Windows 10 - Lock Screen
Sometimes, the Windows 10 Lock Screen seems reluctant to move so that you can log in. Pressing any key or clicking the mouse should move the Lock Screen out of the way. I have found that, particularly after an update, the system seems so busy in the background that it does not respond to the key press or mouse movement immediately. Usually, waiting a minute or so solves the problem.
PHE Excel Fiasco
Public
Health England (PHE) ‘lost’ nearly 16000 positive Covid-19 cases at the end of
September. As a result, these were not
reported in the daily published numbers on:-
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
Even worse, these cases were not being followed up by the Track and Trace team.
So what went wrong? It turns out that the cases were imported into an Excel spreadsheet. A spreadsheet is probably not the best tool for this sort of thing, but the fact that PHE were using Excel 2003 or earlier meant it could only cope with 65,536 (i.e. 216) rows of data. Excel 2003 uses a file format called XLS, whereas from Excel 2007 when the XLSX file format was introduced, Excel could cope with 1,048,576 (i.e. 220) rows.
So, when
PHE imported the cases data (which use several data rows per case), any cases
beyond the maximum row number were lost.
There are numerous reports on this including this from the BBC:-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54423988
Maybe interesting to note that the free LibreOffice Calc software can also handle XLSX spreadsheets with 1,048,576 rows and this can be used free for commercial as well as personal use.
Cybercrime
and Internet Security
We have
covered this topic many times over the years at the Computer Club, but it is an
issue that merits frequent revisiting.
This Age UK article from 29th June this year states that more
than £5m has been lost to coronavirus scams and £16m to online shopping fraud since
lockdown began:-
https://www.ageuk.org.uk/discover/2020/06/cybercrime-uk/
You can
find my IT Security – Quick Guide (there is also an In-Depth Guide) on
my web site or just click on:-
bit.ly/CE-ITSecurity
This Guide includes some general Do's and Don'ts, advice on passwords, 2-factor authentication and more.
Scams
In my
guide you can also find a link to The Little Book of Big Scams published by
the Metropolitan Police and now in its 5th edition – here is a
direct link:-
https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/central/advice/fraud/met/the-little-book-of-big-scams.pdf
The book discusses all sorts of scams, not just online ones and suggests how to protect yourself, so is well worth a read.
Another
useful site, also referenced in my guide, is Take Five to Stop Fraud
which is produced by UK Finance, the banking trade body. In particular, I suggest you scroll down to
“Are You Scam-Savvy” and click Let’s Go to test whether you can tell a
real message from a scam. This is the
site:-
https://takefive-stopfraud.org.uk/
The Think
Jessica site also has some helpful information on scams and frauds and how to
avoid them:-
https://www.thinkjessica.com/
2-Factor Authentication (2FA)
My guide
mentions 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) and you can find a Tech Hints
& Tips article on my web site which gives more guidance. Click here to
go straight to the document:-
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ky6fsywsv1u07tm/2-Factor%20Authentication.pdf?dl=0
In particular, I would suggest you use 2FA to protect your main email account. This is the account that would probably be used to reset passwords for other accounts, so it is vital that hackers cannot access it.
As the above document explains, while 2FA codes are often sent to your mobile phone by SMS (see SIM-Jacking below), codes can also be received by voice call, email or via an authenticator app.
SIM-Jacking
SIM-jacking
or SIM-swap fraud is another worrying area of security. With your mobile phone number being used to
verify your access to an account as one of the 2nd Factors, criminals
try to con the mobile operators into issuing a replacement SIM card to them, so
they gain access to your mobile number.
While it is something to be aware of, we have to rely on the mobile
networks increasing their security to prevent this happening. See this Which? article for more:-
https://www.which.co.uk/news/2020/04/sim-swap-fraud-how-criminals-hijack-your-number-to-get-into-your-bank-accounts/
Stolen Usernames and Passwords
Usernames
(typically email addresses) and passwords are all too frequently stolen in
company data breaches. We discussed a
web site called “Have I Been Pwned?” back at the Computer Club in December
2018:-
https://computerclub100.blogspot.com/2018_12_09_archive.html
More
recently, I have written a Hints & Tips article explaining this in
more detail which you can find on my web site, or go to:-
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uw8zztpvsn88gki/Stolen%20Usernames%20Passwords.pdf?dl=0
So, you can check if your email address has ever been found in known data breaches. Don't panic if it has, but you might consider changing passwords on any accounts where you sign in with that email address.
This site can also show stolen passwords. However, it is very bad practice for a company to store your password. Organisations should only store a hash of your password which is derived by an irreversible mathematical calculation based on your password. So, a company should NOT be able to tell you what your password is - although they can let you create a new one if you have forgotten it. See this article for more explanation:-
https://www.howtogeek.com/434930/why-are-companies-still-storing-passwords-in-plain-text/
Public Wi-Fi Risk
If you are using a public wi-fi, for example in a café, you cannot be sure you are connecting to a secure network. Two solutions are:-
- Use mobile data rather than wi-fi, or
- Use a VPN (Virtual Private Network)
Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs)
PUPs, also called PUAs (Potentially Unwanted Applications), are a sort of mild malware. While they are not particularly malicious, they do consume your computer's resources and may, therefore, slow it down.
Windows Defender (WD) is excellent at protecting you from the more dangerous malware, but sometimes, PUPs slip through. Malwarebytes is a paid-for antivirus program which can be used as an alternative to Windows Defender. However, you can download and use it free for 14 days. By default, it would take over from WD for 14 days and then, assuming you have not paid for it, it will revert anti-virus protection back to WD. To prevent Malwarebytes taking over from WD during the 14-day trial period, you can turn off Malware Protection in Malwarebytes. This document explains how to do this:-
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xdr4of0xakieh9g/Malwarebytes.pdf?dl=0
You will get a daily pop-ups from Malwarebytes during the trial period urging you to pay for the full version, but you can ignore these. So you can leave Malwarebytes on your system and set it to run a daily scan as a double-check to see if it picks up anything WD missed.
PUP Protection in Windows 10
Note that, since Windows 10-2004, you can turn on PUP-protection in Settings by going to:-
Start, Settings, Update & Security, Windows Security, App & browser control. Under the heading Reputation-based protection, click on Reputation-based protection settings and turn on the switch under Potentially unwanted app blocking. Tick the boxes labelled Blocks apps and Block downloads.
To avoid installing PUPs, take care when installing software. Ensure you only download software from reputable suppliers and check the URL in the address bar to ensure it is "microsoft.com", "Abobe.com", etc. Make sure there are no little tick-boxes during the install process giving permissions to install "extras". This fairly old Malwarebytes blog has some advice:-
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/101/2016/02/how-to-avoid-potentially-unwanted-programs/
Best Devices for Video Calls
Margaret commented that the sound was much better on video calls when using her iPad compared to her PC. Phones and tablets generally have very good audio systems and, in particular, are very good at muting the microphone when sound is being produced by the speakers to prevent feedback. The audio system in some laptops is less good at this.
Office 2010 End of Support/M365
Margaret raised the fact that Microsoft Office 2010 has reached the end of support as of 13th October 2020. This means Office 2010 will no longer receive further updates, although you can, of course, continue to use it:-
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/end-of-support-for-office-2010-3a3e45de-51ac-4944-b2ba-c2e415432789
If you have a Microsoft 365 Personal subscription (formerly known as Office 365), this allows you to install Office on up to 5 devices for £59.99 per year:-
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/p/microsoft-365-personal/cfq7ttc0k5bf?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab
The subscription also gives you 1TB of cloud storage in Microsoft's OneDrive (rather than the 5GB free that you get for having a Microsoft logon).
FaceTime vs Messenger
Tony asked about the difference between these 2 video calling products. FaceTime is an Apple video calling app which is only available on Apple products, either iOS or Mac. Messenger is a Facebook app which can be installed on PC, Mac, Android or iOS and can make video calls or just text chat. Both allow additional people to be added to a video call by tapping an onscreen plus sign (FaceTime) or Add Person button (Messenger).
Norton Extensions
Allan asked about Norton extensions on Windows 10. First, I would say that you do not need to add any third-party anti-virus programs, such as Norton, to a Windows 10 PC as the free, in-built Windows Defender does the job very effectively. The extensions which Norton can add to your browser provide some functions, but most of these already exist in Windows or can be added for free. For example, Norton Password Manager extension - you can use LastPass for free as a cross-platform password manager.
When you install a third-party anti-virus on Windows 10 (such as Norton, or Malwarebytes as discussed above), Windows Defender will disable. When you uninstall the anti-virus program, Windows Defender will re-enable. To check your anti-virus status, go to:-
Start, Settings, Update & Security, Windows Security.
PC Wi-Fi Connection
Mervyn had an issue where the wi-fi on his PC had stopped working, but connecting using an ethernet cable worked fine. The wireless technology in the PC may have failed. You can purchase a wi-fi dongle for about £10 which plugs into a USB port and effectively replaces the wi-fi electronics within the PC. This is an example on Amazon:-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-WN823N-Wireless-Supports-10-9-10-13/dp/B0088TKTY2/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=pc%2Bwi-fi%2Bdongle&qid=1602761257&sr=8-5&th=1
Library Audio Books
John mentioned that the Cheshire libraries offer audio books using a service called RBDigital. They also offer eBooks using Cloud Library and eMagazines using Magzter. You can access these services via links on the library's web site:-
https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/residents/libraries/audio-downloads-eBooks-and-eMagazines.aspx
https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/libraries/eresources/eresources.aspx
And similar services exist in other parts of the country, including Borrowbox in Cornwall:-
https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/libraries/your-library-online/ebooks-eaudiobooks-and-emagazines/borrowbox-ebooks-and-eaudiobooks/
Next Session
Wed 28th
October 2020 at 2 pm by Zoom.
