Probably mere coincidence, but I was in Morrison’s supermarket today when their entire check-out system failed … cue much scurrying-about by Management.

We were assured that the Internet had gone-down, but I did en-passant mention the Russians.

MichaelG.

🙂

On 21 November 2024 at 19:22 Howard Lewis Said:

…

Someone has hacked into my E mails.

…

Consequently have had to spend a lot of time upgrading security and changing passwords.

…

Don’t worry too much, it’s unlikely the email system or your good self have been hacked in the sense of this being an actual security breach.  Probably isn’t a crook inside Howard’s computer, busy mining his web/email history, bank & personal details.

More likely some ne’er do well has got hold of Howard’s email address and is simply posting accusations on the off chance he has a guilty conscience and will pay up without thinking.

Harvesting and selling valid email addresses for criminal and legitimate purposes is big business. Happened to me ten years ago because a friend of a friend enjoyed exploring porn and off-colour websites.  These websites allow users to forward jokes to their mates by email,  the booby trap being that the email is blind copied to the bad guys, who collected all the email addresses.  Text added by the baddies to the email invited recipients to forward the email to their friends, an electronic pyramid scheme.

So my friend blew my cover by sending me one of these nasties and soon after I got several blackmail attempts.  Knowing how, I was able to identify the source as Hanoi, and that the leak was my friend, who couldn’t understand he’d caused a problem – “Just a bit of fun Dave”. Had to close my email account and open another…

No harm in keeping security up-to-date and changing passwords.

Dave

Exploring that site a little further, the News page is always worth a look

… for example, this from 10-October:

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/russian-foreign-intelligence-poses-global-threat-with-cyber-campaign-exploiting-established-vulnerabilities

MichaelG.

Windows 10 users have a potential problem, as support ends next year.
Personally I’ve no great desire for a new PC, as this one does all I ask of it, but W11 isn’t suitable for hardware reasons.
I think there may be a way round that, but I’ve not explored it so  far.

Apparently Microsoft is planning to offer paid-for security upgrades for a further year

https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/31/24284398/microsoft-windows-10-extended-security-updates-consumer-pricing

Bill

I’m reminded of a very old scam (if that’s what they were called in Victorian times) that involved scouring the obituaries columns for a recently deceased clergyman, and then sending an invoice to their address for some salacious books. The grieving relatives, or his legal representatives, would invariably pay up in order to protect the reputation of the late Reverend, and not bother to question that the items had never been delivered.

Nothing new under the sun.

Rob

On 23 November 2024 at 15:21 Howard Lewis Said:

[…] Would you believe that having paid for better security, and having it up and running, they say that they have no record of the order, or payment, so that additional devices cannot be added! […]

In these troubled times, Howard … Yes, I would believe that ^^^

MichaelG.

Hi, some companies are stepping up to the mark better than others. A couple of days ago, I decided to put my Sat-Nav update service on my 11 inch Windows 10 S laptop, but before I could do that, I had to log into my Microsoft account to get a licence for changing it, the S you may know is a safe laptop that can be used on the internet, but will only allow Microsoft apps to be downloaded onto it. My Sat-Nav service isn’t one that is approved, and thus I had to forgo the S status, but boy the hoops I had to jump through to get through the process, which meant several emails to my registered email address with codes, that I had to put in, plus some “I’m not a robot” puzzles to solve, and then more emails to confirm things. Then there was the same type of thing with my Sat-Nav service, although not quite so bad, but getting my other emails registered, was also a bit long winded, but at least I was sure everything was secure.

Regards Nick.