The catalogs have started arriving in my mailbox announcing the Christmas shopping season! Its that time of year when, more than any other time of year, can order anything online or at least have the option of shopping from home. Being Cyber smart is more important than ever when it involves shopping online.
I know online shopping is getting to be bigger business all the time – this year Cyber Monday (Officially the Monday after Thanksgiving) was more significant than Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). Cyber Monday shopping this year exceeded last year’s shopping by ten million dollars!
I think this means that more and more people are choosing the comforts of shopping from home over the hectic shopping, standing in lines and driving from store to store. Since Fed-Ex and UPS are very much regulars in the neighborhood I was thinking a blog on the topic of cyber safety made sense.
Here are some best practices on being Cyber Smart from the a website called Kapersky.com ( a company who sells cyber smart products).
- Don’t open any links you received from unknown senders (by emails or in social media networks) or suspicious links from known senders
- Don’t download, open and keep unknown files on your device
- Don’t use open unsecured (public) Wi-Fi networks for transferring sensitive data or conducting financial transactions
- Always double-check the webpage is genuine before entering any of your credentials or confidential information (at least take a look at the URL)
- Work only with websites with the ‘https’ prefix, they are more secure than those with ‘http’
- Don’t tell anybody your one-time password or PIN-code, not even a bank representative
- And don’t forget about the same rules when using your mobile device for financial transactions
And here are some additional thoughts on passwords:
Select passwords carefully. When creating passwords there are some definite dos and don’ts, these include:
Do
- make it at least eight characters in length
- combine letters, numbers and upper and lower case letters.
- change your password regularly.
Don’t
- use pet names, birthdates, family or friends’ names
- share passwords with others, even with friends
- store them on the device.
Quote of the Week:
Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud. – Maya Angelou
Happenings this Week: (A busy week!)
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through December 21st: The Evergreen Playhouse will be presenting its next play in their 2015-2016 season this Christmas season — Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Performances will be Dec. 4-6, 10-13 and 17-21. Thursday performances are at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday shows at 8 p.m. and Sunday performances are at 2 p.m. Evergreen Playhouse is located at 226 W. Center St., Centralia. For more information see their website by clicking HERE.
Saturday, December 5th: Art Show here at the Gathering Place in Stillwaters. 10 am to later afternoon our resident artists be displaying and selling their work.
Saturday, December 5th: Chehalis Christmas Parade to Feature ‘Nutcracker’. The 66th Annual Chehalis Santa Parade will be at 11 a.m. in downtown Chehalis Saturday. This year’s parade celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Southwest Washington Dance Center’s performance of “The Nutcracker” ballet. Before the parade, the Chamber will be sponsoring a food drive. Bring your canned food items to the stage before the parade. Fred Meyer Distribution Center will match all donations up to $1,000
Saturday, December 5th: Centralia Fox Theatre Film Series presents Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. Starring Danny Kay, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen. Showtimes: 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. 123 S. Tower Ave, Centralia.
Thursday, December 10th: Movie Night here at The Gathering Place. This month it is “Meet me in St. Louis”. Ice Cream is served at 5:45 p.m. and the movie starts promptly at 6 p.m. Come join the fun.
Friday, December 11th: The Centralia High School Jazz Choir will be here at The Gathering Place for a Christmas Concert at noon. This is always a tremendous group to listen to. Come early to get a good seat!
Put on your calendar:
Saturday, December 12th through Saturday December 26th: Borst Park Drive Thru Lighted Display- Always beautiful!
Saturday, December 12th: Lighted Tractor Parade in downtown Centralia, 6 p.m.
Sunday, December 13th: Williams Christmas Party, 1:30 p.m to 4:30 p.m., here at the Gathering Place.
Weather: RAIN! Plan on a very wet next week or so. The temperatures have warmed up which is a nice break from our freezing temperatures of last week. Enjoy the week ahead.
