On Sunday 13 May 2012 Andrew and his wife Michelle cycled 30 miles in 3 hours and 45 minutes and raised £200 for the charity. The sun was out and we have been told that a great day was had by all! The event included 3 different routes – 8 miles, 15 miles and 30 miles. The 30 mile route that Andrew completed starts at Rhyl, goes out towards St Asaph and Bodelwyddan, before returning to the events arena.

The British Heart Foundation are the nation’s heart charity. Their vision is a world where people don’t die prematurely from heart disease. The British Heart Foundation achieve this through pioneering research, vital prevention activity and ensuring quality care and support for everyone living with heart disease. They have constant fund-raising events throughout the year around the UK including cycling, swimming, walking, running and even skydives!

For more information, please contact Andrew Wright on 01745 435 000 or email him on Denbighshire@pcpal.co.uk.

Many of us love to pop onto Facebook and Twitter to tell our friends and family little snippets of our lives. But (there is always a but) how well do you protect yourself from online criminals and fraudsters? Here is some advice on how to stay secure whilst tweeting and poking!

Privacy tools

This is an important one and one we would recommend you go and check on Facebook ASAP. From your privacy settings page you can manage who sees your updates, who can view your pictures (we recommend just your friends), what happens when you get tagged in someone else’s photo, who can message you, who can post on your timeline and much more. It only takes a few minutes and who wants strangers looking at pictures of you and your friends?

Know your friends

It may sound a bit obvious, but do you really know and trust that person you became Facebook friends with 4 years ago?    Don’t be adding any strangers as friends and clear out the ones that you have already done. As mentioned above, do you really want a stranger that you know nothing above looking through your Facebook albums and reading what you get up to every day?

Personal information

There should always be a limit as to what you publish online, and personal details can go over that limit! Again, this is like the the 2 points above – you don’t want certain information getting into the wrong hands. Yes, we know you (hopefully) don’t share bank details but sharing things like when you are going on holiday, or going to be away from your house for a few days could been seen as a “opportunity” to the wrong type of people. Make sure your phone number and email address can only be seen by friends aswell.

Overall, most of it is just common sense but there are other things to watch out for as well. The classic, well known one is related to work. Be careful if you are friend with your boss or other work colleagues, especially when posting photos from Saturday night or complaining about your day at work! We also recommend following our password tips as well – make sure your password is strong and changed regularly.

What does this mean?

Previously, the BBFC was never tasked with providing 12 certificates for video games, meaning it was technically legal to sell a 12-rated game to children younger than 12. With this new system though, for the first time, if anyone is caught selling a 12-rated game to a child under that age, they could face a prison sentence. (Good news for you parents!)

Certain games will continue to be exempt from age-ratings such as educational or sports game. Also, VSC will have the option to have the option to refuse an age rating meaning that it will be illegal to sell in the UK – this will only be the case if the content is extreme.

We have also heard that there is a possibility that the Government are also considering widening this law to include media such as pop videos and DVDs to protect children from inappropriate material.

We should also mention that these rules don’t apply to online sales of games so we recommend you keep on monitoring what your youngsters are buying online as well as any media content they are watching!

For more information on child protection online, check out our article below – Is you Child Safe Online?

http://blog.pcpal.co.uk/2012/05/is-your-child-safe-online-take-control/

Here at PC PAL HQ, our 2 Head Office Engineers, Chris and Dave, love all things computer related!

Chris and Dave had  a little competition last year to see who could strip down a computer the fastest! Who do you think will win? Do you think you could beat them?! Click on the links below to watch the videos on who could strip the computers the quickest!

Chris's PC strip challenge click here

Dave's PC strip challenge click here

Spec list:

A graphics card – held in by 1 screw
Modem – held in by 1 screw
Hard Drive – held in by 1 screw
CD Rom Drive- held in by 1 screw
Floppy disc drive- held in by 1 screw
Heat sink
Case fan
RAM – 1 stick
Power supply – held in by 4 screws, all cables connected to devices
2 x IDE cables
1 x floppy cables
Side of case already removed
Processor and mainboard are left inside

Let us know if you have any questions or would like to show us you videos!

Damian Holland, our new franchisee for the Stockport area, tells potential franchisees of the support and funding he received from The franchising Works Programme to help him make the first step in starting his new business and career as a P C PAL Franchisee Engineer.

For the full story, click here.

• 1 in 3 children have been victims of cyber bullying
• 80% of children report that they access the internet alone
• Over 22% of children have internet access in their bedrooms

(Child exploitation and online protection centre)

Do you know what your child is watching online, who they are chatting to and who they are ‘friends’ with?  The computer can be an indispensable part of a child’s education but can expose them to some unwanted side effects.  What can you do to protect them?

All Windows based computers have Parental Controls which allow you to:

• Control the type of websites that are accessed
• Control the types of games/programs that are run
• Control when the computer can  be used

But is this enough?  In addition, there are some new child protection software packages that increase your ability to protect your child.  These can provide:

• Email notifications – know what your child is up to without having to ask
• Notification about the subject and content of Instant Messaging
• Visibility of your child’s social networking ‘friends’, photos they post and view
• Remote login – manage your account from any computer with internet access
• Multiple profiles for different aged children and, of course, adults!
• Detailed reports to allow you to check the content viewed on all protected computers

The computer shouldn’t be something to be feared or avoided but does need adequate parental control to make a safe learning environment for your child.

If you have questions regarding how to set up basic parental controls or would like more information on enhanced child safety via child protection software or have any other computer issue then contact your local PC PAL Engineer.

Written by Peter Clarke, PC PAL Andover

St. Margaret’s Hospice is a local charity committed to delivering specialist palliative care to people from Somerset living with life-limiting illnesses. Its care is delivered through two in-patient units in Taunton and Yeovil and right across the county through specialist nurses working out in the community. This community service last year enabled 1,700 patients to be cared for where they most want to be – at home.

Jamie, who covers the Taunton and surrounding areas as a PC PAL computer repair specialist, says :

“Having had dealings with hospices for a couple of close family members I know what a fantastic job they do, so I would want to support them even if it doesn’t bring in extra business!

St Margaret’s are a well known and active charity and are a very worthwhile local institution and being business savvy, they appreciate the mutual benefits associated.”

This mutually benefiting partnership looks to be the start of great things. Jamie and St Margaret’s have been discussing  areas in which to promote their partnership, creating referral work for Jamie in which Jamie will then donate £5 for every job.

If you would like any more information, please contact Jamie Cunningham on 01823 531 000  or email him at taunton@pcpal.co.uk.

• Firstly, try to get into the habit of changing you passwords on a regular basis – Monthly would be ideal. Make sure this includes your online banking details, social media accounts, household bills accounts, Paypal and anything else that holds your personal information.

• If possible try not to have the same password for all your accounts – try to split them up a bit. The worry is that if one account got hacked (say your email) and you had the same password for another (your Facebook account) both accounts would be compromised.

• Dont use personal data – date of births, phone numbers, etc. The thing to realise is that people who are wanting to hack into your accounts will try personal data first.

• Get creative with your password! You can pick the simplest of words and make it into a strong and secure password. Here is an example:

password1 (a basic one, that we would never recommend anyone use!)

And below, are 3 variations:

1. Pa5Sword1 (this contains capital letters and the number 5)
2. pa$%WORD?1 (combining  numbers, capitials and other symbols)
3. p&55word@on£ (as above, swapping letter for numbers, adding in various symbols and this time, typing the word one with a pound sign)

• Try not to use the password “remember” features. We know it makes things convenient but many people in the industry say they aren’t safe. It only takes a couple of seconds to log into a website and could save you a lot of unnecessary worry.

• Any website that you have to log in to…..always make sure you log out before you leave!

Jat Mann, Managing Director of PC PAL, a UK Network of PC Repair Experts, commented,

Jat Mann – MD, PC PAL with Engineers

“According to the FBI those left with this infection are likely to be individuals and not companies. However, most peoplethese days rely heavily on their internet connection whether it’s for internet shopping, research, banking, running small home businesses, the list goes on. As far as we know most of these people will not be able to tell if they are infected until the plug is pulled on 9th July! The good news is that we have prior warning of the exact date this may occur, which is very unusual in the world of computer viruses and other problems, so people can take action now and hopefully avert disaster!
“We would therefore urge all internet users to visit www.dcwg.org, the FBI’s security partner, who should be able to let you know if you are infected. If they do inform you that your computer or laptop is infected, they will run you through the solution to fixing the problem. Of course some people may not feel confident in doing this, which is when they need to call in a qualified professional who will be able to clear the issue and give the computer a clean bill of health.”

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office purchased devices from auction sites such as eBay and computer fairs and out of the 200 hard drives collected 11% contained personal information.

The watchdog also stated that at least 2 of the hard drives had enough information on them to enable someone to steal the former owners’ identity.

For its investigation, the ICO employed computer forensic firm NCC Group to source and scour around 200 hard drives, 20 memory sticks and 10 mobile phones and nearly half (48%) contained some information, 11% of which was deemed personal information. Among the 34,000 files found were scanned bank statements, passports, information on previous driving offences and some medical details.

Four of the hard drives came from organisations rather than individuals and contained information about employees and clients, including health and financial details. All four organisations had been contacted, and had subsequently taken action to securely erase data on old equipment, the ICO said.

One – Safe and Secure Insurances Services Limited – has agreed to introduce further improvements.

“People are in danger of becoming a soft touch for online fraudsters,” warned Mr Graham.

“Many people will presume that pressing the delete button on a computer file means that it is gone forever. However this information can easily be recovered.”

Also part of the survey carried out was focused around the disposal of mobile phones, computers and laptops and found that 1 in 10 people had not wiped the device of data. Mobile phone data could include phone numbers, bank details, online account details and media such as personal pictures and videos.

We can help

If you are looking to sell on your computer, laptop or hard drive, our engineers are fully experienced and qualified in removing and backing up all data. We want all of our customers be able to sell on your hard drives and computers without any risk or concerns. Call us today to book in your local PC PAL engineer for a reliable, honest and trustworthy service in your home or office.