How to keep your identity safe and sound.

Recently, Universal released a hugely successful movie, Identity Thief, starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, in which Genesis Rodríguez, the real-life daughter of Venezuelan superstar El Puma, plays a very bad girl indeed. It’s a raucous comedy…but it deals with a subject that’s no laughing matter in real life.

Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes to afflict people in our cyber-connected world. Using your credit cards or your Internet messages to gather information like your Social Security number, your passwords, your birthday, or your bank account numbers, identity thieves can empty your bank accounts, ruin your credit, use your identity to fund drug purchases or obtain medical benefits, or provide fraudulent documentation to people who’ve entered the country illegally. It’s a growing crime: according to Equifax, more than 11.6 million adults had their identities stolen in 2011. A year later, complaints with the Internal Revenue Service’s Identity Protection Specialized Unit were up by 80%.

Is there any way you can protect yourself? Here are a few tips!

Your Internet provider offers free Internet security service for your protection; use it to keep tech-savvy identity thieves from stealing your personal information.

Use unique passwords that are different for each website you frequent, and make sure they’re sufficiently complex.

Don’t put your age, birthdate, address, family names, or other sensitive information on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media accounts.

You are entitled to one free credit report each year, which you can get  at annualcreditreport.com. Use it! See if it lists unfamiliar lines of credit, an account you didn’t open, errors in your personal information or a wrong Social Security number.

1. Honor thy mobile device. Know where it is, and don’t put it where it can easily be taken, for it stores much information about you.

2. Protect thy device with a password. Should your device be taken, this makes it harder for identity thieves to access your information.

3. Trust not in open Wi Fi networks. When you use them to connect to your favorite websites, it’s easy for others to eavesdrop electronically.

4. Thou shalt not store sensitive information on a cell phone. Passwords, log-ins, account numbers, Social Security numbers and the like should be written on paper and locked away safely.

5. Thou shalt not text sensitive information from a cell phone. Texts remain logged in your phone long after you’ve forgotten sending them. Hackers and thieves can access them easily.

6. Thou shalt use only one card for shopping by mobile. That way, if it’s compromised, you only have one account to clean up.

7. Thou shalt never provide sensitive information to any company that requests it by text or email, for this is called “phishing” and it is an abomination. Respectable companies NEVER request sensitive information in such fashion.

8. Thou shalt only download banking, tax-prep, and financial apps from reputable companies. Be diligent and research the ratings and comments they’ve received from other users.

9. Thou shalt invest in a security application that “shreds” the information on thy phone remotely. This is valuable in case of theft, but it’s also good to strip your cell phone of all information when you upgrade it or move on to a different device.

10. Thou shalt check thy accounts regularly. Keep an eye on your banking and checking accounts, to make sure no one has made transactions without your knowledge, whether by using your phone or another source of information.

Augmented Reality is ready to change your world.

Imagine if all of a sudden you could hear the latest hit single by a new hot artist as you’re reading about it in Nexos Latinos…or, if you could immediately watch the actors of a new telenovela come to life before your eyes right from the pages of the magazine.  Now you can with the cutting-edge technology called augmented reality, and Nexos Latinos is proud to be among the first to incorporate its capabilities into the printed page!

Through the use of mobile apps, AR has amazing potential for enhancing printed materials.  If you’re browsing through a catalog, for example, you could click on the AR app on your mobile device, scan a page and get a full 3D view on your screen to see your item from every angle. You could “see inside” a package without opening it, just by scanning the label with your device. A student could click on a picture of an historic site as it exists today, and see where its ancient buildings stood.

Someday soon, you’ll be able to wear AR “glasses” that will superimpose GPS information onto your field of vision, making it virtually impossible to lose your way on the road. Soldiers will wear goggles and see real-time battlefield data. Travelers will be able to see immediate translations of road signs, or hear a conversation translated as it’s spoken. They may even be able to smell the selections as they look through a restaurant’s menu!

Augmented reality is something we can enjoy right now.  Just download the Nexos Latinos AR App from either the App Store or Google Play and use it to scan any page in the magazine featuring the Nexos Latinos app icon, and watch the images come to life. It’s that simple, enjoy!

With our new App, Nexos Latinos® magazine comes alive at your fingertips.

As you look through this issue of Nexos Latinos, the magazine that connects Latinos in the U.S. to their passions, you will find pages filled with great pictures, compelling stories, easy tech tips, delicious recipes, and interesting interviews.

But there is so much more! Now, you can interact with the magazine and launch great videos, audio clips, actual web pages with detailed instructions on how to cook great dishes, or become more technologically savvy. Sometimes, even great money-saving offers lie inside Nexos Latinos, waiting for you to see them!

This is your chance. Whenever you see our gold and purple icon, you know you’ve found the location of a hidden treasure. This is the amazing Nexos Latinos AR App—“AR” means Augmented Reality. When you point at it with your smart phone, iPad®, or tablet, it can bring images, objects, products and places to virtual life. Watch them move, grow, and become interactive!

Latinos have a passion for technology, and now, as we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, there’s no better time to launch this marvelous application, which frees words and images from the confines of the printed page. Enjoy!

When my husband and I bought our first house, we picked up a security system that we considered unbeatable—a German Shepherd/Husky mixture named Cory. She is wonderful, but as a security system, she has her limitations. She came away with us on vacations and she was no protection at all against fire. So, like many people, we began investigating home security systems. Back then, they were very basic: they alerted an alarm company when someone tried to open a door or window. Also, the alarm awakened the neighbors during windstorms, which made us vastly unpopular.

Today’s security systems give a whole new meaning to protecting your home and family. They provide live video feeds of you home which you can watch on any computer with an Internet connection, as well as on your smart phone or mobile device to see what’s happening from wherever you are. They send you emails and texts when something important happens…like when your kids arrive home. They turn your lights and temperature controls on and off, so your house always looks and feels occupied, regardless of how long you’re away. You can even monitor these controls from your computer or smartphone on the go.

Now we can really enjoy the lazy, hazy days of summer on our getaways, with Cory at our side.

Watch what you say!
Have you ever left a message like this on a social networking site? “Leaving tonight, looking forward to four wonderful days of vacation!” Guess what? You’ve told all your contacts—and THEIR contacts—that your home will be empty for the next four days. Save vacation news for when you get back!

Watch what you play!
When you receive requests to play games with your contacts on social networks and you click on the requests, you may be taken to a screen that asks permission to access your name, profile picture, gender, networks, user ID, list of contacts, and other public information. The game provider may even ask for permission to send out messages in your name or to access your information at any time—even while you’re not playing. So think twice before you hit “Allow.”

Watch what you answer!
Sometimes, your social network contacts will pass along quizzes and word games that ask for seemingly harmless information: “What city were you born in?” “What was your first pet’s name?” Be careful. Banks, utilities, insurance companies and health care providers will usually ask you these same questions before letting you transact business on their websites. By revealing your answers on social networks, you may be enabling identity thieves to access your accounts and steal your information and your money.

These days when it comes to technology, this month’s “must have” quickly becomes next month’s “has been.” Take it from Guillermo Arduino, host of the technology show Clix on CNN en Español. “I think we are all surprised with how fast everything moves,” says Arduino. To find out what all the buzz is about regarding 3D and 4G, Nexos Latinos spoke with the Argentinean host of Clix, the only show in Spanish on cable television that tackles this timely subject for you.

3D is fantastic because it gives you such a “real life” type of experience. Since technology is evolving so fast now, I would suggest waiting at least 6 months before investing in a 3D television set.

4G is a more sophisticated network that gives you greater speed and superior performance when using the Internet. The number of devices and the need for more capabilities means that the 4G network is a necessity. We will probably see 5G, 6G and so on because of this.

Clix Saturdays, 9:30pm ET
CNN en Español

How big an HDTV should I buy?
You may think you’d rather buy “too big” than “too small,” but in selecting your new HDTV, the rows of pixels on an overly large set may be distracting, even blurry! Your HDTV should be sized for the room you are watching it in. There’s a simple calculation for choosing the right size. Measure (in feet) how far you’ll sit from your set. Multiply that number by 6. So, if your couch is eight feet from your TV set, multiply 8 by 6. You’ll be very happy with an HDTV set that measures 48” diagonally. If you sit ten feet away, that 60” monster should be just about right!

I have a new HDTV set…why do I need HD service from my cable company, too?

Cable HD service makes sure your HDTV picks up the high-definition signals from ALL HD channels. It eliminates the need for built-in HD tuners and special HD antennas.

Why do we need separate HD channels?

Since many people still don’t have HDTV sets, networks send out two versions of their signals: standard and high-definition. The signals on HD channels tell your TV set to build a picture with many more dots of light, so your image is brighter and sharper. For maximum enjoyment, tune to the HD version of your favorite channels, usually located in the upper areas of your line up and not your regular location.