Articles by phewadm

While billions of people use social media every day to tell the world what they had for breakfast, popular channels like Facebook are increasingly being used by criminals to gain access to personal data that can wreak havoc socially and financially. Just how prevalent the problem is in New Zealand is unknown. There is general awareness that social media accounts get hacked – we all know someone who’s run into strife – but as social media hacking isn’t widely reported, it’s an unknown quantity. But the team at CERT NZ have heard enough stories to paint a picture of a

When it comes to keeping your personal information safe online, your operating system is your main line of defence. As well as making sure your device works properly, an up to date OS can go a long way towards providing the peace of mind we all want – it’s the big fence, scary dog and finely tuned burglar alarm in one.   When you keep your operating system up to date, simply by accepting updates when they pop up, your online ‘house’ is much safer than when you ignore updates and do nothing. Updates aren’t just about new features, they

If you’ve been using the same password for your email since your first Hotmail account, it’s time to change. And if that password is also your go-to for your other online accounts, it’s time to change today. The ‘set and forget’ mentality with passwords is changing as people increasingly realise the importance of strong passwords for protecting your personal information online. In August this year 711 million email addresses were publicly released in the Onliner Spambot credentials dump – the largest list yet of email addresses and compromised login credentials. We can’t be sure where the list came from, and

People often share documents for work, so when Rupert received an email saying “click on the link to approve my document”, he didn’t think twice. Even though Rupert’s pretty tech savvy, he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary – the link looked legitimate.   But his antivirus and firewall had other ideas. They were set off immediately, telling him someone was accessing his email from halfway around the world. Thankfully a quick round of changing passwords and a virus scan mean Rupert’s data was okay.   He reported the incident to CERT NZ who followed up and gave him

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” overlay_color=”” video_preview_image=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” padding_right=””][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” center_content=”no” last=”no” min_height=”” hover_type=”none” link=””][fusion_text] It’s time to step up your cyber defence If you have one password you use for everything and hit ‘remind me later’ when an update pops up on your phone, you’re not alone. For many, cyber safety is something we know is important,