Legalise your software and ensure the software you purchase is legal

Being in the IT industry gives some people the wrong idea of what I do so allow me to answer some of your questions before I continue:
Q: Can you score me that latest copy of Windows 7 for my son's PC at home please?
A: Yeah, sure! As soon as you get me that Audi R8 off the Tavcor showroom because that is what you are asking me to do...steal!

Q. What is a great site I can use to download free music?
A. iTunes

Q. Don't you know someone that can get me a free copy of Microsoft Office or Photoshop - it's so expensive and I don't want to just buy it?
A. Yeah, but you have to travel to a holding cell to speak to him now...shall I arrange it?

Ok, so maybe the last one is made up, but the others are actual questions I have been asked and amazingly still come up in some conversations. One would think in this day and age everyone would understand that piracy is theft.

However, who is to say that when you buy from a retailer you are safe? Even in a little friendly town like Port Elizabeth one is at risk of software piracy. This excerpt from an article of the MyPE website by Alan:

"Microsoft South Africa can reveal that a civil case will shortly be brought against a local computer shop owner in Port Elizabeth, who has been raided on two occasions in connection with selling unlicensed and counterfeit software to unsuspecting customers. A criminal trial is also pending against the same suspect. The suspect was not only selling counterfeit software, but changing the CK numbers of company invoices. The counterfeit goods were packaged to look like genuine products and included counterfeit CDs with simulated holograms and counterfeit certificates of authenticity."

 As you can see this guy went to great lengths to defeat the system. Feel free to read up on the rest of the article and the Anti-Piracy campaign here.

So next time you purchase a computer or laptop be sure to ask if it comes with any operating system and if it is bundled with your favorite/required software. Furthermore, most notebooks (and some pre-built desktop computers) come bundled and preloaded with the latest Windows Operating System. Ensure that your computer has the Genuine Windows sticker on the side (or underneath in the case of a notebook) and ensure that the retailer can provide you with a certificate of authenticity if it is not stuck on.

Remember, Microsoft can get to you - even in little old Port Elizabeth.

Regards,
WarBrad.

Facebookers beware - Warning from Symantec Security

Even though some of us do not care to admit it near everyone and his pet has a facebook page at this point - which makes the news from Symantec all the more poignant on a global scale.

This from the Symantec website about the possible security threat posed to some users:

"Facebook applications are Web applications that are integrated onto the Facebook platform. According to Facebook, 20 million Facebook applications are installed every day. Symantec has discovered that in certain cases, Facebook IFRAME applications inadvertently leaked access tokens to third parties like advertisers or analytic platforms. We estimate that as of April 2011, close to 100,000 applications were enabling this leakage. We estimate that over the years, hundreds of thousands of applications may have inadvertently leaked millions of access tokens to third parties."

It does appear that it mostly affects users that have installed third party applications via Facebook or played some of the silly games that your friends might invite you to join. Read the original article from Symantec here.

According to the guys over at InfoWorld the easiest way to get around the problem if you suspect that you might be vulnerable is to change your facebook password.

Constantly remind yourself to consider your online security - you would not drive down a questionable street in a questionable area of town with your windows down, your wallet on the dashboard of your vehicle and your doors unlocked would you? Well, not considering your online security, clicking on suspect links in emails and wallposts or even installing some of these third party applications is the digital equivalent of doing just that!

Allow me the opportunity to say that if you are using facebook to farm, play poker or any other silly activity - you are doing it wrong! It is intended to be a social networking site and should remain thus...

Always be suspicious and always be careful.

Regards,
WarBrad.

New Apple iOS update

To all my friends with Apple devices, I now present you with some good news...well, compared to my last post about the Virus for Mac.

Apple have released a new iOS update which plugs some holes in the "location capturing and storing" side of the application. Apparently there have been some concerns from some users of the iPhone and iPad. I think the fact that it anonymously tracks and saves all your location data without your knowledge or approval is concern enough.

Please read about it here. (Credit to Dan Moren and www.infoworld.com)

Regards,
WarBrad.

Virus for Mac...really!?

Turns out that the tough times that come with being self employed are even getting to the cyber criminals as they have had to leave the mainstream Microsoft market to embark on the road less traveled. It appears that the miscreants are now using "fake security software" to target Mac users who have long been safe from the threat of these attacks.

According to Gregg Keizer from Computerworld:

"Scammers are distributing fake security software aimed at the Mac by taking advantage of the news that al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has been killed by U.S. forces, a security researcher said today. A security firm that specializes in Mac software called the move "a very big step forward" for malware makers targeting Apple's users."

This kind of software (termed "rogue" software) is quite deceptive as it appears very authentic and would pop up and warn the user that the machine is heavily infected with all kinds of malicious programs. The only way to get rid of these threats is by purchasing this security software - however the software is worthless as it is fake and the threats actually do not exist. For more information on rouge software please refer to this wikipedia article.

It seems that their tactic is to create links to their sites which are hosting their rogue software. The criminals are doing this by spreading news and links about Bin Laden with links to fake articles which would actually lead you to one of their sites/domains allowing you to automatically start downloading their code without your knowledge. I have even seen some of the these Bin Laden links being advertised by some of my contacts on Facebook and I was already suspicious.

The most popular variant of the virus aimed at Mac users is named MacDefender. It has already appeared on some Apple forums with some of the readers/users asking about this new anti virus software:

"FYI, my daughter said the program started after clicking on a 'hair style photo,'" added "Mr. Fix It Home Services" on the same support thread. Others reported stumbling upon MAC Defender after searching for images of prom tuxedos or for pictures of a character in the movie "Princess Bride."

Intego, a French based security firm developing software specifically for Mac, wrote this article about this new threat.

Just goes to show that no-one is exempt from the threat of cybercrime - be careful guys and gals even on Apple now. A bit of advice that might just save you some trouble from Infoworld:

"Mac users running Safari can prevent MAC Defender from automatically opening after it downloads by unchecking the box marked "Open 'safe' files after downloading" at the bottom of the General tab in the browser's Preferences screen." 

Feel free to read the original article about the Mac Defender virus here.

Regards,
WarBrad.

SPAM - how to spot that fake message from the bank...

Surely I am not the only one receiving emails about winning the Nigerian Lottery, having a really rich uncle with the same last name as mine somewhere in England or about a suddenly expired PIN number from all the major banks around South Africa. Yes, at some point in our lives we have all received the occasional spam message, but fear not as there are some sure-fire ways to check if it is a hoax or if it is legitimate. Needless to say any mails telling you that you have won a lottery or that you have inherited money from England is a scam, but the emails from the banks are getting increasingly crafty. Take a look at this recent example:

example phishing email with authentic branding and no grammatical errors

This type of scam - where the user is asked to click a link which actually takes them to another site imitating the real one only to net your personal information - is known as phishing. To spot if any email is trying to phish for your information - simply hover over the link with your mouse (DO NOT CLICK) and check where the link is actually pointing - see the screenshot below:

check the link you are directed to when hovering over "CLICK HERE TO STOP DEBIT ORDER" link

What they do here is a simple link redirection to a page that they are hosting themselves or even to a page that contains some malicious code to intercept your information. Even I can do it in this blog post: click here to visit https://www.fnb.co.za/secure

The easiest and most basic tips to avoid becoming a victim should be followed in a top-down approach:
1.) never react to any email from a bank as the bank will never request any private information via email
2.) if you do not know the sender do not click on any links or respond in any way, nevermind opening the attachment!!!
3.) if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is...
4.) do not forward any promotions, virus warnings or any other message that requests to be forwarded to x-number of friends as this is just another way that the spammers net email addresses (also see rule 3 above). General rule of thumb is to check the validity of the claim via a google search before you lie to your friends and hand spammers their email address...
5.) if there is any uncertainty: forward the message to somebody that knows what to look for or even better, just delete it - no questions.

Avoiding phishing and email scams is easy if you just follow the hard and fast rules and think it through rationally. Click here for some basic tips and feel free to do your own reading up on the matter.

Feel free to send me your suspicious emails, queries or even messages that you have received and recognised as spam.Who knows, through my blog you might save somebody a lot of trouble!

Be safe,

WarBrad.

Backups - important for more than just your computer...

Recently I wrote a blog about the importance of backups trying to highlight why you need to backup your data - whether you are a basic home user thinking backups are not for you or whether you are at the top of a big company.

More recently I have found myself in the interesting situation where I was asked to restore contacts from an older phone to a newer phone and boy what an interesting project! Needless to say information on the internet for a wizard on how to import your contacts from a Nokia E66 to the latest iPhone was about as abundant as sober students, but I had to get this done - it became a personal thing, a pride thing.

After looking out for some tips on the net I set out with a plan:
* transfer all the contacts onto a memory card from the E66
* import these to my Blackberry
* connect the Blackberry to the Notebook with iTunes
* copy the entire address book from the Blackberry to the notebook
* import all the contacts to Outlook (or a similar program)
* connect the iPhone and using iTunes, synchronize all the contacts from Outlook

Unfortunately there is no easy way to import the 475 contacts in one batch to Outlook so I had to sit and add them all one by one. On top of that the Bluetooth connection between the Blackberry and the notebook was probably not the best idea and I should have just used the cable from the beginning - however overall success was on my side and not only was I able to import the contacts, but the email accounts, calendar information, tasks and several programs. iTunes really is a good program and Apple really have some fantastic projects out there!

I guess what I am really trying to say is every so often, just every month or so, try to connect that phone of yours to your machine with that cable that you probably lost with the box and try backup your contacts. Think about the years of friends, family and business relationships that will go to waste if you are to drop the phone in the pool, "misplace it" or if it gets stolen - probably not worth the risk!

If you struggle, open up that manual that came with the cable in the box, refer to the mighty Google or even give me a call as I have recently graduated to smartphone contacts backup and iPhone expert.

Good luck,
Warbrad.

Setting up your @chainmail.co.za account - step by step

Hi there and firstly thank you very much for using this free service from WB Consultants - I hope it helps you and please feel free to refer it to your friends and family.

Now, down to business. Here I have compiled a step-by-step configuration with screenshots to assist with setting up your new email account. Please note that I have used the default mail client that comes with Windows Vista called Windows Mail to set this up, but rest assured that it will be the same steps or relatively similar to set up in any other mail client.

Step one is to get to the setup screen - to do this, launch the mail application of your choice and get to the accounts wizard. In this case I obtained it from the Tools menu:

getting to the email setup wizard

Now we have to select what type of account we are going to create - here we select to create an email account as follows (if you have to select an account type at this point be sure to select POP or POP3):

select to add an email account

Once we have started up the wizard we can now input our personal details starting with your name. This name that you enter here will appear on your recipient's inbox so if you would like to show your full name then enter it so. If you are using this email address for your business or whatever else, enter here what you wish the client or recipient to see:

the name you type here will appear exactly on the recipient side

 This is followed by your email address - be sure to get this right as this is generally the address that the reply is sent to and that will be stored in the recipient's address book:

ensure to enter the correct email address

The penultimate step is the most important of the whole process - here you select what account type to use (if you have not already done so) and you give the name of your sending and receiving servers respectively. In this case the servers have the same name. Also be sure to select the option that the outgoing email be authenticated with the outgoing server when sending, generally the option can be ticked when configuring the smtp server:

ensure to select POP3 and use mail.chainmail.co.za for incoming and outgoing servers

The final step is to configure your username and password - here you are required to use your entire email address and the password that I have provided for you. Please keep this password on record somewhere, but if you forget it or lose it I can always reset it. Here's a screenshot of the final configuration step:

final step of adding the username and password - use full email address

Congratulations! Now you can finish and close the wizard and provided you have configured everything correctly, your shiny new email account is ready for the grind...

If you are unable to send email please do not hesitate to contact me so I can help to troubleshoot.

Otherwise, happy hunting.

Regards,
Warbrad