Contents

In Brief

Background

NFC Tag Explained

‘NFC Tag Detected’ Explained

Website NFC Tag Meaning

How to use a Website NFC Tag

Why you get a Website NFC Tag Found Apple.com Notification

Stop Website NFC Tag Notifications

In Brief

A website NFC Tag is a close (near, but non-contact) communication of a website address via a physical tag with some electronic capability. If that doesn’t mean much to you or help you yet, then read on.

Background

NFC tags are becoming more prevalent. One reason is the recent potential low cost of the tag. Because they are now cheaper, it means many more are being used. Many more people are only coming in contact with them in recent times.

Apple has used NFC for apple pay for quite some time (going as far back as 2015!).

As a sign that it is becoming more common, Apple switched on NFC tag reading automatically in one of the recent-ish iOS updates. (For more on problems relating to that, see this article.)

It seems it has confused or annoyed some people.

They can be helpful or it can be another pathway for marketers to get into your pocket – well, if you keep your phone in your pocket that is, LOL.

But seriously, what is that message “Website NFC Tag”? And what about “NFC Tag Detected”? I’ll cover NFC Tag first, then explain the meaning of those website-related messages.

NFC Tag Explained

Not all NFC tags are for websites. Let’s take a quick step back to explain what an NFC tag is.

NFC stands for Near-Field Communication.

Of course Wikipedia has a long and detailed explanation of NFC. If you are up for some quite technical information, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-field_communication.

For smartphones and NFC tags see this section of that article.

In simple terms, it is a wireless transmission method very much like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

Important Note: It ONLY works over a very short distance, less than 2 inches (around 4 cm). This short distance of operation is good to know; don’t worry, someone is not trying to hack you from a long way away.

It’s nice to know you don’t have to worry about that!

It is very often set up to operate automatically and different devices have one of a number possible modes of NFC operation.

Several systems use cards or tags that don’t have their own battery. They rely on the power supplied by the field generated by the NFC Tag reader. They may have a printed coil circuit that receive power a little like induction chargers for some more modern msartphones,

NFC is often used to transmit basic (or a small amount of) information. This is because of the following reason:

NFC is only able to share a small amount of information in a short time. That is, it has a (s)low data transfer rate.

This small amount of information could be enough for its own purpose, or it could be a small amount of information to make some kind of connection for a larger amount of information transfer via another method.

‘NFC Tag Detected’ Explained

Are you wondering “what does NFC Tag Detected mean?”

NFC Tag Detected is what your iPhone (or other smartphone) might have at the top of the banner when it gives you a message asking whether to “Open found.apple.com link”. See further below for exactly what that specific apple website link means.

If you get a message indicating ‘NFC Tag Detected’, it means your phone (or other NFC enabled device if not a smartphone) has come within quite close range to an NFC tag. Close enough for the communication system to to flag its presence. This can be only around two inches (or a few centimeters) range, as indicated above.

Such basic information can be something like a phone number, contact details, banking details (pay by phone), or (drum-roll please…) a website address!

Website NFC Tag Meaning

As explained above, NFC stands for Near-Field Communication. It is for very short distance communication between enabled devices. Devices could include your phone (if you pay via your phone then it can do it!) or a cheap tag made for NFC in a shop or business.

They can even be in the form of a sticker rather than a tag.

We have all seen those anti-theft device stickers in stores by now right? Think of something a little like that.

With this in mind, now I want to to explain what a website NFC tag is.

Downloading an entire website page or video is not practical via NFC. This is due to its quite limited communication capabilities (I mean low speed or data transfer rate).

However, sending you only the link to the website page works fine. This is because your smartphone internet browser can then do the high data transfer rate work. It just needs the website address, and then it uses the much greater capacity Wi-Fi or other broadband connection for downloading all the website code, data, images, video and such.

If you see a message appear on your phone starting with “Website NFC” it means your phone has been very close to an automatic NFC tag.

The tag has told your phone (via near-field communication) of a website address that the tag owner thinks you might like to visit. Often it relates to a product or a store website with more information for you to read or watch – if you want to.

To open a website for you would be too much like spamming, and open to misuse.

Instead, then system is designed to give you the option to open it if you approve.

How to use a Website NFC Tag

Many modern phones have NFC capability. It can activate just by holding it close to the tag or sticker (in a shop for example).

Once you have the message come up, you can do the following.

You can tap the message on your phone and tap again to accept to go to the website in your browser app. For those of you with an iPhone that would mean it will probably open the site in Safari.

This can be handy because you don’t have to type anything.

In the old days, if the shop had a website you wanted to go to, you might have to type in the website address yourself. S-L-O-W. Not to mention the problems with typos. Not good.

I suppose in practice it is much like a website QR code, that you scan with your phone or QR code app, and it can take you to a website. The difference is that you do not have to open the camera or any other app to scan a website NFC tag. It is automatic.

But sometimes it seems these tag notifications can annoy or worry some people.

It is important to know you might help someone if you pay attention. Why? Read the next section.

Also Read: How to find recently added contacts on your iPhone.

Why You Get a Website NFC Tag Found-Apple.com Notification

Apple’s AirTag system uses Bluetooth and/or NFC (which by reading the above, you now know stands for Near Field Communication).

The system is designed to help someone find their Apple Air Tag, in case they can’t find their keys or lose their wallet, or EVEN THEIR PET! You get the idea.

If your NFC-enabled phone goes near to an Apple AirTag, you will get the notification “Found.Apple.Com”

By going to the website, it allows Apple’s AirTag-finding system to record that a certain tag was ‘found’ at a certain location. If it doesn’t bother you, please consider going to the site. Apple.com is regarded as a safe website.

You might really help someone find their keys, wallet, bag or whatever.

You should not get that message if your phone recognises your own AirTag. So, it comes up only for AirTags that your phone doesn’t already recognise, of it recognises the AirTag as a lost one.

It could be one from someone sitting next to you or a colleague at work or someone you walk past.

It could be that you were near someone’s gear they left behind, or their bike. Whatever someone left behind that their Apple AirTag inside.

The good news is you can turn them off! Sort of. Here is what you can do and how to do it.

Stop Website NFC Tag Notifications.

If you have an Android phone

If you have an android phone (with Chrome, for example):

Go to Settings, then

Connected Devices.

If you see an on/off toggle switch, switch it to off.

I write “if” because not all android phones have this.

If you have an iPhone

If you have an iPhone (with Chrome, Safari or other browser as default) this could help.

Has someone left their AirTag (or some other NFC tag) near you?

If you get an AirTag, you will want to register it to be associated with you. When your iPhone recognizes one that isn’t registered to you, you will get an alert. So if you have one, make sure you register it. Note if your partner has one registered but you carry it, it might explain your problem (see below). 

It could be the reason why you keep getting NFC tag notifications, as it has found a website NFC Tag and is checking if you want to open the page link in Safari.

For that example, it will be asking to open the ‘found’ subdomain of the apple.com website, as explained above.

You might get very many notifications! Annoying. (I hope Apple will understand and resolve this issue.)

It seems you can do something.

Here are a few options to try to see if it stops them. My preferred method is to manage these notifications (see further below).

Firstly, it might relate to App Clips, because the AirTag notification system is part of an in-built app, I suppose.

An App Clip is a small part of your app that’s discoverable at the moment it’s needed (hence the pop up when your phone is near an AirTag.)

To change settings, go to:

Settings > Notifications > App Clips

I’m not sure this is what is bothering most people.

If you can’t see App Clips or it doesn’t work for you, then try the next method.

Another option for these AppClips could be to disable in Screentime Settings.

• Go to Settings, then Screen time (at the end of the block starting with Notifications), Content and privacy Restrictions.
• Here tap the slider to turn on Content and privacy Restrictions, if it isn’t on already.
• Now go to Content Restrictions, App Clips, then Hit Don’t Allow.

If you find an AirTag that you can’t find the owner for, and suspect someone is trying to track you. Then feel free to open it and take out the battery!

If that’s too hard you can find an option to stop the AirTag from working to send location data to the registered owner.

Manage iPhone Notifications to Stop them

I’m not sure if website NFC tag notifications are classed like other notifications and whether you can turn them off the same way. I write this because I didn’t see an app that you can turn off notifications specifically for NFC Tags within Settings.

NOTE: NFC is included automatically by default for iPhones 11 and later. There is no app icon in the Control Center.

However, there is something you can do to try to prevent NFC notifications causing interruptions.

For most notifications, you can prevent them from appearing on the lock screen of an iPhone. This method can stop specific notifications from playing any sound, lighting up the screen, appearing on the lock screen, or presenting a banner.

These are the steps to prevent the NFC tag message on the lock screen, but rather send it to the Notification Center on an iPhone:

Step 1: When you have received a website NFC tag notification on your iPhone lock screen:

swipe left on the notification.

Step 2: Then select one of the two options below.

Deliver Quietly

Step 1: Tap Manage, then

Step 2: tap Deliver Quietly.

Turn Off Completely

To turn off completely notifications for an app, swipe left on the notification.

Step 1: Tap Manage, then

Step 2: tap Turn Off.

NOTE: you will want to check if this will interfere with notifications of actions you do want, like Apple Pay. It should be app specific, but make sure your check.

If you use the above method to stop Website NFC Tag notifications, it should be notification group specific. None-the-less, it is a good idea you check things like Apple Pay still work!

Summary

I have shown you what is a Website NFC tag notification, explained what NFC means, the meaning of various messages, and five ways to stop NFC Tag notifications that should be worth a try. We explained why you might get the common Found.Apple.com Tag notification.

FAQs

The post Website NFC Tag Messages Meaning, and Can You Stop Them? appeared first on TheTechMentor.com.

Here are three Cybersecurity tips for online gamers. Online gamers spend more time on the web and engage in more activities compared to the average user. This is why they’re particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks. For instance, there’s been a recent surge in incidents of Trojan malware. These are being spread through game mods and cheat engines irresistible to players.

These incidents underscore how hackers can attack in the most creative and unexpected ways, which is how they get around current cybersecurity defenses. But no matter how innovative hackers become, there are different ways to protect yourself. Read on.

Tip 1 – Get Anti-Malware and Anti-Virus Software

Arguably, investing in a malware removal and protection software account like Webroot, McAfee, Bitdefender, or Kaspersky Internet Security is the single most effective way to prevent malware and other viruses.

This is true for players who spend lots of time on sites like online casinos and massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. Even just for casual online touchscreen game apps – all fast-rising sectors in online gaming.

Most hacking attempts are aimed at inserting malware, viruses, or backdoor entryways. These are inserted into your system in order to either damage or steal your data.

And with this type of software installed in your device, it’s protected by the well-tested protocols and standards of the world’s preeminent cybersecurity experts.

Tip 2 – Get an IRS IP PIN

Tax return fraud continues to be a highly prevalent crime.

This has been exacerbated by the increase in online gaming accounts, which require players to give out sensitive info over browsers or online apps. Hackers can then obtain that data by whatever means and use it for tax return fraud.

In its fight to prevent this crime, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) now issues an Identity Protection (IP) PIN that’s known only to the IRS and the individual it is issued to.

This allows the IRS to confirm people’s identities and check for red flags before processing tax returns. Whether you have a Google Play account, MMO RPG avatar, or real money online poker account, having an IRS IP PIN protects you from being the victim of tax fraud.

Outside of online gaming, it can protect your sensitive data during other online activities. This goes for activities such as banking, remote working, or simply sharing your info to family members. Even if hackers manage to get past protective software and other measures, they still won’t be able to use your data for tax fraud without your IRS IP PIN.

Tip 3 – Get a VPN for cybersecurity for online gaming

In a nutshell, a virtual private network (VPN) ensures end-to-end data encryption.

Note this tip: secure end to end encryption with a VPN can help prevent cyber attacks even when you are not gaming.

This is why using a VPN is a common cybersecurity practice among not just gamers. But also entrepreneurs, as small and medium enterprises are equally being targeted by hackers as well.

Use a VPN during account sign-up processes or actual gameplay over any online gaming platform. By doing this, you can ensure that any and all information is kept between you and the gaming provider.

In short, using a VPN is a good way to protect any personal data that you keep online. It also prevents people you don’t know from finding out your physical location.

As hackers get bolder and better in the digital era, cybersecurity is everyone’s job.

Online gaming is growing, and involves increased traffic and monetary rewards. Some gamers find it a way to earn an income online. Not too surprisingly, these gamers are increasingly a target for cyber attacks.

Summary

The next time you sit down for an online round of digital poker or embark on an epic, magical quest, keep these cybersecurity tips in mind to help protect yourself against cyber attack even when not gaming.

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Facial recognition software is becoming more prevalent and five facial recognition guidelines were proposed by Amazon’s Michael Punke (Amazon Web Services’ VP of Global Public Policy). A further 5 are proposed here to make a total of 10 facial recognition technology guidelines to be applied more broadly.

Facial recognition software legislation

Punke proposed these guidelines below for law enforcement regulation of Facial recognition software.

A key message throughout is that facial recognition tech must only be applied along with other task supporting evidence or activities, not on its own.

Many of these ideas can be seen as similar measures necessarily applied when other new technologies such as DNA testing were in their early stages of application in law enforcement.

However I think Punke has not gone far enough. Guidelines need to be developed more broadly than only for law enforcement, in order to protect the community.

By observing problems with other new-ish technology like DNA testing, we can identify some other areas of application that will benefit from guidelines (if not regulation).

DNA technology has been a boon for law enforcement and service to the community.

DNA testing laws were developed for law enforcement well before incorrect testing and assessment by unqualified personnel lead to harming people’s lives. To illustrate, a recent case have come to light in which a women had reproductive organs removed which was then found to have been unnecessary.

None the less, we must start somewhere and applying rules to law enforcement can lead development of facial recognition guidelines.

Here are the five facial recognition guidelines:

1. Facial recognition should always be used in accordance with the law, including laws that protect civil rights.

Stating the obvious but often skipped by the new tech economy businesses, in part because laws have not been updated to make specific application to newer technology clear. Users of facial recognition software tech must comply with all laws.

After all, Amazon and others may sell Facial recognition software but you or others as users can do all sorts of things with it and not all would be considered legal.

It’s a little like a pen or a gun can be used for good (say within the law) or evil (say break the law), and vendor companies pointing out that you have to use their products within the law.

2. When facial recognition technology is used in law enforcement, human review is a necessary component to ensure that the use of a prediction to make a decision does not violate civil rights.

Human review is necessary in most applications of technology to law enforcement.

In a state where government is for the people, law enforcement must itself comply with the law. Without human review, a significant amount of data may be captured, and automated action taken which could be unfairly biased or down right wrong.

It is about ensuring law enforcement actions are based on correct decisions. Human decisions. As much as science fiction shows incredible use of technology, our current reality is that most technologies are not as well developed.

3. When facial recognition technology is used by law enforcement for identification, or in a way that could threaten civil liberties, a 99% confidence score threshold is recommended.

Facial recognition accuracy is still questionable. Not necessarily because the technology is still developing, but because conditions in the real world can make accurate identification more difficult. Low light conditions and poor camera resolution for example make accurate identification of facial recognition biometrics more challenging.

Facial recognition software should have built in measures to reflect the difficulty or accuracy with each analysis. One term used to describe accuracy is facial recognition confidence level.

Thus a threashold should be applied to facial recognition confidence.

Punke recommends facial recognition confidence threshold of 99% when applied within law enforcement.

“When using facial recognition to identify persons of interest in an investigation, law enforcement should use the recommended 99% confidence threshold, and only use those predictions as one element of the investigation (not the sole determinant).”

4. Law enforcement agencies should be transparent in how they use facial recognition technology.

Authorities should report if and how facial recognition technology is being used and detail safeguards that have been put into place to protect citizens’ privacy and civil rights.

This will enable the greatest public confidence in the use of the technology by law enforcement agencies.

This is important to Amazon Web Services (AWS) so that their technology product will be accepted by the people and continue to be used.

5. There should be notice when video surveillance and facial recognition technology are used together in public or commercial settings.

Some states already have laws regulating the use of video cameras in public or commercial premises, such as shopping centres and restaurants. Notification of such is often required.

There have been concerns about facial recognition technology and its potential use in connection with video monitoring in public or commercial settings.

Hence notification of implementation of facial recognition technology at a particular location is recommended by AWS.

The next five of the 10 facial recognition guidelines for broader application.

Let’s consider more broad industry application of face recognition technology.

6 Industry bodies must create Procedures to govern industry use of facial recognition technology

Each industry body must develop their own procedures to ensure each application is controlled by relevant rules.

Industry bodies have experience in their field and typically gain contribution by experienced workers in that field. They often already have a charter to set out good industry practice to be in line with expectations of the community.

This leads to guideline number 7.

7. Consult with the community over your industry use of face recognition technology

Community consultation is imperative for building community confidence in any specific application of facial recognition technology.

This combined with industry body development of procedures and best practice identified in guideline 6 can ensure community awareness and trust in the application of the technology.

8. Identify important roles and define duties

Industry bodies and the community can identify key roles and responsible officers that will have a duty to perform their function to a uniform and acceptable standard.

This is so that procedures don’t exist without responsibilities also being assigned. It helps ensure we do what we say we will. In other words, it helps build integrity within our systems and procedures.

9. Storage and Destruction

Many industries are already developing or implementing systems for management of personal data.

Facial recognition software applications need to be included in those management systems.

Collection of initially obtained data, manufactured results and applied actions, contribute to the whole body of data produced. Data storage method(s) and duration, and ultimate destruction or deletion must be identified up front.

10. Review performance and compliance

Performance of facial recognition systems and compliance to procedures must be reviewed with corrective actions being supported and cycling back to revise procedures.

Did your officers perform the function that was set out for them?

Were they aware of their duties?

What went wrong? Were there new learning(s) to publicize and promote?

Sometimes when a learning opportunity occurs, the experience is not widely disseminated and the community is not informed due to fear of reprisals, legal issues or other negative outcomes.

However to stay up to date and improve, all relevant people must be informed. Perhaps careful management of specific information may allow this.

We should learn from new cases use that learning to improve our systems rather than hide them as an embarrassment because no-one thought of that potential outcome before.

All systems that apply facial recognition software must be living and be open to scrutiny, and allow improvement in line with goals of each industry and the community in order to be sustainable.

What can you do right now?

Talk to your industry body about facial recognition technology now!

Be sure to engage your industry body and reference these guidelines. Online documentation should provide a link back to these original guidelines as a starting point reference for your own discussions and development.

Did Michael Punke get it right? What about broader application of these guidelines? If you agree or think there are some more aspects to be considered, please leave your comments below.

Wrap up of these 10 facial recognition technology guidelines

So yes, Michael Punke has made a start with his proposed five facial recognition rules for law enforcement.

Let us not leave it too late to follow on with these further facial recognition guidelines for broader development of facial recognition technology guidelines for each industry for sustainability and community well being.

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For business owners, ransomware like Cryptolocker can destroy years worth of data.  Just look what it did to a New Hampshire town authority.  If this happens to your clients, they could loose thousands of dollars worth of data, or even worse, be forced to shut down completely.

If you are an IT consultant, it is your job to help your clients prevent this from happening.  You are your clients’ trusted advisor and it’s up to you to make recommendations and provide solutions to your clients that can prevent data loss.

In the case of Cryptolocker and other ransomware variants that are sure to come, there are several things you can do to prevent a catastrophe.  And the best part is, not only do you protect your clients from thousands of dollars worth of data loss, but you get to make money helping them out.

When attempting to protect your client’s data from ransomware like Cryptolocker, you really need to have a good multi-level strategy since any single solution you implement may fail to prevent infection or data loss.  A good multi-level strategy can be made up of solutions like system monitoring and patch management, managed antivirus, managed offsite backup, UTM firewall, email protection, antimalware software, group policy restrictions and more.  Let’s dive into each of these.

System Monitoring and Patch Management – Remote Monitoring and Management

The first step to protecting your clients from an infection is to make sure the machine is always up to date with the latest Windows and software patches.  The best way to do this is by using a good Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tool.

RMM tools can also be set up to alert you whenever they detect a problem with the system so you can act quickly to prevent downtime and data loss.  You can bill the client monthly for this type of service which will generate recurring revenue for you and your business.  In return, they have the peace of mind knowing that you are taking care of their systems and watching for problems.

If you are just starting out, I personally recommend using MAXfocus Remote Management for your RMM tool.  MAXfocus has a low minimum purchase and you only pay around $1 / per workstation / per month while other RMM tools make you pre-purchase a set number of licenses before you can use their product.

Managed Antivirus

The next step is to make sure your clients have some type of managed antivirus software installed on their systems.  With a good managed antivirus solution, you can monitor your clients’ antivirus software across their network to make sure they are always staying up to date and can be alerted if a machine becomes infected. You can charge your clients monthly for this service and they will have the peace of mind knowing that they will always have up to date antivirus protection and that you will be alerted as soon as there is an infection.

MAXfocus also offers a managed antivirus solution called MAXfocus Managed Antivirus which costs about $1 / per workstation / per month.

Managed Offsite Backup

Since no solution is guaranteed to stop an infection, your clients also need some type of managed offsite backup solution so, if all else fails, you can restore their data.  A good managed backup system can be configured to alert you when backups fail or are successful.  You can charge your clients monthly based upon how much offsite storage they need.  They also receive the benefit of you monitoring their backups for them.

MAXfocus also has a managed backup solution that integrates with their RMM tool called MAXfocus Backup.  You should also check out eFolder which is another brandable offsite backup product that you can resell to your clients.

UTM Firewall

Having a good unified threat management UTM firewall solution is key to keeping malware from ever making it onto the network in the first place.  I personally like both Untangle and Sonicwall which both have great products for small to midsize businesses.  These UTM devices do everything from content filtering to scanning all incoming traffic for malware.  Untangle also offers a free version of their software which can be installed on your own hardware.

There are also DNS services out there for managed services providers like Umbrella by OpenDNS [Umbrella is now part of Cisco, use https://umbrella.cisco.com/ – Ed.].  This type of service can stop malware before it even hits your client’s firewall.  You can bill monthly for all of these services as well.

Email Protection

Since a lot of malware including Cryptolocker is infecting machines via attachments, having good email protection can also help to prevent an infection.  A good email protection solution will scan email for spam and malware before it even makes it onto your email server.

MAXfocus also offers an email protection solution called MAXfocus Mail which is a fully scalable hosted email protection solution built specifically for MSPs.  You can charge your clients monthly for the amount of email users that are using this service.

Antimalware Software

Managed antivirus is great and is necessary but may not always catch all of the latest malware out there.  For extra protection, it may be necessary to install malware blocking software like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.  Malwarebytes has a reseller program so you can resell it to your clients with a small markup.

Cryptolocker Prevention

For Cryptolocker and ransomware specifically, there are a few additional things you can do to help prevent an infection.  One is to install HitmanPro’s CryptoGuard.  CryptoGuard is a free and runs silently in the background keeping watch for Cryptolocker activity on the machine.  If CryptoGuard detects a Cryptolocker install, it will stop it from encrypting your files.

Foolish IT has also created a free utility called CryptoPrevent which locks down the group policy settings on the system to prevent a Cryptolocker infection.  You can either charge your client hourly, by the project, or bundle this with your other solutions.

All-in-One Solution

When presenting these solutions to a client, I recommend that you bundle them all together into one managed services package.  Don’t talk about the features of each solution.  Your clients probably don’t care about the features.  Instead, talk about the benefits. Finally, what can each of these solutions achieve when they are all bundled together?  The answer is complete data security and peace of mind for your clients.  And that’s how you should present this to your clients.

The post How to Protect Your Clients’ Data and Make Money Doing it appeared first on TheTechMentor.com.

Have you ever wondered how secure a network that you set up actually is? Today I would like to share a tool with you that will allow you to easily scan a network for external port vulnerabilities. This tool is called ShieldsUp! and is web based which allows your scan to take place outside of your firewall. Just follow these steps to begin.

credit: br1dotcom

Step 1: Go to https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2.

Step 2: When you are ready to begin, click the “Proceed” button.

Step 3: Now choose the ports you would like it to scan. To scan all ports click “All Service Ports.”

When the scan is finished you will see a color-coded graphical display of all your ports as well as a summery . Ports in green are stealth, ports in blue are closed, and ports in red are open. You can also put your mouse over each port to get a short description.

Now you can use this information to close any of these open ports in your firewall.  What other tools do you like to use to help prevent network vulnerabilities?

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