Tech Aid Computer Services

08/10/2023

This is funny, but in all seriousness, please be aware of what you share.

"Innocent" posts like "Choose the month you were born to find out (blah blah blah)", and "Pick the day of the month you were born to know your blah blah blah", are all just out for personally identifiable information to help them in hacking you.
Please stop replying and reposting that type of post.

A safe computing tip from Tech Aid!

Simple social engineering scenario. 😂

06/06/2023

Many Google Chrome extensions are very helpful, but sometimes (sadly often), malicious people create extensions which can be harmful once they are installed. Please read the following article and review your extensions. If you don't know how to do this, contact us at Tech Aid Computer Services and we will be happy to help remove them!

Google has removed more than two dozen malicious Chrome extensions from the official Chrome Web Store, but Chrome users need to become active to protect their data.

06/01/2023

We love our customers and we hope you love us as well!
We've been nominated for the Best of Southern Oregon in the IT / Office Technology category.
Help show us some love by going to https://bestofsouthernoregon.com/ and casting a vote for us every day! You can find us in the IT / Office Technology Category under Business & Professional services.
Your support is greatly appreciated!

04/12/2023

Email scams are ramping up! Be aware.
Pictured is an email we received. I have identified the 4 most obvious clues (Identified with the red numbers) that people can look for when checking their email.

1) The from field has my name not the name of the sender. Additionally, it is not my email address, nor one I recognize as being from the sending "company".
2) The recipient email address is not my email address. While this is not always indicative of a scam, it highly suggests researching further.

3) The subject has mis-spellings and uses underlines instead of spaces. Mis-spellings, underlines and other special characters are notoriously used in scam emails.

4) The content is a generic picture, rather than generated content specifically for me, it references "ending soon" with no date, and when hovered over, the link (shown at the bottom of the email) goes to a non-mcafee page. All obvious indicators of a scam.

Please remember to be vigilant when checking your email, particularly with any email suggesting you log into your account, renew a piece of software, or confirm/deny a purchase.

Stay safe!
Tech Aid

03/20/2023

Please be aware of scam emails. Below is an example of a clear scam email.

1st indication, SENDER EMAIL ADDRESS => Supposedly sent from Amazon Prime, but look at the sending site. It is gobbledygook, just random letters strung together.

2nd indication, BCC => If this was possibly real, it would have been sent to my email address in the TO field, not in a group in BCC (Blind Carbon Copy). Instead it was sent TO support@ whatever.

3rd indication, NOT ADDRESSED TO ME PERSONALLY => If this truly was from a business where I have an account, it would have been addressed to my First and/or Last names.

4th indication, NO LOGO => While these can be faked, legitimate companies will always include their logo.

5th indication, ATTACHED PDF => Legitimate companies will use real, verifiable links to their website. NOTE, those links can be faked, so always hover over a link without clicking on it, and check the status bar at the bottom of your email program (fi applicable) to see where the link actually will send you. The PDF attached to this probably is infected, do not open it.

6th indication, MISSPELLINGS => While not shown here, often scam emails will contain obvious misspellings of words in the body of the document, the sending email address/company name, or most commonly in links. Watch out for accents over vowels. For example, Amazon is not Amizon, Ainazon or Amezon.

The jist of what we are saying here is always read an email with an out of skepticism and keep an eye out for the tell tale signs of a scam.

01/04/2022

Please be aware, if you copy and paste from a website, always paste it into a text editor first to see if it is what you were expecting.
Also make sure you understand what you are pasting before you paste it.

Programmers, sysadmins, security researchers, and tech hobbyists copying-pasting commands from web pages into a console or terminal risk having their system compromised. Wizer's Gabriel Friedlander demonstrates an obvious, simple yet stunning trick that'll make you think twice before copying-pasting...

01/06/2020

John VanSickle is teaching a class on Social Media Basics at Twin Creeks Retirement this morning.

03/26/2019

If you have an ASUS computer, please be aware that there are faulty copy's of the ASUS update utility. Be warned!
If you have an ASUS PC and think you might have already be compromised, please contact us and we can help you out!

Kaspersky Lab confirmed that perhaps a million Asus PCs have unwittingly downloaded an infected version of the Asus Live Update utility.

02/19/2019

Please be aware of this up-and-coming Malware!
As always, if you believe you've been infected by Malware or a Virus, call us and we will get you cleaned up right away!

Avast experts track a powerful new malware family called Rietspoof, which combines file formats to make malware more versatile.

02/01/2019

Mac Users! Please be aware.

Steganography is an encryption technique that dates back to the 15th century. Hundreds of years later, criminal hackers are using it to distribute malware.

01/29/2019

Please be aware of this. Do not open Word documents that you did not expect to receive!
As always, if you suspect that you may have an infection on your system, Tech Aid is here to help! Give us a call and we will be there promptly!

GandCrab ransomware and Ursnif virus spreading via MS Word macros | The Hacker News is a popular and trusted cybersecurity news source for researchers, hackers, technologists, enthusiasts and nerds.

12/31/2018

Please be aware of this! Always verify the site that you log into. If a email link leads to a site and asks you to log in, look at the URL in the address bar and verify the site FIRST. If it does not look right, or there are extra parts (.tw, .in, etc.) don't sign in.

Sophisticated campaign attempts to dupe Amazon shoppers with fake order confirmation email