Skimming and Scanning- protect your money and property

The advent of the digital age has created more opportunities for theives to take advantege of the general public in a couple of ways at least:

1: Skimming your Credit and debit Cards while their are in your pocket using a device that reads the contactless chip.

2: Scanning and copying your Contactless Car keys while they are either in your pocket or hung up in your house.

However, all is not lost, there are ways to prevent these types of thefts happening with just a little effort, although there is some cost.

A bit of theory:

The Faraday cage (named after Michael Faraday one of the pioneers of electricity) is effectively a screen which prevents radio waves from passing through it. So the way to stop both these types of thefts from happening is to use the Faraday Cage principal.

Cards: a few ways to prevent the skimming:

Car Keys: A couple of ways:

 

 

 

 

 

Effectivness of your Safe/Box:

To test your safe, place a mobile phone inside , then call it and see if it can recieve the signal. 

Obviously there is a cost for these prevention techniques, all the products shown can be purchesed from Amazon.

 

Bitlocker- What is it and why do I need to know about it?

Microsoft have embedded in their Windows OS, a encryption feature called Bitlocker, it can be used to encrypt your hard drive/s if you so wish. It is turned on and off through the control panel under 'Prvacy & Security'. 

To quote Microsoft's Information:

 A BitLocker recovery key is needed when BitLocker can’t automatically unlock an encrypted drive in Windows. This key, which is a 48-digit number, is used to regain access to the drive.

A) You might be prompted for the BitLocker recovery key during startup, due to a security risk or hardware change:

B) You might need to provide a BitLocker recovery key for data or external drives, for example if you forgot the unlock password.

Even though you do not use the Bitlocker Disc Encryption, the proactive saving of the 'Recover Key' is of paramount importance. (Although the key can be found if disaster happens, but it is much easier if stored in the first instance)

Click here to go to the Recover Key Instructions Web Site

Additional Phone Volume Settings on your Phone

As we become older, our hearing changes in more ways than one, in addition to going slightly deaf, the responce to certian frequencies also change. For example Your people under 25yrs can hear a wider range of frequencies of those say over 25yrs (25yrs is a generally acepted nominal age).

In addition to your phone having volume controls, it also has an graphic equalise syste to some extent, it allows you to set your age range and the phone will compensate for the reduction loss by frequency. 

To access this, (only tried with Samsung):

1: Go to Settings, then Sound & Vibration

2: Go to Sound Quality & Effects

3: Go to Adapt Sound and choose age range (there is also a settings next to this age, where you can see what the frequency range is like, or you can set up your own profile.

Access the BIOS on your Windows PC / Laptop

 It is well known that to access the BIOS of a Windows PC, you have to start the machine up while pressing a particular key (could be an F key, or Delete or ESC, but there is no set rule, and if you do not know which ket it is it can be quite a challenge. 

Why would you want to access the BIOS, one of the reasons is to change the boot order, from the Hard Disc (or SSD) to a JUSB port where you can override the startup with another operating system to either try experimenting or involve /install a LINUX OS. 

PLEASE NOTE: Do not attempt this unless you aleady have experience with the BIOS on your machine, a wrong move can cause problems. 

So the Shortcut method is:

1: Right click on Desktop and create a newSHORTCUT

2: Enter into the box  shutdown /r /fw/ t 1    (notice the spaces)

3: Rename the Shortcut  BIOS

4: Right Click the new BIOS ICON and go to PROPERTIES

5: Click on ADVANCED

6: Check the box  'Run as Administrator'

7: Apply and Close

To open the BIOS, Double Click the BIOS ICON

Is Facebook using up all your data?

Have u just got a new smartphone and realised that your data doesn't last too long?

Well there could be a few reasons, but one worth considering is that if you get a new phone (or reset back to factory setting) and/or restore the Facebook app it defaults to playing Videos in timeline while on BOTH WiFi and 4G data. This means that some videos can continuue playing using up data without you possibly knowing.

So that is the solution?
1. Go to the Facebook setting
2. Go to the Facebook app settings
3, Set the play videos switch to WiFi only.

REmember this is a facebook setting on your phone, NOT in the Phone Settings.

Fact Sheets on Various Topics now available to all

 Having undertaken the support work on IT and other subject, I have started to create a series of Fact Sheets which are free to for our Morley Digital followers.

Up to now these have been paper based, but I have created a custom web site to allow the free distribution of the fact Sheets and other information more easily.

You can access the site by clicking here

In some of the topics, the Facts Sheets are still being created, however, please suggest any sheet title that you would like to see and I will endeavour to create it.  

 

Using the Windows Snipping Tool

 The Snipping Tool allows you to take a snapshot of anything on the screen and convert it to a JPG image which can be used in other applications.  To use the tool, follow the instructions below:

·       To open Snipping Tool, select the Start  button, type snipping tool, and then select it in the search results.

·       To choose the type of snip you want, select Mode (or, in older versions of Windows, the arrow next to New), and then choose Free-form, Rectangular, Window, or Full-screen Snip. When making free-form or rectangular snips, use your mouse to select the area that you want to capture.

·       To take a new screenshot using the same mode you used last, select New.

·       Use the Save and Copy buttons at the top of the snip to save or copy it to the clipboard.

Click here to learn more about screenshots and the Snipping Tool.