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Do Not Pay The Ransom
I was scrolling through my Facebook feed a few months ago and saw a post from a friend. Her iPhone appeared to be frozen, she was locked out of it and there was a message that she needed to pay a $50 fee in order to regain access to her iPhone. Over the years I have seen several similar instances. I remember seeing once on my own iOS device a message in Safari that took over my screen and told me to contact Apple because I had a virus on my iPad. Knowing that Apple would never send me an alert about needing to call them I simply ignored it. I tried to close out of Safari by hitting the home button, that worked, but when I opened Safari again the message was still there. Ultimately I had to power down my iPad and upon restart, it was gone, I never saw the message again. I had a few friends send me some panicked messages with screenshots of this same message on their device, I let them know to just turn off the iPad or iPhone. Historically, that is all you needed to do to avoid a scam about a virus or hack. This particular message was not isolated to an iOS device, it could happen on a desktop as well. However, all this was, was a scam to get some money out of a concerned user and nothing more.
Fast forward a few years and now we are seeing reports of Mac computers or iOS devices locked and messages demanding a ransom be paid to regain access to your device. Unlike the Safari messages from a few years ago, just powering down your device or clearing your browsing history is not going to fix this problem. These new Bitcoin or PayPal ransomware are locking users out of their devices. Victims can not use them and are stuck with often one question running through their minds, do I really have to pay a ransom?
Do not pay the ransom! But how do you regain access, and, more importantly, how did you get locked out in the first place. As hackers have gotten more sophisticated, so has their ability to scam you. In almost all of the reported cases we have seen or heard about, users have been locked out via find my iPhone/iPad or find my Mac. Unfortunately, their iCloud account was accessed by the scammers who have locked users out of their devices by initiating the lost mode feature. Sometimes you might simply be locked out with a message that says the device is in lost mode and requires a code ( a code you don’t have access to ) or it’s asking for the ransom.
Thankfully all is not lost, but it does require a bit of work. Regaining access to your device will mean a trip to your local Apple Authorized Repair location or calling and talking to Apple directly. You will need to provide the service location or Apple a proof of purchase to prove you are the owner of the device and you will be able to regain access and most likely without losing your information. You can also follow some troubleshooting tips online from Apple, potentially if you are not being asked for a ransom these steps might help.
But how did this happen? As I mentioned earlier, this is through your iCloud account, which was compromised. You will want to take immediate action and change your iCloud password as soon as you regain access. If you do not have two-factor authentication enabled on your device you will want to do so. Setting up two-factor authentication and ideally setting a stronger password for your account will prevent these kinds of breaches. I always recommend passwords with a combination of letters, numbers and even special characters, and your password selection should be somewhat random. Hopefully, with these tips you can avoid being locked out of your device!
Apps to Pay Friends
There are a lot of different apps out there to pay friends. Some are neat and trendy, like SnapCash, that allows you to pay a friend through Snapchat by just sending a few keystrokes and the money is taken out securely through a Square account. Facebook has another method, and there’s Venmo that you can link directly to a checking account. I’ve experimented with PayPal to send money to a friend, it took it from a credit card, charged a percentage fee, but was pretty slick in how fast it worked. All these methods are going to go down a notch in a little while though; Apple is coming out with their own method for friends to electronically move money between each other.
ApplePay has been around since the iPhone 6, announced in late 2014. ApplePay is a contact-free payment method where you have a card linked to your iPhone and at participating retailers, you pull out your properly configured iPhone, double-click your touchID with a registered fingerprint and the payment terminal beeps and it’s just like swiping your card. ApplePay has all sorts of security built in to make it more protected than a normal credit or debit card. That same level of protection will be applied to the new feature of ApplePay that will allow friends to transfer money between each other.
Hello and welcome to another fall edition of Tech Tails!
Temperatures are starting to drop around here and the crazy October weather continues! On Sunday night, we had an epic wind storm here in Vermont and ended up with dozens of customers seeking backup battery packs for their Apple devices. I’m sure a lot of you have considered what to do in a power outage, but for some younger homeowners, forming a backup plan is a great idea. We lost power about ten times in the night, only in short bursts. Nevertheless, I was thankful for the APC battery backup unit that my iMac is connected to. Without it, I’m not sure how the surges may have affected my computer, scanner, and audio interface. At Small Dog, we carry portable battery chargers by Outdoor Tech, which have a little flashlight attached. I usually recommend these for your toolbox, as they serve two purposes and you’ll never know when you’ll need reserve power.
Moving on to what has been on my mind this week: Sony dropped the new A7RIII and the DSLR community is going crazy. As a Canon shooter, I have to say, Sony is like the Sirens calling from the rocky coast. I have always looked at the A7 line with envy, but fear that switching will result in a few lost features I’m not sure I could part with. On one hand, Sony has more autofocus points, megapixels, and frames per second than the latest 5D by Canon. But numbers like this can be a false flag, depending on your actual needs. I would encourage anyone in the market for a DSLR to speak to a photographer and figure out what they use their system for. As far as I can tell, Canon still has Sony beat for battery life, and weather resistance. If you’re photographing icebergs, those things might come in handy! Especially since cold climates deplete lithium batteries much faster! Sony does have some alluring video features that should not be overlooked. At this point, I would say independent filmmakers should be legitimately considering a Sony rig, but leave extra budget for spare batteries. They’ve introduced image stabilization into their sensors, whereas Canon makes you buy that in every lens. Things like that, or adding higher frame rates to their video format options are what make Canon look a bit old school. That said, Canon is known for reliability, and I’ll take that over flashy new features any day.
Despite my allegiance to Canon, I am in fact in the market for a new DSLR. As I primarily shoot film, I find the digital market overwhelming, but there are lots of in-depth reviews out there to help navigate the options. For now, I am reading deeply into the 5D Mark IV, A7SII, and A7RIII. All fantastic cameras and I hope if any Small Dog customers out there are looking for DSLR support, we have a couple folks at the store that can help. Just about everything I know about digital camera operation, I learned from our consultant, Nate Poirier. Make sure to stop in some time and talk cameras with us!
That is all for now, we’ve got computers to diagnose and Apple Watches to sell, so I’ll get back to work, please enjoy this edition of Tech Tails!
Patrick McCormack
patrickm@smalldog.com