News, Views, Comments, and General Updates

2013-July-02

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The Green Book for July is now out, containing the latest in my series of regular security articles, which will continue for some time to come. As the two versions are slightly out of synch, the Over Wyre edition contains article number 7 (passwords) and Garstang has article number 6 (emails). 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 choosing and managing passwords, which is another really important topic.

There have been quite a few people this month experiencing problems with their email accounts potentially being compromised. You know you've got a problem when you suddenly start receiving a lot of 'undeliverable messages' for emails you didn't actually send, and people you know might complain that you've sent them something odd.

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

The first advice is DO NOT click on any of the links if you receive an odd looking email (see Safety Article # 6). If you've already been hit, you need to change your email password immediately and run some full security scans on your PC/laptop. If you use online banking, keep a very close eye on your account for a while to make sure there are no rogue transactions and consider changing the banking password as well (see Safety Article # 7).

... phone calls pretending to be from Microsoft...

Another hot topic again this month is that old trick of phone calls pretending to be from Microsoft/Windows Technical Support/Ammy support/PC Wizards etc. I've had two different calls myself, and it looks like they are targeting our area again. This has been covered in Safety Article # 5, but the key advice is DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER TALKING to them! Never, ever, let a stranger have any information about you and your computer, and do not let them install any software or take remote control of your machine.

If you have received one of these calls and are worried about the implications, then please do give me a ring straight away and we can sort out whether you have a problem.

... subscribe to the LadyBird Computing newsletters ...

Some of my regular customers have been receiving emails from me from time to time containing important security alerts etc, and this facility is now available to anybody who wants it - just -

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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 are, 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 9th July.)

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.