If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS newsfeed so you don't miss out on all the information, news, tips and tricks.
Thanks for visiting!

Most people believe the banks will reimburse any losses from their accounts even when the fault lies squarely with the customer. This honourable position by the banks has been the case up until now, with many people seeing the banks reimburse losses  that are the result of fraudulent transactions on their accounts. But, this period of generosity may be coming to an end!

From the latest Banking Code:

Online banking
12.9 Online banking is safe and convenient as long as you take a number of simple precautions. Please make sure you follow the advice given below.
• Keep your PC secure. Use up-to-date anti-virus and spyware software and a personal firewall.
• Keep your passwords and PINs secret.
• We (or the police) will never contact you to ask you for your online banking or payment card PINs, or your password information.
• Treat e-mails you receive from senders claiming to be from your bank or building society with caution and be wary of e-mails or calls asking you for any personal security details.
• Always access internet banking sites by typing the bank or building society’s address into your web browser. Never go to an internet banking site from a link in an e-mail and then enter personal details.

Lots of sound recommendations that everyone should be following today. However, the big one from a customer perspective is the requirement to keep your PC secure and using up to date security software. But, many people are simply users that don’t always understand if their computer is fully secure and meets the recommendations made in the Banking Code.  The vast majority of PCs will have at least one issue that could allow the banks to use their “get out of jail free card” and avoid having to reimburse the customer.  

The banks will likely publish new terms and conditions that limits their liability whenever they are able to show you haven’t been following their recommendations for keeping your computer secure. Now to see how long before we see them applying this new culture to secure their profitability… the credit crunch and challenge of bank charges may speed along the real world implementation of this new culture!

Roundtrip Solutions is able to provide a service to secure your systems on an ongoing basis through a support contract. The ongoing option ensures the latest security updates are applied, your computer is running up to date security software and the latest best practices are applied. Computer support customers in Dundee, Edinburgh, Fife and surrounding areas may find our service to be extremely useful.

Technorati Tags: anti-spyware, anti-virus, banks, Banking Code, firewall, online banking

On Wednesday evening, James Eaton-Lee of NGS Software and John A Thomson of Roundtrip Solutions presented to the IET South East Scotland Local Network.

The PDF version of the presentation is now available.

Please leave us a comment if you attended the event or have downloaded the presentation and have some comments or questions.

Technorati Tags: computer security, IET, NGS Software, Roundtrip Solutions

The whole office burst into tears for poor Saarah during the reading of her heartache of an email. What a sad story, but at least the money will make up for things and she is welcome to join our family!

Dearest,

Pls i really gave this issue a second thought before i decided to contact you and relate this matter before you as to seek for your kindhearted help and assistance as i have no other alternative considering my present condition as an orphan Pls i pray that God will grant you the heart to fully understand my problems and my uncomfortable situations

Really i want to use this means to contact you in respect of my late father’s consignment deposited with a private security company, Firstly I am Miss Saarah My father was the director of cocoa farmers assocation in my country and he was into cocoa business as well, My Father deposited some amount of money ($4million) inside a box and deposited it as a consignment with a private security company as there was no possible means he could safe keep this money, This was because of the war in my country and this was the only means and way which my father could possibly move out this money from our country because of the political war,

My father used his posiion to move out this consignment through a diplomatic means to the security company’s affiliated vault outside my country because of the war, My father had the intention to travel over to the security company’s vault outside our country to claim and retrive back this consignment and use the money for an overseas investment, Before he was killed, as a result of the political war in my country which i believe that you must have heared about it over the news media, Pls since i am left alone as an orphan having lost my father and other members of my family that is why i have decided to contact you to seek for your total hlp and assistance in retriving this consignment since due to my age as a girl and coupled with my present situation and my inablity to travel out of my country to the vault of the security company, i want you to help me to claim and retrive this conignment and have the money invested in your country and as well help me to relocate to your country to start my life again and as well to conclude my education My Greatest problem is that the only person who is surposed to care for me (My Uncle) has refused to care for me as he is only interested in my late father’s left properties which he has totally taking over without making any provision for me well being, My uncle decided out of his wicked heart and drove me away from his compound because of my unhappy actions against him over my late father’s left properties which he has totally taken over without any provision for me well being Presently i am staying alone and i find it hard to survive and to sustain myself, Of cause i decided not to let him know about this consignment because if he by any means know about it, He will look for a way to take it away from me if possible he might want to kill me considering the amount on money that my father left, Pls i seek for your assistance, I seek your advise, I seek your suggestion and unreserved help in this matter, My intention to have my life scured and conclude my education and have this inheritance invested in a proper business venture is my Hope, It is my life and my entire future depends on it, Pls Advice me and Help Me.

Pls i am willing to offer you 20% of the money inside the consignment as soon as it is claimed and retrived from the vault of the security company, Most Especially a lasting relationship is what i will so much cherish and appreciate from you as i am left alone as an orphan, I will like to become a part of your family i will cherish to be seriously closer to you and have you as my Guardian, My Companion My Partner and my representative over my inheritance, Pls i am willing to detail you more and more about this matter i want you to know that this is the only inheriance which my father left which is presently within my possesion as my wicked uncle has totally taken over all that my loving father left, It is the only hope that i have to start my life again therefore i will higly need your total consent in this matter.

I am waiting for your soonest reply and i will tell you more about this matter May God bless you as you consider to help and assist me an orphan.

Yours orphan in need

Miss Saarah

 

Remember to checkout 419 Eater if you like to see the scammers getting theirs!  Scammers that scam the scammers… now we like that.

Technorati Tags: 419, 419 Eater, email, scam, scammers, spam

 Gary Short has just been mumbling about comment spam over on his blog. He probably doesn’t recall the days when the spambots would be using a vulnerability or new attack method to send hundreds of spam comments per hour! We’ve got one suggestion for him and it is shown in the Blaugh cartoon below - only kidding Gary as we’d still like to “comment” on your blog :-).

His post reminds us of the time when a spambot attacked our blog one Saturday evening, leaving a trail of thousands of spam comments to clear-up. Needless to say, security was hardened a great deal after that attack and comment spam has never been an issue since; although staying ahead of the spammers does take a little research and effort.

There have been occasions when the spammers would make blog comment system unusable, but those clever blogging engine and plug-in writers fought back with many measures to mitigate comment spam. For those lucky folk using Wordpress, a crack selection of security plug-ins will practically eliminate these parasites - well until they figure out another attack method.

Our current set-up for Wordpress blogs is as follows:

1. Spam Karma 2 (SK2) with the SK2 Akismet plug-in
   - You’ll need to register a blog at Wordpress.com to get an Akismet API key so you can fully use the Akismet anti-spam service.
   - You’ll need to go in and tweak some configuration settings to provide the desired effect for your set-up.
2. CJD Nuker
   - Although this has now been integrated into the Akismet plug-in, we’re still using it as a separate plug-in. The bundled Akismet plug-in has been disabled to allow the use of the Akismet service through the SK2 Akismet plug-in. Hope that makes some sense.
3. Bad Behaviour
   - This is really effective at blocking the spambots in the first place.
   - Cannot be used if you’re using a blog writing tool e.g. Live Writer.

More information on the Akismet service can be found HERE.

This set-up ensures that no comment spam ever gets to the public side of the blog, with the rest going into the proverbial trash bin of the Internet. Even those Wordpress bloggers only using the bundled Akismet plug-in should find comment spam a trivial issue.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the comment scum to find another way to spam us - hopefully never! Let’s try to stay ahead of them.

UPDATE:

There is a fix for Bad Behaviour’s blocking of Windows Live Writer:

Fortunately, it is not too difficult to fix this, though you do need to tweak the code base of Bad Behavior. Open the file msie.php in the bad-behavior subdirectory of your Bad Behavior plugin and find the lines which say:

if (!array_key_exists('Accept', $package['headers_mixed'])) {
    return "17566707";
}

Change this to read as follows:

if (strpos($package['headers_mixed']['User-Agent'], "Windows Live Writer")
    === FALSE && !array_key_exists('Accept', $package['headers_mixed'])) {
    return "17566707";
}

 More information on the nature of the problem and fix can be found on this James McKay blog post.

Technorati Tags: Bad Behaviour, CJD Nuker, comment spam, security, SK2,  spam, Spam Karma 2, Wordpress