Rise and Shine: Your Dose Of Business Tech Inspiration

If you use “Sign in with Google” to access other tools and websites, have you thought about what happens if that account is taken away from you? Google now uses AI to continuously scan accounts for policy violations, and since October 2025, accounts can be terminated in a single automated step with no warning.

In this episode, Charly covers:

✅ How your Google account connects to every service you sign into with it

➡️ Real examples of accounts terminated by automated AI enforcement, including a manga artist, a developer, and a father cleared by police

⚡ Why the appeal process is largely a dead end, with first appeals routinely rejected within minutes

✨ Charly’s own experience with a client’s paid Workspace account being terminated after a hack

❗ The mindset shift: treat your provider like infrastructure you rent, not a relationship you have

Start auditing what you log into with your Google account today, because if that single point of failure goes, everything connected to it goes with it.

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Music and Credits to:

Paradise Found is covered under Creative Commons.

“Paradise Found”

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/licenses/

Full names, dates of birth, places of birth, passport numbers, government account IDs - some of this data can never be changed. You can reset a password, but you cannot reset your date of birth. France Titres, the national digital ID system, was hacked in April, and the attacker was a 15-year-old. Now imagine what a nation state with serious money could do.

In this episode, Charly covers:

✅ How France Titres was compromised and what data was exposed

➡️ Why some of that data is permanent and can never be reset

⚡ The whack-a-mole reality of keeping systems secure

✨ How patch notes meant for developers also give hackers a roadmap

⭐ Why de-identification does not protect centralised data sets

❗ Practical steps to reduce your blast radius as a business owner

Build it and they will come. When you centralise sensitive data into one system, you create a target worth hitting. The same principle applies at every scale, including your business.

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Music and Credits to:

Paradise Found is covered under Creative Commons.

“Paradise Found”

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/licenses/

Your Google account keeps a detailed log of your activity - from map searches and phone calls to what you have been watching on TV. If you have not checked your privacy settings, there is a good chance all of that data is being collected right now.

In this episode, Charly covers:

✅ How to access your Google activity log at myactivity.google.com

➡️ What Google tracks across Maps, Android TV, Assistant, and more

⚡ How to filter your activity by product and date

✨ Turning off web and app activity and deleting old data

☑️ Setting up auto-delete so your history does not build up forever

⭐ The trade-offs between privacy and useful features like timeline

❗ How to turn off personalised ads in your Google account

Take control of your Google privacy settings and make informed decisions about what you allow to be tracked.

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Spotify: https://askcharlyleetham.com/likes/rise-and-shine

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-charly-leetham-online-business-manager/id1659738721

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Music and Credits to:

Paradise Found is covered under Creative Commons.

“Paradise Found”

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/licenses/

If your favourite WordPress plugins have changed hands in recent years, you may have noticed something shifting. Higher prices, slower support, and founders walking away from the products they built. In this episode, Charly covers:

✅ Why private equity companies acquire plugins for profit, not passion

➡️ What you actually receive when you pay for a WordPress plugin licence

⚡ The difference between founder-led support and PE-backed help desks

⭐ How to audit your site and assess the risk profile of your plugins

❗ Evaluating your return on investment on the tools your business depends on

This is about making informed decisions. Know what is on your site, who owns it, and whether you are still getting value for what you are paying.

Book a Free 30 minute Breakthrough Session: https://askcharlyleetham.com/book-me

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Spotify: https://askcharlyleetham.com/likes/rise-and-shine

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-charly-leetham-online-business-manager/id1659738721

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Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/662f1e44-115d-4094-862b-efe9307e0df4/ask-charly-leetham-online-business-manager

Music and Credits to:

Paradise Found is covered under Creative Commons.

“Paradise Found”

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/licenses/

Cybercrime is on track to become a $12 trillion problem by 2031, and the criminals behind it are not just targeting your technology - they are targeting your brain. In this episode, Charly sits down with cybersecurity expert Robert Siciliano to unpack how organised crime exploits our natural instinct to trust, and what you can do to become a tougher target.

In this episode, Charly and Robert discuss:

✅ What the “human blind spot” is and why scammers use it against you

➡️ How organised crime uses human trafficking to run global scam operations

⚡ Why manufactured urgency in emails, texts and calls bypasses your logic

⭐ The difference between security awareness and security appreciation

✨ How to become a “strategic human firewall” in your business and life

❗ Practical steps you can take right now to protect yourself and your team

Criminals want you to do nothing - so do something. Start with a password manager and two-factor authentication today.

Check out Zoho Vault: https://askcharlyleetham.com/likes/zohovault

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Music and Credits to:

Paradise Found is covered under Creative Commons.

“Paradise Found”

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/licenses/

Google has quietly rolled out its new Cloud Fraud Defense system, replacing reCAPTCHA on over 14 million websites without notifying site owners. Instead of solving a puzzle, flagged visitors now have to scan a QR code with a Google-approved phone, tying their browsing session to a tracked account.

In this episode, Charly covers:

✅ What Google's Cloud Fraud Defense system is and how it replaces reCAPTCHA

➡️ Why flagged traffic now requires a QR code scan from a Google-approved device

⚡ How this ties anonymous browsing sessions to tracked Google accounts

⭐ The 2023 Web Environment Integrity proposal that Mozilla and the EFF opposed - and how Google shipped it anyway

❗ Why this means Google is now deciding who can visit your website

✨ Alternatives like Cloudflare Turnstile that protect your site without restricting your visitors

If you are using Google reCAPTCHA on your website, now is the time to look at your options and consider removing it.

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Music and Credits to:

Paradise Found is covered under Creative Commons.

“Paradise Found”

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/licenses/

Have you ever switched devices and thought you lost access to a file someone shared with you in Google Drive? If you can log into your Google account, you can find it - you just need to know where to look.

In this episode, Charly covers:

✅ How to find files in the Shared With Me section of Google Drive

➡️ How to add shortcuts so shared files appear in your own folders

⚡ Using starred folders and colour coding to stay organised

⭐ How to use advanced search to find files by type, owner, or content

✨ How to check file details, activity history, and manage versions

❗ Why versioning keeps your documents organised and avoids duplicate files

If you spend time hunting for documents in Google Drive, these tips will save you time and keep your files in order.

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Music and Credits to:

Paradise Found is covered under Creative Commons.

“Paradise Found”

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/licenses/

The WordPress plugin market has gone through a wave of acquisitions. Financial buyers replaced founders, and the products changed – ads in your dashboard, price hikes, admin panels you can’t remove, and lock-in to ecosystems you didn’t choose. Now that you understand why that happened, the next step is simple: audit what you’re running and know who owns and supports every tool your business depends on.

In this episode, Charly covers:

✔️ How the WordPress plugin ecosystem works and why people in the community built tools like LearnDash, The Events Calendar, Cadence WP, and GiveWP

➡️ What happened when private equity started acquiring these plugins during the COVID era

⚡ Why the founders left after the acquisitions

✨ What changed for users – dashboard ads, forced rebranding, workforce cuts, and websites now redirecting to Liquid Web

❗ Why this pattern isn’t just a WordPress story – it’s what happens when financial buyers enter any ecosystem built on trust

⭐ Why you should audit your WordPress plugin stack before next Monday

This is Part 1 of a series on the effect of private equity, mergers and acquisitions on the WordPress plugin ecosystem and what it means for business owners.

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Music and Credits to:

Paradise Found is covered under Creative Commons.

“Paradise Found”

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/licenses/

If you’re using Microsoft Edge’s built-in password manager, your saved credentials may not be as safe as you think. A researcher has confirmed that Edge decrypts all saved passwords at startup and stores them in plain text in your computer’s memory – for the entire browser session. Unlike other Chromium-based browsers like Brave and Chrome, Edge is the only one tested that decrypts and loads every credential into RAM at startup, whether you visit those sites or not.

In this episode, Charly covers:

✅ How Edge handles saved passwords differently from other browsers

➡️ Why storing credentials in clear text in process memory is a serious risk

⚡ What an attacker with admin access or malware can do with a simple memory dump

⭐ Microsoft’s response – and why calling it a “design choice” is not reassuring

❗ Why you should switch to a dedicated password manager like Zoho Vault

Your browser’s convenience should never come at the cost of your security.

Check out Zoho Vault: https://askcharlyleetham.com/likes/zohovault

Book a Free 30 minute Breakthrough Session: https://askcharlyleetham.com/book-me

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Spotify: https://askcharlyleetham.com/likes/rise-and-shine

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-charly-leetham-online-business-manager/id1659738721

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Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/662f1e44-115d-4094-862b-efe9307e0df4/ask-charly-leetham-online-business-manager

Music and Credits to:

Paradise Found is covered under Creative Commons.

“Paradise Found”

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/licenses/

Your X account is a target, and without two-factor authentication, it’s only a matter of time before someone tries to compromise it. A recent case saw a large account stolen by a crypto scammer who changed the name, description and started exploiting the followers.

In this episode, Charly covers:

✅ Why two-factor authentication matters more than ever for your social accounts

➡️ The three authentication options X offers and which one Charly recommends

⚡ Step-by-step walkthrough of enabling an authentication app on your X account

⭐ How to scan the QR code and link your authenticator

❗ Why you must save your single-use backup code and where to keep it safely

Two-factor authentication might not be 100% bulletproof, but it makes you significantly harder to hack than the next person. Take a few minutes and lock your account down today.

Book a Free 30 minute Breakthrough Session: https://askcharlyleetham.com/book-me

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Spotify: https://askcharlyleetham.com/likes/rise-and-shine

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-charly-leetham-online-business-manager/id1659738721

iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-ask-charly-leetham-online-105944212/

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/662f1e44-115d-4094-862b-efe9307e0df4/ask-charly-leetham-online-business-manager

Music and Credits to:

Paradise Found is covered under Creative Commons.

“Paradise Found”

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/licenses/