What's made you not grumpy but not smile either today?

[The Panda Nut]

What's a mobile phone?
Oh! Isn't that something I read about somewhere, some gadget that rules peoples lives.

They arn't all bad.

Its a gadget that you can use to take photos of things you :

cant see any more cos they are too small..... like screw heads . Is it flat or cross head
Places you can get to any more.... like the undserside of things you cant bend down to see, like Panda thermostats and the underside of electrical consumer units.
Things you cant see in the dark
Or things you want to remember but cant like phone numbers on vehicles.

They also have a useful torch and a place to store your credit card multi tool.

Anyway after a few days you will have lost it and may never remember where you put it or even what it looked like so it won't adversly affect you for long. LOL

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

They arn't all bad.

Its a gadget that you can use to take photos of things you :

cant see any more cos they are too small..... like screw heads . Is it flat or cross head
Places you can get to any more.... like the undserside of things you cant bend down to see, like Panda thermostats and the underside of electrical consumer units.
Things you cant see in the dark
Or things you want to remember but cant like phone numbers on vehicles.

They also have a useful torch and a place to store your credit card multi tool.

Anyway after a few days you will have lost it and may never remember where you put it or even what it looked like so it won't adversly affect you for long. LOL

Being serious for just a moment. Yes I can see there is useful stuff they do but I'm very worried about how insecure they are and how many seem to be stolen and then used to rob folk of their life savings and impersonate them to take out crippling loans etc. I think the phone companies, device manufacturers and program designers/companies need to really step up and sort this out.

On a personal basis, I'm quite disturbed at what I observe in my 11 year old granddaughter - who was given a fairly basic phone earlier this year. Before she had the phone she spent a lot of time messing about with me and her younger brother, now she's glued to the phone nearly all the time. We insist on her leaving the phone at home when she's out with us but, as soon as we get back in the door, she can't wait to get back on it. I've looked over her shoulder a number of times and consider it my duty to keep an eye on what she's looking at and it seems to be all "girly stuff" like false finger nails, make up, etc but I worry she'll come across something "nasty".

Having said all that, Mrs J and I have decided we're going to buy one, which we'll share, because it's becoming impossible to do our banking since they closed our only remaining convenient bank branch and also there seems to be stuff like car parks etc which you can't use unless you have one. Recently not having one made dealing with my privately funded operation quite difficult too as they wanted me to access financial and physio stuff via QR codes. I however, will continue to give our landline as my contact number. - Mrs J will be "guardian" of the new phone, which we decided because her extensive network of female friends all have them and keep sending communications containing images which her existing "dumb" phone can't do anything with. Doesn't affect me as my pals are all old dinosaurs like me and my kids know not to send anything like that to me (they send images to my laptop via email if need be.)

 

[bugsymike]

Being serious for just a moment. Yes I can see there is useful stuff they do but I'm very worried about how insecure they are and how many seem to be stolen and then used to rob folk of their life savings and impersonate them to take out crippling loans etc. I think the phone companies, device manufacturers and program designers/companies need to really step up and sort this out.

On a personal basis, I'm quite disturbed at what I observe in my 11 year old granddaughter - who was given a fairly basic phone earlier this year. Before she had the phone she spent a lot of time messing about with me and her younger brother, now she's glued to the phone nearly all the time. We insist on her leaving the phone at home when she's out with us but, as soon as we get back in the door, she can't wait to get back on it. I've looked over her shoulder a number of times and consider it my duty to keep an eye on what she's looking at and it seems to be all "girly stuff" like false finger nails, make up, etc but I worry she'll come across something "nasty".

Having said all that, Mrs J and I have decided we're going to buy one, which we'll share, because it's becoming impossible to do our banking since they closed our only remaining convenient bank branch and also there seems to be stuff like car parks etc which you can't use unless you have one. Recently not having one made dealing with my privately funded operation quite difficult too as they wanted me to access financial and physio stuff via QR codes. I however, will continue to give our landline as my contact number. - Mrs J will be "guardian" of the new phone, which we decided because her extensive network of female friends all have them and keep sending communications containing images which her existing "dumb" phone can't do anything with. Doesn't affect me as my pals are all old dinosaurs like me and my kids know not to send anything like that to me (they send images to my laptop via email if need be.)

I agree about the dangers of having all your valuables on one phone.
On TV last night there was someone saying his phone was snatched on the tube train and they cleared £20,000 etc from him by taking a loan out using his details within a very short time. They had no problem cracking his security on the phone!!!
Plus there is the ripple affect of risks to all your family contacts etc.
Much the same with energy (gas/coal/electricity/nuclear etc. I feel that the drive to put all our eggs in one basket is a stupid mistake that we we all pay for at some point!

 

[The Panda Nut]

Ha Ha. No more cakes and pies for you when she gets that !.

Use a face and finger print recognition and a code and its eeasonably secure.

Set up find my phone

Learn how to secure and wipe the phone remotely.

My tips for security
Get a password manager (I use Eset it does phone and laptop / pc antivirus etc as well. Its pretty secure AND easy) There are others available. They use password you cannot break ( at least easily.... 16characters and symbols at random. You remember just one for the manager.

Use 2 factor authentication on web sites.
Join Pay Pal and always buy with that.
NEVER EVER put bank or credit cards on the net.

Eset has a secured browser window you can use for banking and purchases which gives extra protection on the net.

You wil be fine!

 

[bugsymike]

Ha Ha. No more cakes and pies for you when she gets that !.

Use a face and finger print recognition and a code and its eeasonably secure.

Set up find my phone

Learn how to secure and wipe the phone remotely.

My tips for security
Get a password manager (I use Eset it does phone and laptop / pc antivirus etc as well. Its pretty secure AND easy) There are others available. They use password you cannot break ( at least easily.... 16characters and symbols at random. You remember just one for the manager.

Use 2 factor authentication on web sites.
Join Pay Pal and always buy with that.
NEVER EVER put bank or credit cards on the net.

Eset has a secured browser window you can use for banking and purchases which gives extra protection on the net.

You wil be fine!

All very good advise, except I don't want to have to even try to think about setting all that up as never use even the original basic mobs.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Being serious for just a moment. Yes I can see there is useful stuff they do but I'm very worried about how insecure they are and how many seem to be stolen and then used to rob folk of their life savings and impersonate them to take out crippling loans etc. I think the phone companies, device manufacturers and program designers/companies need to really step up and sort this out.

On a personal basis, I'm quite disturbed at what I observe in my 11 year old granddaughter - who was given a fairly basic phone earlier this year. Before she had the phone she spent a lot of time messing about with me and her younger brother, now she's glued to the phone nearly all the time. We insist on her leaving the phone at home when she's out with us but, as soon as we get back in the door, she can't wait to get back on it. I've looked over her shoulder a number of times and consider it my duty to keep an eye on what she's looking at and it seems to be all "girly stuff" like false finger nails, make up, etc but I worry she'll come across something "nasty".

Having said all that, Mrs J and I have decided we're going to buy one, which we'll share, because it's becoming impossible to do our banking since they closed our only remaining convenient bank branch and also there seems to be stuff like car parks etc which you can't use unless you have one. Recently not having one made dealing with my privately funded operation quite difficult too as they wanted me to access financial and physio stuff via QR codes. I however, will continue to give our landline as my contact number. - Mrs J will be "guardian" of the new phone, which we decided because her extensive network of female friends all have them and keep sending communications containing images which her existing "dumb" phone can't do anything with. Doesn't affect me as my pals are all old dinosaurs like me and my kids know not to send anything like that to me (they send images to my laptop via email if need be.)

I would suggest getting an iPhone, they are more intuitive to learn and use, and are more secure.

Stories of people having their life savings cleared out are often because the phone was unlocked when snatched, and because it was unlocked the thieves were able to change all the passcodes and passwords to the phone, they have now plugged these holes with software changes and even if the thieves knew the passcode they would still need to know a second code in order to change anything.

As Panda Nut pointed out, if you used facial recognition or fingerprints this makes things even harder.

 

[bugsymike]

I would suggest getting an iPhone, they are more intuitive to learn and use, and are more secure.

Stories of people having their life savings cleared out are often because the phone was unlocked when snatched, and because it was unlocked the thieves were able to change all the passcodes and passwords to the phone, they have now plugged these holes with software changes and even if the thieves knew the passcode they would still need to know a second code in order to change anything.

As Panda Nut pointed out, if you used facial recognition or fingerprints this makes things even harder.

Good advice, but I will continue in the "dark ages " for as long as able.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I agree about the dangers of having all your valuables on one phone.
Much the same with energy (gas/coal/electricity/nuclear etc. I feel that the drive to put all our eggs in one basket is a stupid mistake that we we all pay for at some point!

We are all becoming more aware of the dangers mobile phones constitute and that's bad enough but it's all the infrastructure which now depends on electronics both for them to work and to transmit data which enables them to work which really worries me. I feel we've been very foolish indeed to have so much of this stuff reliant on electronics. Just for instance, a powerful EMP (could be created by our sun, or a nuclear attack or dedicated weapon system or something else of which we civilians are completely unaware) could knock us back into the days of the horse and cart. We've become too clever for our own good and should remember we are really just silly monkeys at the end of the day.

 

[bugsymike]

We've become too clever for our own good and should remember we are really just silly monkeys at the end of the day.

I think the main problem is we are being led by them

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I think the main problem is we are being led by them

Yes, and all my life I've wondered - Why do we let them?

 

[bugsymike]

Yes, and all my life I've wondered - Why do we let them?

Maybe we value our integrity too much to apply for the job
Mind you I suspect it matters not a jot who we vote in, as the "Civil Servants?" will ignore the politicians and carry out their own agenda anyway.

 

[SB1500]

Phones now are pretty secure. The human is the problem now. It's not even an age thing, most of the people my age who aren't self proclaimed 'into' technology all tend to use the same, stupidly obvious password. Any girls I know talk about how their best friends all know their passwords...I suspect most of the 'hacking' going on is just social engineering / a result of being so lax. The photo I've attached, although a meme, is quite truthful as to how most peoples sensitive info gets breached these days.

I'm all for being able to do as much online, but recently when I had the issue with Winnie the Pooh's communist marketplace, trying to do a chargeback from the bank was challenging. Santander have a new app this year, but the online chat part hasn't worked for me since the change.. No way to do it other than to phone up. Did that... got through. Did the request. Two weeks later, nothing. Called up again, "oh must be lost in the post", I said "can I go to my branch today and just get it done there instead of waiting for post?", "Sorry, no, has to be done via the post". Sort of useless - can't do it in branch, but they insist on not sending it first class or tracked either. Banks could definitely up their act.

The latest improvements most other apps made was mandatory "We've texted you a code" (two-factor authentication) - but the latest breaches now are able to replicate the little tokens from your devices so that they can get in without you doing anything wrong as such. Crazy how smart bad actors are getting... Over dependence on our tech makes the consequences much bigger I suppose.

 

[StevenRB45]

I would suggest getting an iPhone, they are more intuitive to learn and use, and are more secure.

Stories of people having their life savings cleared out are often because the phone was unlocked when snatched, and because it was unlocked the thieves were able to change all the passcodes and passwords to the phone, they have now plugged these holes with software changes and even if the thieves knew the passcode they would still need to know a second code in order to change anything.

Is this not a thing on iPhone yet?

Any who...facebook suggested things brought up this which is effectively a list of 80s equivalents of my car car.

Performance largely identical...size largely identical...Mpg 70-90% worse.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Is this not a thing on iPhone yet?

View attachment 456890

there is a slightly different version of theft protection but in the case of many of the stories where people have had their phones stolen and their bank accounts taken over, those people had used pretty weak security settings and not made full use of the tools to secure their own data.

The software is only any use if people actually use it.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Maybe we value our integrity too much to apply for the job
Mind you I suspect it matters not a jot who we vote in, as the "Civil Servants?" will ignore the politicians and carry out their own agenda anyway.

Very true. Mind you, I've lived for quite a long time now and seen many politicians and their ideas come and go and my take on it all is that by voting one way or another it makes little difference, All that happens is that you swap one set of problems for another. I don't think it makes much difference who is in No 10. I just try to work things to my best advantage where I can and try not to worry too much about the rest!

 

[SB1500]

Is this not a thing on iPhone yet?

Apple take it to the next level again... Activation lock so if someone steals your phone and wipes it, they need your specific login to set it up again. So phone is only good 'for parts', but then, no it's not, because the battery, screen, face sensor / finger print sensors are all serialised to the devices to prevent theft for spares. When they first brought these things out, the reports of thefts dropped substantially each time. It's good when they serialise phone components because the theft stopped... but when Audi starts serialising headlights etc, they don't have such a strong / justified argument lol

They have stolen device protection too, time delays on changing certain settings / accessing certain things from unknown locations / networks.

They've even got a lockdown mode to protect data against some seriously sophisticated cyber attacks! People like politicians / CEOs. But turning this on would seriously impact using your phone for everyday people needing things. Still cool to know that when I become the Prime Minister and force everybody to drive '05 Pandas, I can keep my iPhone though, right?

 

[StevenRB45]

force everybody to drive '05 Pandas,

*Except you

 

[SB1500]

*Except you

Yes, I'll be exempt. I wouldn't be cut out to be a Prime Minister unless I was full of **** and separated myself from the working people?!

For some reason.. this bizarre old story sprung to mind... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-36359921

 

[The Panda Nut]

I would suggest getting an iPhone, they are more intuitive to learn and use, and are more secure.

Stories of people having their life savings cleared out are often because the phone was unlocked when snatched, and because it was unlocked the thieves were able to change all the passcodes and passwords to the phone, they have now plugged these holes with software changes and even if the thieves knew the passcode they would still need to know a second code in order to change anything.

As Panda Nut pointed out, if you used facial recognition or fingerprints this makes things even harder.

Only drawback is I have the wrong face. My phone keeps telling me.....

 

[StevenRB45]

Only drawback is I have the wrong face. My phone keeps telling me.....

Hold up a cardboard cut out of your face