Emergency alerts could save your life

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Hi, Kim Commando here. Well, first up we have your digital.

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Life hack and after that I'm going.

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To play a call for my weekend national radio show. A major winter storm is barreling across the country right now and your phone can keep you safe if it's set up the right way. I'm Kim Commando for Consumer Cellular. If you're over 50, get two lines for just $30. Each line switch now and get your second month free@consumercellular.com Kim Emergency alerts can warn you about dangerous weather before it hits, but a lot of people have them turned off or don't even know it exists. Here's how to check on iPhone, head into settings, then notifications. Scroll all the way to the bottom and make sure emergency alerts and severe weather alerts are both turned on.

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On Android.

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Open settings, Safety and Emergency. Then wireless emergency alerts. Now these alerts are loud and they can be annoying, but they could save your life. With the storm bringing snow, ice and dangerous cold to millions of people, now is the time to make sure your phone is ready to warn you. It takes just 30 seconds. Do it now. Every single day, close to a million folks get great tips like this with my free newsletter. It's five star rated. Sign up now@getkim.com Next up, a call from my weekend show, the Kim Commando Show. Enjoy. Ever heard of the audience effect? It's when we change our behavior when we think we're being watched. While online, we're always being watched. Your Internet provider tracks everything you do, even in private mode. And that's why I use ExpressVPN. It's a tool I trust to keep my Internet connection protected. With one click, it hides everything I do online and sends it through a secure connection so no one can see or track my online activity. Here's the best part. ExpressVPN works across all your devices. Your phone, laptop, tablet, even your smart tv. One subscription protects up to eight devices so your whole family stays secure. Don't wait. Protect your family's Internet connection today with ExpressVPN. Right now, you can get my special offer of four extra months with ExpressVPN just go to ExpressVPN.com Kim that's ExpressVPN.com Kim for four extra months of privacy protection. Don't wait. Check it out right now@expressvpn.com Kim the world moves fast.

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Sean in Charleston, South Carolina. Hi there, Sean.

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Hello. Hi. Thank you very much for taking my call. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today. I've been a big fan of yours for many years. I'm retired DOD 47 years. And I was an IT and security specialist before I retired.

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Wow.

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So I have a keen appreciation for the information services that you provide to the public. You know, technology has changed so much, but you've been keenly, keenly kept all of us up to speed on multitude of changes and how to leverage them to our advantage. So thank you very much.

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Did you see that? Did you hear all that, Andrew?

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Yeah.

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Show me some respect over here. Okay.

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Thanks for calling and blowing up. Her ego is bigger than it already is.

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So Sean, thank you for your kind words. What's going on with you?

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Okay, well, thank you. So I represent a rural neighborhood watch operating under the National Neighborhood Watch program of the National Sheriff Association. Our community is dealing with a very serious public safety problem. We are being used by drug traffickers and fleeing suspects. So in our remote roads to avoid law enforcement. In the case of the drug traffickers, they are hiding in our neighborhoods at night and then the launching drones loaded with drug, narcotics and other paraphernalia and then they're flown into our nearby federal prison. So to address this, our neighborhood watch created and then coordinated with our local sheriff's office to establish road camera coverage at the five entrances, exits and the key intersections in our neighborhoods. We have done this with using Reolink Argus 4 Pro Wi Fi security cameras with 180 degree view. You know, these cameras allow the sheriff's office to see real time activity.

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Okay.

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So they can intercept criminals and they can also review recordings after the incidents occur. You know, each camera is installed on private property with the owner's consent and then we connect those to the homeowner's WI fi with their permission. Importantly, we never collect and store any of the WI FI passwords. Even the camera does not even store the WI FI password. One standard. Each homeowner enters their own credentials into the device.

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So, Sean. So tell us what's. Sean, tell us what's the problem with all this setup?

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Well, the bottom line here is we've got. We've got individuals that are telling us that our setup is opening back doors for bad actors to get in, and they get access to people's WI FI network and get access to their data. So our concern is we want to make sure that our setup and the devices that we are using is not creating backdoors for their access.

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Okay.

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Couple of things is every camera should.

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Be on its own network, a guest network. Okay.

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So instead of having it connect to the main WI FI network at the house, put all the cameras on its own guest network. So this way, this should give people that reinforcement, that peace of mind that the. The same network that has the security camera on it doesn't have their banking password. Right, Right.

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Well, I mean, but each. Each camera is encrypted. It's got a firewall on it. And then the actual video feed is encrypted.

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But.

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But, okay, that's all great and good, but you still need to have it.

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On its own network.

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I would still do that. Give people additional peace of mind. And Rail Link is notorious for having updates, and so make sure that there's some type of system in place for always to get the updates. So how is the. How is the sheriff accessing these feeds?

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Oh, they're excited. They're absolutely excited. We went in and we laid down a map in front of them where we put all the cameras up. And the sheriff and his deputy looked at each other and got a big smile on their face. And they came over to the map and they started pointing to other areas and said, can you put one here? Can you put one here? Can you put one there? It looks like from what we're hearing, that it sounds like we are starting to make an impact on the. At least the drones from the drug runners from flying the drones into the.

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Prison, which is fat, which is really shown. That's really fabulous. But how is the. How is the sheriff seeing all the videos?

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Oh, they. They have laptops, and then they've got the Reolink app on their cell phones, so they're able to call back in and coordinate and then ask the dispatch, have you seen a red car, gold pass camera number, unprofessional this address. So they're able to use these to interdict because they've got big issues. They'll come in, the drug runners will come into one area and they'll go out to another area. So they've got check torque points that they need. But we've placed cameras at the choke points to help them out.

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Which is. Which is really.

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Yeah. Which is really great.

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I mean, great idea.

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I mean, yeah, you guys just all band together and make this stop. I mean it's really amazing. Now just some things about how the sheriff gets the feeds and the reason why I was asking that is that I want to make sure that we're not sharing passwords or anything like that inside the Rio app. You can actually share that camera with somebody else. And so want to make sure that we're using that particular option inside the Rio link. Use unique strong passwords. Two factor authentication. You want to enable automatic firmware updates. And again, as I mentioned, most routers have the ability for you to have a guest network. And this will isolate those cameras from computers, phones, anything else in the house.

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But I will warn you, there is.

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A downside to all this. A WI fi jammer is about a.

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Hundred and fifty dollars.

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If all they have to do is hit one button and they can take down all the WI fi and everybody's houses for like 15 minutes. And I know just now somebody's saying, oh Cam, you just told the criminals how to get around it. They already know.

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They know she found out from the criminals because they did it in her neighborhood.

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Exactly.

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Hey, want to stay in the tech now without wasting your time? Join nearly a million folks who get my free newsletter the Current where you see the latest in tech in just five minutes every single day. You're just going to love it.

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It has a five out of five.

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Star rating over on Trustpilot. Sign up right now@getkim.com that's getkim.com.

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