Resetting iPad
Tony had a new iPad which he had already set up and was using. He wanted to reset the the old one back to factory settings. We went through the process of going into Settings and tapping on Username and then Sign Out.
Then going to Settings, General, Transfer or Reset iPad and selected Erase All Content and Settings.
See this Apple support page for more:-
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/ipad/ipad8f91b5e3/16.0/ipados/16.0
LastPass Data Breach
We mentioned the second data breach of LastPass customer information at the last Club on 14th December. On 23rd December, LastPass revealed more details and you can find an analysis of their announcement in this Ghacks article from 23rd December:-
https://www.ghacks.net/2022/12/23/lastpass-hack-update-user-vault-data-and-information-stolen/
Basically, in addition to customer names, emails and telephone numbers, the encrypted data vaults were also stolen. Only individual customers know their own Master Password – LastPass do not know this. So, provided customers used a fairly strong Master Password, their data will be time-consuming and expensive to crack – but not impossible.
If you have a LastPass account, it would be prudent to go through it and change the passwords for any accounts stored in your vault. Your email address and the URLs were not encrypted by LastPass, so the bad guys know the sites where you have accounts. If you have used 2FA on these accounts, the password alone would not be sufficient for the hackers to access them. Otherwise, for your peace of mind, you might want to change passwords.
I, along with many IT security professionals, used to recommend LastPass, but I stopped doing this in February 2021 when they restricted use of their free accounts to either desktop or mobile, but not both. Since then, I have recommended Bitwarden, which is free, but offers some additional features for just $10 a year.
This event is not going to encourage people to use password managers and they may prefer to stick with a paper record in their desk drawer!
This article, written on 2nd Jan this year, suggests 5 alternative Password Managers you might consider following the LastPass data breach:-
https://www.appsntips.com/best-lastpass-alternatives/
PBKDF2
All password managers use a ‘hashing algorithm’ which generates the key to unlock your vault from the password and other information such as your user name. For increased resistance from a hacker being able to generate the key, it is run through the algorithm multiple times, known as the iteration count. The higher the iteration count, the more resistant your vault would be against a brute-force cracking attempt. Whichever password manager you are using, I would recommend increasing the KDF iteration count to at least 1,000,000. For example, the default for Bitwarden is 100,001. You can log in to bitwarden.com and change the KDF iteration value. This Bitwarden Help page explains more and tells you how to make this change:-
https://bitwarden.com/help/what-encryption-is-used/
Note, you will have to log out and sign back in again to any instance of Bitwarden after making this change. The only downside of a large iteration count is that is may take an extra second or two to sign in, but, on fast, modern devices, this will hardly be noticeable.
The Quantum Computer Threat
John raised the question of future developments in quantum computing posing a threat to the security of current passwords and key-hashing systems. Quantum computers are only experimental at the moment, but security professions are working on encryption techniques that would be resistant to hacking by quantum computers. Since the meeting, I have found this article on the subject by the National Cyber Security Centre:-
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/whitepaper/preparing-for-quantum-safe-cryptography
Twitter Data Breach
Over 200 million email addresses of Twitter users have been leaked online – see this article in Bleeping Computer:-
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/200-million-twitter-users-email-addresses-allegedly-leaked-online/
This appears to be a leak of just email addresses, rather than any other data. The leaked email addresses have been added to the Have I Been Pwned web site. To check your email address, go to:-
https://haveibeenpwned.com
UK Emergency Alert System
The UK is expected to launch an Emergency Alerts system this year. In the event of major disasters or emergencies, the Government can issue an alert message to all enabled mobile devices with active SIM cards. This is a ‘broadcast’ system, so does not require individual phone numbers.
This system is found on iPhones running iOS 14.5 or later, and Android devices running Android 11 or later. See the Government web site for more information:-
https://www.gov.uk/alerts
I believe most phones will have Emergency Alerts enabled by default. The above web site suggests that, if you want to check or change the Emergency Alert settings, you should launch the Settings app and search for Emergency Alerts. While this appears to work on Android, we found that it didn't work on Apple devices. On Apple, you need to go to Notifications, scroll down to Government Alerts - see this Apple Support page:-
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202743
It would be advisable to ensure that Extreme alerts and Severe alerts are turned on. You may also find other settings such as alert reminder frequency.
End of Support
Support for Windows 8.1 ended yesterday (10th January 2023). In most cases, it should be possible to upgrade to Windows 10. Windows 10 will be supported through to its retirement on 14th October 2025. To upgrade to Windows 10, download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool from Microsoft:-
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10
Backup all data before performing the upgrade – just in case things go wrong. You can find a full guide to this process on this site:-
https://pureinfotech.com/upgrade-to-windows-10-from-windows-81/
As I mentioned last time, you can check for the end of support life for Windows and many products at this site:-
https://endoflife.date/
Phone Chargers
Linda asked if charging a phone more rapidly would cause it to hold its charge for less time. I don't think the time taken to charge affects the time to discharge.
Chargers do have different charging capacities. Most chargers have a USB output which operates at 5V. However, the current capacity can vary. You will see the voltage and amperage output values on the charger label. You may also see the wattage, although this is just the volts times the amps. So, a 5V, 2A charger is 10W.
Modern smartphones and tablets tend to accept higher charging currents than their predecessors, possibly up to about 4A or 20W or more. Using a higher wattage charger is fine, the device will only charge at a rate determined by its internal charging circuitry. However, if you use a smaller wattage charger, it may take longer to charge the device.
Google Contacts
Linda had issues exporting her Google Contacts with some contacts (in Other Contacts) not being included. I'm not sure why, but I suggested she try using Takeout. This allows you to export any or all of your Goole data. To use it, go to:-
https://takeout.google.com/
Select the required products from the long list - Contacts, in this case. Then click Next at the bottom of the page, make the appropriate selections and click Create export.
Apple Device Connections
Tony's new iPad has a Type-C port rather than a Lightning connector. This will be the standard, going forward, for all devices. The hope is that this will reduce the number of individual chargers we need and thus the number of them that end up in land-fill. See this Guardian article:-
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/26/iphone-usb-c-lightning-connectors-apple-eu-rules
Vodafone Broadband Issue
Brian had an issue where he had taken advantage of a pre-Christmas offer to upgrade to Fibre-to-the-Premises at a discount price. Having received a confirmation order with order number, Vodafone have subsequently said they cannot find any record of the order! It was proving difficult to deal with Vodafone over the phone. Tony suggested that Brian may be able to visit the Vodafone shop in Northwich and try to resolve the issue face-to-face.
Next Session
Wed 8th February 2023 at 2pm by Zoom
