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....

Thank you for this reminder, Jefff.
A further tip, for protecting data you do not wish others to access, is to not dispose of your old PC/laptop but to disable all means of contacting to the internet - especially wireless.
You may then use this PC/laptop to maintain the data you wish to keep secure from third parties. Only connect to other devices via cable and ensure these are not connected to internet.
Use an external memory device (hard-disk or memory-stick) to transfer data between your secure PC/laptop and your internet-connected PC/laptop. You must check the security of any external memory device using your internet-connected PC/laptop before connecting the memory device to your secure PC/laptop, because the virus-checking software will not be updated. If you follow thes rules, the virus checker on the secure computer is not necessary.

Thanks to Jeff and Eric.
I have fairly recently disposed of a desktop and laptop and upgraded. We have all seen the TV Crime series, where information on computer hard drives can be accessed with the appropriate equipment no matter how careful you are at deleting sensitive information. There is only one safe way - destroy the hard drive. Use a simple enquiry with Google how do I remove a hard drive from - Computer XXX... and you will find it is quite simple, remove it then have fun with a hammer and cold chisel or screwdriver. They are quite strong and a hammer alone might not cause sufficient damage.
Also remember it is not just your own security to be concerned about. Following the Talk Talk Hacking last October, I received a letter stating that I need not be concerned as my information was not accessed - very reassuring. Not long afterwards people started to receive emails from my address - some asking for money - purporting to be from me, then fraudulent activity on my credit card used with Talk Talk and over £500 taken. Changing email addresses is a real pain but worse still, once someone has your address, you can do nothing to stop the hacker using it, emails from my old address are still being received and again some asking for money.
How many people take advantage of Free Wi Fi in places like Wetherspoons, on trains, B & Q Etc Etc. All these organisations can be hacked too - think about it.
Lastly forwarding Emails - joke emails and especially those asking to be forwarded. Hackers often start these off and send it to a gullible person knowing that it will be forwarded again and again. They attach a tag, so that each time it is forwarded, it is copied back to them with another batch of addresses. If you do forward joke emails only ever use Bcc for the addresses.

The purpose of this Forum is to enable our users to seek help with or contribute to matters relating to Forest of Dean Family History and if we are to abide by this then the aforementioned postings should be removed. However given the guidance is of most helpful nature we have decided to let it remain but over time it is unlikely that this thread will be seen so we will replace it with an article which can be sourced via a link as in the case of Posting Guidelines.

In the meantime we would remind Users not to post email addresses and if you are happy to be contacted via the website tick the box against “Make email address contactable” in your User Profile. See Help-FAQ:
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/joomla/help-faq#faq8
and
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/joomla/help-faq#faq10
We would add that your email address is not disclosed to senders using this facility.