Spalding Computer Services

I’m always telling clients, friends and anyone with a computer who will listen that they should have a backup strategy. As we commit more and more of our lives to digital files on our computers, the prospect of losing the lot due to mechanical or software failure, or simply poking the wrong key on the keyboard, is all too obvious. And yet most people still don’t have a backup strategy.

Backup software applications are included in the latest versions of Windows and in Mac OSX. And external USB or Firewire hard drives are cheap, so there is no excuse.
Don’t lose all those precious photos and documents if your computer crashes or gets
left on a train. Backup, and backup regularly.

What prompted this post is a backup of a different kind.

I’ve discovered this morning that the landline phone at our London address isn’t working. There is no dial tone and to anyone calling the number it appears to be ringing. But it isn’t.

Virgin media supply us with the phone, and super fast cable broadband, in London, but they can’t get an engineer out until Thursday despite my stressing the business use.
Fallback or ‘the backup strategy’ for outgoing calls is the mobile phone, but I could very soon use up my inclusive minutes and start paying exorbitant call charges.

The second layer of backup for outgoing phone calls is Skype. I’ve used that for Skype to Skype audio and video chats, within the UK and internationally, and that works well. I’ve even taken international calls made to our Skypein numbers in the UK and overseas. But I’ve never used it to make national calls, there didn’t seem to be any point

Well now I have to, and it works.

Using the built in mic and speakers on a MacBookPro, SkypeOut is an efficient effective backup strategy if your landline phone falls over. Call quality was excellent, there was no echo on the line and the person I called didn’t keep saying “pardon?”

Our only problem now is incoming calls to our London number won’t get answered until sometime Thursday. Memo to self, initiate a divert facility on the line as a backup.

Everyone uses Facebook. It’s almost the worlds favourite meeting place. But some users have a problem being specific about where they live.

As Facebook spreads it’s wings across the globe there are some areas of conflict it has to contend with.

One of those concerns the disputed territories of the Middle East, particularly the Golan Heights.

Until recently if you lived in Katzrin (Qasrin), your only option in your profile was to say you lived in Syria.

Not any more.
Thanks to a 2600 person strong Facebook group called “Facebook, Golan Heights residents live in Israel not Syria” things have changed. You now live in Israel.

Already, Arab news agencies Al Quds al Arabi and Al Bawaba are reporting that Syria may demand a boycott of the social networking site.

Facebook already uses this approach with The West Bank and will probably continue it with other disputed regions like Kashmir.

(The company skirts the “One China” issue — whether Taiwan is an independent nation or part of China — because the region is just called “Taiwan”).

Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing has an interesting slant on who does or does not own the database that was financed by the British public.

“Wikileaks is hosting a copy of the “1,841,177 post codes together with precise geographic coordinates and other information” for the UK.
One odd thing about Britain is that databases produced at public expense — maps of the country, lists of postal codes, transcripts of Parliamentary debate and so on — do not belong to the public. In order to use this data, you have to pay gigantic licensing fees to the government, who accordingly threaten to sue people who use them without permission.”

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/09/17/britains-postal-code.html

A link to the Wikileaks page is here but it’s unavailable as I write.

The Skype story continues to roll on. Sold to eBay by it’s founders in 2005 for around $2.5 billion, 65 per cent of it has now been off loaded to a group of private investors for around $2.75 billion.
Not a bad return you might think, as eBay couldn’t really find anything to do with the popular VOIP service that in anyway enhanced it’s online auction service.

But here comes the sting.

There’s a little bit of core peer to peer technology in Skype that still belongs, lock stock and barrel, to Joltid, the company owned by the two Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis.

And they are now suing eBay and Skype’s new owners for a staggering $75 million a day in damages. Joltid revoked Skype’s licence to the technology earlier this year.

Options? Not many really, without Joltid’s technology Skype would have to be re built almost from the ground up, which makes for interesting times for the new owners, and a bit of fun for us tech watchers.

Good grief. On the hottest day since records began this month, I’ve been sweating over a hot keyboard upgrading a bunch of clients Wordpress installations to the latest version. On the way I found one that had been infected with nearly 5000 spammey comments, of which Akismet had managed to snare around 2000. Considering the number of sites involved that’s not too bad.

Fortunately all the comments were held pending moderation and approval.
A quick zap of the relevant database table consigned the garbage to burn in virtual hell while the client sailed serenely on with his business, unaware that his blog was potentially punting a veritable cornucopia of snake oils and porn movies.

All part of the service.

If you’re running a Wordpress install earlier than 2.8.4, upgrade now before the spammers move in. Earlier versions have security issues that have been patched in 2.8.4.

These days it’s surprising how you get used to being in contact with people who are thousands of miles away at the push of a mouse button. Or carrying on a conversation by SMS text message via buttons on a mobile phone. Or even a plain old phone conversation.

It’s almost accepted that no matter where you are on the planet you can immediately “PhoneHome”, call up the mothership, download your email or update the blog without having to think about will it or won’t it work.

You get off the plane, switch on the phone and seamlessly get connected to the local carrier. Your hotel has an internet connection for guests, and wifi in every room if you’re lucky.
We expect it. And generally get it.

So when your daughter, who lives in the desert anyway but you see online almost daily, goes off on her travels and says ‘don’t expect to hear from me for a few days’ it’s a bit of an odd thing.

True to her word there has been nothing for the last few days. No email, no text message, no blog posts or Facebook updates. And she travels with a laptop and a Blackberry, so where the hell is she?

Well she’s on a desert island off the coast of Nicaragua that is so damn small it’s merely an out of focus blob on Google Earth. It has no electricity beyond generators at the various lodges, and no phones, landline or cellular.

But it does have internet, albeit for only 3 hours a day, via satellite. Probably a tad expensive to use which explains why we haven’t heard a dicky bird from her this week.

Regular users of the internet will occasionally be targeted by on-line criminals, scammers, call them what you will.

Your email address is a magnet for them. 10 of the most common scams are listed below, but in general the cybercriminal is after one of two things. Your identity and your money. And very often they’ll take both, thank you very much.

1. Phishing

A phishing technique was described in detail in 1987, and the first recorded use of the term “phishing” was made in 1996.

This is one of the most common forms of fraud. You’ll receive an email from what appears to be a trusted source, your bank, an auction site or popular social network asking for account details. There is often a link to a fake website that looks like the real thing. Your bank will never ask you for this information by email and you should never respond to this kind of request from anyone.

2. The Nigerian or 419 scam

You receive an email from what appears to be businessmen or officials from Nigeria or other African country offering to transfer a large sum of money into your bank account to get it out of the country. You’ll be allowed to keep a significant amount of this money, providing you pay a fee to cover transaction and legal costs.

A new slant on an old scam. In the days before email this was done by air mail. Never respond. If you hand over any money you’ll never see it again. Hand over your bank details and the account will magically empty.

I’ve seen these in recent years pretending to be from Iraq, Afghanistan and India, so don’t always expect them to be from Nigeria.

3. Lotteries

This one is simple. If you don’t buy a lottery ticket you can’t possibly win. And there is no such thing as a lottery of email addresses. So your unique email address also can’t possibly win any money.

4. Fake websites and fake goods

A little more difficult to spot. Fake goods sold by what appears to be a UK based company because the domain name ends with .co.uk. Anyone in any country can buy a .co.uk domain name. You could well be dealing with a chinese company selling fake and counterfeit goods. If it’s too good to be true it probably is. Buyer beware. It’s sometimes possible to spot these by the mangled English used on the website or in any correspondence emails but unfortunately in this day and age that’s no guarantee the writer isn’t English. You can do a domain whois lookup to see who owns the domain name, but even that information could be fake.

5. Selling online

If you’re planning to sell items on websites such as Amazon Marketplace or eBay – be careful. Never ship anything until you have the money. Never ship anything to Nigeria, or any other African country. Never give out any account information if requested by email, even if the email appears to have come from eBay or Amazon. Neither of those companies will ask you for this information by email in the course of a transaction. Never deviate from your chosen payment method. A typical scam involves asking you to accept payment via Western Union. Don’t.

Similarly be careful when buying goods on auction sites.

There is plenty of information on both websites about security. Read it.

6. Trojan emails

Trojans are a type of computer virus that can be installed without you realising. You might receive an email in the form of a promotional offer, for example, aimed at getting you to click on a link or open an attachment. These links/attachments will be infected with Trojans that record keyboard strokes and aim to capture passwords and other sensitive information.

Difficult to avoid but again if it’s too good to be true, it probably is and is best avoided. Keep your Anti Virus software up to date.

7. Economy related scams

If you’ve been struggling with debt recently, there’s a good chance you may have received an email from a company claiming to be able to help you. Possibly by buying your debts so you can then pay them a smaller monthly repayment over a longer period. Not possible. No-one can buy someone else’s debt. If you fall for this you will still owe the original lender the full amount and probably be out of pocket by whatever administration fees the scammer asked for. You won’t see them again.

8. Friends in need

The scammer has hacked into an email account and sent out an email to everyone in the address book saying your friend has had his or her wallet stolen and is stranded in a foreign country or hundreds of miles from home. There then comes the plea for a cash hand out to help them get home. You can’t phone them because the mobile was also stolen, or they are stranded in a place where the phones don’t work. But there is a Western Union office nearby. Phone your friend anyway, chances are they’ll be at home. Ignore.

9. Online dating

Almost as old as the Nigerian 419. Scammers create an attractive online profile on a dating website and wait for the punters to make contact. They might pretend to be from the UK and working overseas or say they live overseas. After a few email exchanges they will then either spin some sob story about being injured, or say they really want to meet you somewhere. But surprise, they don’t have enough money and could you please send some over.

Don’t send any money. You won’t see it again and the attractive sounding individual will disappear.

10. Charity or disaster relief

Usually following a natural disaster somewhere in the world. The scammers send out millions of emails purporting to be from a charity organisation. They may ask you to send money somewhere, or ask for your bank details so a transfer can take place. Charities do not tend to ask you for your bank details via email. Check with the Charities Commission first.

Reproduced in full. About the only good thing you can say about this glaringly obvious scam is it’s grammar and spelling are reasonably good.

I once had a desk drawer full of scribbled air mail letters from Nigeria, most written in pencil apparently by young children, offering to swell the contents of my bank account in similar fashion. What this one lacks is the once obligatory “may God bless you and all your family”.
You can’t have everything.

One interesting aspect of this though is the timing.
Less than an hour before this email fell into my spam box I had posted a comment on various social networks about this Estonian ISP and it’s links with cybercriminals.

Herm Anderson appears to be building a bridge in Estonia.
——————————————-

From: herrn.anderson@hotmail.com
Subject: details of western union
Date: 27 August 2009 10:46:31 BST
To: undisclosed-recipients: ;
Reply-To: william.anthony72@yahoo.com

I just sent the payment via Western Union in your name as I do not have your
account details correctly. I also want you to have the payment information
below:

Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN): 583-859-1945
Amount Sent: $270,000 USD
Text Question: for what
Answer: project

You can go to any Western Union location right now and pick up the cash
quick. I hope that you have a Western Union card / Promo code? You will
need this to collect the funds from any Western Union agent location. I am
already on my way to join my team in completing the unfinished bridge
construction project in estonia. We may leave town tomorrow and I couldn’t
go without dropping the payment information with you. We may spend 2 to 3
months there before the job would be completely finished. Remember that if
you do not claim the money before 9 days, they will call back the money to
my card. And if you do not have the Western Union card / Promo code, you
cannot pick up the cash. I may not be around to reply any of your emails
now, but I will talk to you as soon as I return.

If you do not have a Western Union Promo Code, you have to contact the
western union agent details below as i was told that the agent can
immediately arrange that for you,they will process and create a Western
Union card/Promo Card for you immediately and also send you a copy of the
voucher of the payment that I made upon request, via email.

Contact the office below for your Western Union card:
Contact Person: Anthony William
Email: wumtcardagent@finanzieltduk-uk.com

Send the below details to him
pick the money on time
Your Full Name:
MTCN number: (as above)
Telephone:
Address: (including state and zip code)

As soon as the office gets the above information, they will use the
credentials to create your Western Union card right away without any delay
if you do not have the Western Union card . Note that you will have to
purchase the Western Union Promo code. That is all to it. I hope to talk to
you as soon as we are back on the errand or call it project.

A cosy corner table in a cafe, a large steaming latte and someone tapping away on a laptop hooked up to the free wifi.

This is a common scene all over the world. I’ve done this myself in some unlikely places, including a double decker bus at the foot of a glacier and a scruffy looking outdoor cafe on a dusty street in The Gambia, as well as various Apple Stores, beach bars and bookshop cafes around the world.

But is this coming to an end. Will the globe trotting freelance writer have to find some other way to update the blog or file a story? Perhaps even revert to pen, paper and a stamp.

The lure of a cosy cafe with good coffee away from the distractions of domestic chores or the office chatter is strong. Many good books and travel articles have been written in cafes and bars by writers who prefer to be “Location Independent”.

With the current economic climate the true penny pincher virtually moves in for the day, with tea bags and lunch box. Draining electricity and eliminating the need to pay for internet access at home.

Where cafe owners used to encourage the regular business, potential customers are now being driven away when they can’t find a free table.

Unsurprisingly many smaller cafe owners are now putting time limits on laptop use, locks on outlets or outright laptop bans. But some cafe owners have expanded their business by adding more outlets. An ideal situation if they can afford it, as cafes are a popular place for business meetings and interviews.

Where does all this leave the globe trotting travel writer. It’s usually easy enough to stop at a cafe for a quick drink and a blog update, but that may soon be coming to an end. Perhaps it is time to relearn the art of putting pen to paper?