What’s here
This page will contain a summary of the topics coming up and links to more information covered in the sessions to-date. Last year’s topics are available on these pages: 21COM250 and 21COM313
Please email your topics to in advance.
Zoom link
The Zoom link to the session is NOT here. Please find this in your emails – then make sure you know how to find it in future. The same link will be used for the whole year.
Classes finished for the year
| TOPIC | Requested by |
Break up? | Pat |
| iPhone question | Vanna |
| Re-enrolment – some hints for speedy enrolment | |
| Shopping season | |
| An interesting article from Troy Hunt | |
Norton 360 includes antivirus, virus removal , malware protection , safe web , safe search and Dark Web monitoring. How safe is it to use Dark Web Monitoring on your bank accounts and personal data? | Jenny |
Historical data breaches – do we need to do anything about these? | Jenny |
Other sources of breach notifications other than HaveIBeenPwned? | Jenny |
Installing security software on iPhone (BitDefender specifically) | Eileen |
Yahoo email wants to “access my Personal Information” – what can I do about this? Yahoo privacy settings | Eileen |
Will a VPN stop Yahoo and others from accessing my personal information? | Eileen |
How to encrypt data on your PC “Best encryption software” https://au.pcmag.com/encryption/43284/the-best-encryption-software-for-2020 AskLeo on encrypting your data https://askleo.com/encrypt-data-laptop/ | |
Is Dropbox encrypted? https://help.dropbox.com/security/how-security-works https://www.skiff.com/blog/is-dropbox-encrypted | |
Updating iXpand flash drive – need to update to Private Access? | Betty |
Email re Optus breach session on Monday not received until late, then disappeared. What is happening? | Vijay |
How many email addresses should we have and how to allocate them to specific uses (https://www.wikihow.com/Create-Multiple-Email-Accounts) | Eileen |
More on Email aliases – what they are, why you might want to use them. Gmail has offered these for years: https://www.101domain.com/gmail_email_aliases.htm | |
Scanning photos | |
OCR on document scanners | |
Home automation | |
Some tips from AskLeo: – Sign in occasionally |
Special sessions
Privacy Online! (27/10/2022 & 03/11/2022)
Here are links to the notes (pdf):
These notes will be available until 26/11/2022
Secure your wifi (25/08/2022)
Here are links to the notes (pdf):
- Colour version suitable for viewing on screen
- Greyscale handouts suitable for printing (34 pages including screengrabs from 3 different routers)
Link updated – These notes will be available until 10/12/2022
Decoding web addresses special session (11/07/2022)
Here are links to the notes (pdf):
– Colour version suitable for viewing on screen
– Greyscale handouts suitable for printing (27 pages)
Notes available until 10/10/2022
Password Managers special sessions (14/07/2022 and 21/07/2022)
Here are links to the notes (pdf):
– Colour version suitable for viewing on screen
– Greyscale handouts suitable for printing (51 pages)
Two-factor authentication special sessions (26/05/2022 and 02/06/2022)
Here are the notes (pdf)
These notes are available until 25/06/2022
Extra notes from 02/06/2022
These notes are available until 05/07/2022
Upcoming Topics
| Topic | Requested by | Expected date |
| Email aliases – what they are, why you might want to use them | ||
Transfer POP email from Outlook 2007 to Outlook 2021 | Sandi | |
Clean up your computer: – how to do a physical clean – organise your storage | ||
Topics by week
| Week | Date | Topics | |
| 10/11/2022 | Google Chrome warning in news – make sure you read ALL the article, it’s only a few extensions! Data breaches – problems with routers and out-of-date software – (incomplete) list of data breaches – Microsoft Office end of support – router passwords Scanning QR codes – best app for this? – scan with built-in camera or QR code reader Signing documents digitally – in Word or pdf? How best to do it? https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/digital-ids.html https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/certificate-based-signatures.html https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/digital-ids.html#create_a_self_signed_digital_id Transferring photos from iPhone to PC Apple’s instructions – https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201302 How-To Geek’s instructions – https://www.howtogeek.com/345540/how-to-transfer-photos-from-an-iphone-to-a-pc/ | ||
| 27/10/2022 & 03/11/2022 | Privacy Online special topic | ||
| 20/10/2022 | Medibank breach – seems to be more significant: ABC article 21/10/2022 How to EFFECTIVELY ‘Unsubscribe’ unwanted/ advisement emails? Be careful to only unsubscribe from REAL emails – NEVER unsubscribe from scams. Blocking numbers – does this stop real people calling if the number is later “sold”? Scammers often “spoof” phone numbers so it’s actually not that phone number calling. See this Telstra article How to screenshot on Samsung phones | ||
| 13/10/2022 | Credit card breach (https://blog.cyble.com/2022/10/07/bidencash-strikes-again-over-1-2-million-compromised-payment-cards-data-leaked/) Tech support scam (https://blog.cyble.com/2022/10/11/massive-tech-support-scam-exposed/) Best scanner aps on iPhones (https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-mobile-scanning-apps/) How to search archived websites – use the Wayback machine How many email addresses should we have and how to allocate them to specific uses (https://www.wikihow.com/Create-Multiple-Email-Accounts) | ||
| 10 | 15/09/2022 | Clearing cookies – the ATO website may need you to clear cookies if you are attempting to submit tax returns from two people using the same device. See https://www.ato.gov.au/About-ATO/Commitments-and-reporting/In-detail/Privacy-and-information-gathering/Privacy-policy/ for info on ATO cookie policy – Clear all cookies for a specified time range in Chrome using Settings > Privacy and security > Clear browsing data – Clear cookies from a specific site using Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data > All cookies and site data Updates – Microsoft Patch Tuesday, Apple iOS 15.7, iPadOS 15.7. Upgrades – eg iOS 16 – include additional features. Apple’s “passwordless” logins (Passkey) are available in iOS 16. See explanations at https://theconversation.com/apples-passkeys-update-could-make-traditional-passwords-obsolete-188300 and https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/12/apple-passkey/ (with link to example site) Email aliases – what they are, why you might want to use them. Gmail has offered these for years: https://www.101domain.com/gmail_email_aliases.htm | |
| 9 | 08/09/2022 | 1. How to renew your anti-virus – typically you log into your account on the website for your particular anti-virus and renew there. 1b. Only one anti-virus should be running in real-time mode (ie constantly scanning new files for viruses). If you attempt to have more than one real-time anti-malware running they are likely to get in each other’s way. However, you can do a batch scan of your computer with more than one anti-malware. Malwarebytes is often recommended as a second scanner, particularly if you suspect you are infected. 1c. Free anti-virus software offers basic protection and this may be enough for you. Paid anti-malware tends to offer many more protections. It is a good idea every now and then to check what is offered in a paid version. You may be able to cover the features in another way, eg an automatic notification from HaveIBeenPwned for stolen passwords. 2. 1Password 8 works differently | |
| 8 | 01/09/2022 | 1. ‘Hi Mum’ family impersonation SMS scam and variations 2. I’m running a “Get Online’ session in Term 4 – what are the benefits you think I should tell them? 3. Some tips from AskLeo: – Question marks in URLs | |
| 7 | 25/08/2022 | “Secure your wifi” special session Here are links to the notes (pdf): – Colour version suitable for viewing on screen – Greyscale handouts suitable for printing (34 pages including screengrabs from 3 different routers) These notes will be available until 25/09/2022 | |
| 6 | 18/08/2022 | 1. “Enhanced protection” in your Chrome browser 2. Clearing the cache – what this does 3. System information – msinfo32 – https://askleo.com/get-a-windows-system-report-with-msinfo32/ 4. iPhone camera “Portrait” mode (Apple says Portrait mode is available on iPhone SE (2nd generation) and later, iPhone X and later, as well as iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 Plus. On iPhone X and later, and iPhone 8 Plus, you can use the Portrait Lighting feature to apply studio-quality lighting effects to your Portrait mode images.) | |
| 5 | 11/08/2022 | ||
| 4 | 04/08/2022 | 1. Recovering the contents of a floppy disk. See https://www.howtogeek.com/669331/how-to-read-a-floppy-disk-on-a-modern-pc-or-mac/ Older disks may not be recognised: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/floppy-disk-is-not-accessible-not-formatted-or-not-recognized-by-windows-17c4e169-ed8d-2d5a-aaf0-fd257b80ac3a Follow up – How to buy Office 2021 (instead of the subscription Office 360). You can still buy this from Microsoft – Professional version here (includes Outlook and Publisher for $639), Home and student here (Word, Excel and Powerpoint only for $199) 2. How to stop your phone being tracked How can you block phone location/movement tracking? https://neatspy.com/track/how-to-block-my-phone-from-being-tracked/ Is a “signal blocking bag” (or Faraday cage) a solution? https://privacypros.io/faraday-bags/block-cell-phone-tracking/ Follow up – Why don’t I see parked location in settings? See https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/iphone/ipha13ef1c2e/ios [“significant locations” was turned off] – What Apple System Services under Location tracking do: https://hifutureself.com/ios-location-system-services-settings 3. A couple of recent scam messages and ACSC’s Cyber Security Guides 4. I’m having fun tracking my electricity usage and controlling my heating from my phone. | |
| 3 | 28/07/2022 | No class | |
| W1,2 T3 | 14/07/2022, 21/07/2022 | Password Managers special sessions Here are links to the notes (pdf): – Colour version suitable for viewing on screen – Greyscale handouts suitable for printing (51 pages) These notes will be available until 13/08/2022 | |
| 9 | 23/06/2022 | 1. NO Classes during the break – First 2 classes after the break are “Password Managers“ 2. Current scams – a review of a few current ones and how to handle them Facebook impersonation – Protect your friends: – set your friend list to Friends or Self only, – set your posts to Friends only (you can always make a specific post more visible) – if you receive a Friend request from a ‘copycat’ account, Do NOT accept, report the impersonation, advise the friend whose account is being impersonated and encourage them to make their friend list private. 3. Unexpected Windows single-use code – is it safe to ignore it? Should you change your password? While Microsoft is moving to a password-less login, my worry would still be that someone not only had my login address but also my password. I would change my password as a precaution – it can’t hurt. 4. Internet Explorer web browser has reached the end of its life – officially retired. – If you are still using it, STOP. – It seems it is still installed on our computers – and used for some internal processes. Here are instructions to disable it. 5. Windows Event Viewer – used by scammers – Leo recommends you ignore it completely 6. Domain Name System (DNS) – more on what it is and how it works https://computer.howstuffworks.com/dns.htm | |
| 8 | 16/06/2022 | 1. Current scams – a review of a few current ones and how to handle them. Yes, the message “… Your computer is disabled. Please call Windows. Access is the block security reason for this computer …” is a scam. What to do next: – Don’t respond. – Do a full scan using your anti-malware software – it is possible you have malware / a virus on your computer. Make sure you clear that off. – Turn off pop-ups in your browser. In Chrome go to Settings > Privacy and security > Site settings > Pop-ups and redirects (at the bottom of the page) > select “Don’t allow sites to send pop-ups or use redirects“. Other browsers will have similar paths – or search settings for “pop-ups”. Note that dark themes may make it hard to read your selection. – If Chrome says it is “managed by your organisation“, you can turn that off – Turn off pop-ups on your Android phone – Turn off pop-ups on your Apple iPhone 2. Microsoft Office vulnerability Update (15/06) The Follina vulnerability in Microsoft Office now claimed to be fixed in the latest set of Patch Tuesday security updates. 3. BeConnected webinars – I went to one on Smart Home technology. Some interesting ones coming up, particularly the one on Government sites, which is difficult for me to demonstrate without giving away too much personal information. 4. End of life for Windows 10 – Leo Notenboom’s comments on what that means for us. | |
| 7 | 09/06/2022 | 1. HTTPS Everywhere – is now a browser setting in most browsers. I’ll show you where to find the setting. See https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere/set-https-default-your-browser 2. Google’s Enhanced Safe Browsing See https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/9890866 3. MS Word vulnerability (Follina) See https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/hackers-use-follina-vulnerability-through-microsoft-word/ Here’s the detailed instructions in a text file (open in Notepad). Update (15/06) The Follina vulnerability in Microsoft Office now claimed to be fixed in the latest set of Patch Tuesday security updates. | |
| 5, 6 | 26/05/2022, 02/06/2022 | Two-factor authentication (2 sessions) Notes for these sessions are here (pdfs), available until 25/06/2022 – Colour version suitable for viewing on screen – Greyscale handouts suitable for printing (28 pages) Extra notes from 02/06/2022, available until 05/07/2022: – Colour version suitable for viewing on screen – Greyscale handouts suitable for printing | |
| 4 | 19/05/2022 | No class | |
| 2, 3 | 05/05/2022, 12/05/2022 | How they hack your passwords (2 sessions) Notes for these sessions are here (pdfs): – Colour version suitable for viewing on screen – Greyscale handouts suitable for printing (52 pages!) These notes are available until 04/06/2022 Additional notes and answers to questions | |
| 1 T2 | 28/04/2022 | 1. Virus signature – Anti-malware software looks for “virus signatures” in both real-time scans and in quick or Full scans. See this description of a virus signature. 2. Backup locations and file names – How to tell Macrium Reflect where to put it and how to label it. 3. Windows File Backup – you need to keep a hard drive permanently plugged in. If you need to remove the drive, you should be able to reconnect it and restart the backup. 4. BeConnected – A useful source of more online safety and other information 5. Zoom Free – if you are using Zoom free to run 1:1 meetings note the change to time limits: “Beginning May 2, 2022, your 1:1 Free Meetings will change to a 40-minute time limit.” | |
| holiday week 2 | 21/04/2022 | 1. Why does a full scan find so many files? What are they and where? What does the scan do? A full scan is checking EVERY file on your computer for a virus/malware “signature” to detect any malware that may have got past the real-time scanning. For more on these signatures see https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-a-virus-signature-153629 and https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/v/virus-signature.htm 2. Backing up email. I have backed up my Google account, including email and it’s HUGE! Backing up in Outlook: See this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdOBwNucGzY&list=PLr3UeTQ39PEr47MZLbGix9OvBBZmUHq7x&ab_channel=AskITBE 3. Backing up photos. Beware of using BOTH Apple iCloud and Google Photos. See https://lifehacker.com/why-you-should-un-sync-google-and-apple-photos-1848762896 4. Mobile phone batteries: Why does my phone battery need to be charged so often? Note that iPhones normally need charging every day. When should you recharge? See https://www.techadvisor.com/how-to/mobile-phone/charge-phone-properly-3619623/ How to optimise your Samsung Galaxy phone battery: See https://www.samsung.com/au/support/galaxy-battery/optimisation/ | |
| 8, 9, holiday week 1 | 31/03/2022, 07/04/2022 & 14/04/2022 | BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER – joint session with 22COM103. Follow up topics (14/04/2022) are: – Rescue disk – how to create one and why you need it – Mobile devices – backup options, including backing up individual pieces of data, particularly photos. – email backup – it’s probably not happening! The course notes are still available for download: – colour slides – greyscale handouts for printing – extra slides from follow-up – extra greyscale handouts from follow-up | |
| 7 | 24/03/2022 | – | 1. Setting a lock code (PIN) on your Windows computer, setting the screen to turn off when not in use and locking the computer. There’s a similar process for your Mac computer 2. What is Settings > Recovery for? 3. “Panic/emergency buttons” – Apple Watch vs other smart watches vs personal alarms. 4. Setting up a Guest account on Windows Changing yourself from Admin to “normal” user ie creating a new Admin account |
| 6 | 17/03/2022 – | 1. “I keep on getting spam on my phone and email. How do I stop it?” I’ve found there are apps that claim to block spam texts, including TextKiller. I’m not sure if they are all available in Australia and if they’re worth paying for. 2. iPadOS and iOS malware – is this a risk? Should you have a security app on your iPad / iPhone? (You definitely should on your Android device!) Here’s a reasonable description of why Apple anti-virus scans don’t exist BTW iOS 15.4 is now available. 3. Removing labels in Gmail 4. Backing up WhatsApp and deleting messages in WhatsAPP 5. What program am I running? Program = App = software, so what is an app? (BeConnected is a great source of information for our age-group, and part of the esafety arm of the Australian Government. 6. Windows File History (file backup) | |
| 5 | 10/03/2022 – | 1. “I keep on getting spam on my phone and email. How do I stop it?” See the new page on our website 2. How to write a letter when we are outside home eg in shopping mall or wait at train station? Try Google Docs (needs a Google account), Dropbox Paper (needs a Dropbox account – free is fine) or Microsoft Word Online (needs a Microsoft account). Apple Pages also offers across device use but limited to Apple devices. These all allow you to move from one device to another while editing the same document – and you can work collaboratively with others as well. I find I need to finish the formatting in Word, though. 3. Microsoft patch Tuesday Keep your Windows up-to-date for security. 4. Syncing emails – IMAP vs POP Also my slides illustrating the difference. 5. Which password where? Your email address is very often your ID (your name is unlikely to be unique in the world but your email address is). But the password needs to be the right one for the site you are visiting. See my slides illustrating this concept. 6. “Airdrop” on Android – and cautions on Airdrop settings | |
| 4 | 03/03/2022 – | 1. iPhone and iPad storage (contd) – optimise storage – use of iCloud – be aware of where your files are – synchronising 2. Security alert – expect more malware and more spam because of the war. Precautions you should be taking. 3. An odd “privacy” issue. Security certificates – how to check them and what happens if they are “out of date”. Also, try using a different browser, eg Firefox. 4. Best VPN for working overseas? | |
| 3 | 24/02/2022 – | 1. iPhone and iPad storage: – optimise storage – use of iCloud 2. Deleting multiple emails at once from the iPad See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208661 – illustrated using iPhone but the same thing works on iPad. You can also drag your finger down to select multiple emails at once. 3. Someone is sending emails in my name but not from my email address. How do the bad guys know my contacts? Adapted from Answer 2 on https://superuser.com/questions/725234/how-do-scammers-get-your-contacts-when-they-send-emails-that-appear-to-come-from How they can get your contacts: E-mail (and other passed around contacts) are like any “6 Degrees of separation” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation When people FWD or CC or BCC to a list of people they are passing those contacts out. That invitation to 25 people for the birthday, distributed obituaries, political cute e-mails you gotta send out to your friends, that web meme that you shot out to 2 friends, who shot that to 4 others, complete with your address still stuck in the thing. Add to that the thousands of things we sign up for, buy, log into, and participate with that the TOU specifically states that the information you provide can be used by their own advertisers, or affiliates. Even if a company or web location is maintaining a strict privacy policy today, tomorrow it is purchased by another company, and the rules change. Because we are all 6 steps away from 6 billion other people on the planet, some person who utilizes the web for bad purposes, gets it, and they can make the connection. In the above cases, there is no malware required. 4. Evernote Web clipper – is it useful? I use the Web clipper to clip “simplified articles” (ie strip out the ads and comments) to save recipes and security-related content to my Evernote. I continue to pay for an Evernote subscription because I find this so useful. However, the subscription is quite expensive (AUD89.99 per year). | |
| 2 | 17/02/2022 | – | 1. Using Zoom at the same time as accessing your computer. In other words, how to arrange the windows on your computer so you can see more than just the Zoom session. [If you have a second device such as an iPad you may find it useful to connect this to the Zoom session so you have full use of your computer.] This video may be of some use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk_djG750y4 2. Am I safe? We discussed a number of issues in our Security Audit session. If you have followed up on that, are you now 100% safe? See https://askleo.com/am-i-safe/ 3. Don’t be afraid to explore. You can’t break your computer and if you have a backup, you can’t really get into too much trouble. Just avoid scam emails and messages. See https://askleo.com/afraid-of-your-computer/ 4. Using a VPN – do you need one? When might it be a good idea? Which one to choose? (Note this will not be a full discussion of VPNs – there’s a whole session on this later on sometime) See https://askleo.com/what-vpn-should-i-use/ 5. Is my Facebook hacked? People who are already friends on Facebook have told me they received a friend request from me. Possibly – but perhaps more likely someone is impersonating you on Facebook. To avoid this, make sure you keep your Friends list private (to you only, or just your friends) and keep your posts private to your Friends only. See https://u3anunawading.org.au/learning-online/getting-started-with-facebook/ for more settings you should check. |
| 1 | 10/02/2022 | – | Security Audit (combined with 22COM113 – note the different ZOOM address) Download the notes in pdf form: – Colour slides, best for viewing on screen – Greyscale handouts, best for printing if you have to. |
Summer Sessions
Over the summer period we are covering two topics:
| Dates | Topic | More information |
| 30/12/21, 06/01/22 | Backup your computer | Backup notes – slides (colour) Backup notes – greyscale handouts |
| 27/01/22, 03/02/22 | Clean up your computer | Colour slides – updated Greyscale handout – updated |