You may have heard of something called phishing, but don’t confuse this with your dad’s cottage hobby; what you catch from phishing is not near as exciting. Phishing is a type of scam that criminals are using to steal money from you. They accomplish this by installing malicious software on your computer and by stealing your personal data.

So what does a phishing email look like? Here are some common things that you can spot in these fraudulent emails:

The “From” field might come from an email address you don’t normally communication with. The email can be from someone outside of your work organization and not related to your job responsibilities. The sender’s email can look like it’s from a suspicious domain. It could be an unexpected or unusual email with an embedded hyperlink or an attachment from someone you haven’t communicated with recently.

The “To” field might include a mix of seemingly random people from your organization or a list of unrelated addresses. You might have been cc’d on an email to one or more people and you don’t personally know any of the other people.

The “Subject” field could be a subject line that is irrelevant or does not match the message content. The email message is in reply to something you never requested or sent.

There could be an attachment that was not expected or makes no sense to the email message.  A big red flag is the hyperlink that is attached. To test the legitimacy of a link, hover over the hyperlink. If the address looks strange or is for a different website, that’s a bad sign.

The hyperlink or content may also be a misspelled version of a known website—for example, using facebonk.com instead of facebook.com.

If the hyperlink seems illogical, forward, or asks you to look at embarrassing or compromising pictures of someone you know, these are all red flags.

If the hyperlink is threatening in nature and asks you to click on a link or attachment to avoid a negative consequence, that’s also a red flag. However, it could sound very beneficial as well: “Click here to get a free TV”. Basically, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. .

The email could be full of grammatical or spelling errors.

These emails can look like they are from a legitimate company or website or they could look like they came from your CEO.  They might use logos, names of companies, names of departments or job titles that appear to be real. Check if the company name is spelled correctly. Also check if the email is coming from a name you personally know, whether the email address is actually their correct email.

Do Not:

• Open any email attachments that end with: exe, .scr, .bat, .com, or other executable files you do not recognize.
• Click an embedded link in a message without hovering your mouse over it first to check the URL.
• Respond or reply. It’s better to just delete the email.
• “Unsubscribe” – it’s better to delete the email then to deal with the security risk.

Do:

• Check the email “From” field to validate the sender is actually someone you know or from a correct email address.
• Check for a “double-extended’ scam attachment. A text file named “safe.txt” is safe but a file called “safe.txt.exe” is not.
• Report any suspicious emails to your IT department.
• Report any suspicious emails to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

Trust your gut if the email seems odd; question it. If it looks like it came from someone you know, speak to the person in a different form of communication, maybe face to face or by phone to confirm the legitimacy of the email. Speak to your IT department before you click on the link or attachment. When in doubt, just delete the email.

It’s awful when it happens, but with these tips and tricks, you can stay safe from the nasty phishers out there. It’s more important than ever to say vigilant about your online security and stay skeptical whenever confronted with suspicious emails. We hope these tips help keep you and your family safe online!

Reference: KnowBe4, Inc.

The modem and the router: Two pieces of Internet equipment in millions of homes in Canada and yet every day we get questions from people asking why they need them or what they even do! So, we wanted to shine a little light on both of these devices and explain in quick and simple terms what they’re all about.

THE MODEM

Think of the modem like a bridge. It bridges the gap between your home network and your ISP, sending, receiving and converting data so you can use the Internet. While not every type of Internet requires a modem in your home (eg. Fibre and Fixed Wireless), every Internet service has some type of similar device that converts the data coming from the transporting material (eg. Fibre lines, coaxial cable, wireless signal), and turns it into a format that your router can understand and push to your device(s).

THE ROUTER

What does a router do? Well, it routes! That is, it routes your Internet connection from one physical connection to multiple devices, so that they have access both to the Internet and eachother. So through a router you could have multiple computers and devices connected to the Internet. Many routers are wireless (contain wireless radios) that let you connect Wi-Fi devices wirelessly as well. Additionally, the router adds some protection to your devices in that they aren’t directly exposed to the Internet.

THE MODEM/ROUTER

Depending on the service, you may have the option for a combination device that serves as both a modem AND a router.

We hope this quick info session has helped you get your head around this equipment a little better. For more information on the necessary hardware for your Internet connection, please visit the Hardware section of your service here.

I don’t know about you, but I’m awful for remembering to turn my lights off for Earth Hour. So many years I’ve wanted to participate—to gather up all my candles, shut all my lights off and show my support for Mother Nature—but then inadvertently let it slip by.  So let’s be better this year. Let’s set a reminder on our phones right now: Earth Hour is this Saturday, March 25^th, 2017 from 8:30PM-9:30PM. For this hour, turn off all the lights in your house and show your support for global action on climate change. 

What is Earth Hour?

Earth Hour is actually a charitable organization based out of Singapore. They are an “open source movement” created by WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and other worldwide volunteer organizations. It started as a lights-off event in Sydney, Australia in 2007 and grew to the global phenomenon it is today.

Who Celebrates Earth Hour?

As many as 172 countries across the globe celebrate Earth Hour by turning off their lights for an hour. And it’s not just for residences of those countries to take part in; over 400 iconic landmarks including Sydney Opera House, London’s Big Ben, the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower all go dark for the hour too. It even reaches as far as the International Space Station—so to say it’s just a global event is really doing it enough justice!

What’s the Impact?

If you’re wondering how exactly this event helps with climate change, take a look at the below video. It certainly opened my eyes to all the ways the WWF is healing the Earth one problem at a time.

Take Your Support Further!

Want to take your Earth Hour activism to the next level? Why not dedicate a few social media posts to the cause by donating your Facebook feed? Earth Hour will utilize your social media to share interesting facts about the event and spread the word. If you really want to show your support, you could also donate some money to WWF’s Earth Hour fund here.

Whether your hosting your own event, going to one (search nearby events here), or just staying home with the family, we hope you have a fantastic Earth Hour this weekend!

 

Source: www.earthhour.org
http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/2008/04/02/global-citizens-love-the-earth-for-an-hour/comment-page-1/
http://econews.com.au/146/earth-hour-ready-to-go-beyond-the-hour/

 

Facebook has over 1 billion active users! Wow, that’s lot of people!  Facebook has become a common place for most people to get their news or see what their friends are up to. Since so many people have Facebook and use it to gather information, you might be wondering how to make sure what you are sharing is not available for the world to see. Here are 5 tips to help make your Facebook profile more private and secure.

1. Public information:

Some information on Facebook will always be public such as your name, profile picture and your cover photo. But there are some privacy settings that can you can set that can keep any other information from your profile private, like your posts and pictures.  You are able to select whether your information will be public for everyone in the world to see or whether only your Facebook friends can see what you post. 

Settings → Privacy → Who can see my stuff → Who can see your future posts → Edit: choose Public, Friends, Friends except, Specific friends or Only me. 

Other settings you can select here are who can contact you and who can search for you. If you don’t want to be searched publicly, change your settings to ‘Friends’.

2. Check what personal info you are sharing publicly

If you are a little unsure about what settings you have and want to check what other people can see on your profile, there’s a way to do that! 

Profile → … beside View Activity Log → View As

With this view you are able to see all the posts that would show on you profile to someone who wasn’t your friend.. While you are here, check your Timeline, About, Friends and Photos tabs to see what information you are sharing publicly. Know that you can’t change anything while you are in this view. If you notice anything here that you would like to change, click back to your profile or settings to change what you need.  If you notice any posts that show up publicly, you can go to your profile and find the post that you would like to change. Beside the date and time of your post you can change it to only be viewed by your friends or yourself.

 3. Review your Facebook connected apps

You will want to check what apps you have given access to and what permissions you’re allowing for them.  If you have ever let a third party app or game use your Facebook login to access the app, then this is a setting that you definitely want to make sure you check. This will show what apps Facebook has access to and what information from your profile is shared. 

Settings → Apps → Logged in with Facebook → Edit settings or remove access.

When you click edit, you can get a more detailed look at the apps settings. First check who the app is visible to. Select ‘Only Me’ if you don’t want anyone to see that you have this app.  You can also check here whether the app has access to your friends list, likes, photos or other information. Uncheck any information that you don’t want shared, note some may be mandatory for the app and you will be unable to check this shared information. You can also remove any apps here that you don’t want Facebook to have access to anymore but just clicking the X button to remove the app.

4. Password Security

Your password should be at least 12-15 characters long, using a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols.  Don’t include your or your kid’s names, birthdays or any other personal details. You also want to make sure that you have different passwords for all your other personal online accounts so if one of your passwords is compromised, your other accounts would remain secure.  Also don’t email yourself any of your passwords. If you are stuck on creating a password you can use a password generator like random.org/passwords to help. Here’s a list of the most common passwords for 2016, so don’t use any of these.

5. Things not to share through Social Media

Here are just some tips of things that you shouldn’t share on your profile or posts. You don’t want to take the chance that any private information is getting into the wrong hands.

• Don’t share your full address or phone number.
• Don’t share financial information through your Facebook page, whether it be a post to your friends or through a private message.
• Don’t post while you are on vacation, as tempting as it is to share to people that you are going away, this practice can entice someone to break into your home while you are away.
• Complain about work or share project related information. Check if your work has a social media policy. Even if you post on your personal account about your work, you may be in violation of your work’s social media policy and worse case may get fired for something you said.

Quick Help Center:

For a quick run through about some of the stuff we talked about today, go to your Facebook page and check the Quick Help Center at the top right of your page. 

Privacy Checkup is will run a quick review of some of the privacy settings we’ve discussed here.. This guide will check who can see your posts, what apps have access your information and who can see your profile information. 

Hopefully these tips will help you set up a more secure and private Facebook page. If you want some additional help with learning, check if your local library has any programs that can help teach you any social media skills. The more you know, the safer and more secure you’ll be!