Christmas Roundup
Most of you will be familiar, if you work in an IT field, with the Family IT Service Desk. This year was quite a quiet year however I did have a few conversations with family who needed rescue or help.
This is probably a familiar story to most. You enter a really good looking competition online, or purchase from that amazing bag designer that you've always wanted. The product gets shipped, delivered, and loved instantly. Some time later you discover that the website signed you up to a mailing list.
I often find myself deciding that I don't mind to begin with, especially if I missed the opt-out button. Over time if not dealt with you end up getting 500-1000 unread messages. The only option that most people know about, is going through message by message, finding the unsubscribe button and clicking through.
I found one particular example from UK Athletics recently which asked for my date of birth. All I wanted to do is unsubscribe, hardly seems proportionate security.
Well if all this is contributing to your New Year blues help is at hand. With one relative this year I used unroll.me. It's a free service provided to help people manage their email subscriptions. It does have to scan the email in your inbox in order to work so don't be alarmed when it asks for permission. It will then list all of the emails that you are subscribed too and allow you to manage them from one easy screen.
Some time later the family member commented that her phone had been oddly quiet. If that's not a sign that it worked well I don't know what is.
MFA or 2FA
I noted that one of my relatives was using Google's 2-Step Verification as she was concerned that some around her had guessed the password of her email account.
The way it works is a 6 digit code is sent via text or phone, or a code is generated via an app. This is used as well as your password making a second factor to identify you. This means they can check something you know (the password) and something you have (the code).
If you're concerned about someone around you however a text message is not to be recommended. All they have to do is see your phone to get the code. Most smart phones will show a preview of the text message, which is enough to view the 6 digit code. No need to unlock the phone.
The app is mightier than the text in this situation. You have to unlock the phone to use the app, this means that only you can access it making it much more secure. A good option for both Android and iPhone is the Google Authenticator app which can be downloaded from the play store or app store.
Header image is Command by Philipp https://www.flickr.com/photos/spunkr/
