Onsite Computer Repair in Reno. Call 775-313-1951
Many are getting fake bills that look like they came from popular antivirus and computer companies. These are just attempts to get you to call the phone number in the email and scam you for a subscription you don’t have or already paid for. Ignore these. Do not call the phone number.
8.4 billion passwords online leaked — your security may be at risk. A new password leak called “RockYou2021” has exposed 8.4 billion private login passwords.
If your still using the same passwords for all your accounts. It’s time to change them now. Need help? Call RenoGeek to help you setup passwords that won’t compromise all your online accounts.
Jonathan Shimonovich of Check Point says …
“The malware attacks user-installed applications silently, making it challenging for common Android users to combat such threats on their own.”
The majority of the infections to date have been detected in India and neighboring countries, through 9Apps, a app store popular in the region.
But a growing number of devices in the USA reportedly have the malware installed as well. According to these researchers, the malware appears to originate in China, and successfully planted in the Google Play Store.
In this era of security threats, it would be wise to have anti virus products installed on all your devices. And RenoGeek always recommends to do a search for information about programs you wish to use before you install them, to make sure you are getting legitimate software.
Another breach, brought to you by the good folk’s over at Facebook’s messaging app, WhatsApp seems to let hackers install malware by just calling a users phone. First reports suggest that the user does not even need to answer their phone to become infected.
The vulnerability affects both iPhone and Android platforms and WhatsApp is asking users to update their app as soon as possible. WhatsApp, used by billion plus people, has confirmed the reports about this breach but as is par for the course, the Facebook subsidiary was short on details in a statement…
“WhatsApp encourages people to upgrade to the latest version of our app, as well as keep their mobile operating system up to date, to protect against potential targeted exploits designed to compromise information stored on mobile devices.” and then went on…
“We are constantly working alongside industry partners to provide the latest security enhancements to help protect our users.”
I have got a number of phone calls today asking if Microsoft is calling people about infected home computers. I have already covered this in depth for years and it is ALWAYS a scam. I have also seen today on Facebook a bunch of people asking if others are getting calls from the IRS and the Washoe County Sheriff’s office. It seems that these scammers choose an area code block and try and run every scam they got before hitting the next are code block on their lists.
So to be clear Microsoft will not call you about your computer. And the government and sheriffs office will not call saying they are coming to arrest you. (Why would they tip you off?)
My advice is still the same, hang up the phone. Do not talk to these people because they will save what you tell them and then use that information for a future attempt to con you or a family member.
Stay safe!
In the news today…
Canadian gadget retailer NCIX old computer equipment turned up on the second-hand market without ever being wiped, exposing the personal data of approximately 260,000 people.
We hear all the time of hackers breaking into computer networks to steal customer data. And companies spend billions worldwide to secure these networks. But it is often underreported that there is a huge security hole that people and companies almost never address, what happens to the data that’s on old systems?
Most people and many companies just dump their old systems, without doing anything to secure the data they hold. Which leaves this data ripe for the taking from the first dumpster diver that comes along. Also many people and companies sell their used computers on craigslist, ebay and other popular websites without addressing the issue of what happens to the data that was stored on these systems.
There is a growing trend of criminals that search for these systems as getting the login information for one bank account, credit card or your social security number could make them tens of thousands of dollars and they can get these systems for free (dumpster diving) or at very low cost (Craigslist / Ebay / Thrift store.)
While many people will spend days or even weeks picking their new computer, the sad thing is most don’t even spend 5 minutes planing what they will do with their old system.
The urban myth that you can just format a drive and be safe is untrue. As there are dozens of free utility programs on the Internet that will let somebody recover data from a recently formatted hard drive.
To be totally safe, old computer hard drives must be wiped with professional software that both encrypts the data that was stored on these drives and then overwrites this data with random data, to prevent others from retrieving what was on the old system.
As this is an operation most will not know how to do and won’t have the experience to verify was completed successfully, RenoGeek recommends that you hire a professional for this very last task your old computer must have done, before retiring it.
Otherwise you may have to deal with the consequences, sometimes years later, of your personal or customers data being released for the whole world to exploit.
It seems that the newest version of Avast (ver 18.6.2349) has been having issues with Malwarebytes. And the WebShield component of Avast maybe blocking all websites or at least causing connectivity issues that seem (to the end user) that their connections are down when trying to access websites.
The malwarebytes/avast issue has been reported to cause malwarebytes to crash when malwarebytes is running in “Real Time” protection mode.
At first Avast tried to blame the problem on Malwarebytes, but reversed their statements after the Malwarebytes team issued this statement…
“Upon first discovering the conflict between Malwarebytes and Avast, Malwarebytes reached out to a product manager at Avast, who put us in contact with one of their Real Site feature developers. This developer initially indicated that there was a problem with Malwarebytes Web Protection driver implementation. After cooperation and receiving detailed analysis from our lead driver developer, Avast determined there was a flaw in their driver implementation. They have indicated they have a fix and plan to release an update, but they did not provide any timing. In the meantime any Malwarebytes users experiencing these issues are advised to disable Avast’s Real Site feature.”
And with my own customer base… I have a system in the shop that crashed one customers laptop after he ran the update and his issue was resolved after removal of Avast.
I found the recommend fix to turn off the Avast webshield component or Malwarebytes real time protection, to be a useless workaround because in essence they are telling their customers to turn off their antivirus products. So what’s the point of having an antivirus program?
While some long time fans of Avast may wish to wait it out and see if they can fix the problem. RenoGeek recommends that Avast be removed from systems having these issues and be replaced with a stable antivirus product.
Over the last few days the number of client’s either infected by or cold called by fake antivirus companies has increased by about 300 percent. While I have talked about these fakes for years now. It seems that more people get fooled with each new wave of attacks.
If anybody ever cold calls you about ANYTHING having to do with your computer hang up right away. It’s not a legitimate company trying to help you out.
If you get a popup on your computer telling you to call a toll free phone number to clean your computer, turn off your computer, wait a few minutes and restart it. If the popup does not come back you came across a infected website and may be okay.
If it comes back after restarting your system then you probably have an infection and you should call a computer technician ASAP for help.
It is being reported that on Aug 20th T-mobile was hacked and some customer information was compromised.
Quoting from their announcement…
“Our cyber-security team discovered and shut down an unauthorized access to certain information, including yours, and we promptly reported it to authorities. None of your financial data (including credit card information) or social security numbers were involved, and no passwords were compromised. However, you should know that some of your personal information may have been exposed, which may have included one or more of the following: name, billing zip code, phone number, email address, account number and account type (prepaid or postpaid).”
While claiming some of their customers “Important” data did not get hacked, it’s pretty obvious that the information that they did loose in the breach is more than enough to reset user accounts (email addresses and phone numbers) which would let even an unskilled hacker get access to many users accounts.
T-mobile claims that this breach affected less than 3% of its 77 million customers. But as always Renogeek recommends that ALL T-mobile users change their passwords to be on the safe side.
The Associated Press is reporting that Google keeps tracking you even after you have turned off location history on your devices…
This report, confirmed by computer researchers at Princeton, have found privacy issues with Google’s Location History settings affecting most Android devices and even a large percentage of iOS devices (aka Apple) for consumers that use Google Maps or Google search. The investigation found that even when users “paused” Location History on mobile devices, Google services will continued to save user data.