Category: information

Don’t Give In to Ransomware Attackers


Ransomware is an attack that locks your computer and mobile devices or encrypts your electronic files. When this happens, you can’t get to the data unless perhaps by paying a ransom.

Paying the ransom is never recommended, mainly because it does not guarantee you will be able to decrypt your files plus it encourages the criminals and gives them funding for further criminal activities.

There are also a number of issues that can go wrong accidentally. For example, there could be bugs in the malware that makes the encrypted data unrecoverable even with the right key.

A ransomware attack is typically as a spam email attachment. Opening the attached file releases the malware onto the user’s system and it goes about it’s business of encrypting the files and deleting the originals. When complete, it puts up warning messages or screens demanding payment or the files will be lost forever.

The Nomoreransom Website

The website is at https://www.nomoreransom.org

“No More Ransom” is a public-private cooperation to tackle serious action cybercrime. The main aim is to share knowledge and educate users across the world on how to prevent ransomware attacks.

Plus, they believe that by restoring access to their systems where possible, it will empower users to take action and avoid rewarding criminals with a ransom payment.

The website contains four decryption tools for different types of malware. These are freely available and  will work for any user infected with the threats listed on the website.

Nomoreransom is associated with and works with various law enforcement agencies and anti-virus companies including Kaspersky, McAfee, Avast and Bitdefender

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

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What are Cookies?

These are not the sort of cookies you buy in shops or make at home, but Internet cookies.

When you access a website, it is likely to store snippets of information on your computer – this is usually to help the website work efficiently e.g. remembering which pages you have already seen and not having to get you to login for each page.  These snippets of information are called ‘cookies’.

There are “session” cookies and “persistent” cookies.

Session cookies  are automatically deleted when you leave the website but persistent cookies stay until a date set when the cookie was created.

Most cookies are perfectly safe, but some can be used to track you without your consent.

What Are Cookies Used For?

Personalization. This usually refers to customized advertising i.e. presenting adverts where either you have selected which subjects for the adverts or your browsing is tracked so they can try to pick adverts you might respond to.

is the main way cookies are used to personalize your sessions. You may view certain items or parts of a site, and cookies use this data to help build targeted ads that you might enjoy.

Tracking. Shopping sites use cookies to track items users previously viewed, allowing the sites to suggest other goods they might like and keep items in shopping carts while they continue shopping.

Tracking cookies track multiple visits to the same site over time. Some online merchants, for example, use cookies to track visits from particular users, including the pages and products viewed. The information they gain allows them to suggest other items that might interest visitors. Gradually, a profile is built based on a user’s browsing history on that site.

Persistent cookies are used to track whether a user is logged in and under what name. They also streamline login information, so users don’t have to remember site passwords.

Cookie Settings

  • Find the cookie section — typically under Settings > Privacy.
  • Click the boxes to allow cookies. Sometimes the option says, “Allow local data.”
  • If you don’t want cookies, you can simply uncheck these boxes.

Removing cookies can help you mitigate your risks of privacy breaches. It can also reset your browser tracking and personalization.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

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How is Money Mail Doing?

The Daily Mail and Sunday Mail have a section called “Money Mail” and they do a good job fighting for consumers, revealing incompetence, highlighting injustice and trying to get money back for people who have been conned.

Their review of 2021 shows that they won back something like £1.1 million for their readers.

This included:

  • Scottish Power continuing to take monthly debits from a man forced out of his house due to a fire. They eventually returned £3,600
  • British Gas failing to take a meter reading for 2 years despite being told the smart meter didn’t work
  • Forcing Barclays to refund a £49,5000 mortgage deposit stolen by scammers
  • Covid fraud
  • Travel insurance failures
  • Power companies ignoring their customers

And much more.

If you’re struggling with a bureaucratic organisation and even the industry regulator isn’t much help then maybe the publicity of Money Mail on the case can help.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

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Ryanair Travel Agent Booking

Ryanair has complained to the regulators that too many people are booking Ryanair flights via travel agents and that’s causing problems for Ryanair including that some passengers are being overcharged.

This is perfectly legal of course – you can book a Ryanair flight via a physical or online travel agent. Ryanair estimate this to be 10% to 15% of their business – about 25 million flights per year.

They may charge you a premium over the Ryanair direct booking cost – but they do need to make money for their time spent, so is not unreasonable.

Most of concern is that they if they book the flight using their corporate credit card and then the flight is cancelled then Ryanair don’t have the correct details to process a refund and the agent may not pass on the full refund or refund  their own charges.

This is legal, so consider whether to buy a Ryanair flight directly through the Ryanair website or to use a travel agent which may be more convenient but more costly.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

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Is Your PC Making Bitcoins for Someone

Criminals keep finding new ways to take advantage of us.

Bitcoins and other cyber currencies are constantly in the news and this has led to endless scam offers of untold wealth from Bitcoins and other cyber currencies. But there’s also a new way for criminals to take advantage of you.

The Creation of New Bitcoins

This is through a process called ‘mining’ and it applies to most cyber currencies.

Cyber currencies use something called the Blockchain to keep a record of the currency and updating that Blockchain uses huge amounts of computer processing. Mining needs progressively more and more computing power to make those updates and this slows down the creation of more Bitcoins for example.

Bitcoin has been in circulation for some years and effective mining requires super computers.

However, hackers get around this by stealing processing power from large numbers of other people’s computers – possibly your computer.

The hackers infect your computer with malware that lets them download data to be processed and upload the results back to themselves. If you find your computer is always slow and seems to be busy doing something you haven’t asked it to do – this can mean your computer has been infected and is busy working for someone else.

The same hacking tool that allowed the Wannacry ransomware to wreak destruction in 2017 has also been used by hackers to take over people’s computers and use them for mining.

Another similar one is called Smominru and makes infected computers mine for the cyber currency Monero. It is thought that up to half a million computers were taken over for this purpose.

Make sure your computer is protected against these attacks through the use of anti-virus and anti-malware, take regular backups in case of data corruption or ransomware attacks.

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Internet Connected Gadgets at Home

Some homes are now filled with dozens of appliances, devices and children’s toys which can be connected to Wi-Fi and some are useful while others are just for fun, but if they are not fully secure the consequences can be unpleasant .

They often arrive with just a default password or no password, these devices can  provide an easy route for cyber attackers to get into your systems and look for confidential information.

The Internet of Things

The “Internet of Things” is a name for the adoption of Internet enabled devices in the home. The idea being that more and more household objects will communicate over the Internet. Common such items now include thermostats controlled by an APP, smoke alarms that phone you, toys that access Internet stories and music, the Alexa and Google Home devices that you can say instructions to and they use WI-FI to control other devices or find information or translate something. This also includes Internet-connected “wearable” devices, such as fitness bands which upload your GPS co-ordinates and telemetry to the Internet so you can access the data on your PC.

Many companies are working on more of these Internet of things devices.

These devices can give out information to interlopers that you may not consider e.g. the recent case of American Special Forces soldier wearing fitness bands and their location being broadcast on Google.  OOPS.

How to Make Your Connected Home More Secure

  • Secure the wireless network. Use the WPA2 protocol if your broadband router allows that option.
  • Give your Wi-Fi network an unusual name that doesn’t identify your address e.g. General Electric.
  • If guest access is enabled on the network – disable it.
  • If your router is capable of creating two separate WI-FI networks then use one for computer devices and a separate one for household gadgets.
  • Always use strong passwords that cannot possibly be guessed by anyone e.g. a string of random words.
  • Login name is often admin or administrator by default – If you are able to change the login name then change it to something that cannot be guessed.
  • Disable any remote access for gadgets. If you ever need it for allowing the supplier to fix a fault then you can re-enable it temporarily.

Some of these gadgets have appropriate Internet security and insist on strong passwords etc.  but others have little or no thought of security, so you must take care to plug any holes in security.

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