Author: simonmackay

Article

‘It hurts me so much’: Constance Hall targeted by trolls after reality TV announcement | Sydney Morning Herald

Dancing with the Stars: Constance Hall is ready to rumba! Here’s what you need to know about her | NowToLove.com

Video – Click or tap to play (Facebook page)

Previous Coverage on HomeNetworking01.info

Dealing with Internet trolls

Useful Resources

Crash Override Network – A resource centre based in the USA focused on online-abuse issues.

My Comments

Constance Hall, an online personality who has run a blog and is maintaining a Facebook public presence, is participating in the latest Dancing With The Stars season on Ten Network Australia. But because she had decided to star in this popular dancing talent-quest TV show, she got a lot of online abuse from various trolls. She often copped this abuse in her online presence due to how she looks, her outspokenness or her alternative lifestyle.

I have seen this happen with two of the contestants in MasterChef Australia season 10. One of them was accused of being close to George Calombaris because she had him taste a sample of something she was preparing before cooking it in quantity for the contest, while the other who was a nutritionist was turning out desserts which went against the grain of someone whose profession was about “clean eating”.

Even a few years ago, I observed a situation of online abuse directed at a cafe I was visiting because they wouldn’t accept the placement of a protest group’s campaign flyers near their till. It was while their neighbourhood was effectively being divided by the potential presence of a McDonalds fast-food restaurant with this protest group against the proposed development. I even defended that they had the right to defend their space but they even had to effectively shut down the commenting ability on their Facebook presence.

This kind of bullying has become very toxic with the Gamergate saga which was an attack on female game developers and female gaming journalists. This situation got to a point where there were death threats against one of the game developers along with the publication of her home address and phone number.

Typically this can be about a perverse innuendo about intimate relationships involving one or more of the victims; that the victim doesn’t “fit the mould” expected of them; or that they are “taking the wrong side” on an issue.

But Constance Hall produced a Facebook video addressing this kind of behaviour in the online space. Here, it was about stopping the acceptance and normalisation of online bullying and she had related it to what happens to children and teenagers. This video was even played as part of the introductory video package that preceded her dance routine in Dancing With The Stars. This meant that the issues being raised in the video had a good chance of being aired on prime-time traditional TV.

It is also part of her personal campaign to reach out to and encourage teenagers and other young people who are at risk of being bullied during their life’s journey especially in the online context.

A good practice to deal with trolling in an online environment would be to “insert” some common-sense in to the conversation. It may be best to approach it in a neutral form without appearing to take sides.

If it is getting out of control, most social-media platforms and some other online environments have the ability to “mute” participants or “hide” conversation threads so you don’t have them in your view. Social-media platforms also have the ability to block participants so they can’t follow you. As well, you may also have to report offensive behaviour to the online environment that it’s occurring in if it is becoming consistent.

If the online environment has the ability for users to upvote or downvote comments or threads, it can be used as a way to bury questionable comments. It is a feature that has appeared in some commenting platforms like Disqus or some online forum software, but is slowly being rolled out to major social media platforms like Facebook.

I applaud Constance Hall for how she has turned a negative experience around for something positive as well as underscoring a “you can do it” approach. This is more so for people who are or are likely to become an online personality who can easily fall victim to the ugly side of the Internet.

Article

Running modern always-updated operating systems and applications on your laptop is a way to keep your computing environment safe and secure.

Should you be scared of your laptop’s webcam? | ZDNet

Previous Coverage

Regular operating systems and their vulnerability to security threats

My Comments

An article appeared about whether one should be scared of their computer’s integrated Webcam and microphone. Here, a Webcam and microphone integrated in a computer or monitor or a USB Webcam that is always plugged in could turn the computer in to a surveillance device. But it highlighted the fact that recent versions of operating systems and productivity applications are “secure by design” when used to default settings.

It went through two different “what-if” hacking scenarios with different software combinations to see how hard they were to penetrate in order to “open up” the Webcam. The trigger point was to receive a “loaded” document with instructions that the user must follow, something that can be done through an email phishing attempt. Here, the document would have a macro that would install malware to open up the Webcam and stream its vision remotely.

The first scenario involves a Windows 10 computer running the latest version of Microsoft Word while the second scenario involved MacOS 10.14 Mojave and the latest version of LibreOffice. All operating systems and applications were run in the default protected mode but MacOS Mojave was temporarily configured to admit software from other sources in order to admit LibreOffice on to the Mac.

What was highlighted was the recent operating systems’ flagging or blocking of questionable software when the article’s author was asked to click on the required link within the document. The operating systems having their own basic endpoint-protection software underscored the ability to keep users safe from rogue software. Even productivity application software running documents supplied by email or from questionable sources in a protected mode to inhibit the execution of macros was also highlighted.

Webcams, whether external like this one or integrated in a computing device, aren’t able to be bugs if you keep your computer software up-to-date with the latest patches and have it running “secure by default”.

This meant that neither the Webcam nor the microphone could not be accessed without the user knowing. It was demonstrating the recent “secure by design” approach of newer regular-computer environments that assured the average user of their data security. You may harden that attack surface by masking an integrated Webcam that is part of your computer or monitor, or disconnecting an external Webcam.

Unless you need to, keep your computer’s operating system, applications and endpoint-security utilities running in a “default-for-security” manner. This also includes updating them to the latest version, preferably with the software updating themselves.

If you are supporting other systems, don’t disable the computing environment’s security features unless you are sure they need to be disabled. Also educate the other users about data-security risks including the security warnings that will pop up on their computer.

If you are dealing with an old computer that is running a very old operating system and application software that doesn’t have the “secure by design” approach, you may have to cover or disconnect the Webcam. This is more so if it is found to be running the software “out of the box” without any patches or updates applied to it.

In most cases, the “secure-by-design” approach of most modern computing environments allows us to be able to use regular or mobile computer equipment in a secure manner.

Article

This Dell XPS 13 can be charged from a USB-C Power Delivery battery pack for long-haul use

The 10 Best Laptops You Can Charge With a Power Bank | MakeUseOf

List of USB-C Power Delivery chargable laptops | Wikipedia

My Comments

The USB-C connection and USB Power Delivery specification bas brought forward the idea of using a USB external battery pack a.k.a a USB powerbank for charging your laptop computer. This is in addition to using these battery packs for charging your smartphones or tablets.

For example, you could be using these battery packs to “stretch out” your laptop’s run-time while you are away from power, something you may be doing while playing a Civilization game on one of the new many-hour long-haul flights for example. Or you could simply charge up a laptop that has a battery that is depleted. It may also be of use where a battery inside the computer is nearing its end-of-life and is not likely to hold enough charge to permit use away from power.

Here, you have to look towards a USB-C PD-compliant battery pack which can put up at least 30 watts. For air travel, the battery pack would have to have the ideal battery capacity of 2600mAh because of air-transport limitations on lithium-ion batteries larger than 2700mAh for this class.

Features worth looking for include some USB-A connections for mobile phones and tablets along with another USB-C Power-Delivery-compliant connection. Having the two USB-C connections can allow you to charge the battery pack up while you are charging your laptop or running it from AC power – no need to carry extra chargers and travel adaptors with you.

This is mostly relevant to 13” laptops, 2-in-1s and similar devices. You may be able to get some more run-time out of larger-screen devices and other USB-C Power-Delivery devices if you don’t really expect to fully top up the battery in your computer.

The Dell XPS 13 in its clamshell and 2-in-1 forms as reviewed and covered extensively on this site can be charged from these battery packs. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon or Yoga variants can do this job as can the HP Spectre X2 detachable and the ASUS Zenbook 3. For gaming-grade performance, you can power the Razer Blade from one of these USB-C battery packs.

Mac users can rejoice with all of the USB-C-equipped Apple MacBook family able to he charged or powered from these external battery packs. Chrome OS users also can know that the Google Pixelbook and the Asus Chromebook Flip C302 can work from these same power sources.

The Wikipedia article will list more laptops that can work from a USB-C Power Delivery battery pack and there is a strong likelihood that newer iterations of the abovementioned computers will run from USB-C Power Delivery in this manner.

You may be able to work around the battery-power limit regarding these batteries if you take two or more USB-C PD battery packs that is within the limits but it is best to confirm these limits with your national government’s air-safety Website.

Article – From the horse’s mouth

Windows 10 users can print to these printers using a Mopria class driver baked in to the operating system

Mopria Alliance

Press Release (PDF)

Fact Sheet

Previous Coverage on driver-free printing

What is happening with driver-free printing

My Comments

There are sure steps being taken to print fully-formatted documents from a computing device without the need for driver or companion software to be installed by the user.

It is to allow a person to print a document like a boarding pass using the printer local to them without worrying about make or model it is in order to install any drivers. This effort has been focused towards mobile platforms like iOS and Android thanks to the inherently-portable nature of devices that run these operating systems. But there are other use cases like dedicated-function devices such as set-top boxes or accessible-computing scenarios where you use specially-designed hardware for people with particular challenges.

No need to find and install drivers for that printer you have to use with the Windows 10 laptop

But it can apply to regular computers, especially laptops that are likely to be taken from place to place. Apple facilitated this through integrating AirPrint in to the Macintosh platform since MacOS X 10.7 Lion so you can print to an AirPrint-compliant printer without needing to install drivers on your Mac computer.

Now Microsoft is using the Mopria Alliance technology to enable this kind of driver-free printing from Windows 10. This is facilitated through a class driver baked in to the operating system since the October 2018 feature update (Build 1809). The class driver is offered as an option of last resort if Windows 10 cannot find the device driver for a newly-installed printer through existence on the host computer or through Windows Update.

You can still install and update vendor-supplied driver software for your printer, something you would need to do if you want to exploit the scanner abilities on your multifunction printer or use advanced monitoring and quality-control abilities that the manufacturer offers. It would work if you are in a foreign place like your business partner’s office and you needed to print out a document “there and then”.

In the case of managed-IT scenarios, the Mopria approach avoids the need for inhouse or contracted IT personnel to install drivers on the computer equipment they are managing to have it work with a particular printer. It also applies to task-specific Windows 10 builds where you want to have the minimum amount of software on the device yet allow for printing. As well, creating a standard operating environment or a dedicated-function device based on Windows 10 code like a point-of-sale system can be made easier especially where you want flexibility regarding the printer equipment you deploy or your end-users end up using.

I would like to see Microsoft improve on this by having a standalone Mopria class driver available for prior versions of Windows and ready to download from their download sites. This is especially useful for organisations who maintain task-specific standard-operating-environments or devices based around these earlier operating systems.

What is happening is the idea of driver-free printing is being seen as a reality especially for mobile computing scenarios and all the popular operating environments are coming to the party.

Article

The sale of a property is an area where consumers can easily be caught up in a business-email compromise scam

Email crooks swindle woman out of $150K from home sale | Naked Security blog

An email scam has caused $200,000 in losses to real estate agents and home buyers in Victoria | Smart Company

My Comments

Ordinary householders can be at risk of a “business email compromise“ phish attempt in the same way as those in large business.

The business email compromise scam

This scam typically has the trickster research as much as they can about their victim and his or her employer or business partners. The victim that is usually targeted is someone who is likely to facilitate business-sensitive transactions or handles business-sensitive data like the payroll. They will find out whom they report to within the organisation such as the chief financial officer, or beyond the organisation like their accountant, lawyer or the tax department.

Then they place an urgent request to the victim to wire funds to a particular account as part of a wire fraud. Or they could be asked to reply to the email with organisationally-sensitive data like employee data typically presented as a “wages and tax-witholding” statement like a W2 (USA), P60 (UK and Ireland) or Group Certificate (Australia) to facilitate identity theft against the business’s staff.

How can ordinary people get caught up in these scams?

as can having that rental apartment managed by someone else

But this kind of email scam can similarly happen with personal transactions, especially those that are high-stakes in nature, typically requiring the engagement of legal counsel. A key example of these transactions would be the sale of real-estate, businesses or investments.

Similarly, the probate settlement of a deceased estate or a property settlement after a divorce or separation could be at risk because these can involve a collection of items including high-value goods like real-estate or collectables. In that case, you are dealing with a real-estate transaction along with the valuation and sale of items.

It can also extend to transactions where you are delegating an agent to manage assets. Examples of these include trust funds typically for minor children, powers of attorney, or rental properties managed by a property manager or estate agent.

These transactions typically involve the frequent exchange of documents during the closure or settlement period where the transaction is in the process of being realised. They also involve dealing with different entities like conveyancers, law firms, estate agents and the like to facilitate the transactions. In addition, due to electronic transaction technologies like online document signing, there will be many emails between the parties that will have links to various resources like document repositories including document-signing platforms or results pages. They are also vulnerable towards the end of the settlement period where a last-minute change could be rushed in “under the radar”.

What can happen, for example, is that a fraudulent email could be used to “steer” the proceeds of a house sale away from the vendor’s account towards a fishy-sounding account.  Or funds due to an estate’s beneficiary could be steered away to an account not under the control of that person.

What can you do?

Protect yourself against this scam by practising safe email habits

To protect yourself, make sure everything about the transaction is properly “cut and dried” as it evolves. This includes identifying and documenting sources, currencies and destinations of any funds along with procedures affecting the high-stakes transaction at the start of the transaction. Especially be careful of last-minute changes that crop up towards the end of the settlement.

Protect email accounts that are party to the transaction such as implementing security measures that the email service or client software would provide. With Webmail services,using multi-factor authentication may work as a secure measure, as will verifying that you log in to the service at its known proper address.

Carefully examine emails associated with the transaction to be sure they come from the proper email addresses. As far as links to online resources are concerned, make sure you know the proper domain name for these resources and that the links point to resources at that domain name. Attachments should also come through as proper representations of their filetype and you may have to use your endpoint security software to scan for document-laden malware.

Similarly, you may have to make sure Word documents or Excel spreadsheets are viewed in “Protected View” where macros cannot be run or the document can’t be edited. You would need to exit this mode if you are editing the document such as filling in a form or amending a spreadsheet, or printing it out.

In some cases, a regular personal computer running desktop applications and Web browsers may become a better device to use for verification than a mobile-platform device like a smartphone or tablet. This is because the desktop operating system and software tends to offer a more detailed user experience than their mobile equivalents.

If someone changes their email or other communications details, confirm these details through another communications means that you and them trust. You may have to use one of the prior or alternate communications details as a tool for confirmation if a significant number of details is changed such as through a change of employment.

You may have to double-check invoices, account numbers and the like directly with the other party especially if these details are changed. It is best to do this in person or on the phone using independently-verified phone numbers such as numbers you already have for them.

Avoid the use of untrusted networks like insecure public-access networks to do your sensitive business. Here, you may find that using a mobile-broadband connection and/or a VPN may work with this kind of business if you are away from home or office networks you can trust.

Be especially careful about creditors where the payment-destination account number, the payment method or currency changes during the course of your business. There may be a legitimate reasons such as a creditor changing banks or accounts for something that suits their needs better. But an impostor could be steering money that you owe them to an account under the control of the grifter who is impersonnating them.

If the high-stakes transaction has any international dimension about it, don’t be afraid to seek consular help regarding any aspect of that transaction. It may mean talking with your country’s foreign-affairs government department or the embassy or consulate associated with the foreign country. This is now important with people relocating overseas while maintaining assets like homes in their own or other countries, or goods being purchased via the Internet from foreign sellers.

For example, participants of a transaction conducted across international borders can use consular help to verify each others’ identities. Similarly, they can organise official translation of any official documents that are part of the transaction and are in a language that one of the parties doesn’t understand. Or you simply may need to confirm the legitimacy of that transaction in the foreign country including any steps you need to take.

Conclusion

We as consumers can become vulnerable to the business-email compromise scam when we are dealing with high-stakes transactions like real-estate purchases. To protect yourself, it’s about secure computing and email practices along with making sure everything in the transaction is “cut and dried” including verifying changes through another communications path you trust.

Article

A screen protector or privacy screen can be a valuable cost-effective accessory for that laptop

Do laptop screen protectors affect touchscreen sensitivity? | Windows Central

My Comment

An accessory that you could get for your own laptop computer or give to someone who owns one is a screen protector or privacy screen. These accessories are considered very affordable and you would be safe to give one as a gift for any occasion. It is not hard to come by these accessories, typically found in accessory departments of computer, consumer-electronics, office-supply or similar stores or available online through the likes of Amazon.

The screen protectors, typically made of plastic or tempered glass, protect the screen from scratches or dust. The plastic option is an economy option but it itself can be scratched and is not always likely to cover the whole of your screen as well as itself becoming a “dust magnet”. The glass option costs extra but is more damage resistant and will cover your screen fully. That is more important especially for tablets and 2-in-1s due to you interacting with the screen more frequently.

Privacy screens are a screen protector that uses a fresnel-lens approach thanks to polarisation to limit the viewing angle to directly in front of the screen. This is to prevent others who are sitting beside you from viewing what’s on your screen, but if a person is directly behind you, they can see what you are doing. It is good if you are using your computer to work on confidential material in a high-traffic area regularly like making use of that “second office” cafe or bar, or using it to do your work on public transport or while flying.

This is more so with these 2-in-1 convertible laptops

You may expect to have reduced sensitivity from touchscreens or active-pen setups due to the extra material but this may be a slight effect. In some cases, a screen protector that has a textured surface may provide a better inking surface than using a glossy screen alone or a smooth-surfaced protector. This is more so if it has a paper-style texture.

When choosing a screen protector or privacy screen, pay attention to ease of installation and removal. This is important if you find that it doesn’t fit your computer properly or suit your needs or the screen becomes too dull as you use it. In some cases, you may find that particular screen protectors may fit a particular model of laptop rather than working for a particular generic screen size.

Something else you may may have to pay attention to is whether the screen protector does impact your computer’s screen brightness for comfortable use over its lifespan. This is more so if you have to increase the screen brightness which can have an impact on battery runtime. Let’s not forget how the automatic brightness functionality on some screens may be affected by the use of the screen protector and you may have to raise the brightness slightly.

Considering these points can allow you to choose the best value screen protector or privacy screen for your laptop or tablet so you can gain long-term use out of these accessories.

Article

Vehicle infotainment options could be delivered like computer software rather than a special vehicle order at time of purchase

Mercedes wants to treat certain vehicle options like video game DLC | CNet

My Comments

An issue that will become a key trend for how new cars are sold is the supply of options like navigation, smartphone integration or advanced broadcast-radio technology like DAB+ or HD Radio at the time of purchase or after the fact/

Typical realities that come about include when a vehicle changes hands and the new owner wants to add on newer technology; the fact that the existence of some newer features on an older vehicle may raise its resale value; along with “ready-to-go” vehicles existing at a particular dealership such as one in an outer-urban location not being kitted out with a particular option leading to customers who want these options to order a suitably-equipped vehicle from the factory.

But Mercedes-Benz has taken the “software-defined” approach to this situation to allow options to be delivered as if you are downloading an app for your smartphone from the app store. Most of it is facilitated through things like the broadcast-radio tuner in the car radio being a software-defined receiver for example.

It will also appeal as a cost-effective approach towards updating data associated with particular functions like maps that are part of a navigation system or Gracenote music-recognition data for a CD player. It could also appeal as a way to make a newer option available across the manufacturer’s car fleet even after the vehicle is on the road, such as something that is required as part of compliance with newer expectations.

The vehicle will have to be connected to an Internet connection and be based on the Mercedes.me platform to allow users to buy and implement these updates. There may be some options that will require the installation of hardware like, for example, an optical-disc player in a vehicle that didn’t come with one so you can play CDs.

Like with the CD changers that were offered as an option during the 1990s, these features may command a higher premium that something offered through the independent aftermarket. There may also be issues about what is available in a particular country, something that can be of concern for expats that ship their vehicle with them or areas like Europe where one can head to another country by road or a short affordable ferry trip.

I do see this as a trend for vehicle builders that invest in their infotainment systems to implement software-based option delivery for existing and newer vehicles. It may also be a way for mature drivers to acquire newer infotainment functionality without going down the path associated with the “four-wheeled ghetto blaster” often associated with young men who trick out their cars.