Category: Blogposts

Posts of interest and presentations.

Posted on

Prevention and protection from Scams

And so we turn to passwords and online security. I’ve dealt with this at some length previously in a post entitled “Keeping safe online” which I last updated in May 2023, and although much of it is still relevant and most, if not all, of the links are still working, I thought to write something from scratch, rather than do another edit/revision.

I’m going to skip to the content at the end of the article referred to above and pick-up the theme of Passwords, Passkeys and Two-Factor Authentication (TFA).

First-of-all – you want a fright? Try typing your favourite password(s) – you do have more than one, don’t you? – into this website.

Secondly, check to see just how vulnerable your email address might be, using …

Screenshot

… go to haveibeenpwned? – and if you want to know what pwned means, and how to pronounce it, look here. If a service you use is in this list, you seriously should change your password!

Another approach is to use a tool that looks at your “digital footprint” to examine where you might be exposed. Such a tool is this one from Malwarebytes.

So that’s got your attention, right? You really need to deploy/use a Password Manager to hold your passwords – preferably one that is usable/consistent across all your devices. Two such products are 1Password and Dashlane. Both of which get very good reviews.

The alternative to using a Password Manager application is to use the password security offered by your browser. In Apple’s case this is iCloud Keychain – which stores the passwords – with its associated Passwords app; in Google’s case this is Google Password Manager. Both of these now offer support from one ecosystem to the other – so multi-platform users can choose one or the other. Microsoft also offer a Password Manager using the Edge browser, but its features are possibly not as well developed as those of Apple or Google, nor of dedicated password manager applications such as 1Password or Dashlane which score best with users who have a mixture of Microsoft, Apple and Google devices and applications.

And now we have Passkeys. When assessing whether you want to move to a Password Manager, you MUST check that the chosen one supports Passkeys as defined in the FIDO Alliance …

… and the key to its success and inter-operability is its integration with biometric signatures. So Passkeys are the platform for increased and improved internet security and should be welcomed with open arms – for Apple, for Google and for Microsoft.

If a Passkey can’t be employed on your favourite website, or even if they are, you may be asked to use 2FA (two-factor authentication). Using this means that when you’ve typed in your username and password you’ll be challenged to provide a code from a mobile phone, an authenticator app such as Google Authenticator, or go to another app (particularly if its a Google app), and do that extra second step (hence 2FA) to authenticate you are who you are.

We’re entering the passwordless world. It’s long overdue!

Finally, some other links to help you navigate the digital security world.

7 phone apps you need to secure right away – if you value your privacy – this could have formed the basis of an article in itself. It’s important to just check you’re doing the best you can to secure your favourite apps.

Best antivirus: Which? Best Buys and expert buying advice – a review for both PCs and Macs of anti-virus software – of course you could just be relying and using Windows Defender (for Windows) or nothing at all (if on a Mac), both of which are acceptable decisions, which then leads into …

Everything you need to know about cybersecurity basics – an inventory of terms, some with links to free tests, and the option to purchase tools. The definitions of terms are good.

Online learning events from the u3a – especially a recurring event “Staying Safe Online – A u3a Presentation with Q&A”

Posted on

I’ve been scammed – what should I do next?

So you’re an unhappy victim of a scam, apart from resolving the problem which was covered in the earlier post, what else should you do, and are there any other scams you should be aware of. Let’s look at the latter first.

Scams are not restricted to your computer, they can be “served” to you by phone or by text as well. [They can also be enacted face-to-face with vulnerable people.] The advice is constant and clear …

  1. Don’t give your details to anyone you don’t know – if in doubt say you’ll ring them back
  2. Don’t click on links in text messages (and emails of course) from people/organisations you can’t verify
  3. Don’t immediately answer a call from an unknown number, or a number withheld, if it’s a genuine call the person at the other end will speak; if they don’t, the connection will be dropped.

Then help stamp the practice out by reporting the matter to Ofcom. There are further details on how to report a scam on this page from Which? and this one from Citizens Advice.

Then there’s a UK website “Stop scams” – where you can report a scam by ringing the number 159. It works in exacgtly the same way as 101 (for the police) and 111 (for the NHS).

I would also suggest sharing details of the scam with Which? using their Scam Sharer Tool

By doing this – if you subscribe to their free newsletter – you will help others, and you, become aware of the scams that are current at that time. Here’s an example of what you’ll see delivered to your Inbox.

A couple of useful tools to check the veracity of a caller …

Who called me – a service that returns details of the likelihood, or otherwise, of the caller being a scammer …

Screenshot

… and Hiya available as an Android and iOS app – which I have to admit I’ve not tried yet …

Screenshot

So what were the “top” scams of 2024, and what should we expect in 2025? Which? in these two posts reports the past, and predicts the future …

The biggest scams of 2024

Five scams trends for 2025 – unfortunately it’s totally predictable that AI will become part of the scammer’s armoury of tools.

Posted on

Scams – Part 2

Almost exactly a year ago I posted on this site, and on the Cardiff u3a Digital Matters webpage, an account of one of our member’s encounter with the Windows Defender pop-up scam.

It was indeed pleasing to be able to report that the member resolved the problem and it didn’t re-occur – as far as I know – but pop-up scams are a concern and this short post just gives some illustration of what the issue is, plus some advice on how to resolve the problem if you find your machine has been “taken over”.

I like this US video from the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) which explains the issue really well …

… and their are many more videos on scams, identity theft and the like on their website.

Perhaps the most common scam is the Tech Support Scam – which is what the Windows Defender one mentioned above was. The objective of the scammer is to get complete control of your computer by persuading the user they have a problem which can be resolved by you letting them “repair” the problem remotely – so please let them have your userid and password. Quite the opposite of course – the result will be either you’re locked out of your computer whilst the scammer harvests your personal details (bank accounts, etc), or they are going to implant malware so that they can record what you’re doing online, or use your computer as a relay (an intermediary) for other attacks on other services. Not a happy place to be then!

So read this article carefully. It describes in far greater depth and detail what these scams are and how you can remove pop-ups.

A more extensive article which explains how to reduce and remove malware from a Windows PC is provided here.

Posted on

Privacy invasion

A single issue post to just alert folk to the murky world of credit reference agencies and their dual-role as data brokers – which I was (I’m ashamed to say) totally unaware of.

This came to my attention when I received an email from Experian – who I had an account with due to a data breach with my Pension provider which resulted in them giving members free 12-month access to their services – which advised that I had 19 “experienced” Soft Searches on my account with them. Now I’d not been seeking any credit recently, so this immediately sparked my interest and so I clicked on the link in the email (see above) and logged in to see what was happening. At which point I was greeted by this screen and the rather alarming sidebar, you can see here …

Screenshot

… just ponder this for a moment. I had always assumed that Experian was a credit reference agency which provided a service to organisations wishing to extend credit to consumers and businesses to give an assessment of credit worthiness. Indeed when I had an account with them, I could see my score, and you were able to challenge that if you didn’t think it looked right. But that’s all immaterial to what I was seeing on the screen. I was being asked to accept that it was perfectly OK for Experian to share personal information with their partners which included Facebook and Google. What!!!!!!!!!

This got me going, so I clicked on Settings …

Screenshot

Performance and analytics – OK, but the other two … no way! How could this be? I had to do some searching to find out that Experian (and a couple of other “credit reference agencies”) were also DATA BROKERS, and that they’d been hauled up about NOT declaring this part of their role in 2018. This appears to have been resolved now – because we are past the nine months they were given to clean-up their practices, but their other business purpose – sharing information with others would continue if you clicked on the Accept all button.

A real lesson learnt, with a secondary one being to engage brain before clicking on Accept all – the minimum requirement GDPR had imposed upon them and many others.

And what was the outcome of this. How had it come about, what is a “soft search”? The latter is explained on this page. How it had come about is more difficult to work out so this is just conjecture – our house insurance was about to come up for renewal and all 19 of the organisations who’d made an enquiry of our credit worthiness – or had been sent details of the upcoming renewal by Experian – were like these 9 …

Screenshot

… I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

Posted on

SIM Locks

A really useful security enhancement to your phone is to implement a SIM lock which ensures that only the pairing of your phone with your SIM can be used together. Thus meaning that a SIM taken out of your phone cannot be used in another phone to receive confirmation text messages in financial scams.

I wrote about this in the post Stolen phone & SIM locking

Towards the bottom of the post the procedures to be followed are described. You just need to remember the PIN you’ve given to the SIM to lock it, as without that it will be IMPOSSIBLE to reconnect your phone to your SIM and your phone number.

Posted on

A new dawn for the website?

Hopefully, the changes made to the website will make it more accessible. The blog posts that members have indicated could be made public are now accessible from the Home page, without a need to login. Some of the menus have changed a bit to accommodate this change and I’ve had to do some other cosmetic changes that I challenge you to discover!!!

For members who login, they will have access to everything that was there before. The menu tabs have not changed and the Forums and Topics area remains untouched. I’m keen to encourage more registered members to use this area of the website, as I’m keen to encourage them to use the various Signal groups that have been setup. Links to these groups for members who have downloaded Signal and created an account are available from the Digital Matters tab – once you’ve logged in.

All will become clear, hopefully … in the course of time.

Cheers. David.

Posted on

A.I. and magpies.

Originally posted by Philip Edwards on the Thought Grazing Forums

Hi Group.

You probably don’t know this but there have been times in the past when I’ve done a bit of writing; even managed to get things published. Sadly, upon retiring, I entered a deep period of ‘writer’s block. Strangely though I think A.I. has managed to draw me out again.

We regularly feed the resident birds in our garden. The magpies are my personal favourites. When grandchildren are around I often try to teach them the magpie rhyme; the one that goes, One for sorrow. Two for joy, three for a girl. etc. It got me thinking. Maybe I should buy them a book that illustrates the rhyme. However, I was really shocked to discover that there wasn’t one. Not even on Amazon.

So, I decided to write one myself.

I had tried using A.I. to generate images in the past. Along my A.I. journey of discovery though, I found out that it is possible to get Chat GPT to generate images for you. (There are restrictions though. You’re only allowed 3 images per day with a free account)

I started experimenting and found that I was stunned by some of the images.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/photos/share/uzB47k9GyWb5yOCwsgUVgRVsMKCrvoC4NVfwA8jrZjg

https://www.amazon.co.uk/photos/share/uzB47k9GyWb5yOCwsgUVgRVsMKCrvoC4NVfwA8jrZjg

I learned to be quite specific in my requests. It was possible to constrain the images to a certain size. It was also possible to get A.I. to add a certain number of magpies to the image however, it appears not to be able to count past three. If I asked for say seven, I’d often get some random number.

It even managed to offer me suggestions. For instance, when I asked it to suggest an image to illustrate, “seven for a secret never told,” it gave me the idea of a locked chest, lost in a forest. Genius.

Another surprise for you….I have an illustrator. A young lady by the name of Sue Rundle-Hughes. We’ve worked on projects in the past. Now, I feel that it would be wrong to use the A.I. images to illustrate a book, but surely it would be OK to use the images to illustrate my thoughts, then get the artist to flesh out the ideas with real paint and canvas.

I’ll keep you informed on the progress of the project.

— Forum Responses —

And another thing. Chat GPT appears to have an imagination. You can ask it to form an opinion. For instance.

Can you think of a good way to illustrate the line from the magpie rhyme, “four for a boy”?

Gave this response.

For “four for a boy,” an engaging illustration could depict a scene with four magpies interacting near a young boy in an English countryside or garden. Here’s an idea to bring this line to life:

To add more depth, consider adding elements that evoke a classic British setting—soft wildflowers, a gentle path, and perhaps a quaint garden wall or rustic fence nearby, creating an inviting scene of youthful discovery.

Imagine a serene, lush meadow with a young boy, perhaps around five or six years old, sitting on the ground, joyfully examining a small collection of wildflowers, pebbles, or other natural “treasures.” Nearby, four magpies are perched on branches, fence posts, or hopping around the boy, almost as if they’re sharing in his curiosity. One magpie might be holding a small trinket like a shiny button or coin, as magpies are known for their attraction to shiny objects.

Philip Edwards November 9, 2024 11:15 am

Both these posts are really interesting and I can see we now have two items to discuss when the group reconvenes. Your Composers “sapp” and this Magpie rhyme book – both using AI.

Thanks for sharing.

David Harrison November 9, 2024 3:55 pm