Web User - UK (2019-08-07)

What we think of this fortnight’s top tech news stories and rumours,

and how they affect you

Discussweb news atwww.facebook.com/webusermagazine 7 - 20August 2019^9

Need to Know

How will it affectyou?

One important caveatto

Three’s offer isthatits 5G

network will beavailableonly

inLondon fromAugust,

althoughthe company saysit

will expandits coverageto

25 othercitiesbythe end of

the year. EEstarted rolling

out its 5GservicesinMay,

linkinan

email, you

couldbe

subjecttoa

“maninthe

middle”

attack, where

the hackers

sit between

you andthe

realsite

andcan see

yournew

password

details.

What dowethink?

Thisappears tobea

communication failure on

Sky’s part. We’re all taughtto

lookout for phishingemails,

but thatadvicefalls apart if

legitimateemails start tolook

asif theycould havecome

Three won’t charge customers for 5G

Sky scares users with password reset email

while Vodafonefollowed

suit inJuly. O2’s network

will arriveinOctober (see

page 10for details).

What dowethink?

While 5Gisalready an

optionfor Londonersand

those in largercities, most

Brits won’t havecoverage

yet. What’s more,plenty of

phonesdon’t evensupport

5G. Thatmeans there’s no

needfor mostofustorush

intoupgrading –and no

reasontopay extra for it. If

yourphone supports5G,

you liveinan areawith

coverage andyou’retired

ofwaiting for downloads,it

may beworth payingmore

for 5G now.Everyoneelse

isbetteroff savingtheir

money untilthe service

becomesstandard.

fromcriminals.Anyone

who was confusedbythe

email shouldbeproud of

themselves– well done

for being alert tosuch

threats.Perhaps those

cautiousSky customers

could teach Sky athing or

two about digitalsecurity.

What happened?

The next-generation of

mobile networks has

arrived,but theymay not

costyou any more thanthe

4Gyou’reusing now.Three

has promised toroll out its

5Gservicesacross all

existing packagesatno

extra cost. Thismeans that

if you’rea Three customer

oryou switchtothat

provider, you’ll receive 5G

for the sameprice as4G.

Three’s contracts cost as

little as£10 amonthfor

4GB ofdownloads.In

comparison,the cheapest

5GcontractonVodafone

costs £30 amonth, while

EE’s mostaffordable plan

is£32 amonth– although

it comes with a 20 GB

data allowance.A

comparablepackage on

What happened?

Sky raisedeyebrowswhen

it senta password reset

email toits customers,

promptingfears ofa

phishingscam. The email

began“Dear Customer,”

ratherthanusing the

customer’s name,and

included alinktoclickto

reset the password –

making it looklikea dodgy

email designedtotrick

peopleintogivingaway

their credentials instead of

a realsecuritymessage

froma major company.

The message didn’t

revealwhy Sky was asking

customers toreset their

passwords, simplysaying

thatit was to“keep their

account safe”. While

companies often send

Three costs £18 amonth.

The latestgeneration of

mobile networks brings

fastermobile speeds and

greater capacity, especially in

crowdedareas. It should

meanyou can get online

evenwhile you’reata

football match orinother

crowdedplaces.

emailsadvising users toreset

their passwordsafter adata

breach, Sky saidthatwasn’t

the casehere, and thatno

accountshad beenhacked.

Security researcherGraham

Cluley speculated thatSky

had detecteddodgy

behaviour onsomeaccounts

andsoughttoprotect

everyonewith areset.

How will it affectyou?

If you’renot surewho an

email isfrom, don’t openit or

clickany linksit contains. If

you needtoreset a

password,godirectlytothe

relevantsiteandlog into

youraccount. Thatway you

can changeyourcredentials

without the risk thata

criminalmay betryingto

stealyour data. If you clicka