Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms AVG security warning

I use AVG as my preferred subscribed anti virus agent and this evening received an unprecedented warning from them, yes it was cosher. Stating that the UK Government are expecting major cyber attacks to take place shortly from Russia, check your router security and ensure all your installed programs have the latest secure versions etc.

I know we have been hearing about this on the media post Salisbury etc but to issue a warning it must be worrying a lot of people.

Thanks for the info.

Good advice. At the very bare minimum, Make sure your router firewall is enabled and the password is reasonably strong. If you open up any of your router firewall ports to enable port forwarding (so you can see home security cameras when you are away from home, for example), double check the security settings.

Never ever leave any internet-enabled device of whatever type, even if it's only a smart plug controlling a timer, with its default password.

And most important of all, NEVER open an attachment or click on a link in an email, even if it's from someone you know, unless you are expecting it. Nearly all malware infections don't come from a hacker getting into a computer, they come from a naive or gullible person letting them in.

Thanks for the advice

We have Kaspersky

It’s Russian

OMG!

Get rid. If you are running Windows 10, the stock Microsoft Windows Defender is fine. Otherwise go for Malwarebytes.

But it's like human health. You don't expose yourself to bubonic plague on the basis that you'll be able to get some antibiotics from the doctor, you simply don't go wallowing around in medieval plague pits.

Same with computers. Don't depend on the anti-virus sw to keep you out of trouble, practice hygenic computing techniques instead.

Might be worth making a back up of the full system just in case. At least then you can wipe everything and reinstall worse case scenario.

Surely everyone does hourly or daily incremental backups these days? It's so easy to do using either iCloud (for Macs) or OneDrive (Windows) or Google Drive Backup and Sync (for Anything) that there really isn't any excuse. All 3 services can be set up to use 2-factor authentication so they are nice and secure.

As a computer user from the olden days I confess to being a bit paranoid in this regard, my stuff gets backed up to an Apple Time Capsule NAS in the house, iCloud, and Google Drive.

We depend so much on our computers that running without backup is extremely unwise to say the least.

had three attempts this morning to change the router password, not helped by not knowing what it was anyway. Failed! The russians will have to be going some to get into the damn thing.

Absolutely agree. You'd think most people would, but I know a lot who don't. Apologies for stating the obvious.

Personally, I use a Mac which is backed up hourly to both cloud and external drive hourly in addition to three external drives, one being a back up of the other two in case of a drive failure. The external drives are only connected for the backups and then disconnected again. Feel free to call me paranoid, but I think I'm covered :-)

No need to apologise, as you say, there are still plenty of people out there who don't know this stuff.