Computer security is a tricky business, and we get at least 10 calls a week, asking is something is legitimate or that a PC has been ‘infected’.

Thanks to many media stories about hacking this and data that, people are, quite rightly, worried about the potential of their PCs lack of security.

Sadly, there are people praying on that very sense of paranoia, and promoting ‘fixes’ for ‘detected threats’ – when in actuality there is no real threat but the awful fake software warning you.

This warning rapidly escalates in to many pop-ups about ‘Security risks’, ‘Detected virus activity’ or ‘Illegal content detected’ ~ then, miraculously, you can pay £££s to have all these issues fixed.

That’s exactly what the scammers are after. Your hard earned pounds.

In this case approx. £45 MILLION  of your hard earned pounds!

Many, many people have fallen for this scam ~ and I have to admit (having seen several versions of this very scam), it does seem incredibly legitimate ~ paying sometimes over £80 to get the fake fixes.

Finally the FBI have got involved and conducted raids in 12 nations, worldwide. These raids, dubbed “Operation Trident Tribunal”, and led to computers being seized and gaining control of 5 bank accounts used to hold the cash collected.

The solution is simple ~ and incredibly impractical ~ don’t use the Internet or put anything on your PC. That’s the best preventative measure you can have (one security expert said that the only way to completely protect a PC from threats, is to leave it in the box!). There is however, some more practical, preventative steps to take.

Firstly, you need a good anti-virus package ~ we use the Eset software, and have for many years. This software will warn you of potential problems before you get some nastiness in there. It will also clean  the badness out if you do get infected too.

Secondly, don’t click on any advertisements, some carry secret code to infect and infiltrate your PC.

Finally, avoid websites that are heavy in those self same adverts, this usually means ‘free’ gaming sites, gambling sites, or anything of an adult nature.

If you do have problems though – call us! 08456 340 599
We’ll get you clean

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Yesterday was an historic moment in the ongoing development of the Internet as ICANN ~ the people that look after all the Internet’s domain suffixes (such as the .com or .co.uk stuff) ~ decided to allow any type of domain suffix to be allowed.

In principle this allows any type of domain to exist, for example you could register a ‘.gardening’ domain, a .magic domain etc. We could register the .rna domain and have any websites we use attached to .rna (i.e. we could run www.support.rna)

Now this all sounds like a great idea, and I can almost hear you corporate types salivating with the possibilities, you must be aware however, that there are a few huge caveats:

1. ‘Cyber squatting” is a frowned upon practice, so buying the .mcdonalds domain is out of the question – there is legal precedent in place that almost ensures that, if challenged, you will lose the domain without any recompense.
2. ICANN are making applicants prove that they have a legitimate claim to that domain name.
3. The cost is a little steep and comes in at £114,000 ($185,000 in actuality) ~ yes that is a comma and not a decimal point.

Now while you are picking yourself up from the floor at the price, I’ll give you my honest opinion – this is a complete waste of time! ICANN should have introduced some more specific names to cover the requests being posted (such as .museum for museums sites (this was already approved) and .sex for adult sites etc…)

Currently we all know the .co.uk and the .com domain suffixes, you will also have heard of people using .org and .net, though less often. These are all recognised and well known.
Imagine that you now have to remember the entire address, not just the web or email address but the whole shebang. ~ There will be no more guessing of the ending, and if you get it wrong, there’ll be no website or email.

The cynical part of me says that the statement from ICANN saying that the price is high to dissuade spurious requests has quite a hollow ring to it – Can you spell ‘profiteering’?

ICANN say that the costs will go towards:

• Paying for the domain creation
• Employing people to scrutinise the applications
• Legal costs to defend the inevitable challenges

Yup – that’s exactly where it’s going to go

Lets see where this goes – I’d like to believe that the corporates willing to pay such ridiculous sums to “increase their Internet presence” hold off and don’t play this game – though I’d doubt it

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Our new site is finally ‘Live’

This stands as a major milestone for us as the design is radically different from what we usually go with – Personally I really like it, it shows a professional ‘clean’ image.

The content is as you’d expect from us here – a mixture of advertising what we do and informing the masses as to how to help yourselves.

I must however, take this opportunity to apologise for the length of time it has taken to deliver.

Avid readers will recall that recently I posted about our foray in to the mystical realms of ‘Marketing’ ~ well, I’m glad to say that my cynicism has been proved soundly wrong and we are busier than ever!

This is a great thing, but something has to give, in this case getting the new website online took a back seat in preference to serving our clients (much as you’d hopefully expect :) )
One of the painful problems with running a small business is you have to wear many ‘hats’ ~ that is you have to take on many differing roles within the company, this is where things can slide.

Anyhow – we hope you like the new looks and we’ll look forward to working with you all in the future

 

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From time to time it has come to light that I have – well – let’s just say I’m a little on the cynical side (please try to curtail your laughter at the ‘little’ bit of that sentence).

It has been know for me to look for the potential problems and issues before anything gets set in stone ~ I like to think of it as attempting to be prepared.

Hmm…

Still – I have to take off my proverbial hat and doff it in the direction of Tor ~ She has (quite regularly) proved me wrong; I hate to say…

Traditionally we have never entered in to the realms of marketing ourselves ~ the bottom line is that neither Tor or myself are ‘sales’ type people. So you can understand my scepticism when we decided to embark on this process with some major time put aside for this very exercise.

We even popped over to see a ‘guru’ on these things – If you are reading Hi Pete!

So it is also understandable that when the results of said project started rolling in we (well, more I really) was a little surprised at the results!

Now I realise that some of you dear readers will be rolling eyes and spamming the old forehead with the palms of your hands at this revelation ~ but it’s a big thing for me to see happening.
We are getting a  great response to our ‘blowing of trumpet’ and are actively working the leads and interest we are gaining.

It’s looking very bright out there for us at the moment ~ we are looking forward to working with a whole new group of clients who need our help and will soon be without the usual IT woes that most businesses have.

Smiley happy engineer..! 

 

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