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Here you can find some tips on email scams, quick fixes or general advice to keep your pc running smoothly.

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Quick fixes to try before contacting Blue Skies Technology

The tried and trusted fix is to save any open documents and reboot the machine. If after this the machine is still slow then you might need to check your resources. press ctrl + alt + delete on a Windows machine and open Task Manager and then check the CPU, Memory and HDD usage on the right. If any of the 3 are peaking at more than 80% then you will need to call us to further troubleshoot the issue.

Restart your internet router to clear any open connections from the devices connected to the router. If after the reboot it is still slow reach out to our support for help.

There is a diagnostic message in the body of the delivery failure that indicates the reason for the failure. It could be the recipient address is incorrect or was mistyped. The failure says something along the lines of “The recipient address does not exist” or “address rejected”

Check the batteries or that the receiver is not too far from the peripheral.

If the system restore setting has been enabled on your device you can roll back to before you started having issues. To roll back type in system recovery in the search box or when you open the start menu and follow the prompts. NB!  There is an option to reset your device to factory and cause you to lose your data if you select the specific recovery option so use with caution.

Email Scams

We will start with email security as this is the most prevalent type of attack surface for bad actors to use to try and get a foothold into your network.

These are emails that “pretend” to be from someone in the company where the bad actor uses a director or manager in the companies name and surname as the display name but the actual email address is usually a Gmail email address so when you receive the email in your inbox the display name looks like someone you work with but in fact the email originated from externally.

impersonation email

Once you double click the email you can see that it is not from the correct person.

impersonation header

The email also usually asks you to complete a quick task or request you to send them a WhatsApp to the number in the email. Once they have “convinced” you that they are the person you work with they will then request you to buy iTunes vouchers or gift cards to Youtube and that you must send them the voucher details on message and they will reimburse you when they see you in the office.

Always confirm the sender of the email is in fact legitimate and if you are not sure then give the sender a call to confirm it was them that sent the email.

These are another form of impersonation email where the email is sent to the HR department “pretending” to be from an employee (display name is the same as an employee) and then requesting that their bank account where their salary gets paid to needs to be updated.

Always confirm the sender of the email is in fact legitimate. Don’t use the email as the only authorisation method to confirm the senders identity.

Phishing emails take the form of a notice from the system administrator that your password needs to be updated or your mailbox is full and you are requested to click on a link and type in your email address and password to clear out old emails. They can also be from someone you know where the senders mailbox was compromised and phishing emails are sent to their contact list, asking you to open an important document which is a link to a fake website asking for your login details. The website where you typed your details into is fake and the bad actor now has your login information to access your mailbox and company information.

Never click a link in an email and then type in your login information. Always open a new browser window and type the address of the website you want to visit in yourself, especially if it is your online banking website.

You might receive an email to provide a quote for a tender and are required to quote on very specific items for the tender for e.g. an SLR camera for filming adverts. If you search for a supplier of the make and model of device it will take you to the scammers website from where you can “order” and pay for the hardware which doesn’t exist. If the tender request is only for 1 specific item then ensure that the device does in fact exist.

General Computer Security

These are some basic security tips to keep your computer safe

It is recommended to try and use different or unique passwords for every service that requires a password but this can be difficult as most platforms these days require a password so at a minimum each person has 10 unique passwords to remember and then end up re-using passwords to make it easier.

Some suggestions for passwords:

    • Use a password manager like Bitwarden, which is free for personal use. These type of apps remember all your passwords for you and all you need to remember is the one master password to get access and it has an addin or extension for all the popular internet browsers so it will automatically input the password for the platform you are trying to access and it can also generate secure unique passwords for all your different platforms.

 

    • Use a passphrase instead of a pasword e.g. for Facebook you can use Butterfly-Blueskies-Facebook which might be easier to remember than a random password

 

  • if your device supports it use the built in biometrics like the fingerprint reader or facial recognition camera which will be linked to the unique password for the site.

If you are at an internet cafe always remember to logout of any platforms your were logged into and don’t ever use a shared computer for your online banking as there could be a keylogger running which records your login details.

If you are at a coffee shop or public space and using your own computer, remember to lock the device if you have to step away for even a short time.

Don’t access your online banking on an open public wifi as these networks don’t have encryption enabled so your network traffic can be intercepted and decoded to get your login details.