Christmas Buying Online

Last month I promised to continue on with my article “how not to get hacked” but I hadn’t notice Santa time was so near. Consequently I’ll keep part two of that article until the new year, God willing. This month I’ll deal with a couple of issues that always arise around this time of high stress.  

Buying Online
As more and more presents are purchased online you should take some basic steps to avoid some criminal getting hold of your credit card details and or scamming you.
#1 Where possible use paypal when buying online.(www.paypal.com) If you don’t have paypal setup an account and ensure the password is unique and complex enough to avoid pass-by hacker attacks.
#2 Avoid using your regular credit cards for buying online. During the boom many of you got your credit card bumped up to thousands of euros. If a criminal gets hold of that card they will have a field day, not the mention the problems it will cause you getting a new card.
#3 Use a prepaid credit card(even with your paypal account). You can buy a Swirl Prepaid Mastercard (www.swirlcard.com/) locally in Laytown at O’Reilly’s Supermarket for 7 euro and top it up immediately with 250 euro. If you register the card you can top it up to a maximum of 2,500 per year. Thus you can limit the damage if your card is stolen.
#4 Caveat Emptor (“Let the buyer beware”) applies when it comes to “great” deals like a 200 euro iphone 6. The scammers will be in full swing for Christmas. Be cautious about buying from unknown retailers or the “super deal” deals.

Technology Prices
The range of technology items available is staggering and frankly mind boggling. You must do your research up front before being able to compare models and brands no matter what “gizmo” you are buying. A recent example of this was where I was quoted 180 euro for a combination tv receiver (satellite and saorview). Another retailer had an almost identical receiver for 69.95. That’s a serious price difference and you’ll find this type of pricing everywhere. Do your research and shop around.
I wish you all a very happy and safe Christmas. If that gizmo gives you trouble relax it’s the holidays and deal with it in the new year.
Oliver Reidy is a computer technician and has been in the industry since 1981.You can contact him via email at help.desk@reidyonline.com or at the telephone numbers listed on this page. This article, and all previous articles, are available to view online at http://reidyonline.blogspot.ie/ or www.reidyonline.com/blogspot.htm

Reducing Hacking Damage

Reducing Hacking Damage

This month I will begin to deal with some ways you can “decrease” the likelihood of Hackers getting at your Cloud accounts. Understanding the threat and also dispelling some common misconceptions about Cloud security are the two keys to putting you into a new way of thinking about your cloud security and indeed all technology. 

Hackers And Cloud Servers
You have all watched a small child doing something where you think to yourself “he/she’s going to fall if they keep that up”,  I won’t go into the moral  dilemma of should you prevent or let them learn through their mistakes as that is for another forum. The point is that it is pretty much inevitable the child will fall. Such is the case with ALL cloud servers. One way or another hackers will likely hack one or more of the cloud servers containing your login and passwords. Knowing that fact prepares you for the inevitable question: How does this compromise my cloud security?

Passwords And Patterns
Given the fact the hacker has one of your passwords you need to ask yourself what does this tell him/her about me and how I generate my passwords? Remember the hacker at this stage may have a great deal of personal information about you. Therefore if your password uses ANY of this information the likelihood is that ALL of your passwords may be guessed for ALL of you cloud accounts. A scary prospect but also very true. Getting your head around what I’ve just told you will, with a lot of you, immediately set off alarms bells. The reason of course is that quite of few of you not only use passwords generated from personal data but also you are using the same password across multiple Cloud servers. Let me remind you that one or more of those servers has or will be hacked and your password will be known.

Good Passwords and Why We Don’t Use Them
What is a good password ? Well, #2FutX@3$!6%g&7 is pretty good J. Even if I asked you to remember that you won’t because it contains no pattern. “molly2642” does and that’s why you use that good old easily remembered password on everything from your facebook to your email account. Do you recall those security questions you answered when you setup your email account? Well if the hacker hacks that server he/she will know them too. So your favourite dog, first car etc are known to him/her.
Next month I’ll continue on this rather uncomfortable truth about modern living!

Ransom Viruses Target The Cloud

In my last article, “Ransom Virus Version 3 Hits Ireland”, I outlined the arrival of version 3 of the ransomware virus and the dangers of relying on Cloud storage to safeguard your Data. It’s gotten worse with the release of research by techcentral.ie which indicates that not alone is the cloud being targeted but it is now being used to distribute these viruses across systems. According to techcentral.ie
“Cloud-based applications such as Dropbox can be used to spread malware in a couple of different ways. Attackers can upload the infected files to the cloud service, then share them with victims. Since there are many legitimate users of these services, they are not typically blocked by enterprises.” In addition, if an employee has an infected file that they save in a file-sharing system used throughout a company, the infection can spread to other users.” – (Source Techcentral.ie)

No Surprises Its Quick Money

There is, in my opinion, no surprise in this report as I had forecast the explosion in this get rich quick criminal enterprise. It’s a lucrative and effective way to steal money and it is obvious it will only increase.

A single ransomware network has pulled in $121m

Techcentral.ie also released an article detailing how a single ransomware author took in $121 million in the first six months of this year and netted a ($93 million /78% profit after costs.) This is probably only the tip of the iceberg as many businesses attacked by these viruses prefer to keep it “quiet” where possible. This secrecy only helps to reduce awareness and most businesses go on blissfully ignorant of the threat until it is too late and they fall victim.  According to the article there has been a 128% increase in these types of attacks during the first half of 2016 and I would expect it to continue. “Total mobile malware grew 151% in the past year”, according to the report.

Prevention There is NO Cure

As outlined in my previous articles the only effective method to recover from an attack is to have offline and secure backups. Take the time to ensure your data is stored securely and do not rely on Cloud replicas of your data as a solution. Seek professional help if needed. Stay vigilant you are a target for these crooks.

Links To Techcentral.ie articles.

Ransomware prevalent in cloud-based malware

A single ransomware network has pulled in $121m