read about them online and they fail. You know actually yeah it’s somewhere item right. So it is good for three out of maybe five years and it’s not cheap it’s a few hundred bucks. But I put one out at the beginning of June I think it was and I followed all of the directions right as to be downwind and everything. And I did all of that. And I this year for the first time ever have sat outside on a patio in the evening even when the mosquitoes are usually out and I haven’t had any problems.

[00:04:58] It is called Hundert if not thousands of flies will the beginning yeah and hundreds and hundreds of mosquitoes. This is the first ever cell technology that’s been around for a while but I’ve been reluctant to use. I got to say wow I am impressed. I know there is no light. It’s not like Jim. I don’t get paid for mentioning things on the air. No I know that. Yeah but I was just really impressed or a little word of advice if you’ve got the same problem as me and you maybe you want to sit outside in this weather I don’t get it.

[00:05:35] But it may be one side. This thing has been amazing.

[00:05:40] What’s the name of it again.

[00:05:43] It’s called a mosquito magnet magnet. And they were bought by another company a few years ago and so I wasn’t sure you know what to call it going to be like. And you put an LP tank on it. But you know have your barbecue. Right. And a little 20 pounder and that lasts about three weeks and it goes through. I wanted to doing this and basically burning the gas to make carbon dioxide which is what makes you scratch them.

[00:06:12] Yeah exactly. And then there’s a little you and you’ve got to do this. I try it without. But there’s a little scent packet that you put inside of it and it’s bait and it really drives him right to it. So the carbon dioxide brings him in from a distance. They get close they smell the bait. They go in for the bait. And then there’s a slight vacuum that’s running all of the time and they get sucked into it and into the trap.

[00:06:40] And you have to keep it running at all times. Just keep it. You do. OK. So that will clear your area because what you’re getting around do is you know that you know you want to clear your area. Mosquitoes aren’t going to travel very very far. Their life cycle is not long may need standing water to breathe right and like. So you basically set that up and you cleared out the Peterson backyard.

[00:07:08] It takes two or three weeks and it Yeah it’s pretty much cleared out and you’re right. Mosquitoes who knew this right are territorial and so they don’t go very far. As you said and they don’t has been it has been a life changer Jim and it’s ending with a blackflies.

[00:07:26] Early on in the season you know and I get these welts from back blackflies to yeah almost like a bees thing.

[00:07:35] So it was wonderful wonderful wonderful. So next year I think the Peterson family may get one for the front yard as well walk out the door and you get eaten alive. The front door right now I can sit on the patio.

[00:07:50] I like that. Craig some see look at that and doing an endorsement even though he’s not being paid for it and giving you advice so always giving us advice. I want to ask you about something important here. Russian hackers may have penetrated the U.S. electricity network and could turn off power. I read a little something about this but I want to get it from you which basically means talk about war you don’t need a missile you won’t need a tank you will need a gun. All you’d have to do is come into the United States and shut off all of our power.

[00:08:27] And believe me that would be a lot worse than dropping an atomic bomb on a major city and harder to trace right away with this. This is a report that came out of the Wall Street Journal last week. And there have been debates you remember of course the 1984 blackout. I mean had 2004 back to back in the 80s up in Quebec.

[00:08:51] But there were questions whether or not that was a hacker and most of the security community we seem to think that in fact it probably was a hacker and they didn’t mean to bring down the electric grid but that’s what happened. But right now the Wall Street Journal is reporting that a group who is known as dragonfire energetic bear now interject has been doing all kinds of nasties lately but they’ve gained access to many of our power grid centers. Now they’re talking about hundreds of them that they have gained access to and they’re using the standard tools that you know were constantly seeing in businesses these spear phishing e-mails business e-mail compromise right watering hole attacks and they’re tricking victims into it. But it is absolutely crazy what they’re able to do out there and what could happen that they really could turn off the power. I got a grandkid here.

[00:09:48] Hi Susan.

[00:09:52] I like that shirt and R2 D2 shirt on here. CATHERINE Not me. That’s pretty cool.

[00:09:59] So so yes think about all of the people who are who are dependent on electricity of days like today. And you know with the heat we really have death.

[00:10:09] If we don’t have air conditioning we get the heat waves all the time.

[00:10:14] So look you know you use. You can make a living out of going to companies and saying here here’s what you need to do to protect yourselves. Please give me some hope and I know in other industries you haven’t been able to do that. Give me some help that they’re really working on this to try to reach.

[00:10:34] Yeah they really are from this particular problem. They really are working on it. There are all kinds of controls that electrics that are electronic that are all over the place. These are called skater’s systems and they are upgrading them. They are adding security to them. The plants themselves are upgrading the systems now. You know I work with the FBI and the unforgotten program right which is an infrastructure program they have and I I know myself because I’ve run webinars for the FBI on this topic. So all of these guys are very engaged in this and I think this problem is going to be pretty much fixed within the next year or two. But you know opening salvos of war could well use this type of stuff with a hack and they shut down power grids they shut down power acts. I mean that water facilities and stuff but you know they could do an incredible amount of damage to us. We have to use these types of techniques against other countries before we certainly use them with Iran in their centrifuge programs. This is the future. However this problem is being actively worked on.

[00:11:46] So that is good news which I agree with Craig Peterson. Craig I just want to get something very quickly from you before we have to wrap up. How do I stop my Smart TV from tracking what I watch. And why do I want to do that.

[00:12:02] Yeah most aren’t aware of that but if you have a TV that has built into things like maybe Netflix Hulu or whatever yeah you and I have most of those TVs including Sony for instance. They’re running Google’s Android operating system in the TV. OK. And that’s a problem to begin with because we know about Android vulnerabilities but in most of them I’ve got it up on my Web site. You can go there all of the major brands are covered by the TVs smart TVs don’t just know that you’re on Netflix. They don’t just know that you are playing a video game on an external box right so you’ve got your x box or whatever it is they actually watch the content they can figure out what game you’re playing and are streaming to the TV. So they’ve got all of this information but you can go in on all of these TVs and turn it off. You have to go to your setting and use the user agreements and other things all the details are up on my Web site. But you should opt out of it. Now in some cases you’re going to have to turn off the smart TV function which I think is a great idea.

[00:13:13] Anyways I use always an external box like a little rogue who use my Roku you don’t use the stuff that’s already embedded in the TV.

[00:13:24] Exactly because when was the last time that this software update on that. Did you ever apply a patch to your TV.

[00:13:31] No. No. Actually now that I think of it. No I have not.

[00:13:36] Who does is right. And most of these TVs people don’t even hook up to the Internet or they may so the quick and easy workaround.

[00:13:44] Pull the plug on the TV spots on the Internet side.

[00:13:48] Ok but then all of your special smart TV functions are going to go away if you do turn off the internet on it by using the external box that gets updates that you know is safe and the safest by far of course is the Apple TV although it’s the most expensive as well.

[00:14:05] You said that. See this is all great stuff. We have from mosquitoes all the way up to your smart TV and you can get more of it. Well right. Because next Tuesday our friend Craig Peterson will be back.

[00:14:19] But if you text my name to this number 855-385-5553. That’s 855-385-5553.

[00:14:33] Craig Peterson will send you a weekly update after his segment with all the information we discussed. Plus a whole bunch of other stuff. And then when there’s some type of hack some type of a big problem guess what your friends list and he will send you that information yes and sell your name. He doesn’t pester you. It doesn’t do anything like that. Standard data and tax rates apply. This is a great thing to get on board with Craig as usual a great segment and I look forward to talking with you next week.

[00:15:03] Hey thank you. Take care camera.

[00:15:05] All right. Mosquito Magnet mosquito magnet.

[00:15:09] No money has exchanged stands but Craig Peterson brought to you by the mosquito man. Thanks Craig. We’ll see you next week. All right. Don’t go anywhere. Final word when.

Read more at http://cptt.libsyn.com/as-heard-on-wtag-how-to-keep-mosquitoes-at-bay-russian-hackers-in-our-power-grid-stop-smarttv-tracking#IyshIbXMdd8ak0Zo.99