Reminder to Maintain Tight Computer Security ! (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Thursday, March 31, 2016, 21:03 (3168 days ago)

I hope the forum admin don't mind my placing this post. I'm NOT suggesting this website is a risk or at risk, but recent FH news suggests this maybe a timely reminder to us all.

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I've read a FH magazine article today relating to computer "ransom-ware". I suffered hugely from this a few years ago, despite my PC being ultra-well-protected, or so I thought.. This was extremely stressful to me at the time, though thankfully I eventually managed to recover most of the hundreds of FH images and documents that I thought were lost forever. This was due to my extensive back-up system, albeit it took some months to recover them all, as it also did to remove the malware from my PC, during this time the PC was not usable and my researches were put on hold, which had a lasting effect on my hobby as family members passed-away before I could show them some of my findings, while I spent countless hours recovering images etc one by one...

Apparently the National Records of Scotland Genealogy services suffered such an attack and are now closed, see link to full article below. I'd like to think they have the resources and expertise to install a better security system than me, however being a public place they're more open to attack. Indeed 5 years ago it was me who advised my son's Secondary School that their own computer network was full of viruses and malware - they didn't believe me at first, as they had "inhouse IT security systems in place". However I was proven to be right, since then they've stopped letting all students plugging their own memory-stick devices into the school's many PCs etc, in an uncontrolled manner, as this was spreading malware into the school network; they've also changed their inhouse Securuty Software. Then as now schools encourage pupils to do homework, class presentations etc at home and then show them in school from memory sticks, luckily I always insisted my son virus-scanned his stick just before opening it, at home, hence we found these viruses he's picked-up at school by just plugging his stick into their pcs. This happened a few times before I stopped him using their pcs to do his homework on at lunchtimes. I then learnt that the "best" breeding ground for such viruses are kid's with smart-phones, as they unwittingly download "free" games, music etc from potentially unclean websites onto these microcomputers which they then share with friends on social media sites etc, and also into public access sites such as the school libraries; unfortunately many of these download websites are brim-full of problems, often from criminal organisations, who prey on the natural and naive curiosity of children and even some adults.

PLEASE, don't fall prey to these evil people.
This is a very serious problem that's cost billions, criminals see it as an easy way of making money !
Please read the safe web-links below which help illustrate this very serious problem.

Always ensure you have good and UP-TO-DATE Security Software installed. Nowadays very effective systems are available free-of-charge, see the regular reviews in highstreet PC magazines or Which?.
http://www.which.co.uk/reviews/antivirus-software-packages/article/how-to-choose-the-be...

ALSO ensure your web-browser is fully up-to-date; if your computer is "old" like mine (I use Windows Seven and Vista), then I suggest you move away from Internet Explorer and use other browsers such as Firefox which offer much-mproved security for these older machines. This was my Achilles heel, despite my using computers since the 80s so knowing the different versions of Windows etc, and the importance of Security, the subject of web-browsers was new to me, I didn't realise Internet Explorer was old-hat for modern computers and the weak link in my defences. Similarly, almost all computers use Java software in the background - if this isn't up-to-date then it's also very prone to malware attack, and like most softwares it won't be up-to-date if running with older Operating Systems or web-browsers.

Always ensure you back-up your important files, preferably away from your PC or laptop such as on a standalone hard drive, which is ONLY plugged into your network during the back-up process and when you're not accessing the internet. I also recommend you keep multiple back-ups, sadly portable Hard Disc Drives can fail without warning, even new ones from reputable brands, ditto memory sticks and cards.

Only download software from reputable long-established websites, if in doubt a quick web-search of a site's name will usually tell you whether to use or avoid.

Do NOT open suspicious emails, or randomly click on "adverts" on websites you're not familiar with. Do NOT post your complete email address on public websites or forums, such as this one, as criminals use automated machines to scan the internet to find such info, which they will then target with spam emails etc.

If in doubt when online, don't !

Hoping this is of help, please don't think it only happens to some-one else...

http://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/news/genealogy-news-round-computer-virus-hit...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35091714

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-35443434

etc etc etc....