Page 4 - Leighton News July 2017
P. 4
4 Hack Attacked?
Holiday time and the silly season has BEEN HACKED? It’s happened to 1 in 3 people in the UK so everyone
already started. How many of you got knows someone… It’s happened to us a few times but we didn’t lose
the begging email a few weeks ago any money. Here’s some of the precautions that have kept us virus
from the Leighton residents who had and malware free for over 20years (so far!).
been mugged while abroad?
INSTALL anti-virus and anti-malware on all your computers,
“Our dream holiday in the Philippines has been tablets, phones and anything that connects to the internet.
ruined. We’ve had all our possessions stolen. Please Apparently, the NHS didn’t even manage this – no excuse
lend us £1,943 [notice the convincing exact amount even with old XP PCs.
needed] to pay our hotel bill – promise we’ll pay you
back as soon as we get home” They were actually on FREE SOFTWARE is fine. Install AVG basic to detect and
holiday in Greece. Their phone had been hijacked destroy viruses on your computer, in emails and block them
along with their email address which we all recognised. on web sites. Add it to your phones and tablets. But decline
all offers to upgrade for ‘Free’ – actually only a trial for the
There are always new vulnerabilities to be exploited. paid version which isn’t necessary. These pop-up offers are
We spot at least a couple of scam or virus attempts every frequent and annoying.
day but still have to be extremely careful. June this year
was the first time we’d organised a direct debit for car MALWAREBYTES provides top quality protection against
tax. Checking online showed the car taxed to 2018. ransomware, unauthorised data collection and other threats.
The paid for version updates itself and detects malware on
A few days later there was a final demand by text to the fly. After a trial month it degrades to the free version
collect the tax due with a link to click... Phoning the which has to be updated and set to scan manually.
DVLA we were told they never send texts – just
delete it – this was a known scam but they had not NEARLY ALL the computers I’m asked to fix, are because basic
got round to informing people. Thanks a lot! protection is not in place or up to date. It’s often possible to
Coincidence? Or a hack into the DVLA which now rescue them with thorough scanning. But one recent case
has our bank account details on record? was so infected there was no option but to format the hard
disk which destroyed all the data on it.
Some Safety First ideas are opposite
BACKUP Your data is much more valuable than your
*********** computer or phone. Your work, photographs, music, videos
and family memories are priceless – the hardware only costs
More cheerfully, the months of July and a few hundred quid. Apps like Dropbox, are a good start but
August are the season for village and limited without paying for more space. Having your data on
church fêtes; visits to open gardens; one or more separate portable hard drives (about £50) – may
keeping kids occupied with outdoor and be quicker and more reliable than using online storage – also
indoor activities. And there’s plenty to see once unplugged they can’t be hacked. Data from phones and
and do in this issue. There will be photo memories tablets can be copied to memory stick and may also
from Leighton and Trelystan in our September automatically back up online.
edition — but please do also send us your interesting
pics from further afield. EMAILS Delete multiple copies of messages with the same
source or subject line — Never open an unexpected
Steve Patricia attachment from a person or company — Treat ALL links with
suspicion*, clicking johnlewis.com may actually go to:
ripoffunlimited.cc/snatchmymoney.html — Never believe an
email saying your bank account security needs resetting
Never believe emails ‘from PayPal’ etc. if they don’t address
you by name.
SET LIMITS For online purchases, apply for a new credit card
and reduce the credit limit to a few £100. Link your PayPal
account to a separate bank account with a very small balance.
DON’T SPEAK to anyone claiming your computer needs
repairing remotely. Definitely don’t download their software
or phone them back — chances are the call will be diverted
to a mega premium rate line…
For BOOKINGS DO EXPECT automated phone calls or texts from banks and
Tel: 0785 410 3058 card companies checking whether recent payments are
Email: villagehall@leightonnews.com legitimate. If they talk to you,they’ll check your ID but never
ask for full passwords or PINs.
Leighton Village Hall – for your family events,
children’s parties, hobbies and meetings. Please DON’T PANIC Confronted with ransomware, crash out by
book in plenty of time to avoid disappointment. holding down the power button (up to 30 seconds) on
the PC or phone. Switch off your router and restart. If the
threats still appear, crash out again and seek expert help.
*Except the ones from me… DH
Geek Information Service
Holiday time and the silly season has BEEN HACKED? It’s happened to 1 in 3 people in the UK so everyone
already started. How many of you got knows someone… It’s happened to us a few times but we didn’t lose
the begging email a few weeks ago any money. Here’s some of the precautions that have kept us virus
from the Leighton residents who had and malware free for over 20years (so far!).
been mugged while abroad?
INSTALL anti-virus and anti-malware on all your computers,
“Our dream holiday in the Philippines has been tablets, phones and anything that connects to the internet.
ruined. We’ve had all our possessions stolen. Please Apparently, the NHS didn’t even manage this – no excuse
lend us £1,943 [notice the convincing exact amount even with old XP PCs.
needed] to pay our hotel bill – promise we’ll pay you
back as soon as we get home” They were actually on FREE SOFTWARE is fine. Install AVG basic to detect and
holiday in Greece. Their phone had been hijacked destroy viruses on your computer, in emails and block them
along with their email address which we all recognised. on web sites. Add it to your phones and tablets. But decline
all offers to upgrade for ‘Free’ – actually only a trial for the
There are always new vulnerabilities to be exploited. paid version which isn’t necessary. These pop-up offers are
We spot at least a couple of scam or virus attempts every frequent and annoying.
day but still have to be extremely careful. June this year
was the first time we’d organised a direct debit for car MALWAREBYTES provides top quality protection against
tax. Checking online showed the car taxed to 2018. ransomware, unauthorised data collection and other threats.
The paid for version updates itself and detects malware on
A few days later there was a final demand by text to the fly. After a trial month it degrades to the free version
collect the tax due with a link to click... Phoning the which has to be updated and set to scan manually.
DVLA we were told they never send texts – just
delete it – this was a known scam but they had not NEARLY ALL the computers I’m asked to fix, are because basic
got round to informing people. Thanks a lot! protection is not in place or up to date. It’s often possible to
Coincidence? Or a hack into the DVLA which now rescue them with thorough scanning. But one recent case
has our bank account details on record? was so infected there was no option but to format the hard
disk which destroyed all the data on it.
Some Safety First ideas are opposite
BACKUP Your data is much more valuable than your
*********** computer or phone. Your work, photographs, music, videos
and family memories are priceless – the hardware only costs
More cheerfully, the months of July and a few hundred quid. Apps like Dropbox, are a good start but
August are the season for village and limited without paying for more space. Having your data on
church fêtes; visits to open gardens; one or more separate portable hard drives (about £50) – may
keeping kids occupied with outdoor and be quicker and more reliable than using online storage – also
indoor activities. And there’s plenty to see once unplugged they can’t be hacked. Data from phones and
and do in this issue. There will be photo memories tablets can be copied to memory stick and may also
from Leighton and Trelystan in our September automatically back up online.
edition — but please do also send us your interesting
pics from further afield. EMAILS Delete multiple copies of messages with the same
source or subject line — Never open an unexpected
Steve Patricia attachment from a person or company — Treat ALL links with
suspicion*, clicking johnlewis.com may actually go to:
ripoffunlimited.cc/snatchmymoney.html — Never believe an
email saying your bank account security needs resetting
Never believe emails ‘from PayPal’ etc. if they don’t address
you by name.
SET LIMITS For online purchases, apply for a new credit card
and reduce the credit limit to a few £100. Link your PayPal
account to a separate bank account with a very small balance.
DON’T SPEAK to anyone claiming your computer needs
repairing remotely. Definitely don’t download their software
or phone them back — chances are the call will be diverted
to a mega premium rate line…
For BOOKINGS DO EXPECT automated phone calls or texts from banks and
Tel: 0785 410 3058 card companies checking whether recent payments are
Email: villagehall@leightonnews.com legitimate. If they talk to you,they’ll check your ID but never
ask for full passwords or PINs.
Leighton Village Hall – for your family events,
children’s parties, hobbies and meetings. Please DON’T PANIC Confronted with ransomware, crash out by
book in plenty of time to avoid disappointment. holding down the power button (up to 30 seconds) on
the PC or phone. Switch off your router and restart. If the
threats still appear, crash out again and seek expert help.
*Except the ones from me… DH
Geek Information Service
