Consulting Archives

Does Santa need some help in your house?

cyberguru Consulting December 4, 2019December 5, 2019Christmas, Christmas gifts, Christmas presents, Santa, Tech gifts, Tech presents

With only three weeks until Christmas, Santa might be stuck for ideas on what to get you or your family!

Thankfully, CyberGuru has helped Santa on many occasions by advising and recommending a range of computer products and services to suit your needs and budget and is available to do so again this year.

At this time of year, new computer products and services are especially popular. In addition, we can assist you in purchasing and setting up new a desktop, laptop or tablet ready for Christmas Day. We are able to advise and recommend what to buy and can help source, configure and move across your old files to make it work for you.

We also provide various software including Microsoft Office, internet software (including Norton 360, ESET and Trend Micro Maximum Security) as well as range of peripherals including portable hard drives, as well as Acronis Backup.

If you are unsure what to get, we can also provide gift certificates for use on any of our services, including consulting, design, support and training.

So whether it for your family, business or yourself personally, please feel free to contact us. Similarly, if you know of a colleague or friend, or someone else need of some assistance, please pass on our details. And remember, come Christmas day it was all the big guy in red!

Be wary of nbn scams

cyberguru Consulting November 4, 2019November 5, 2019hoax, hoaxes, nbn, phone calls, scammers, scams, telstra

Be wary of nbn scams

We often hear of various reports of scammers calling the seniors and elderly purporting to be from their telephone company, particularly Telstra, however, unfortunately, one of our clients’ parents were recently scammed by phone calls from who reported to be from the National Broadband Network (nbn).

CyberGuru spoke about nbn scams at last Senior Safety Forum. Since this time, the nbn scams have become increasingly common, particularly amongst senior citizens.

As my client advised, “Dad has always been cautious and the type of person to always guide me to ‘always get two quotes’, ‘nothing is ‘urgent’, ‘do your research’ yet as they get older, things are becoming less clear. With the nbn activity he felt it was legit; he let them access his computer and provided his bank account details; although they were lucky it was quite the ordeal to cancel everything. All they stole was Dad’s last bit of confidence managing household services.”

The scammer was claiming that there was an issue with their computer and sought to access this remotely that they could fix for them. As it turned out, the scammer was only seeking to install malicious software and attempt to take valuable information from them, and then charge them as well for this. Fortunately, as my client there was at the time, they stopped the scammer getting full access to the computer.

The client wanted to share a few valuable pieces of advice from their experience:

“Trust your partner. Our experience was Dad felt the call was legit, whereas Mum felt it wasn’t ‘right’. She called me to help get Dad off the phone.”
“Even if you feel it is a legit call, there is no urgency. Never feel as though you need to act then and there.”

It is important to note that nbn will never contact you in this way. The nbn is wholesaler and does not deal with the general public. They do not invoice you, therefore cannot threaten to disconnect you. Secondly, they do not need any of your personal information, nor access to your computer.

If you have been affected in such way, we strongly recommending reporting any incidents to Scamwatch so that these can be investigated. If you are unsure if something is a scam or not, we are happy to offer our support and advice, so please feel free to contact us.

Stay Smart Online 2019 – Reverse the Threat

cyberguru Consulting October 14, 2019October 28, 2019cyber safety, cyber security, reverse the threat, Stay Smart Online, Stay Smart Online Week

CyberGuru is proud to be a supporting partner of Stay Smart Online Week, a national awareness week to empower people, businesses and the community to protect themselves online. As per last year, the ‘Reverse the Threat’ campaign is designed to mobilise a movement against cybercrime with our partners and the wider community.

This is the third year which CyberGuru has partnered Stay Smart Online 2019 to support small businesses, not-for-profit organisations and individuals be protected online with a strong focus security when online.

According to research, almost one in three Australians adults were impacted by cybercrime last year. The statistics tell us that the risk of falling victim to online crime is climbing every day.

This year, in partnership with Stay Smart Online, CyberGuru seek to educate and empower our clients to take control of their online identity by:

reviewing privacy settings
knowing how to spot phishing scams
creating strong and unique passwords
turning on two-factor authentication

We will continue to do this through education and awareness campaigns on our website and social media, presentations, as well as both onsite and remote consultancy and training sessions on cyber security topics, including how to spot an online scam, setting up better passwords and conducting privacy checkups.

Together we can reverse the threat of cybercrime. To keep your business secure online and take control of your online identity by reviewing the articles on the CyberGuru website, visiting the Stay Smart Online website and by contacting us today for more information.

Ask CyberGuru: Should I set up my new computer “for personal use” or “for an organisation”?

cyberguru Consulting September 9, 2019September 16, 2019account, Ask CyberGuru, Microsoft, Microsoft account, organisation, personal, Windows 10, work or school

When setting up a new computer, a question often arises by clients as to whether they should set it up for “personal use” or “for an organisation”. The question comes down to how which accounts you have a “work or school” or a “personal” account.

By setting it up for your personal use, you will be logging in using your own Microsoft account. This generally is created by you using Hotmail email addresses such as yourname@hotmail.com or yourname@live.com, but they may be also using other accounts such as Gmail and Yahoo. Previously, these were Windows Live accounts, and used for services such as Hotmail (now Outlook.com), OneDrive and Xbox. Microsoft do not allow Microsoft accounts to be using work email addresses these days, and if you do have one they will recommend changing your email address on your Microsoft account to someone else.

Alternatively, by setting it up for an organisation, you will require a work or school account which was set up by your organisation that uses Microsoft’s cloud services, such as Office 365, Microsoft 365 or Azure. The work account is generally based upon the organisation’s domain name and work email address, eg. username@domainname.com.au. As a result of this, when a user logs to their computer they are connecting into their organisation’s resources such as their email, network and apps. Further, allows the organisation’s administer to also be able to control their computer.

There are various benefits of doing one or the other, however which one to use will dependent on your situation, including who owns the device, and type of your computer may have. We are happy to assist you to make a decision on this. Please contact us for more information.

Tips to protect your data on mobile device from being lost or stolen

cyberguru Consulting June 23, 2019June 24, 2019lost, mobile device, mobile phone, phone, smart phone, smart watch, stolen, tablet

Tips to protect your data on mobile device from being lost or stolen

Recently a family member lost their mobile phone. Unfortunately, some of the important settings on the phone were not configured, and as a result the phone could not be found. As a lesson from this exercise, we have developed these tips on how to protect the data on your mobile device from being lost or stolen.

If you do lose your device, you should report it to the police and mobile service provider. However, it is possible to find your device using “Find my iPhone” (as part of the iCloud – Find My iPhone, iPad, and Mac),“Find my Device” for Android or “Find my Device” in Windows provided you have this software setup as well as your mobile data and location services enabled.

There are several strategies for protecting your data:

Record the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number of the device upon purchase. This is a unique number for each individual device and can be found inside under the battery. It can be displayed on screen by entering *#06#. If your device is lost stolen, this can be reported to your phone provider and police.
Set a strong PIN or password on the device and configure encryption of data if this is available. Set this to automatically lock your phone after a set period, such as 30 seconds. This will enable your phone to be only to be unlocked by yourself or someone else who knows the PIN. You may also want a separate PIN for your voice mail.
Use a reputable security product app, such as Norton Mobile Security. Mobile phones can be hacked just like any other computing device, so they need to be protected. Installing security software will enable you to use their features including app reputation (to determine if any apps are malicious or sending your data overseas) on your device, as well as wi-fi security and Web protection.
Register the device with Google or Apple, and/or third-party manufacturers (eg. Samsung). As mentioned above, registering with these services to enable you to find, lock or erase your phone, in addition to finding your device in case it is lost
Perform a regular backup to a cloud service. This provides you the ability to use their services to synchronise your data on a regular basis, and eases recovery if this is required. A cloud service may be available by the manufacturer on when you configure the device.

Further security tips can be found on the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association website (link opens in new window). If you need a hand to help protect your data on your smart devices, we can provide assistance to you via our Support solution.

If we can be of any assistance, please feel free to contact us.

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