One of the common mistakes that people make when inserting their own videos into a Google Slides presentation is forgetting to change the permissions on the video file itself. If you don't do that the people with whom you share your slides can only see that a video should play, but they can't actually play it. I've forgotten this step plenty of times myself and I'd bet that some of you have too. Fortunately, Google has announced the release of a new tool that will remind you to change the viewing permissions on your videos in your Google Slides.
The new Access Checker for Google Slides will automatically run a check to make sure that the people who have access to your Slides also have the necessary access to your video and or audio files. If the Access Checker finds that a change needs to be made, that suggestion will automatically be displayed to you.
Access Checker for Google Slides is rolling out now to some users and will be available to all users by the end of the month.
Applications for Education
Access Checker should help teachers and students avoid the frustration associated with not being able to see the videos that are embedded into presentations.
On a related note, Google Sites also requires that you change the permissions on the video files you embed from Google Drive into the pages in your Google Sites. The following video shows you how to avoid that annoying little problem.
On Monday I wrote about an email scam that tries to trick people into thinking they have violated a photographer's copyright and need to add a link to their websites to remedy the problem. Yesterday, I had another sneaky scam attempt land in my inbox.
The scam attempt that landed in my inbox yesterday can in the form of an email stating that an account had been created for me at Forte.net (a legitimate online payment processor) and that I needed to click the link to confirm my account. I was immediately suspicious because I didn't create an account. Obviously, I didn't click the link and I didn't copy and paste the URL that the email suggested I follow. What I did instead was head to the support page for Forte.net and filed a fraud report. Within minutes I got an email back from them. All of this is documented in this short video that I recorded yesterday afternoon.
What's the purpose?
You might be wondering why someone would try to use my email address or your email address to register for an account on a service. Sometimes this is done as part of identity theft attempt (often in the case of trying to register for payment services). Sometimes this is done as part of a larger attack designed to get hundreds or thousands of people to click a link that takes them to a nefarious site for a variety of purposes including the spread of malware. The lesson to share.
What is significant in this little story is to always be suspicious of emails that state you have a new account created for a service that you didn't intentionally register for. And don't reply to those emails. Instead, go directly to the site if you want to do some investigating. Finally, always look at the "from" addresses, the "mailed by," and "signed by" addresses.
A Technical Lesson on Email Forensics
If you want to dive into the nitty-gritty of how email really works and how to analyze the sender of an email, watch this video.
