The Computer Man based in the Gatwick are has been providing computer repairs Crawley since 1999. Identifying a real need for a reliable, trusthworthy computer services to help computer users with their PC problems, founder Shush Arya decided to start the business. In the early days The Computer Man business carried out alot of setup and installation work for business and home users plus training on how to use the equipment. Their services have expanded over the years to include upgrades, networking support, wireless networks and website design. Full details of their services can be viewed at their website http://www.thecomputerman.net.

When asked how their business has continued to be successful for so long Shush Arya said “we have always understood the needs of computer users from a grass root level. People just want their computer equiment to work and they want it to work now! We strive to fix problems fast and effeciently and provide a solution to our customers problems every time.”

The Computer Man offer PC repair Crawley also reaches many Gatwick based businesses that service the Aviation industry. Arya went to say “There are literally thousands of small businesses in the Gatwick area and we are on hand to be their on demand IT support function.”

Outline of Scam

Email, purporting to be from Google Support, claims that the recipient will lose his or her Gmail account if he or she does not reply with the account’s username and password and other personal information within seven days of receiving the message.

Brief Analysis

The message is not from Google. It is a phishing scam designed to steal the recipient’s Gmail login details. If a recipient replies with the requested information, Internet scammers can then hijack the his or her Gmail account and use it for further criminal activities.

Example of the Phishing Email
From: Gmail Support
Subject: Your Gmail AccountDue to the congestion in our Gmail servers,there would be removal of all unused Gmail Accounts.You will have to confirm if your E-mail is still active by filling out your login info below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.

Account name:
Password:
DOB:
Country :

Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his or her account within Seven days of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.
Thank you for using Gmail !

The Gmail Team

As with any phishing email never send any account information on request and never disclose your login or password.

Top tip:

Use different passwords for different online accounts to limit your exposure in case someone does get hold of your password.

A report published in 2009 called the Identity Fraud Survey from Javelin Strategy and Research confirms the strong connection between identity theft and fraud. It warned the general public that they must be more vigilent and proactive when it comes to protecting their personal information from identity thieves.

The report stated, a person who is the victim of a data breach is four times more likely to end up being the victim of identity theft. However, Javelin noted that many consumers who have experienced a data breach may not know just how much it can affect them.

“Data breach notifications were intended to help consumers take protective action when their private data is exposed,” the Javelin report noted. “But there seems to be a disconnect between data breach notifications and consumer understanding of possible outcomes of data breaches.”

If you experience a data breach, there are a number of steps you can take to prevent identity theft. For example, you can put a credit freeze on your account, which keeps credit reporting agencies from releasing your information.

You should also monitor your credit reports if you’ve been the victim of a data breach. Along with a credit freeze, you may want to consider placing a fraud alert on your report.

Ensure your internet security software is updated and never click or download suspicious links in emails.

Can you imagine if your hard drive went down and was beyond repair or recovery and you lose all your important and sometimes critical data. How what that affect you and your business?

What about losing all your family photos or music that you have paid for and downloaded over the years?

Time and time again we go customers who are in exactly this situation and when we ask the question, is you data or files backed up, we get a very distressed response that it is not. How often have you said “I really ought to Back Up my Data” but you just never get round to it. Either you do not know how or you put it off till later. Later never comes.

Losing your Data is one of those things that too many people think it will never happen to them, but when it does the implications can be disastrous. Imagine as a business if you lost all your customer and supplier contact details and records. What if you lost all the data of which customers owed you money. The scenarios are endless.

We have listed below 10 really useful backup tips.

1. Never just remove a Memory Stick/Backup Device without first shutting it down in Windows.  In the Menu Bar bottom right there is an Icon that states “Safely remove hardware” when the mouse is dragged over the top of it.  Once highlighted left click once and a separate box will open listing the devices.  Highlight the device to stop and “This device can now be safely removed from the computer” will be displayed. At this stage and only this stage remove the device.  Alternatively shut down the PC and remove once shut.  Failure to remove correctly can corrupt the Memory Stick resulting in total loss of data.
2. Is your data critical for example End of Year? If it is and you are making CD/DVD’s Use CDR or DVDR Discs not CDRW or DVDRW this means that the data cannot be amended once saved.  Keep the Final version in a safe place.
3. Do you use Memory Sticks?  If you do “NEVER” ever use them as your primary source of data.  For example when working at Home and the office save your document to your Home PC hard drive, copy from hard drive to memory stick, save from memory stick to work pc, work on work pc and save to it, copy to memory stick, save from memory stick to home PC, work on Home PC and save etc.
4. Is what you are saving important to you?  If “YES” never cut and paste to a backup device/memory stick always copy and paste.  If during the cut and paste operation something goes wrong the data being copied can get lost.  Once you are happy that the data is copied correctly it is then safe to delete the original folder.
5. The biggest cause of CD/DVD failure is dust on the reader lens or finger marks on the CD/DVD.  Please clean the CD/VDVC with a damp cloth to remove finger marks and deposits.
6. Buy yourself a CD/DVD cleaning disc and use on a regular basis this stops the build up of dust on the lens that distorts the image resulting in invalid data.
7. It is very easy to Drag and Drop in Windows, so easy in fact that you can lose pictures/music files etc without realising.  By searching the C: drive you can find where you have moved them to and move them back to where they should be.  For pictures use *.jpg as your search criteria.
8. SD Drives, known as Secure Digital, are the most common Memory used in Digital Cameras and when inserted into a card reader and then the PC they are recognised as a Hard Drive.  Data can then be copied in the same way as with any other device.  If you have a Digital camera with SD card capability you can now get a card called SanDisk Ultra II that converts into a USB connector doing away with the need for a card reader.  These are available up to 4 Gig at the moment.  Please note that SD Cards are available up to 2 Gig and SD HC (High Capacity) Cards are available from 4 Gig to 32Gig.
9. IPods, iPhones, Windows Phones, etc these are all recognised by your PC as a Hard Drive.
10. External hard drives Laptop (2.5”) or Normal (3.5”). Again these are just large Memory Sticks where the principals always remain the same.

We also recommended an online backup service which you can schedule so it automatically backs up the Data you specify. Click here for more details.

If you unsure or worried about Internet Access and how safe it really is we have listed below
10 Really useful Website Security Information Pages.

Please note the items listed below are by no means a definitive list of those available but have been vetted by us for you.

Child safe

www.child-safe.org.uk Child-Safe is a registered international charity which aims to encourage children and young people to participate in travel, sport, community groups and specific school programmes.

Child Net

www.childnet_int.org/kia Welcome to Know IT All, Childnet’s  multi award-winning suite of education resources designed to help educate parents, teachers and young people about safe and positive use of the internet.

Get Safe

www.getsafeonline.org Get Safe Online with free expert advice.

Safe Surf

www.safesurf.com The birthplace of the Internet’s voluntary rating standard.

Think UK Now

www.thinkuknow.co.uk the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre.

AVG

http://linkscanner.avg.com Only AVG LinkScanner® can protect you from the Data Snatchers and raise your internet security to the next level .  Use with Google and Bing Search Engines.

Comodo

www.snapfiles.com/get/comodo-verification-engine.html Comodo Verification Engine is an anti-phishing add-on that works with all popular browsers and automatically verifies the identity of many commercial websites.

McAfee

http://home.mcafee.com/store/freeservices.aspx McAfee FREE SiteAdvisor™, a plug-in for Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers, tests, analyzes and rates websites in detail for unsafe or annoying practices such as dangerous downloads, spamming, misuse of personal information and browser hijacking.

Norton

www.safeweb.norton.com Norton Online Website Safety Tester.

Zone Labs

http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-gb/spyblocker-download.htm Detect and Block Spy Websites While You Browse the Internet  Use with Ask Search Engine.

1. Turn on your spam blocker. Most Internet providers provide a spam blocking feature to prevent unwanted messages, such as fraudulent emails and phising emails, from getting to your inbox.

2. Make sure you have adequate anti-virus software for your computer, such as McAfee, Norton Anti-Virus, Stopzilla or other similar programs. You also need to make sure you regularly update your anti-virus software and that you do a once-a-week scan to locate and eliminate any malware, spyware, viruses and other problems. If you don’t want to purchase security software, then there are programs, such as AVG, that offer free versions.

3. Use your computer’s firewall protection feature, which is a digitally created barrier that prevents hackers from getting into your computer system. Always keep it turned on.

4. Encrypt important data you don’t want compromised. Utilise encryption software, which “garbles” your data to make it unintelligible to anyone who tries to hack into your computer system.

5. Be wary of providing personal information via a website you know nothing about, especially those that ask for your name, mailing address, bank account number or social security number.

6. Make sure that you do online shopping on a secure website, like those with a url that starts with “https” and/or have a TRUSTe or VeriSign seal. If you don’t see these anywhere on the site, you run the risk of submitting credit card information and other personal information to a site that may be a fraud.

7. Avoid getting taken in by common scams, such as foreign lotteries, phony sweepstakes and similar methods used by cyber criminals to get your personal information and money. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

8. Monitor the online activities of your children. They should only have access to a computer located in a central area of your home and you should regularly check all browser and email activity. A wise thing to do is to use parental control software that limits the types of sites the user can gain access to.

Here is an easy to follow method to enable Auto Logon on Windows 7. After enabling this feature, the Windows 7 will not ask for password at the beginning and will directly log in.

To enable auto-logon on Windows 7 Desktop or Laptop Computer, follow the below 3 steps:

1. Press Window Key + R together, this will launch run prompt as seen below. Type “NETPLWIZ” in it without quotes and click OK. This will open a User Accounts Window

2. On the User Account Window as seen below, select the user which you use, and uncheck the option which says “User must enter a use name and password to use this computer”

3. When you click to uncheck this option, it will ask you to confirm the password, enter the password here. After this you are done. It was simple isn’t it?

Important Notes:

1. This is not recommended for business computers / office computers and laptops as its a security flaw if anyone can access your PC without a password. Enable this feature only if you have a home PC without important or confidential data and the PC is physically secure

2. After enabling the Auto Logon in Windows 7 you might see that your taskbar settings are set to default after restart.

Regular 6 monthly Health Checks can vastly improve the performance of your PC as well as saving you a great deal of money of PC repairs. A health check includes removal of unwanted files and makes sure that all Windows Updates are completed and your PC Security is sufficient and up to date.

PC’s that go wrong that have not had regular Health Checks tend have repair costs between 50% and 250% greater than if they would had regular Health Checks. This is mainly because they will require greater time spent to be spent on them and in many cases they need to be fully restored ie. backup down , full system re-install and data restore.

There is also then the cost of DOWN TIME of being without the use of your PC because of system failure.

The Computer Man offer two types of Health Check

The basic one hour Health Check where we remove unwanted files and check the hardware

The full two hour Health Check where we do all the above plus update or install security protection and Windows Updates.

When scanning a PC for problems it is not unusual to find 10 times the number of files installed than was originally supplied when the PC was purchased this must inevitably effect the performance of the PC and slow it down.

Several years ago Memory for PC’s was very expensive so only the minimum required was installed, prices have dropped dramatically and a cheap way of improving the PC’s performance is to install the Maximum Memory for the motherboard on your PC. In many cases this could mean that your PC may be capable of running the new Windows 7 Software.

It Could Be You…

What is phishing?

Phishing is the term that is used to describe an email scam that identity thieves use to trick people into giving out their personal information such as credit card details, Social Security numbers and/or passwords. These emails appear to be from Camelot, the National Lottery company. The emails tell recipients that they need to “respond immediately” regarding an issue with their account or that they have won a prize. The emails often contain a link which redirects you to completely phoney site which looks legitimate, complete with the company logo, that asks you to enter or update your personal information. The information isn’t updated but rather sent to an identity thief who will then use the information to use your account to spam or steal money.

What are signs that an email may be a phishing scam?

While the emails may look genuine with sophisticated graphics and logos, legitimate emails from national-lottery will never ask you to enter or reply with personal information such as login username and password. Be wary of emails that:

• Ask you to enter any personal information such as your bank account number, an account password, credit card number, PIN, mother’s maiden name, or Social Security number.
• Fail to confirm the company does business with you, such as referencing a partial account number.
• Warn that your account will be shut down unless you reconfirm your financial information – scare tactics are often used to get the recipient to act on the request.
• Warn that you have been the victim of fraud.
• Ask you to send payment information via email.

What should I do if I think I have received a bogus phishing email?

If you suspect the email is bogus, go directly to our website (not by clicking on a link in the email; go directory to the correct URL – Address) and visit the support centre to report the event.

As with any phishing email never send any account information on request and never disclose your login or password.

Top tip:
Use different passwords for different online accounts to limit your exposure in case someone does get hold of your password.

Ensure you PC security is up to date and windows updates are carried out regularly. If you are unsure on what to do we provide this as part of our service when we do a PC Health Check.

Although for many using computers today the “Floppy Disk” will seem to be an alien word. The plain fact is the floppy was the pioneer for modern data storage.

Floppy disks and floppy drives came onto the scene from Japan in 1983. Evolving technology and storage options including cloud computing and high-capacity USB drives, not to mention computers that no longer include the disk drives, have made the floppy disks less useful in recent years.

With modern PC’s and laptops have large hard drives and the fact you can now easily transfer data using the internet, there is a tendency to forget to do a backup of your data.

The acid test is to imagine if your PC was taken away today. Would you manage without it?

Do you have a backup of:

1. Family pictures and videos you could not bare to lose.
2. Important financial information.
3. Passwords and user names for accounts online and offline.
4. Important work or business related files; contacts, customer information, accounts.
5. Data from programs like Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express.
6. Data in other software you use regularly

We can’t tell you the number of times we have been out to clients and because of hard drive failure the client has lost all their data. In some cases critical data. The look on the customers face is of pure anguish.

Let the image of the floppy disk above serve as a reminder of the importance of backing up your data. And if you have any data on any old floppy’s that you you want to keep make sure you transfer it to another backup storage medium.

Shush Arya
Author The Computer Man Blog