by admin | Aug 16, 2020 | Advertise, Antenatal, Aromatherapy, Art, Authors, Bands, Beauty, beauty Therapy, Facebook, Food, Garden Centres, Gardening, Grantham, IT, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, Lincs Connect, LincsConnect, Mandarin Therapies, Massage, Mobile, Restaurant, Twitter, Vouchers
LincsConnect has been busy on your behalf and things are set to get even busier. Click on the picture to see what’s been happening… Help me help you in Lincolnshire and beyond
Help Me Help You In Lincolnshire With #LincsConnect
Help me help you in Lincolnshire with #LincsConnect by interacting with the many local users. It can’t have escaped your attention that I’ve been busy on your behalf. #LincsConnect help and support is a given of course with retweets on twitter and posts on Facebook to help promote your business and events. Blogs too of course! I know you appreciate what I do and I appreciate the fact that you share what I’m doing too. I still need you to help me, help you in Lincolnshire though.
#LincsConnect – is here to support all things Lincolnshire but it only works when we work as a team. With 12,500 Twitter followers (steadily growing) I know that your help is working for me too. However, at the risk of sounding cheeky, I still need more help. Working together as a team is even more important than it ever has been. You’re still posting your work using LincsConnect and I’m very grateful. LincsConnect is trying hard to share your work around Lincolnshire, Newark, Retford and Hull but I really need to ask more people to search the hashtag #LincsConnect (on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) to help share the messages and support each other.
Just imagine, if all 12,500 local followers each searched the #LincsConnect hashtag and shared just one message….!
How Can LincsConnect Help You More?
What else can LincsConnect do for you? Please let me know as I have plans for the account and need to know that it isn’t missing something important.
#LincsArtCraftHour
If you read my last blog you will recall that we have a dedicated weekly hour set aside on Monday lunchtimes to help promote artists, crafters, jewellery designers and sculptors. Please take a look at the link below to refresh your memory:
I had a question for the Artists who join us and those of you who will be looking to see what masterpieces and bargains are on offer: Which hashtag would you prefer? Are you happy with #LincsArtCraftHour or do you think it would be better as #LincsArtCraft hour? The latter is shorter and more general as it can be used at any time while the original idea is very specific to the Monday lunchtime hour. Jointly you chose #LincsArtCraftHour so that is what we have been using for the last two years.
Guest Blogs
Do you have something to say that you would like to have included in the regular #LincsConnect blogs? Please do get in touch if you would like to have your work included as it’s always nice to see you here.
Help me, help you in Lincolnshire and beyond. If you would like to collaborate with your blog here please email me at martin@lincsconnect.co.uk
Help Me, Help You In Lincolnshire With Featured Twitter Hours…
Do you have any featured hours that you would like to see on twitter? How about #LincsAuthors, #LincsMarkets, #LincsConnectJobs #LincsIT, #LincsHousing, #LincsGardening, #LincsCharities #LincsFoodDrink …..? Who do you think should have their own featured hour? The hashtag is here to help you so whether you’re a trader, a charity or a potential customer, I wan’t to make sure that #LincsConnect has something for you. Please do email your suggestions to me at martin@lincsconnect.co.uk Perhaps you would like to host your own #LincsConnect hour? I’m always open to suggestions so please do get in touch. After all, help in Lincolnshire with #LincsConnect is a two way process.
Here To Help
If there is something you need would you like to do a skills swap? Would anyone be interested in a #LincsSwaps hour? An our each week where you can offer your skills to swap for something of equal value? Some of us may be finding finances a little tight at the moment but are willing to trade to get what we need.
Here’s an example: A local restaurant may be in need of leaflets for a local leaflet drop and be willing to swap a meal to the value of £xxx in return for 200 hundred leaflet. That’s just an example of course. The exact figures would have to be agreed privately by the restaurant and the designer/printer but you get the idea I’m sure. Again, if this interests enough people I’ll happily organise it. You’ll need to get in touch though so that I know whether to go ahead with the idea or not. Help in Lincolnshire with #LincsConnect only happens when we work together.
Advertising/Local Discounts
Advertising space is always available on the blog so if you would like a spot here please let me know. I could also arrange a feature with your advert to help highlight your business/organisation. Again, just get in touch to make arrangements. You can email me at martin@lincsconnect.co.uk
Perhaps you have a special offer or would like to offer readers a discount? You could have a voucher on here to share across the County.
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20% discount on Mandarin Leisure services for all NHS, 999 and military members across the County.
Featured Song Of The Week By A Local Artist
Each week I include a local artist, band or choir on twitter to highlight their work and show off the great talents that we have in our county. If you have a favourite band with music on YouTube that you think should be featured please let me know.
All last week I featured Alex Cavan from Grantham with his song ‘Waterfall’. If you would like to hear him just click on the picture below to go straight to his YouTube upload.
To hear Alex singing ‘Waterfall’ just click on the picture and if you would like to follow him on Twitter you’ll find him at @AlexCavanMusic
It’s For You…
The blog is here for you to support everything from the North to South, East and West of the County and bordering towns and villages too. It’s for you and the rest of our community so please, please, please do share this blog and lets see if we can get more people reading it and interacting.
Stay Safe
Stay safe everyone and keep looking out for your neighbours.
by admin | Mar 12, 2020 | Hashtags, IT, Lincolnshire, lincolnshire Business, Lincs Connect, Lincs Police, LincsConnect, LincsPolice, Mandarin Therapies, Passwords, police, Security, VPN, Website
How secure is secure? Information on your computer, smartphone or TV could be at risk. There is some fantastic support around to help and guide so read on to discover what I’ve found:
How secure Is Secure? – Suspicious emails
Having had a few comments on my blogs my suspicions were raised as I noted the addresses of the emails. It’s nice to think my posts have reached a large global audience .de (Germany) and .xyz (who knows where?) but beware! Don’t approve comments without first checking their credibility. How? I put the question out to social media and as a result I received an interesting tweet from Liam @ZaddleMarketing
Liam advised me not to click any links or email addresses in those suspicious comments, confirming my fears that these posts were SPAM. A good security plugin for my WordPress site will solve the problem. Thank you Liam for your sound advice.
There are lots of good people on social media who can be trusted of which Liam is one. It’s always best to ask the question of your contacts if ever you’re in doubt.
Thank You Kerrin
Thank you Kerrin @Kerrinwilson999 for your hospitality (and the lovely cake of course). It was lovely to meet you and I’m looking forward to extending the reach of LincsConnect to include regular posts by you and your team. Thankfully I have already had some security tips from some of your colleagues and that information has proved invaluable. Hopefully you’ll enjoy my short post here today and will have time to add a comment too.
Meetings always seem more productive with cake!
Getting It Right By Chance
I’ve heard that smart speakers listen to our conversations. It’s not uncommon for adverts to pop up on our social media platforms directly relating to a conversation the previous day. It’s extremely uncommon (I’m led to believe) that an iMac can be infected but if it’s going to happen to anyone, it’ll happen to me!
Technology and I don’t always gel I’m afraid. Having feared the worst following a rash of phishing emails (ransom emails sent to my inbox supposedly from my own address) it was time for action. The safest solution was to contact Lincolnshire Police Cyber Crime Unit who responded very quickly with a visit to my office.
A full inspection of my computer confirmed that the emails were really just phishing emails and should be deleted. A nagging feeling that something wasn’t right remained after several other incidents with my computer. As a result I contacted Apple who decided a full restore and section by section re-build was required. I’m happy now that my computer and details are safe once again. If you’re worried about your online safety and security don’t hesitate to contact a professional for help.
What If…?
What if it’s true that the smart devices can leak our information? A recent BBC Panorama programme about Amazon revealed that they knowingly and openly harvest and use our information. I don’t think the machines (or people) are listening to every conversation but when key words are detected the link is made with you and your devices.
Recent news reports highlighted that smart devices can be hacked and accessed remotely. The video doorbells, video baby monitors and even smart TVs and smart fridges are all susceptible to hackers. Accessing our personal data can be very upsetting and worrying of course so we need to protect ourselves.
Basic Protection
How secure is secure? If we can access any devices from our smartphone it’s a fair bet that the unscrupulous criminals can do the same. The smart fridge, smart monitor and smart TV come with factory settings and passwords. These settings can be found easily online so to prevent hacking make sure you change the passwords immediately.
Hacking your fridge isn’t too much of a problem of course but accessing your router from your fridge or your smart TV etc may be more sinister.
How Secure Is Secure? Passwords
The obvious and most basic form of self protection is strong passwords. Do change the passwords from factory settings to something that you can remember. Family, friends or pets names do not make good passwords. These names are likely to crop up on your social media pages at some point so can easily be guessed.
Random passwords are by far the best option. For the best security have different passwords for different logins. There are some very clever Apps around that can store your passwords for you but I’m sure you’ll have a system that works for you.
Privacy
You can secure your devices by making sure they are protected by a security password, facial recognition, finger print and VPN (I’ll cover VPN later).
It’s better to be safe than sorry! Keeping your personal information safe should be a high priority and simple precautions may be all you need.
If you have data stored on you mobile device make sure it’s protected with a security code and backed up regularly. Some devices can be deleted remotely; Check so see if you can do that with your own device and make sure you learn how to do it.
How Secure Is Secure? Two Factor Authenticaton
Added security comes with two factor authentication – that’s when you get an alert on your chosen device to tell you that someone is accessing your other devices. My iPhone will prompt me to confirm that I am who I say I am when I log onto my computer. As a result I have to type in a ‘one time’ code before the computer will let me in. It takes seconds and provides an extra level of security.
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How Secure Is Secure?
Change your passwords from factory settings to secure ones that aren’t easily guessed. Use a different password for every device. So you’re good to go….? Well, not quite! Your router may not be secure so if you’re not sure ask your provider to guide you through changing the factory set password.
You’re ‘almost’ there… You’re now safe in your own home but not when you’re out and about if you’re using public WiFi. How secure is that system? Your final piece of security is VPN.
VPN
What is VPN? This is the explanation from Wikipedia: “A virtual private network extends a private network across a public network, and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network.” You might want to look this one up for yourself.
A ‘belt and braces’ approach to security but if you have any private or confidential information on your devices do read a bit more about it. It is a ‘paid for’ service so you’ll need to be aware of that and you’ll also need to be aware that not all internet routers are capable of installing it. Once installed on your home router ‘all’ devices using that WiFi connection will be protected under the higher level of security. I have it installed and the one I chose covers six devices. I have it on my iPhone and iPad so that I know I’m secure whenever I log into a public WiFi system.
It’s Good To Share
All of this information comes from trusted people I’ve spoken to who have been kind enough to guide me. I’m not an expert but some of the things I’ve learned along the way and printed here will no doubt be useful to you. If you are able to share other tips that may be useful for other users feel free to add a comment and send a message on twitter or Facebook using the hashtag #LincsConnect
Helping each other is always good of course. If you need additional help contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or local IT specialist. If you’re worried about cyber security contact @lincspolice and ask about their Cyber Security courses. I’ve been on one and can highly recommend it. After all, these are the experts who really want to help you to prevent crime.
Back Soon
Thank you all for taking the time to read my ramblings. I’ll be back soon with more blogs of course but keep watching as they are about to evolve into something quite unique.
Best wishes
