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Month: November 2017

fake suspicious activity found alert scams

Microsoft Tech Support Scams – What you should know…

These scammers want access to your computer and they’ll do anything to get it!

Chances are, you’ve probably received a random phone call from one of these demanding scammers.  Either they’ll call you randomly or you will stumble upon one of their realistic pop-up warnings notifying you that your computer has been infected or hacked and to call Microsoft Technical Support immediately.  The problem is, the number they provide is not Microsoft’s.  Once you’re on the phone with the scammer, he or she will likely be of East Indian descent.  They will direct you to a website to gain remote access to your PC and once they are in, they will run a bunch of bogus tests likely through a DOS prompt to try and get you to believe that your IP/Ports are being accessed by a hacker.  This is completely bogus information!  These scammers are expertly trained in deploying scare tactics to try to scam you out of your hard-earned money.  And they don’t take “No” for an answer.  These clowns have even been known to swear at you over the phone before hanging up on you. I, as owner of Twin Cities PC Repair, even received a call from one of these scammers.  Now, being that I’m well educated on cyber scams, I decided to play their game for awhile…  After wasting 45 minutes of their time listening to the spiel and playing along with it, when they asked me for my credit card so that they may install their software to clean my PC, I told them that I am a IT business owner!!  I won’t even repeat what they said to me (LOL) because of its profanity.

What should you do?

The best thing to do if you receive a call out of the blue from one of the Microsoft Support Scammers would be to hang up on them.  Chances are they might call you back, and if they do, you can simply call them out on their scam and let them know that you are calling your state and local authorities.

If you happen to stumble upon a website with their realistic and scary looking pop-up, you can do one of four things:
1.) If you can get to the (X) at the top right corner of your browser, simply close out of all browser windows.
2.) If you can’t close your browser windows, you can try rebooting your PC through the start menu.
3.) If you can’t click on your start menu, you can try clicking Ctrl+Alt+Del, click on Task Manager, click on the browser listed and click the End Task at the lower right corner of the dialog box.  This will force close your browser.
4.) If none of the above work for you, simply hold the power button down on your PC for 10 seconds.  This will force a hard shutdown of your PC.  Boot your PC back up and you should be good to go.

As with any pop-up page on the web, there is always a chance that the website might be infected with malware.  Always make sure to run a virus/malware scan afterwards with a reputable virus/malware scanner (Preferably on you subscribe to).  If you are in need of a reliable antivirus software, please visit our security services page HERE.

Will it ever end?!?

According to Microsoft, from approximately November 2013 through 2016, Client Care Experts victimized over 40,000 people and defrauded these individuals out of more than $25,000,000!!  So, what’s being done about these frauds?  The FTC is on it!  They recently teamed up with the State of Alabama and settled with a handful of technical support companies who were using their scams to impersonate major tech companies such as Apple and Microsoft.  A few suspect companies include:

We certainly don’t anticipate these scams ending anytime soon, in fact, they’re growing by the day and they’re finding new and innovative ways to try to con you into believing your personal information is in danger.  The best thing to do is to educate yourself on trending scams.  Twin Cities PC Repair is constantly investigating a multitude of current scams, so feel free to call us at (651) 456-8655 or send us a message through our contact form HERE if you have any suspicions.  We are more than happy to help you!  Also, make sure to subscribe to our mailing list below for important news and updates.

To report tech support scams, visit here:  http://www.microsoft.com/reportascam

More helpful information can be found here:

https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2017/05/18/fight-tech-support-scams/

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2017/05/ftc-federal-state-international-partners-announce-major-crackdown

Please keep in mind, if you have fallen victim to one of these tech support scams, Twin Cities PC Repair is unable to assist in the recovery of any funds taken from your bank account by the scammer.  Please contact your bank or credit card issuer immediately.

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krack

New ‘KRACK’ Wi-Fi Security Issue: This Affects All of Us

The invention of Wi-Fi has been a science fiction dream come true. We can use our laptops anywhere in the house, our phones are using home internet instead of sucking down our cellular data, and our gadgets are all communicating. It’s essentially the backbone of the smart tech boom for home and business alike. Most networks are password-protected with an encryption called “WPA2” and this has been safe and secure, until now.  Welcome to KRACK…

Recently, a security flaw called KRACK was discovered that allows hackers to break into Wi-Fi networks – even the secured ones. Your laptop, mobile phone, gaming console and even your smart fridge are possibly vulnerable as a result.

How KRACK works:

The Key Reinstallation AttaCK isn’t a problem with your device or how it was set up. It’s a problem with the Wi-Fi technology itself. The attack gets between your device and the access point (eg router) to reset the encryption key so hackers can view all network traffic in plain text. Since we rely on Wi-Fi so much, this might mean hackers have a front row seat to your credit card numbers, passwords, chat messages, emails, photos and more.

NOTE: The hacker must be in physical range of your Wi-fi to exploit this flaw, it doesn’t work remotely like other attacks we’ve seen recently. Given most Wi-Fi ranges extend well past your own home/business, this is small comfort, but important to know.

How to protect yourself

Run your updates: Software updates are being released which fix the flaw. Microsoft has already released one for Windows, Apple has one coming in a few weeks. Take a few minutes to make sure you’re up to date with all your patches on any device that uses Wi-Fi (your smartphones, laptops, tablets, PCs, game consoles, etc). Unfortunately, some devices may be slow to get an update, or if they’re older, may not get an update to fix this issue at all. If possible, consider using a cabled connection on those older devices or upgrade to one with support.

Be very careful with public Wi-Fi: While your local business center, library or school campus has expert IT professionals keeping guard over your security, it’s a very different matter at your local coffee shop. It’s unlikely small locations such as this will be on top of security patches. Remember, a hacker exploiting this flaw only needs to be in the same Wi-Fi area as you, so be careful you don’t give them a dollop of private information with their coffee.

Check your browser security: Before sending anything secure over the internet, check you’re using a HTTPS site. You’ll know these by the little padlock you see next to the URL, and the address specifically begins with HTTPS. Major sites like Facebook, Gmail and financial institutions already use HTTPS.

Please visit our partner HERE for more information on the KRACK security vulnerability.

If you need help updating your devices, or want us to check if you’re safe, give us a call at (651) 456-8655 or visit our contact page HERE.

Refreshed Computer

Get Back to Brand New with a Refreshed Computer

Remember how well your computer ran when you first brought it home? It was booting so fast, files were whizzing around at light speed, and no matter how many tabs you had open, nothing was slowing that baby down. It was spotless, inside and out. Then one day you turned it on and everything was so slooooow, taking forever to do anything – and that was only if you could even find your files in all the clutter. All that zip and speed you loved so much was gone!  It’s time for a Refreshed Computer…

The good news is you probably DON’T need a new computer, you simply need what we call a “format and reload” to:

Clear the clutter: Over time as you install applications you collect icons, files and options everywhere. They’re not necessary, they’re not used, but they were installed automatically ‘just in case’. It’s a bit like when your overnight guest shows up with a massive suitcase and then claims a shelf in your bathroom. Those applications are making themselves at home in a big way! All that uninvited clutter is slowing your system down and making it hard for you to find the things you need. Simply put, it’s a mess. Our technicians can clean your system back to pristine in no time.

Beat viral overload: Is the virus really gone? Sometimes a virus has multiple layers and can bury itself so deep even your anti-virus doesn’t see it. Despite getting the all-clear from your anti-virus, you might also be seeing the damage from the infection. Perhaps the virus made a mess of your internal file structure, left pieces of code all over the place, or deleted files essential for smooth running. When an infection has been cleared but the system is still running slow, we recommend dropping it into our store asap for a check-up and refresh.

Assess incompatible software: Installing a new piece of software can sometimes produce unexpected results. While your system met the hardware and operating system requirements, maybe it’s simply not playing nice with your other applications. Maybe they’re fighting over the same resources, system files, or clashing with one of your hardware components. Clearly, something isn’t quite right, but you’re not sure what. Our team loves to play detective and get your system back to normal.

Archive older files: Some of your files are definite keepers, long term. Your photos, recipes, accounts etc, they’re all important to keep – but are they important to keep sitting on your desktop? They’re not just slowing your computer down, you’re at risk of losing them in a crash. It’s much safer to archive them to an external drive or cloud storage, simply let us know what you’d like to keep.

What exactly is a computer refresh? It’s like a car tune-up, but more flexible. Rather than tick the boxes saying we’ve changed the oil, cleaned the filters etc, we treat each computer as a unique case. Sometimes we can tune it up in a few minutes, and that’s all it needed. Sometimes it’s worth starting over like day 1.

We can reinstall Windows and migrate your data (photos, docs, emails, bookmarks, etc), putting back only what you WANT to keep. The rest of the clutter that built up over time or piggy-backed on a virus gets flushed away. We can also set up your email and install any devices you need, like printers. It’s doing whatever is necessary to give you a fresh start with your computer, but keeping the essentials.

For more helpful information on how to tune-up your PC for better performance, visit our partner link here:  https://www.howtogeek.com/school/pc-maintenance-for-beginners/lesson2/all/

Ready to get back up to speed? Give us a call at (651) 456-8655, or visit our Contact page by clicking HERE.

google search safely

Search Google Safely

We all love our Google, quickly finding everything we need on the Internet. It’s replaced dictionaries, encyclopedias, instruction manuals, newspapers and in many cases, even doctors. However, sometimes your search results aren’t the real thing and can be downright malicious. Here’s how to search safely:

Pay attention to the URL in Google

Below every result title there’s a URL in green. No matter what the title says, this URL is where your click will take you. Unfortunately, cyber-criminals will often list their site with a familiar and trusted title but link you to their scam/malware pages.

For example, the title could be your bank name (eg, Example Bank), which seems legitimate, but the URL could be www.baabpjhg.com which is obviously not your bank. Sometimes they’ll attempt to trick you by putting the real site into the link too, eg www.baabpjhg.com/examplebank.com which makes it even more likely to catch you when skimming through results quickly. When you visit the page, it might look exactly like your bank’s site and ask for your login details, which are then harvested for attack. While jibberish in the link is pretty easy to spot, sometimes they’ll take advantage of a small typo that you can easily miss. For example, www.exampebank.com (missing the letter L).

Notice Google search results vs paid ads

Google does a pretty good job at making sure the most relevant and legitimate sites are at the top of the list. However paid ads will usually appear above them. Most of the time, these paid ads are also legitimate (and you can quickly check the URL to verify), but occasionally cybercriminals are able to promote their malicious site to the top and catch thousands of victims before being removed.

Believe Google’s malicious site alerts

Sometimes Google knows when something is wrong with a site. It could be a legitimate site that was recently hacked, a security setting that’s malfunctioned, or the site was reported to them as compromised. When this happens, Google stops you clicking through with a message saying “this website may be harmful” or “this site may harm your computer”. Stop immediately, and trust that Google has detected something you don’t want in your house.

Turn on safe search

You can filter out explicit results by turning on Google Safe Search. While not strictly a cyber-security issue, it can still provide a safer Google experience. Safe Search is normally suggested as a way to protect browsing children, but it also helps adults who aren’t interested in having their search results cluttered with inappropriate links, many of which lead to high-risk sites. Switch Safe Search on/off by clicking Settings > Safe Search.

For more information on Google safety, visit Google:  https://www.google.com/safetycenter/

Need some help securing your system? Give us a call at (651) 456-8655 or visit our Contact page HERE.

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