Haven’t posted for a while, been so busy with work I haven’t had a chance, plus I’m in process of building my new site with integrated blog. You’ll soon be inundated with updates and useful info, as well as some pointless stuff :)
This is a lazy post, I admit it.
I’ve been away from my blog for a while working on a number of projects as well as balancing a lot of general work (which is always a good thing and you’ll never hear my complain about workload!), so as a quick post, I thought I’d mention TwitCleaner again, the useful tool that cleans your stream of spam tweeters and annoying “people” who just post fake links to malicous sites.
So, in short - use TwitCleaner! It really is worth it.
Welcome along to another month’s computer tips, this month I’ll be writing about mobile phone and smartphone security, something, which a lot of people take for granted.
I’ve read a number of articles and reports recently talking about just this topic, and how users are taking risks without knowing it. For example, how many of you protect your handset with a security code?? I know I certainly do, and this is a feature available on many new handsets and is the first line of defence should you lose your mobile, or have it stolen.
As well as securing the device with a passcode, many newer handsets are vulnerable to such threats as malware and rogue applications.
The main purpose of current malware is to send premium-rate SMS messages and to obtain and sell your information. Luckily iOS requires user confirmation before sending premium-rate SMS messages so therefore prevents that issue; however the other smartphones are still vulnerable to this.
The best application I’ve found for both iOS and Android is “Lookout” it has several useful features which secure the phone and monitor it for any permission changes and anything that is out of the ordinary. As well as this it has a handy little backup feature to copy your contacts to their servers in “the cloud” – this can easily be turned off though if you don’t want the backup to run. Perhaps however, the most appealing feature is that once you’ve activated your Lookout account on their website, you then have the ability to report the handset as “Stolen” in which case you can locate the phone by using it’s GPS tracker, and not only this but the phone will let out a loud alarm sound whether the sound is off or not – meaning you can easily find it if it’s lost, or if it’s stolen the thief will get quite a shock!!
If you’re interested in using Lookout, please check out: https://www.mylookout.com/
Here’s a list of known Malware, taken from “A Survey of Mobile Malware in the Wild”:
Android:- Fake Player, Geinimi, ADRD a.k.a. HongTouTou, PJApps, DroidDream a.k.a. Rootcager, Bgserv, Zhash a.k.a. Zeahache, Walk&Text a.k.a. Walkinwat, Adsms, Zsone a.k.a. Smstibook, Smspacem, Lightdd a.k.a. Droid Dream Light, DroidKungFu a.k.a. Legacy a.k.a. Gonfu, Basebridge, YZHC- SMS a.k.a. Uxipp, Plankton a.k.a. Tonclank, jSMSHider, and Ggtracker.
iOS:- Dutch 5Euro Ransom, Ikee a.k.a. Eeki.A, Privacy.A, and Ikee.B a.k.a. Duh.
Symbian:- Kinap a.k.a. Panika a.k.a. Appdisabler, Flocker, Exy a.k.a. Yxe, Feixiang, BadAssist, Album, CommDN, MerogoSMS a.k.a. Merogo, Enoriv a.k.a. SMSSend.2, Down- sis, Nokmaplug a.k.a. NMPlugin a.k.a. Nmapplug, CReadMe, ZeusMitmo a.k.a. Zitmo a.k.a. Zbot, Sagasi a.k.a. SPIsSaga, Themeinstaller, GamePackage, Zhaomiao a.k.a. SZhaomiao, InSpirit, Instalarm a.k.a. Installer.A, Shurufa, Lopsoy, Spitmo, Sslcrypt, and SkinServer.
Recently I’ve spoken to a number of clients and indeed friends and family members who have had a phone call from companies posing either directly as Microsoft or as partners or affiliates.
First things first, this is not a new scam; it has been around for a long time. The give away about the whole scam is to know that Microsoft will not in any case call you and offer you support out of the blue. The only time you will receive a support call from a Microsoft representative is if you have sought help from them directly and they are responding to you, in which case they will have a reference number, or “Case-ID” as they are known, that they can quote back to you to confirm that you are indeed talking to a genuine Microsoft employee. Another thing to remember is that if it is a Microsoft employee, they will have the case details and indeed your name that you logged the call with so will speak to you by name.
If you have already received a call like this, then please read on for some advice on what to do next. If you’ve already given your credit card or debit card details then the first task would be to contact your bank and inform them you think you may be a victim of fraud. You will then need to explain the situation and what has happened.
You also might consider contacting your phone service provider such as BT and inform them of this, and if you noted the number that called you, give that to your phone supplier, as they may be able to prevent such calls in the future.
Hopefully that’s given you a quick education on these scam calls – it’s important to understand that this type of fraud may not just be limited to Microsoft, people may call saying they’re from other companies as well, therefore you must be careful to keep your personal information safe.
Here’s a basic guide to staying safe on Facebook and Twitter.
If you have a Facebook account, or Twitter account, you may have noticed some random posts appearing from time to time on your friends timelines with links to shocking videos or images, or a common one is “OMG – I can’t believe you can actually view who’s looking at your profile”. For starters, let’s clear that up – Facebook does not have a feature that can track who views your profile, and will not authorize an application to do so – so you can ignore that straightaway, and anyway often the links will have spelling mistakes and grammatical errors that give them away. With regards to Twitter, you may notice spam messages or posts with little information other than a shortened hyperlink (A garbled link designed to make you click on it through curiosity).
My first recommendation for securing your profiles is to use a free tool called “Profile Protector” – it’s from a security firm called Barracuda, you can find it here: http://profileprotector.com/ - to install you need to trust Barracuda to connect with your Facebook or Twitter account, and grant the app access to your profile etc, (now this is the sort of things that rogue apps want to do, but as I mentioned, Barracuda is a well-known security vendor so you shouldn’t worry too much about that). Once complete it will provide you with a little report warning you of any issues – if there is any.
My second free utility is called “TheTwitCleaner” http://thetwitcleaner.com/ - it’s a similar tool to the one above, but specific to Twitter, it analyzes your comment stream and gives you a full report on whether you’re following “Bots” (Fake accounts used to automatically post links or spam links) – then you can clean your list up by blocking or removing them from your accounts.
