Default Password? No Thank You!

Have you ever been in a location where you need Internet access and you use your mobile phone as a Personal or Portable Hotspot.  Essentially you use your mobile phone's Internet connection as a WIFI for your laptop or other devices.

Upon setting this up initially, you might find that your device will provide you with a password to use. How convenient! However, you might give consideration before making use of that connection.

In a recent test, researchers found that the list of words selected for these default passwords was little under 2000, and with equipment that could try 390,000 guesses per second, were able to crack the password in under a minute.

Have you evaluated your password recently ? How secure is your password ? Social networking is an open book when it comes to your life, is your password made up of names of places or children or maiden names - things that could easily be guessed from the locations of your photos, or list of children you mention in your posts?

Why not see how secure your password methodology is? Follow the link below and try out a few passwords to see just how secure they are:-

http://password.social-kaspersky.com/en

Certainly consider changing any default password that your device thinks up. Why not put THAT password in the web site above and see just how secure it is?

Cryptolocker and the importance of Backups.

Imagine walking into your office, or switching on your home computer to find all your important files, word documents, spreadsheets or music, photographs and videos locked.

Locked so tight, that you'd have to contact the NSA to unlock it for you.

Now imagine seeing on your screen the words "Your data has been locked, pay $300 to have them unlocked. You have 50 hours..."

Seem crazy? Well, this is a new breed of nasty virus spreading around at the moment, and once your data is locked, even removal of the virus wont help. Antivirus software companies are working hard to come up with a good detection for this breed of Trojan virus, but it seems one of the only ways you can get your data back without paying the money is by having a BACKUP.

We've always championed backups, regular ones at that. But now is a prime reason to do so.

Always be careful about what you download, particularly if it contains an attachment. This is one way that the virus spreads, as an attachment to your email and so if you get any emails that contain an attachment treat them with utmost caution. Delete it if you're not sure. If it's legitimate, you'll be able to get the company to send you another copy.

Backing up your data is VITAL for businesses and if you have data that you cherish, it's important that you backup regularly.

The Big Apple

So tonight was interesting as we heard a few things from the big Apple. I don't mean that location in America, but the bigger Apple. The one that makes all those lovely devices.

Apple tonight made more tech history with their announcements from California.  iOS 7 is to be launched on the 18th September and contains a lot of default things built in that most of us had to get apps for.  A cleaner screen, ease of use and the nice thing is that if people have a device with iOS 5 or above they'll be able to do this over WIFI directly from their device.

Interestingly one of the things that caught my attention was the announcement of the iPhone 5C. Multi-coloured and a "cheaper" version of the iPhone 5S.  I am sure that it might be better than it first looks, but in my mind it's devalued the iPhone. I always thought of the iPhone as a classy phone to have. Now... not so much.  How many people will buy the iPhone 5C compared to the more expensive and more "full on" iPhone 5S? Who knows.. time will tell. But was it a good strategy move?

Surely Apple don't make mistakes, they know what they are doing. Right ? 

Oh yes. Google Maps.  "Nuff Said" ;)

However, the A7 64 bit chip in the new iPhone 5S? Now that is interesting. The A7 chip is about 40 times faster than the original iPhone !  Serious bit of processing speed.. They've also added a new M7 chip which will monitor the movement of the phone. This will apparently give rise to more motion and fitness apps and this could be an interesting watch.

Security was addressed, with a fingerprint reader. Not so sure about this and again it'll have to be seen to be believed. To think that my phone will not open and potentially delete everything because it can't read my fingerprint is a concern.. but I guess if I worked for MI-5 I would like that.

Well.. let's wait and see..  I know for a fact that week tomorrow, most of the iPhone planet will have a new iOS to be introduced to, so we'll bring you more information as that becomes relevant.