Month: June 2018

Staying Safe Online in 2018

Staying Safe Online in 2018

Cybercrime affects home computer users as well as businesses – and criminals think up new ways to get your money all the time.

TheDigitalArtist / Pixabay

Some people have been really frightened by screen pop-ups saying they’ve been looking at illegal content and threatening all sorts of things if t

hey don’t pay up.  Check out www.actionfraud.police.uk for the latest scams and you will probably find that lots of other people have received the same messages.  Sometimes these scams download programs and viruses onto your computer.

The latest scare is about webcams – emails saying that they have a video of you watching ‘adult entertainment’ and threatening to show it to your address book if you don’t pay up.  It should be impossible to remotely control your webcam but, if in doubt, you can always put a sticker over the camera lens – and never pay up because, as we all know, blackmailers are never satisfied!

If you’re not sure, just give us a call – whatever the problem – we can remove anything suspicious.

If you get a phone call from someone you don’t know – ask for their phone number – then look up the number online to check if it belongs to who they say they are. You can always ring them back if the number checks out.  If anyone rings you and tells you there is something wrong with your computer, it’s most likely a scam, no-one can access your computer without your permission – if you are worried ring us, advice is free.

Emails purporting to be from official sources like the tax office or your bank are very often phishing scams and if you click on the link will download a virus onto your computer.  You will never be asked by genuine officials to disclose personal information like passwords or pin numbers by email or phone.

When buying online, the safest way to pay is by PayPal as they have very comprehensive rules that all users have to comply with – including a refund if you don’t get what you have paid for.

Some good news – it will soon be safer to surf the web – because you will be able to tell which websites are secure and which aren’t.  Safe websites will have a little green padlock in the address bar like this:

So, how do you get that little green padlock for your website?

If you have a basic, fairly up-to-date website, it should cost less than £120 to encrypt it, make it secure, and provide the initial SSL certificate. Renewal of your certificate thereafter should not be more than £50 per year.  Once your website has an SSL Certificate it will rank higher in search results because Google search engines prefer encrypted sites. If you rely on your website for online sales, the sooner you get an SSL certificate the better.

Rainford IT will be speaking at the launch of the Shropshire Innovation Network being held on 19th July at University Centre Shrewsbury, Guildhall, Shrewsbury SY3 8HQ 6.00 – 8.00 pm.  Free to attend for Gossip readers email to book a place – Dane and Kirt will be available to answer any of your questions.

You can also check out our website for the latest scams and what to watch out for and lots of useful free advice so you can keep to up to date:

www.rainford-it.co.uk    01948 840102