✈️ Cyberattack grounds flights and your passwords could be next

Welcome to your Sunday, {{first_name | friend}}. 💰 Shark Tank, 1800s Edition. This guy walked into history with over 1,000 patents, including one for a concrete house. Talk about a pitch! Mr. Wonderful would’ve asked for 20% equity and a royalty.

Who had more IP than most startups today? Your star-studded list: A) Nikola Tesla, B) Thomas Edison, C) Alexander Graham Bell or D) Steve Jobs. Make your best guess and find the answer at the end! 

🤩 Quick favor before we dive in: Hit Reply to this email and just say hello. Then, at the end, rate this newsletter and drop me a comment. It helps tell the Big Tech and internet email algorithms that you actually want my free newsletter. Weird but true. Thanks for keeping me out of spam-land! — Kim

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“Hi, Kim, I save all my passwords in my browser. So why do I need a password manager? Thanks for your newsletter. I can tell it’s a lot of work. The quality every single day is incredible.” — Robby in South Carolina

Thanks for your question and kind words, Robby. Now, l get this question a lot. Let me break it down.

Plenty of people still rely on their browser’s built-in memory for passwords. Chrome, Safari, Edge, they all pop up with that little offer: “Want me to remember this for you?” Which sounds sweet ... until you realize it’s like giving your house key to a raccoon.

Those saved passwords are stored in plain text behind your account login, not wrapped in the same heavy-duty encrypted professional password vault. 

If someone cracks into your computer, steals your phone or sneaks into your Google account, congratulations! They inherited the keys to your entire digital kingdom. 

Apple’s iCloud Keychain and Google Password Manager work fine if you stay in one ecosystem forever, but life isn’t that neat. Maybe you’re an iPhone person with a PC. Or use an Android tablet alongside your Mac. Suddenly those passwords don’t follow you everywhere you need them. 

A true password manager generates long, unique passwords for every site you use and syncs them seamlessly across all your devices. 

Open your phone, laptop, tablet, and your logins are securely filled in with a click. Many managers monitor the dark web for breaches and send you an alert the moment one of your accounts shows up in a leak. That’s something no browser is going to do for you.

Good password managers also give you great tools for the long haul. Need to share Netflix with your family without typing your password into a group text? Done. Want to make sure your spouse or kids can access critical accounts if something happens to you? The best managers include emergency access. You can’t do that with passwords saved in a browser.

That’s why I use a password manager. NordPass, a sponsor of my show, does all of this and more. Right now, you can save 55% and pay just $1.34 a month. You get:

Bottom line: Your browser might get you by, but a password manager like NordPass gives you professional-grade protection, flexibility and peace of mind.

Spooky without the smoke. Get into the Halloween spirit with these flickering flames you can control from your couch.

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🧰 Handy finds, all in one place: Shop all my home improvement faves on my Amazon storefront.

They quietly handed over 5 billion passenger records to the feds. I also talk with Brian, a devoted uncle who wants to name his pond on Google Maps after his niece. Plus, TikTok avoids shutdown, and Meta’s grossest scandal yet.

Listen on Komando.com →

🎧 Subscribe on your favorite platform:

✈️  Cyberattack flight fright: Travelers across Europe were grounded yesterday after a massive cyberattack hit airline check-in systems at major airports like Heathrow, Brussels and Berlin. With the software down, agents had to switch to old-school mode. Think manual check-ins and even handwritten baggage tags. Lines stretched, tempers flared and dozens of flights were canceled. It wasn’t just a glitch. Experts say this was a targeted attack, and it shows just how fragile the tech behind air travel really is. One hit, and suddenly it’s 1985 at the airport. But wait there’s more.

🫠 Meanwhile a ground stop in the United States: What started as a tech outage on Friday at Dallas-Fort Worth and Dallas Love Field snowballed into a nationwide air travel meltdown. Multiple failures of telecommunications equipment triggered delays and cancellations in cities coast to coast, from L.A. to New York, Miami to Salt Lake. Some 8,600 flights in Dallas alone were delayed, with ripple effects hitting 20 U.S. airports. Just shows you how vulnerable our infrastructure really is.

🔥 Drone and out: A 57-year-old SoCal man took his drone to watch the fire, crashed it into a plane fighting the fire, grounded said plane, then claimed he didn’t know. He’s now doing 14 days in federal prison, 30 at home, and owes $156K. The fire burned 23,000 acres. Dummy.

Where is the PopeBot? Someone asked Pope Leo XIV if they could make a chatbot version of him. He said absolutely not. “If anyone shouldn’t be an avatar, it’s me.” He’s worried AI will kill real connection and dignity. Some connections are too sacred to simulate, and no algorithm can replicate the soul behind a real conversation.

📙 Don’t fall behind: AI is changing business fast, and you need to keep up. Grab NetSuite’s free guide, “The CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning.” It’s a quick way to get smarter about AI, because it’s here to stay.*

🍿 Wicked early: Be the family hero. Amazon Prime members can snag tickets to see Wicked: For Good on Nov. 17. That’s a full four days before the official release. Just click here, so you don’t miss out. Shop for Oz-themed merch and stream the first movie on Prime Video to get ready in style.

Hold off buying any Google Home products: Reminder that on Oct. 1, new Nest Cams and doorbell with Gemini built in will drop. I’ll keep you posted.

😨 Five stars, zero shame: Walmart’s online marketplace is booming, but so are the scams. A CNBC probe found 43 shady sellers using stolen business IDs and fake reviews to sell bogus products. Unlike Amazon, Walmart skips video interviews and makes EIN docs optional. Pro tip: Filter reviews by “verified purchase.”

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Want page numbers in Google Docs? Go to Insert > Page elements > Page numbers and choose the position. Docs update them automatically.

Per-app languages on Android: If you’re bilingual, you don’t have to stick to one across your phone. Go to Settings > System (or General management) > Languages > App languages. Pick an app and set your preference. You can also long-press the app icon, open App info and change it there. FYI: Not every app supports this.

📷 Cover your webcam: If hackers get into your PC, they might spy on you through the camera and blackmail you later. Skip the messy tape, and use a webcam cover instead. You can get a three-pack for under $5 (28% off) that also fits an iPad. Oh, and don’t trust the green “on” light. They can trick that, too.

Fix Windows 11 right-click menus: Microsoft messed with context menus so you only see “important” options, and the rest are hidden under Show more options. Annoying, right? Quick fix: Hold Shift + right-click on any file or folder to see the full menu instantly. So much for simplifying things.

📱 I’m saving so much money. Same reliable coverage as the big guys but at a fraction of the cost. With Consumer Cellular, I got two unlimited lines for just $60. Use code KIM25 at ConsumerCellular.com/KIM for $25 in savings, and make the smart switch today.*

🖥️ macOS 26: Your Mac now has a Games app. Open Spotlight and search “games” to launch it. The app acts as a hub for all your titles, whether from Apple Arcade or the App Store. Use the Home tab for recommendations, the magnifying glass to browse categories, or the search bar to find a specific title.

📱 iOS 26: Go to Settings > Apps > Phone > Screen Unknown Callers. You’ll see two options: Silence, which has always been there, or the new Ask Reason for Calling. With it on, your iPhone will auto-answer unknown numbers, ask the caller to state their name and reason, then ring your phone with that info so you can decide whether to pick up. The best.

⌚ watchOS 26: The watch face gallery has been revamped in the Watch app on iPhone. Tap Face Gallery at the bottom, and you’ll see faces grouped into categories, making it quicker to find what you want, like a colorful design or classic analog. Pick your face, customize it and tap ADD at the top.

🍏 iPadOS 26: You get more mic control. For example, plug in a USB mic, and it’ll work right away. In Voice Memos, open Control Center, tap the Voice Memos control at the top, select Input and choose your mic.

🤑 Save money: Hit this link on Amazon to see if the stuff you buy all the time is on sale right now.

Zoom in: Zoom Earth lets you track weather systems and satellite views in real time. Is that a tropical storm … or just vibes?

⚡ Know about power outages with this app: Get the free Ting outage app and see real-time blackout maps before you’re left fumbling for candles.

Draw logos from memory: Put your capitalism to the test. 

💸 Score something free: r/Freebies is a gold mine of samples you’ll forget you ordered until they magically show up.

🛰️ Broadcasting brilliance: Click to hear what you missed on my show.
📱 Listen on Apple Podcasts. 🎧 Stream on Spotify. 🌐 Play full episodes on Komando.com. 📻 Find your local radio station.

The answer: B) Thomas Edison. The guy didn’t stop even during the dark times inventing light bulbs. He patented a concrete house design and built a prototype neighborhood in New Jersey. Edison dreamed houses would be affordable, fireproof and mass-produced from a single mold, including built-in bathtubs, cabinets and even pianos.

🫶 Now, here’s something you can share with your honey this Sunday. What do you and Thomas Edison have in common? You both light up my world! (So nice.)

OK, drop a rating and comment below. This is the #1 free tech newsletter in the United States. Tomorrow, how to use AI to write and publish your own book to sell on Amazon for big bucks. It’s a great one!

✌️ Look at you, knowledge is your superpower. You’ve just leveled up. — Kim

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Photo credit(s): ChatGPT, GenSwin

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