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I have received a couple of phone calls this week with clients being infected with the above Malware. It often leaves a large banner advert in the center of the screen which cannot be moved.

Some of my clients have mistaken this for an advert for McAfee but I think that is just being used as it is a well known and trusted name. If you attempt to remove PC App Store using the normal Settings/ Apps it just comes back again.

If you take a look in Task Manager you will see that PC App Store Runtime is running. You can end the PC App Store task but it will just start again. A closer look shows that there is a second task also running called ” Watchdog of PC App Store”. This also needs to be stopped to prevent the pop up banner appearing again. Once the process have been stopped you can start to remove the malware. In the case of one client the exceptional was found within User/appdata and in another client it was direct underneath the user folder.

Once found and deleted the PC was scanned with a malware scanner and a number of other infections identified.

Upon reboot the PC was again checked for signs of the PC App Store infection and was clean.

FAQ:

PC App Store is a potentially unwanted application (PUA) that often gets installed on computers without the user’s knowledge or consent.

PC App Store is technically a legitimate software distribution platform, but it’s frequently associated with adware and other unwanted programs.

While the application itself may not be malicious, it often comes bundled with more nefarious software like adware or browser hijackers

To avoid future infections:

Be cautious when downloading and installing free software.Carefully read all prompts during installation and opt out of any additional bundled programs

Always read installation prompts carefully and opt out of additional software offers.

Use a reliable antivirus program with real-time protection.Run regular scans to detect and remove any adware or malware.

Use an ad-blocker in your web browser to reduce exposure to potentially malicious ads.

Reset your browser settings to remove any lingering adware effects. This includes clearing cache, cookies, and resetting to default settings

Antivirus software can sometimes fail to detect malware for several reasons

Antivirus programs rely on a database of known virus signatures to identify threats. If this database is not regularly updated, the software may miss newer malware.

Malware creators use various techniques to avoid detection:

• Encrypting malicious code
• Frequently changing code signatures
• Disguising malware as legitimate programs

These methods can help malware evade signature-based detection

Another scammer alert!

I had a call from 07452 849328 this morning from a “BT” engineer saying that they have discovered that my IP was public and that this was an issue.  

It is NOT an issue so I knew this was a scam but decided to play along to see what they would do.

The steps they asked me to take were.

1. Open Google and go to IP.ME. They then asked me to look at the long number and notice that it said my ip was public and that I was from London.  (This was wrong as I had logged on with a proxy server and it made it look as if I was in Toronto, but she ignored this when I told her I was in Toronto not London.

1. According to the “BT engineer” the public IP was an issue. She then asked me if I use email or facebook to which I said yes.
2. The next step involved me going to https://validator.w3.org/  ( Not a scam site) and to type www.email.com into the white box and press CHECK.
3. This showed 14 errors and if you scrolled down you will see.

According to the “BT Engineer” the error code 931 meant that my email was compromised, a similar thing when checking www.facebook.com showed even more errors, this time 43!  Both of these errors are web site errors picked up by the validator and are nothing to do with any issue on my PC.

The “BT” engineer now asked if anyone had accessed my PC or router in the last few days which may have resulted in my IP being public, I said no. BT then offered to help me to correct the “issue”. She gave me her BT id TP162051 and asked me to go to rhelps.us ( SCAM SITE !!!!).  I pretended to go to the site but had some “issues” which the engineer very kindly spent some time helping me sort out!

The next step was to download and open a file from rhelp.us

(SCAM SITE DO NOT ACCESS !!!) of course I did not access or download the file.

The engineer then gave me a code 69581 which I was supposed to use to log into the site.  

She then asked me:

Can you see a chat box on the right-hand side,                    yes I said.

Does it show my BT ID TP162051?                                            Yes (!)

What does it say in the chat box?                                             

I replied it says “You have been talking to a scammer for 20 minutes.”

The “BT engineer” gave a laugh and put the phone down!

Scammers are always changing the way that they try and gain access to your PC. I had not seen this series of steps used before, but the process of trying to gain your confidence by showing you “errors” on your PC before trying to get to the point where they can access your PC is the same.

Having a public IP address is NOT a problem so please ignore the scammer who starts with this opening line!

I have a client near pentraeth who has been trying to get a decent broadband speed for years. BT fiber is not available and the best he could do was an EE 4g router.  Someone mentioned Elon Musk’s starlink satellite system. This consists of a small external dish and a wifi router.

The system seemed to work well but the dish was on the roof and the special lead supplied to connect the dish to the router meant the router had to be located on the 3rd floor of the house.

I was asked if I could fit a mesh system to distribute the Wifi around the rest of the house. The client needed to buy an additional star-link proprietary Ethernet adaptor for the satellite system. I was then able to set up a 6 node mesh system which meant that the client was able to get a 95Meg wifi connection in the office in the ground floor. I was not aware that the startlink system was available on Anglesey. It is not cheap at £530 for the equipment and then £90 per month but it was ideal for this client.

If you need any help setting up a mesh Wifi system for a large , or small house please get in touch.

This is a question I am often asked. Much like cars, different people have different needs and attitudes to PCs. Some like a new one every 3 years, while some prefer to stick with an older one that they understand. A large part of the decision on whether to upgrade or not comes down to personal choice. However much like a car can fail an MOT, certain factors mean that your current PC is no longer safe to use and an upgraded or replacement should be considered.

MOT Failures for PC include:

• Older operating systems such as Windows 7 or 8 that are no longer safe on the internet.
• A mother board or other major component has failed and cannot be economically replaced.
• The processor (engine) in the PC is an older Pentium or Celeron model and is no longer “fit for the road”
• The amount of memory in the PC is less than 4 GB which is a minimum for a modern operation system such as Windows 10.
• The hard drive has or is about to fail leading to loss of data.

A rule of thumb I use when considering if it is time to upgrade or replace a PC is to look at the colour of the USB slots in the PC. If they are black this means they are the older USB 1 or 2 style. If at least some of them have a blue insert they are the newer USB3 version. In my view any PC with only black USB slots is ready for replacement rather than an upgrade.

Other factors to check and consider in deciding if upgrade or replace is the most economic route:

• Only certain components in laptops can be upgraded.
• Windows 7 and 8 can be updated to10 only if the PC passes a hardware compatibility test.
• Windows 10 will be supported until 2025.
• Windows 11 can only be installed on newer PC due to tighter hardware requirements.
• Is installed software, including certain antivirus packages adding bloat to your PC by offering addons or because you have more than one installed.
• Do you have a particular piece of software or hardware (printer, scanner) which will not run on an up-to-date operating system?

Tests can show what is the real reason for your PC slowing down?

• Lack of processor power
• Lack of memory
• Poor hard drive condition.
• Bloated windows installation
• Low space free space on hard drive.
• Spy ware or bloatware installed on PC.
• Type of hard drive installed.

Once factors above have been considered the economics is the final hurdle. Replacing individual components and operating system can be time consuming and cost around £150 to £200. A replacement desktop may be around £250 to £300 while a new desktop may be around £500 -£600 depending on specification.

Finally, when looking at replacement PC online make sure that you understand the specs and only buy a new PC which is suitable for you needs. Check processor, memory, and hard drive size carefully.

So Microsoft is about to release a new version of the windows operating system. Yes, I know they all said Windows 10 would be the last version but soon we will have Windows 11!

The new operating system, as with all previous has a much higher recommended minimum PC spec. You can check to see if you PC is compatible by downloaded the scanning tool from https://www.whynotwin11.org.

There is no need to worry too much as windows 10 will be supported for another three or four years before you may have to consider buying a new PC if your fails the upgrade test.

With more children having access to the internet, it is important to know how to protect them. The following has some good advice.

We are all using more mobile devices out and about. Some for GPS or tracking and some just to pick up emails or catch up with social media.  In coffee shops this may mean logging onto Wi-Fi but more and more of us now just the mobile data bundles with our mobile phone contract.

Coverage and capacity of mobile phone service on Anglesey has always been an issue. It is hence good to hear that one operator , EE, has announced it is to update 14 rural site sin North wales by the end of the year.

The investment is part of the Shared Rural Network (SRN) initiative to extend coverage in rural areas.

SRN is a programme between the UK’s four mobile network operators and the UK Government to extend 4G coverage to 95% of the UK’s geography by the middle of this decade.

Although EE will be upgrading their masts, all three main mobile networks will be able to use the masts. Hence, coverage will improve for users of all networks.

On Anglesey the mast in Llanerchymedd will be upgraded.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/shared-rural-network

Most of us use google for searching the web or even email. This allows google to collect a lot of information about us which then then use to serve us with “relevant adverts”. Google are able to build up a picture of who we are based on what we have searched for. If you want to know, what google thinks it knows about us, log into your goggle account and then cut and paste “adssettings.google.com.” into the top of the space bar. Under ad personalisation, you will see the information… unless of course you have already turned it off.

With the current lock down it is difficult for families to find enough devices to connect to the internet to allow their children to carry on with the remote learning schoolwork. If there is an xbox or playstation in the house these can also be used to connect to the internet and access some of the Hwb online learning resources.