Royal Scams

It's great news that the William and Kate have had a royal baby boy!

However, as with most high profile news stories, you need to be very cautious of scammers and fraudsters using the good news as a means for distributing malware and committing fraud.  

Remember if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is! 

If someone's sending you a link to a picture or something else then you need to keep a few things in mind:

1. Just because a link or email has come from a trusted friend, doesn't mean to say that its a safe email. Their account might have been hacked. 

2. If it's legitimate and nothing bad or malicious then it should be available elsewhere on the net - places like the BBC website keep up to date with all the news and gossip - try looking there 

3. Always be careful opening attachments. 

Implications of using BitTorrent and other peer2peer software

Programs such as BitTorrent are popular for sharing and downloading files.

However, apart from the legalilty of sharing copyright material,  there are serious security concerns that whilst someone might be downloading the latest James Bond film, "adult entertainment" or Dr Who episode...  the P2P(Peer-2-Peer) software could also be used as an easy access tunnel into the user's computer.

Dangers of Open Wi-fi Hot Spots

Open and free Wi-Fi spots sound great - internet anywhere!  But what are the IT security dangers?

Is email secure?

In one word “No” email is not secure!

If it is used to transmit personal details, especially things like bank account details - even to a trusted friend or organisation - it is comparable to posting the same details on the side of a bus with a message saying "FREE MONEY HERE!"