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Password security (again)

I’ve mentioned this several times before (here, here, and here), but if you’re one of the 2.4 million people at risk because of the Carphone Warehouse data loss recently, now might be a good time to heed my advice on password security. It’s also a timely reminder that nobody is safe if they ignore the risks and don’t protect themselves with some essential security measures.

Hackers generally don’t steal data for kicks and giggles. Most of them are fully aware that they are committing a criminal act, and as such they’re generally looking for some kind of reward. Of course there are some people who do this for attention, but on the whole they’re doing it for financial reward.

With your money…….
How do they get your money?

Ordinarily they’re trying to engineer a way to use your online accounts elsewhere to obtain cash, goods or services by having you pay for it.
First they steal a database from somebody; this data contains your username and password for that company.
Although the password information is usually encrypted, with the huge amounts of data they steal, and the technology availble to them, it’s a simple process to ‘crack’ the encryption if you use a normal word as a password, or part of a password. The more complex the password (i.e. random), the more difficult it is to crack the encryption.
Once they have your password for one service, they’ll try it with lots of others. This may reveal further information about you which can be sold online to identify thieves. Or grant them access to your accounts enabling them to order high resale goods for themselves. This kind of crime has been going on for years, well before the Internet was commonplace […]

By |August 11th, 2015|Help and Advice|0 Comments
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Avoiding Facebook scams

Several times recently on my personal Facebook page I’ve pointed out to friends and family that things they are sharing and commenting on are fake, or scams. At best these items showing up on my Facebook feeds are an anoying waste of space. At their worst though, there is a risk of something much more damaging, especially to those less aware of the dangers of the Internet.

I’ve been thinking about writing a blog post about avoiding Facebook scams for a while, and it’s proven difficult for me to put the whole thing into words. To me it’s obvious why I shouldn’t repost a Facebook post offering free iPads/airline tickets/cars etc.- ultimately no good can come of it! But maybe you don’t understand what could happen…..

Realistically, very few of the ‘Claim 1 of 100 free…..’ pages are genuine. They’re run by scammers who, one way or another, are trying to use people to make themselves some money (and I’ll explain how they do that later in the post). The question I often get asked is how would people know if an offer is genuine? Honestly, if you have any doubt, please DO NOT SHARE, LIKE OR COMMENT on these posts. But let’s take one recent example and work through it.

Did you see a recent Facebook offer where Virgin Airlines were giving away free flights for a year for 500 fans? This was allegedly to celebrate them serving 100 million passengers. To stand a chance of being one of the 500, you had to share a photo (which was a Virgin Atlantic boarding pass) and ‘Like This Page’ (the link took you to a Vacations We Love page).

Now the images looked genuine, and it was on a Facebook […]

By |August 4th, 2015|Help and Advice|0 Comments
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Storage workflow for photography

I’ve talked about storage workflow for photography many times before with pro’s and amateurs alike who’ve bought a ToughTech Duo from me. But I don’t believe I’ve ever posted anything on my blog about my recommended storage strategy for independent, professional (or amateur) photographers who want a reliable method for storing their images. In truth everyone needs a reliable storage policy, but too many people opt for whatever is quickest and easiest, and until they get bitten by a defective drive, a theft or some other disaster, they don’t contemplate the consequences of doing so.
Background
This post is aimed at photographers using Adobe Lightroom as their image catalogue of choice. You can tailor the advice I’m going to give for other software (the process is almost identical for CaptureOne), or I’m more than happy to give individual advice should you need it (all the usual methods apply, social media links top left or via the contact us page is fine).
Overview
Many photographers are using laptops for portability. While this gives them an advantage when it comes to working away from an office, it does create certain limitations when it comes to storage (laptop hard drives are getting bigger, but are still restrictive for someone shooting lots of photographs). For those people with the luxury of being mainly office or studio based on a desktop machine, my preferred strategy is still essentially the same but we have the choice of using a larger storage system to take advantage of larger drive sizes.

So my ‘perfect’ configuration for both mobile and desktop users is this:

This strategy allows you to ensure your most important assets are backed up and duplicated in a logical way, providing a relatively easy way to get […]

By |July 15th, 2015|Help and Advice|0 Comments
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Making the most of your laptop battery

For anyone using a laptop, one of the most frustrating things is when the battery starts to give you problems. On a machine that’s 3 or 4 years it’s quite normal for some people to not be able work without plugging the laptop into power. But there are ways to begin making the most of your laptop battery. Read on for our advice.

Most modern laptops use Lithium-ion batteries, a particular type of battery that has its own characteristics. Previously, manufacturers used different types of batteries, and it was often recommended that you charged to 100% and then let it drain to (as close to as possible) empty, or you may suffer from charge memory which would reduce the battery’s life. That method though is a bad thing for Lithium-ion.
Keep the electrons flowing
Unlike previous generations of battery, Lithium-ion doesn’t have a ‘charge memory’, so full discharges are not necessary. In fact, its much better to keep topping up the battery at regular intervals. That way, when you need battery power for a longer period the battery condition should be good enough to give you the time you need.

To keep the electrons flowing means continuous small discharging and recharging of the battery. Think of your battery as a bottle of water; take a swig, fill it up at a tap whenever you can. If you only fill up when the bottle is empty, you might well be without water when you need it.
Software help
There are applications available which will help you et the best of your battery. The best of these is in my opinion is Fruitjuice which is available from the app store at £7.99. I appreciate this seems like a lot of money for something […]

By |July 2nd, 2015|Help and Advice|0 Comments
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World Backup Day 2015

March 31st is World Backup Day, a day to remind us all of the need to back up all our personal and business data. Anything we have that is digital, and that we value, or would miss if it was lost forever, needs to be stored safely offsite.

For any of us that have lost data in the past, you’ll know the cost in terms of money, time and heartache that a failed hard drive or stolen computer can create. But being proactive, this can all be mostly avoided by implementing a safe and secure backup regime.

Fortunately, there are plenty of facilities these days for simple and inexpensive backup systems. You no longer need a noisy and slow tape drive with expensive magnetic tapes to backup your home PC. Whatever computer you use, I’d strongly recommend you look at some of the online cloud backup services (Crashplan and Carbonite are the ones I’d recommend), but this might not always be the best option for you……
Choosing the right solution
Depending on the amount of data you have, your Internet connection speed and the level of security the confidentiality of your data demands, online backup might not be right for you. You may need to resort to backups to external hard drives. For Mac users this is really easy with Time Machine built-in. But you can also achieve the same on PC and Mac using Crashplan to your own drives.

Remember that the first online backup could take several weeks to complete, so be aware of that today. It may be a good idea to take a complete backup of your systems locally before starting an online backup to ensure you have some protection right away.

Lastly, if your backup is sitting […]

By |March 31st, 2015|Help and Advice|0 Comments
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