In Attendance: (15 participants)
Cearbhall O'Meadhra, Vera Naughton, Eamonn OâConnor, Noreen Meagher, Annette
Mccarthy, Lady Jackie, John Chambers, Joan Kearns, Albert Brown, Bob Corazza,
Gerry Eastwood, Michael Brown, Mary Lavelle, Declan Meenagh, Martin Kelly.
Monday morning, Ireland woke to a major crisis in the HSE after hackers broke
into the national database last Friday with disastrous effects on the whole
economy. Our discussions delved deep into the motivation of such hackers, the
dreadful impact on those patients in need of critical treatment and the sheer
cost of funding the ransom. For more on this, Declan has forwarded the
following:
Link to article about HSE ransomware
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ireland-s-health-services-hit-with-20-million-ransomware-demand/
We noted with dismay that some departments still work with Microsoft's Windows
7 and even pay Microsoft a fee to keep them specially maintained.
This has made us all more alert to the importance of maintaining an up to date
antivirus on our computers.
Bert reported that there was a major outage of Virgin Media systems over the
weekend with a significant loss of service. Other outages were reported but no
explanation seemed to be available.
Bert and Jackie have been exploring the Bank of Ireland app which was upgraded
in the last two weeks. However, there are no beneficial changes as yet. Jackie
is still experiencing the difficulty with the process of confirming a
transaction reported earlier.
It was noted that BOI is moving its front office service to the post Office
where an assistant can take payments and hand out money. There will be no
customer service without going to a town where BOI still has an actual bank
premises.
WhatsApp has brought out a new privacy agreement that allows it to share its
data with Facebook. It is not yet compulsory to comply and some of our members
are holding back for the moment.
Some users of WhatsApp like to use "Disappearing mode" which whisks away a
message one minute after it has been read or even up to a week later. This is a
difficult feature as it does not allow time to read the message with Voiceover
unless the delay is set to a longer period. Declan reassured all that any
messages that have been disappeared can be found on the server.
Some felt that Signal would be a better option than WhatsApp, as it is still
private.
Bert gave an explanation of how to open Drop Box in Windows from the System
Tray from which it opens in Windows Explorer:
1. Go into Preferences;
2. Select Dropbox in Windows Notifications;
3. Arrow down to Dropbox;
4. Open up and explore!
Jackie is now the proud owner of an Orbit 20 + Reader. Well, perhaps not so
proud as she has found the left panning key is very stiff and the machine needs
to go back for repair or replacement. That leaves Tom, Cearbhall and one other
as the remaining operating owners of this device in Ireland.
Various members chimed in to reveal the advantages and benefits of the
electronic doorbell known as "Ring doorbell". This is an audio-visual
monitoring device that warns the householder of callers at the front door. It
connects to Android, IOS, and Alexa so that there is no need to leave the
fireside or personally greet anyone at the front door if you don't want to! You
can even take a trip up the mountains and have a chat with the person at your
door without their knowing where you are. Sounds ideal!
With ransoms on the mind, it was not surprising that Resolut came up for
discussion again. Jackie and Mary led the way, explaining that the card costs
about â¬25 and is free after that. There is no way to take out more money than
what is on the card and, so, the account is safe from ransom calls. The Resolut
app reports every transaction as it happens and so the card can be monitored if
someone else is doing your shopping! Jackie makes a great use of the rainy day
vault feature which allows her to save for various targets even as she keep on
buying. It seems to be a bit tricky to set up and might require sighted
assistance since photo id and other security is needed. Although the
transactions on the card are free, there is a charge when the card is used with
a Bank machine.
The meeting ended.
All the best,
Cearbhall
m +353 (0)833323487 Ph: _353 (0)1-2864623 e: cearbhall.omeadhra@xxxxxxx
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