News, Views, Comments, and General Updates

2013-June-02

Don't forget to "Follow" LadyBird Computing on Twitter and Google+ .... and look out for FaceBook coming soon too

Back on time with the update this month, which means that there hasn't been a lot of time for news since the last one! The Green Book for June is now out, containing the latest in my series of regular security articles, which will continue for some time to come. Unfortunately the two versions are slightly out of synch at the moment, as the editor couldn't find enough space in the Garstang edition last month. So the Over Wyre edition contains article number 6 (emails) and Garstang has article number 5 (phone calls), but you can always see the content of all these items by clicking on the Articles links below. This month's piece looks the topic of dodgy emails.

One particularly nasty piece doing the rounds at the moment is targeted specifically at Skype users. If you receive a message from someone you know with a message like this:

... DO NOT click on any of the links ...

Then please DO NOT click on any of the links. Firstly contact the person who appears to have sent the email and tell them they've got a problem. Then delete the email.

If you've already had this message and have actually clicked on the links, then let me know straight away and we'll sort out what to do next.

If you're interested in reading full details of what happens, there is an article at:

http://blog.malwarebytes.org/intelligence/2013/05/authentication-for-the-vulnerable-cyber-criminals-check-credentials-to-spread-malware-2/#

 

Please keep safe and secure at all times - if in doubt, ask for help!

As always, this month has once again seen a lot of activity in the release of security updates for all the main operating systems and background applications / plugins (for more information on this subject, see Safety Article #3). I can never stress enough how important these updates, so once again I will make my regular statement - don't forget to make sure you keep your machine fully updated for security patches, Java Updates, anti-virus definitions etc. The bad guys don't let up I'm afraid so there will always be a need to keep vigilant. There are some guidance notes on how to check for and manage updates for Windows, Java and FlashPlayer here in the document library. (The next batch of Microsoft updates will be due on Tuesday 11th June.)

And the final reminder for this time - if there are any clubs or organisations in the area who would like to take advantage of me at one of your meetings, please give me a call to discuss.

Articles and News Archive

Click on any of the links to see previous news announcements or published magazine articles etc.