Date
1 - 10 of 10
Malware alert
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This morning a message was posted from a member, or from a site pretending to be a member, supposedly containing a document from Microsoft One Drive. The link to open the document was to a site containing malware. If you receive this post please delete it immediately. I have deleted it from the group, as well as turned on moderation. That means it will take a little longer for posts to appear, because I'll have to review each one. I'd hoped to avoid that, but this is the Internet we have to live with now. If by chance you have already read the post AND clicked the link please use your anti-virus software to check for problems.
I'd hoped that we'd have a little more rigorous filtering here than on Yahoo, but the bad guys are very clever at avoiding such things. I'm sorry I didn't go moderated from the start - I really hoped we were over that! |
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Mattes
Thanks for your caution, and I‘m sorry for the extra efforts you‘ll have moderating each post.
A shame that the bad guys are dictating the rules so often...
Greetings, Matthias |
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cas <cassweet@...>
Thanks Jim, I always liked the moderation. I liked when your text was red too. Is that still possible? Cas |
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Jim, I kept my group on moderation, I'm afraid there are some very advanced, 'I'm bored I think I'll stir up some hassle' folks dotted all over the globe. There are also a great many iphone, android phone, tablet and computer users out there that make it so simple for the mischief makers and the downright malicious scammers and hackers. I used to ask every one, do not put my e mail address in a contact list/address book/auto filler, use a good old fashioned address book and keep it by your computer. Type the address in and say NO when you are asked, do you want to add this to your address book. I got yelled at, told I was scared of technology, letting a mail handler fill the address bar was so much easier than typing in an address. Thanks to the number of folks who had address books etc, I had to give up my domain address, I was receiving hundreds of spam mails, proposals of marriage, phishing mails purporting to be banks, PayPal, Amazon, Insurance companies, help I'm stranded send me funds and medications for gentlemen with certain types of bodily failures daily. I asked numerous times what security programs did folks use on their computers, tablets, i pads, i phones or the android versions, and discovered worryingly most Apple products users, had no security apps believing wrongly they were more secure than android or windows products. This isn't a which is better an apple or a windows thing, but a genuine concern for the total lack of care so many folks demonstrate when using any Internet attached device. I eventually gave up trying to convince folks to use safe computer practises, put my old group on permanent moderation, got rid of my mail handler and read mails at server level, something I still do. My new group is on permanent moderation, yes it does mean more work for my two moderators and myself, but at least it keeps my members safer despite their reluctance to practise sensible computer/internet habits. I'm sick of folks telling me they are too old to learn new ways of doing things, Bovine excrement, what they really mean is 'I'm to lazy to try' one of my dearest friends is in his 90's and he is learning Cantonese via an online course ready for a trip to China later this year. We natter regularly over a landline phone, as he said, too many noseyparkers can hack my mobile and Skype is like letting a burglar in to rifle through my papers while I make a cup of tea, I don't disagree with him. From the bottom of my heart I say thank you for putting your group on moderation. Maggie Cooper in UK. |
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Ceil J
Thank you, Jim. Sorry you have to go through these hoops too. I also liked the red responses.
Countless times I've asked relatives (friends seem to get this point) not to put my address in a long list of things they think they need to send to everyone but instead to send it to themselves and bcc everyone. I'm guessing they don't read my emails (either). Recently I've been hit with a lot of spam but found out that with Gmail, I can set up the folder to send spam directly to the trash. Love this feature although most likely something of interest may, from time to time, be marked by gmail as spam. But I'm willing to accept that rather than have to look at those annoying and sometimes disgusting spam emails. |
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Unfortunately groups.io does not give me the ability to change text color. However I can reply using this funky typewriter font. My first word processor was a used Smith-Corona that I got while in high school. Learning the keyboard was the second-best thing I got from the college-prep class "Keyboarding and Notehand". The best thing I got out of that class was, of course, my wife of 48+ years.
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Sandra Williamson
In this group each person's email addresses are shown most of the time so I don't see this issue as an individual's responsibility to keep that information under wraps since it has already been shown (members only but that would include many addresses).
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Yes, my Gmail puts many messages in my spam folder & it does a fine job! Infrequently & typically after missing an expected message, I look there & can 'un-spam' the message but mostly, it makes me realize how active & effective that system is. I'd say 99.8% of messages there need to remain. That system isn't flawless though as yesterday in an attempt to keep track of information, I emailed a tutorial to myself & an alert was put on it saying that it was likely not sent by that person! I've used that for years because it works & has brought no attention til yesterday- I chuckled. Anyway, while I get that remaining private is nearly impossible, our technology serves us well, makes communication around the world as efficient as contacting a neighbor. I could not be without these ways & while remaining private is challenging, remaining reachable is my priority.
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cas <cassweet@...>
Swweeeeeeeeeeeeettttt! And congrats on more than 48 years. The font is cool too. J
From: onlinesewing-janome@groups.io [mailto:onlinesewing-janome@groups.io] On Behalf Of onlinesewing@...
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2018 2:26 PM To: onlinesewing-janome@groups.io Subject: Re: [onlinesewing-janome] Malware alert
Unfortunately groups.io does not give me the ability to change text color. However I can reply using this funky typewriter font. My first word processor was a used Smith-Corona that I got while in high school. Learning the keyboard was the second-best thing I got from the college-prep class "Keyboarding and Notehand". The best thing I got out of that class was, of course, my wife of 48+ years. |
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Cynthia Dickerson
I am new to Apple software. I just purchased the IPad for my Janome 15,000 and I also got a new Apple phone. I asked about a security app and was told I don't need that with Apple. What does everyone recommend that I use?
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You were told correctly for the devices you have. Those devices use the iOS operating system. Every app on iOS runs in its own "sandbox" that does not have access to anything in any other app. To use photos or calendar data each app must ask you for permission. This sandboxing is why there are no antivirus programs for iOS. An AV program needs to be able to examine everything coming into the device, but that's not allowed for any app on iOS. Every app from the App Store is digitally "signed", which guarantees that it has not been altered. Also every app in the App Store has been reviewed by Apple to ensure that it follows all of their myriad rules regarding security. As one who has had apps rejected capriciously for tiny reasons, I can assure you that they are examined very closely. Ironically the closest thing to a hack on iOS was some nefarious individual who created an app that was sold as antivirus, with a huge $1,000 fee. The reviewer that allowed this app in the store is probably still looking for work. A few gullible, and apparently well-off, people paid for the app so the guy made a quick score before they killed the app, which did absolutely nothing.
There is also a hacking process called "jailbreaking", which modifies iOS to bypass all of the protection. This has been an ongoing war between Apple and the hacking community. On the surface, jailbreaking means being able to add functions to the device without going to the App Store. There is even a separate "store" for buying apps that run on jailbroken devices. Each time Apple release a new version of iOS there is a scramble while the hackers try to figure out how to break it and insert their code. Anyone who uses a jailbroken device is wide open to virus. If you do this you are essentially saying "I trust everyone not to hurt me." Not recommended! For macOS the situation is different. There are antivirus programs for Mac, though not a lot of people use them. Apple recognized the risk of letting apps run that could access anything on the computer, so several releases back they locked down that capability. Developers who need access, such as utilities and antivirus, can still access most of the system but they need to be certified to do so. If they are not certified, the system will not allow them to be opened. There is a bypass that the user can use to run the app anyway, after acknowledging a warning that they are assuming the risk. There have been Mac viruses in the past, though not as many as Windows. That's because the Mac user base is tiny compared to the billions of Windows computers in the world, and it's possible to buy pre-packaged hacking code on the Dark Web. This enables anyone, even "script kiddies", to unleash their own Windows virus. Most of the viruses that hit Macs have been packaged in hacked, illegal copies of very expensive software. People download these things from shady websites, not realizing that the virus is embedded in the software. Both Windows and macOS ask the user for an administrator password any time something is about to be done that could compromise the computer. Unfortunately this happens a lot, and we get complacent. Every time the password prompt comes up we just enter it in order to get back to what we were doing. If you get a password request and you are not installing new software or hardware, don't automatically enter it without at least asking yourself "Who is asking for it and why?" You don't open your door to every single person who knocks, so treat your computer the same way. |
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