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Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

...on serious topics that don't fit anywhere else at present.
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Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#1 Post by Alan H » August 13th, 2014, 12:27 pm

There have been some posts in Reception about this, but it was mainly in the Tech Help thread that many might not bother to read, so I thought we should have a separate discussion about online security, scams, malware and how to protect yourself.

I suggest we keep the Tech Help thread for specific help anyone might need, but have more general discussions here such as how to protect yourself and keep safe.

Firstly...

10 Things Cyber Crooks Could Do To Your Computer…without Touching It
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

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Alan H
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Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#2 Post by Alan H » August 13th, 2014, 10:49 pm

Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

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Dave B
Posts: 17809
Joined: May 17th, 2010, 9:15 pm

Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#3 Post by Dave B » August 14th, 2014, 9:19 am

Bloody hell, security just got even worse!

I have had cases where a bank has sent links in emails to sites for new notices etc. - how do I know they really come from the bank? Rather that they simply inform me that a new notice is available on the online banking site and leave me to get there in my normal manner.
"Look forward; yesterday was a lesson, if you did not learn from it you wasted it."
Me, 2015

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Altfish
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Joined: March 26th, 2012, 8:46 am

Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#4 Post by Altfish » August 14th, 2014, 10:03 am

Dave B wrote:Bloody hell, security just got even worse!

I have had cases where a bank has sent links in emails to sites for new notices etc. - how do I know they really come from the bank? Rather that they simply inform me that a new notice is available on the online banking site and leave me to get there in my normal manner.
It's not always the case but certainly any communications from your bank that don't include your name and some account details will be dodgy. "Dear Account Holder", etc. should go straight to junk.
Look at the e-mail address, it is usually fairly obvious that it is not official bank communications.

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Dave B
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Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#5 Post by Dave B » August 14th, 2014, 10:21 am

Altfish wrote:
Dave B wrote:Bloody hell, security just got even worse!

I have had cases where a bank has sent links in emails to sites for new notices etc. - how do I know they really come from the bank? Rather that they simply inform me that a new notice is available on the online banking site and leave me to get there in my normal manner.
It's not always the case but certainly any communications from your bank that don't include your name and some account details will be dodgy. "Dear Account Holder", etc. should go straight to junk.
Look at the e-mail address, it is usually fairly obvious that it is not official bank communications.
Yup, know that, used to get loads of them from, supposedly, other banks claiming there had been a security breach and that I needed to renew my security details. Funny, never got one of those from, supposedly, the banks I actually use.

But, these days and in view of Alan's head up the least number of links they send the more secure I will feel. As I said, simple advice/request to check on your, normally accessed, online banking site feels a tad safer. They do this for, "There are new edocuments for you", so why not everything, including ads for new services/accounts, instead of links? Only they know . . . (assuming they even thought about it!)
"Look forward; yesterday was a lesson, if you did not learn from it you wasted it."
Me, 2015

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Tetenterre
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Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#6 Post by Tetenterre » August 14th, 2014, 10:51 am

One of the things I like about the email software I use (Thunderbird) is that, when you hover the mouse over a link in an email, it shows you where the link actually points to. Also, Thunderbird is reputedly used by the French military, and they have contributed to making its security NATO closed-communication compliant. (Of course, the cynic in me now assumes that all my email communication is potentially available to the French military but, since I wasn't planning on invading France anytime soon...)
Steve

Quantum Theory: The branch of science with which people who know absolutely sod all about quantum theory can explain anything.

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Alan H
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Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#7 Post by Alan H » August 14th, 2014, 11:25 am

Any military will use encrypted emails, so a lot more secure than yours! Anyway, encryption is something Google is looking at and they have also announced that they will rank secure websites (that use SSL/TSL encryption - https://) higher that those that don'y. This will push more sites to use end-to-end encryption, making it far more secure and not vulnerable to hacking.
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

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Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#8 Post by Alan H » August 14th, 2014, 12:33 pm

Urgent! Adobe Users Told to Patch Reader and Acrobat Against Zero-day Attacks

The easiest way to do this is to open Acrobat Reader from the Start menu or simply open any pdf. Click on the Help menu, Check for updates and Install.
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

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Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#9 Post by Alan H » August 20th, 2014, 1:10 pm

Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

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Dave B
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Joined: May 17th, 2010, 9:15 pm

Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#10 Post by Dave B » August 22nd, 2014, 8:33 pm

It is a strange thing, this security avoiding behaviour.

My Norton runs out in two week's time and I feel very reluctant to fork out the £50 to renew it. Yet I have just spent over £300 "upgrading" my "carry all the time" digital camera when the old one was perfectly OK.

Must put my Sensible Head on soon.
"Look forward; yesterday was a lesson, if you did not learn from it you wasted it."
Me, 2015

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Alan H
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Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#11 Post by Alan H » August 22nd, 2014, 9:20 pm

Dave B wrote:It is a strange thing, this security avoiding behaviour.

My Norton runs out in two week's time and I feel very reluctant to fork out the £50 to renew it. Yet I have just spent over £300 "upgrading" my "carry all the time" digital camera when the old one was perfectly OK.

Must put my Sensible Head on soon.
There are many cheaper ones. I used to have a McAfee subscriptions to cover 5 PCs, but it has been getting consistently poor reviews so I let that expire at the start of the year and now have Kaspersky for three PCs (currently £21.17 for three PCs, £18.81 for one through http://www.antivirussales.com/), with a free version of Avast for the remaining laptop that is not used all that often.

We also have Malwarebytes subscription for three PCs for £18.00 for additional protection, but there is also a free version.
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

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Dave B
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Joined: May 17th, 2010, 9:15 pm

Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#12 Post by Dave B » August 22nd, 2014, 10:05 pm

Thanks, Alan. Good security is worth paying for but I think Norton is relying on its name (now they have sorted out all the annoying quirks their system had before!)
"Look forward; yesterday was a lesson, if you did not learn from it you wasted it."
Me, 2015

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Alan H
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Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#13 Post by Alan H » September 5th, 2014, 1:12 pm

Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

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Dave B
Posts: 17809
Joined: May 17th, 2010, 9:15 pm

Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#14 Post by Dave B » September 7th, 2014, 10:54 am

The Norton stuff that came with this machine ran out yesterday so I looked around. Decided to go back to my old AV - Avira.

Downloaded the paid for "Pro" version, tried a scan. Four hours later it was still only 32% done - stopped it. Reported 23 viruses found!

Now, were these viruses that Norton had missed or ones that got in between by uninstalling Norton and downloading/running Avira one might wonder. There was a round dozen of "Suspicious files" as well, some that I recognised as being mine, but I suppose that does not stop them being suspect . . .

Still has not completed a full scan, in 8 hours it is down to doing one file every minute or so - will take days at that rate! Query posed to Avira helpline on fix or refund basis!

Most of work being done on tablet at the moment.
"Look forward; yesterday was a lesson, if you did not learn from it you wasted it."
Me, 2015

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Alan H
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Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#15 Post by Alan H » September 7th, 2014, 11:05 am

The first full scan will always take a while - certainly many hours. Like many thinks, virus scanning isn't precise and what it finds depends on how aggressive it is and what it is looking for. There can, inevitably, be false positives so always check what it finds. Possibly the main fuzzy area is things called PUPs - Potentially Unwanted Programs. These can be innocuous and some anti-virus software may either have an incomplete list or simply categorise them differently.

Do watch out for rogue antivirus programs - there are some out there that aren't anti-virus programs but essentially trojans themselves. Always check with a reputable review site and always download from the website they give, not one you happened to find using Google!
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

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Dave B
Posts: 17809
Joined: May 17th, 2010, 9:15 pm

Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#16 Post by Dave B » September 7th, 2014, 12:07 pm

Thanks, Alan, will give it a chance.

Avira has a long history so feelhappy about it.
"Look forward; yesterday was a lesson, if you did not learn from it you wasted it."
Me, 2015

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Dave B
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Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#17 Post by Dave B » September 8th, 2014, 10:35 am

Avira took just seven seconds short of 17 hours to complete its first complete scan of the 250GB C drive. Is this normal? Never known it take that long before!

Wonder how long it will take to look at the 1TB archive drive . . .
"Look forward; yesterday was a lesson, if you did not learn from it you wasted it."
Me, 2015

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Alan H
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Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#18 Post by Alan H » September 23rd, 2014, 11:02 am

This is specifically about BT, but the advice is fairly general: Be aware of phishing emails
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

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Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#19 Post by Alan H » September 23rd, 2014, 1:16 pm

Is it *really* such a bad idea to use a password twice?

tl;dnr: Yes.
The bottom line

Don't make things easy for cybercriminals:

Stick to the rule: "one account, one password."
If you can only remember one strong password, try a password manager.
Change your passwords promptly if a crook might have got hold of them.
Use two-factor authentication (2FA) if you can.
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

User avatar
Alan H
Posts: 24067
Joined: July 3rd, 2007, 10:26 pm

Re: Online security, trojans, viruses, malware, etc

#20 Post by Alan H » September 23rd, 2014, 2:03 pm

Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

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