iFixit
I mentioned iFixit in the blog after last month’s Club, although I did not actually mention them at the meeting. iFixit is a well-respected company based in California that provides guidance, parts and tools to help fix all sorts of things, including phones, PCs and tablets.
For example, this is their page relating to the iPhone X:-
https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iPhone_X
Click the Store tab to order kits or tools, including Pentalobe screwdrivers for Apple products. They provide Fix Kits for things like battery or screen replacement which includes the replacement part and the necessary tools. You can also buy tool kits containing a range of screwdrivers, tweezers, suction cups and spudgers. Spudgers are various plastic and metal tools for prying open cases etc.
If you feel like attempting a repair, this is a good place to start:-
https://www.ifixit.com/
BT Offer Norton Instead of McAfee
BT Broadband customers can download and install free security software. They were offering McAfee but they have now switched to Norton. In general, I don’t recommend installing any additional anti-virus software on your Windows 10 or 11 PC. The inbuilt Windows Defender is perfectly adequate for most users. If you do install an alternative anti-virus such as Norton, Defender will automatically turn itself off. It will re-activate as soon as you uninstall the alternative product.
The Norton package from BT also includes a Password Manager. However, free Password Managers are available, as we have discussed before, such as Bitwarden.
In general, I don’t feel it is necessary to install anti-virus products on mobile devices as they are more secure by design. If you are a BT customer, you can read more about this at:-
https://www.bt.com/help/security/anti-virus-software/what-is-bt-virus-protect-and-how-do-i-get-it-
This guidance page from the National Cyber Security Centre answers the question "Do I need antivirus products on my smartphone and tablet?". Their answer is "No":-
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/what-is-an-antivirus-product
Encrypted DNS
Since iOS 14, you may see a warning on your iPhone saying:-
This network is blocking encrypted DNS traffic.
We have discussed DNS before. It is the Internet’s Domain Name System. In effect, it translates the name of a website (which you type into the Address Bar) into an IP number that the computers use on the Internet. Web pages are generally encrypted now and are designated with an address beginning with HTTPS and a locked-padlock symbol. However, until a couple of years ago, the DNS was NOT encrypted at all. This means that, while your ISP, or anyone else monitoring your Internet traffic, cannot see what is happening on web pages, they CAN see the address of the web pages you are visiting.
To add more privacy, it is now possible, in some cases, to encrypt the DNS requests. Two common protocols for doing this are:-
DoH – DNS over HTTPS, and
DoT – DNS over TLS
Recent operating systems and browsers can use encrypted DNS, although it may not be enabled by default. Also, there are some downsides to encrypting DNS. Online security services, including those provided by your ISP, cannot function – if they cannot see what website you are visiting, they cannot prevent you from visiting a known malicious site, for example.
While encrypting DNS increases your privacy, it is not so clear that it improves your security. So, Apple’s message saying that encrypted DNS is unavailable should perhaps be seen more as a ‘notification’ rather than a ‘warning’.
For more discussion on encrypted DNS, see this Cloudflare article:-
https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/learning/dns/dns-over-tls/
I briefly mentioned that you can use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) as an additional method of achieving privacy and security. You can read more about VPNs in this How-To-Geek article:-
https://www.howtogeek.com/133680/htg-explains-what-is-a-vpn/
Stardock – Start 11
Stardock makes a number of software add-ons for Windows. If you want more control over the Start Menu in Windows 11, you can try downloading and installing Start 11. It includes many options to customise the Windows 11 menu. Alternatively, you can use a Start Menu that looks almost exactly like the Windows 10 Start Menu. This is a paid-for app costing £5.99 for a single PC (or £13.99 for 5 PCs). However, you can try it free for 30 days.
So, if you have upgraded to Windows 11 but preferred the old Windows 10 (or even Windows 7!) menu, give Stardock Start 11 a try. You can download it from:-
https://www.stardock.com/products/start11/download
[Make sure you click on the Try free for 30-days link]
Windows - Controlled Folder Access
This is a feature of Windows 10 and 11 which is designed to mitigate the impact of a ransomware attack. Ransomware is malware that encrypts your data and then demands payment of a ransom to decrypt it. Ransomware is mainly targeted at large corporate organisations which might have the resources to pay a large ransom. As an individual user, you are much less likely to be a victim of this kind of malware.
Controlled Folder Access only allows designated apps to write to the key folders such as Documents and Photos, thus preventing malware from changing anything in those folders.
It makes more sense if you normally operate as a Standard User (rather than an Administrator), since the Admin password would then be needed to turn Controlled Folder Access off. If you are an Admin User, the UAC (User Account Control) box should still pop up if malware attempted to interfere with the Controlled Folder Access settings, but this just requires you to click “Yes”.
Windows has a list of many known good apps (e.g. Word, LibreOffice, etc) which it will allow to access the protected folders, so you can still save a Word document, for example. If you use an app that is not in the list of approved apps, an error will pop up when you try to save a file. You will need to add this app to the allowed list before you can save files.
To access this feature, proceed as follows:-
- Go to Settings (Windows Key + I).
- On Windows 10, go to Update & Security: On Windows 11, go to Privacy & Security.
- Click on Windows Security.
- Click Virus & threat protection.
- Scroll down to the Ransomware heading and click Manage ransomware protection.
- To allow a new app access, click on Allow an app through controlled folder access.
- Click on Add an allowed app.
You can click on Recently blocked apps to see and allow an app that was just blocked.
This How-To Geek article explains more detail:-
https://www.howtogeek.com/329532/how-to-protect-your-files-from-ransomware-with-windows-defenders-controlled-folder-access/
This article was written in 2017, so the current UI (User Interface) may look slightly different in places.
Next Session
Wed 9th March 13th April 2022 at 2 pm by Skype.
