December 14 Newsletter
I
hope you are fit and well. Can you believe we are almost at the end of the year?
Where has the year gone to?
Here’s a roundup of the latest news from the IT world.
Virus Alert.
Viruses and Malware (spyware) continue to bombard us every week, and they
are getting more and more sophisticated. This week one of my customers called me
to check whether an attachment they had been sent for someone they didn’t
know, was in fact a virus. I ran a quick scan and it was a nasty Trojan virus,
which could have done much damage, had it been opened. What was unusual was that
it came in as a Microsoft Excel file. Most viruses are usually are sent in the
form of a .exe or file (programme file). This is the first time I’ve seen a
virus contained within an Excel file.
I
cannot stress the importance of making sure your PC is properly protected.
The
ONLY protection I would use and recommend is ESET NOD32. In my opinion, the free
ones like AVG and Microsoft Security Essentials are simply not robust enough to
deal with today’s sophisticated threats. Mcafee and Norton are the most
popular brands and I’m personally not a fan of either for various reasons.
My
strong advice is to remove whatever anti-virus programme you are currently using
and then install ESET NOD32, for total peace of mind. You can have it on a 30
day free trial, even if it just to sweep your computer to make sure it is clean
or otherwise. Thereafter you can buy a licence which is just £30 for the first
year and £25 annual renewal. It’s cheap insurance to keep your beloved
computer clean and protected. www.eset.co.uk
if you want to do it yourself, otherwise I’d be happy to come and take care of
everything for you. I’ve always believed that prevention is better than cure.
Ongoing hacking problems
I’m still finding that
many customers are having their email accounts hacked into. The main victims are
from Yahoo & AOL, although Gmail & Hotmail are also being targeted. When
an email account is hacked, it’s usually NOT a problem with your own computer,
it’s when hackers manage to access the main server at these Internet giants,
and send out emails in your name, to all of your contacts. I’m getting at
least 2 or 3 emails a week from customers whose email accounts have been
illegally accessed.
So what can be done to stop
this?
1.
Change your email password NOW.
Choose a longer password (10 or more characters) using a combination of upper
and lower case letters, 2 or 3 numbers and even special characters such as
?&$! Etc if your provider allows this.
2.
Change your security information eg
mother’s maiden name.
3.
Consider buying your own domain (eg
you@yourname.com) which although not
impossible to hack, is highly unlikely.
I can help you with this if
you wish.
BT Infinity
Even though I had the nightmare of all
nightmares with BT when I moved house earlier this year, BT is still the ONLY
broadband provider I would recommend.
For those people who do not
yet have high speed fibre broadband, I would suggest that you seriously consider
it now. Not only is it a much faster, reliable service, but it would probably be
cheaper than whatever you’re currently paying. For example, BT is currently
offering Infinity 1, which gives you download speeds of over 30Mb, for just £7.50
per month. I think that’s a great deal and I bet its much less than your
paying now for a slower service.
You can check out the
current deals by clicking on the link below:
http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/products/broadband-packages/?s_cid=con_ppc_maxus_vidZ60_T1&vendorid=Z60&gclid=Cj0KEQiAiO-kBRCNxtaJp4-En6sBEiQAnkvW303dWzv2h39kzHq1pm7g7pnx_4aAYmkIx5NhkiXamF4aAlvn8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CKy5wcaN4cICFQJCfAodaVQAlA
Cloud Backup
I know I’m continually
nagging you about backing up your computers, but I’ve seen too many times,
cases where someone’s computer suddenly dies without warning, or is stolen.
Unless you have a full, up
to date backup of everything on your computer or Mac, you are playing Russian
Roulette. Armageddon could strike at any time.
I personally use 2 methods
of backing up my computers.
Firstly I use a WD Passport,
external hard drive, which I keep constantly plugged into my PC, so every email,
document, picture, is automatically backed up instantly.
Secondly, I use Cloud
storage which backs everything up automatically on ‘The Cloud’. This makes
all my valuable files accessible from any computer in the world.
I use a company called
Secure Data Online, and it works really well. It’s not free, but at just over
£5 per month, believe me, it’s cheap insurance, as well as being very
convenient should I need to get to any of my files when I’m away from home. It
works very well, especially if you have high speed broadband.
I beg you to consider at
least one of these options, and if affordable, choose to have both, like I do.
Prevention is always better than cure. Please call me for further details.
Gift Vouchers
I know that the season to be
jolly is almost over, but it’s never too late to give someone a unique
present, that they will really appreciate.
I offer my Gift Vouchers,
which gives the recipient a free hour session with me for either computer, Mac,
Ipad tuition, or for a free computer tune up and service.
The cost is £50.00 and I
can send it to anyone you wish. Please call or email me for more info.
And finally…..
Something festive to round
off the year. I’ve sent this before but it’s worth another look.
Click the link below to see
the moment a Flash Mob invaded Brent Cross Shopping Centre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR8z6NYmdXI
I wish you and your family a
very happy, healthy and safe New Year, and I hope to be of continued service to
you in 2015.
