NetSafe Blog » Jani Rayner

Never too old for facebook?

Jani Rayner — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:44:16 +0000

While stumbling across this article during my usual 3:30itis, I didn’t exactly have the feel good factor after reading this. It’s true you can’t be too old for facebook, but you can be too “unskilled”. Well that’s what I have been seeing recently with friend parents wanting to join and then said “friends” having to spend a minimum of 5 hours helping them to create the page and explaining how it works (by the way this can all be found in the ‘about facebook’ link).
But all of this time is wasted in vain as maybe a week later when “parent” goes to go on facebook said friend will receive a panic stricken call of “i’ve forgotton my password!” completely forgetting said friends advice (and the fact that right underneath that login is “forgotten password” link). From personal experience this is extremely annoying; because they are “old” they think they can get away with lacking any commonsense when a screen is put in front of them. Now I certainly don’t object to older people using facebook it’s a great way for them to keep in touch with people and look at photos etc, but I certainly do object to people who waste other people’s time when the answer is right there in front of them (or on Google). Come on oldies, if you want to be where the young’ins are - suck it up.

“Phishing is drying up”………….Really?

Jani Rayner — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:32:50 +0000

IBMs research has shown “”That is a huge, precipitous decline in the amount of phishing,” they stated that the reasons for this were because people were smarting up to phishing emails and also security which picks up on most of the phishing sites/emails. What the article fails to mention is even though email phishing is on the decline- (of course it is, who uses email that much anymore any way), scammers are also wising up and what we are seeing is not a decrease in phishing but rather a more complex set of phishing done across other sites such as social sites.

“Breach Security’s most recent Web Hacking Incidents Database (WHID) report found that attacks directed to social networks accounted for 19 percent of all hacking incidents between January and July this year. Social media attacks, the bi-annual report said, were the largest growing in that period. “http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techchron/detail?&entry_id=45679

Overall attacks increased by 30 % compared to the first half of 2008 with 26 % of those which resulted in stolen personal information. So I don’t think it’s quite time to get relaxed on scams of this type rather be more on guard because the evolved phishing is not going to be some dodgy email in a poor imitation of a bank but rather a “friend” who’s asking you to help them out.

Premium text services or scams?

Jani Rayner — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:03:53 +0000

Many people are often caught in what they believe to be mobile “scams” these are actually mobile subscription services or “premium text services”. Most sites make it hard to read the small print and use enticing ideas such as winning a free iphone. All you have to do is enter your mobile number, what most people are unaware of is that by putting in their number they will be charged from $3 per message received by the company. It can also be hard to unsubscribe from these services as the instructions are conveniently not located on the website and most people don’t realize what is going on until all of their credit is gone or when a hefty bill arrives at the end of the month- remember always read the small print and if you didn’t you just have to reply to the text with one word “stop” or “quit”. Vodafone also have a list of subscription services and who to contact to unsubscribe along with the price of sending/receiving each message. If you have read the small print and the company is charging you more than they stated then they could be scamming you go to scamwatch to get information on what to do.

Passwords 101?

Jani Rayner — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:35:24 +0000

Passwords 101: It is great that this area of internet safety is being bought to the general publics attention, and having a strong password is definately important and can stop hackers/ex best friends getting into your accounts. But no matter how strong your password is it wont protect you against spyware, phishing sites or even sites like these http://www.pass-words.net/ (which was advertised conveniently beside the story). Perhaps there could be account security 101: that would include all of that info or people can go to netbasics to get an idea of basic account security.

Facebook C.V

Jani Rayner — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:34:31 +0000

With all this hype about potential employers seeing your Friday night antics on facebook and deciding you are too irresponsible to be hired, can easily be solved by making your social site private. Or can it? With facebook, and with NZ’s apparent 2 degrees of separation there is likelihood that a “friend” of yours is “friends with someone who would know your potential employer” if your friend comments on your photos then your album is now opened up to all of their friends viewing pleasure. Hmm now that’s a bit embarrassing. But its not just photos that potential employers are judging you on it is also people slagging of collegues that causes a large issue. Guess its always better to screen what you post and if someone puts up embarrassing photos of you and they wont remove it there is always untagging- or changing your facebook name….

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/253544

http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/all-days-work/2008/9/25/facebook-hirings/?c_id=3