So, lately I’ve been getting more letters than usual, which is kind of nice. I must be popular.

Oh wait, hang on.

Turns out they’re rubbish letters, from some company calling themselves the Domain Renewal Group. They send out a lot these letters to people who own domain names.

Read carefully - all is not as it seems

The letters are designed to look like invoices, urging you to pay up quickly, before your domain expires.

What they don’t make so clear is that they have nothing to do with the company who you purchased your domain from. They’re basically just looking to steal your custom. The letter is actually an invitation to transfer your domain to them, so that they can look after it instead, for massively inflated prices.

It makes me mad to think that this company are making money ripping people off like this, but I guess the authorities will stop turning a blind eye to this creative misinformation and catch up with them eventually.

Until then, just remember to read anything that looks like an invoice carefully before signing anything or sending any money. In the case of the Domain Renewal Group, definitely, you’ll save yourself a lot of hassle and cash.

Those cheeky Polish scammers have been hard at work crafting rather convincing scam email in the style of a Paypal email receipt for a Sony Vaio laptop. At a glance it can have you confused, even tempted to click the link which says it will cancel the transaction. Don’t panic. If you look closely the link is not to paypal.co.uk but to paypal.co-uk.pl - easily missed if you’re not too savvy with urls. Delete it and definitely don’t click on the link or you’ll find yourself unwittingly handing over your account details.

While browsing for some information on surfers still clinging to Internet Explorer 6, I came across a company providing free information about software vulnerabilities on their website. Secunia have published some excellent data and advice on security, and while a lot of it is fairly technically written they do provide some neat features for the more casual user such as their online software update checker which can scan your computer and tell you if you have any insecure software which needs to be updated. Handy!

As for those still using IE6? Take a look for yourself: Internet Explorer 6.x Security Advisories - 142 vulnerabilities and 135 advisories, 16% remain unpatched and up to “moderately critical” in importance. By comparison, Firefox 3.x has 39 vulnerabilities and 8 advisories, 0% of which are unpatched.

Whichever browser you choose, use the latest version and keep it updated. Identity theft is on the increase and it’s simple steps like updating your browser which will help protect you online.

On my way to work this morning I suddenly became so excited I nearly forgot to breathe. “But Alex, whatever caused this sudden, potentially life-threatening onset of hysteria?” I hear you ask. Well, allow me to enlighten you - this morning, security holes in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser have been deemed serious enough to make the national news headlines, both on the BBC website, and repeatedly throughout the morning on Radio 1’s news reports.

The report mentions that the apparently newly-discovered flaw in Internet Explorer’s security allows attackers to steal a user’s passwords, as well as other personal data. Experts are advising people to use a different browser in order to stay safe online. So I guess that makes us experts at Primate Designs, as we’ve been saying this stuff for years.

Read the article on the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7784908.stm

Get Firefox: http://www.getfirefox.com/

It’s interesting to see that (at the time of writing) there is no mention or warning about this serious security issue on Internet Explorer’s official homepage - even though it’s plastered all over the national news. Perhaps Microsoft decided it was better not to risk telling users the same important information twice. Instead, there is a badly acted video about waterskiing barefoot over electrified water snakes and sticking road flares in your ears. Or something. Good job guys.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/media/fathers_advice_500k.asx