Mobile News This Week - And some Sellafield/Nuclear Thoughts

It's been a busy few days in the mobile industry, and this week has gotten off to a slow start.

I shall be updating my PAYG mobile bundle website http://mobile-networks-uk.weebly.com/ soon to reflect the changes to giffgaff's and Three's PAYG bundles when the relevant changes come into effect. Three change their pricing first, on the 19th of August.


In my other news:

My Twitter profile https://twitter.com/aiikon1 has been Tweeting itself to bits with the #insidesellafield hashtag this evening, after watching the BBC4 documentary. Having worked in the nuclear industry for many years, I still love seeing other sites, though the UK's "nuclear renaissance" is not likely to create the thousands of jobs that it did in the pioneering early years.
The UK nuclear skills shortage is a major problem that the recession is still affecting. Even skilled technicians and radiochemists such as myself are finding that they have to look elsewhere in their careers. The fact that I'm here writing articles about the mobile and technology industries is a demonstration of just how little investment there is in the science industries in the UK at the moment.
I'll be retired by the time that the first new British nuclear reactor goes online!

View of Sellafield

I have also diversified my Twitter profile to follow a few other people/companies. My aim is to develop my Twitter profile, website and this blog into a business. Each element will compliment the others and form a significant profile within the mobile phone and technology industries.

Carphone Hack and Your Credit Score

Yesterday I mentioned what to do if you think that your data might be compromised through Carphone Warehouse's lax security security breach that was discovered last week.

I have since been contacted by Experian Credit Experts, who seek to debunk some credit score myths.
The information that they supplied to me is useful, but I feel that they believe that most people must be fairly dumb to think that these factors will affect their credit score. What do you think of these myths, available here: http://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/credit-education/common-credit-myths.html

But Experian did not acknowledge my challenge to the risky business of checking your credit score on a frequent basis:- Experian completely missed the little-publicised fact that if you (or someone else) regularly checks your credit score, it will show up as a series of "soft hits" on your credit score file - Potential lenders will see these checks, and this will arouse suspicion. I have been informed that too many of these hits will deter lenders from lending, even if a decision/agreement has been made in principle.
I am convinced that I wasn't granted a mortgage a few years ago due to me approaching several lenders in quick succession, then following this up with several checks with Experian.

So, if you really think that your personal information is at risk from the Carphone Warehouse hack, check your bank account details and statements regularly, and only occasionally (at a later date) check to see if your credit score is being affected.
You should be fine, as potential fraudsters will be heading for your accounts first - and they may not even have all of the necessary data to steal anything from you, so be aware, but don't panic!

Carphone Warehouse Hack - What to Do

Having been a Talkmobile customer last year (when they were still part of Carphone Warehouse), I have received a couple of emails from Carphone Warehouse regarding their recent security breach and data theft.

Naturally, like the 2.4 million other customers, I am concerned about what these criminals have obtained, and how this information will be used.

The email stated that customers should keep and eye on their credit scores, as loans may be taken out in their names, which will either lead to money being taken, or a significant "hit" on their credit rating - Neither of which is good news.

Carphone Warehouse do not seem bothered by this data breach, as they are more worried about plugging the gaping hole that they left wide open for the hackers to exploit.
There is no apology from Carphone Warehouse, other than them stating that "We take the security of your data extremely seriously" - Well, they don't. If they did, this would not have happened.

I seriously hope that Carphone Warehouse have set money aside for compensation, as they are likely to get a hefty fine for such a massive loss of data.

What makes things worse is that there should have been no way that my data was still on their IT systems. I cancelled my contracts with them over a year ago, so they should not have retained my data, especially since they have sold on their Talkmobile network to Vodafone.

What to Do.
Have you been affected by this data theft?
The email that Carphone Warehouse have issued does contain some logical advice, and I would recommend that you follow it.

I contacted my bank to advise them that I may have been potentially affected by this breach, and they replied that they have had a lot of customers contacting them over this matter. Their advice repeated Carphone's message - But I would recommend that you do contact your bank, as some can be quite lax when it comes to fraudulent account activity.

The first step is to watch your bank account(s) like a hawk and immediately report anything suspicious. Having experienced this type of online fraud first hand, what starts out as the occasional £10 being spent on something that you don't recognise, soon becomes hundreds of pounds.
Scrutinise your accounts daily if necessary, and phone your bank as soon as anything suspicious appears.

Checking your credit score is a good idea, but realistically you will need to do this at regular intervals. Bear in mind that each credit check performed on "your file" will show up on your credit history, and some lenders (e.g. mortgage providers) will see this and even though these so-called "soft" hits on your credit file won't affect your credit rating, they will arouse suspicion. I have heard that some mortgage lenders will simply refuse a mortgage if too many "soft" hits appear on someone's file.
My IFA advised me to avoid too many hits on my credit file for at least six months after taking out a mortgage, as lenders can even pull new mortgages if they feel that there is a new risk associated with someone's credit rating.

If you are going to check your credit rating (and it probably is a good idea to do so), then Experian are the go-to place at the moment. You can sign up for a 30 day free trail, but be aware that you will be charged a pricey £14.99 a month if you don't cancel the free trail before it expires.
Given that you'll ideally need to check your credit rating several times over the next few months, my bank gave me some very good advice: Use www.noddle.co.uk since they are free for life (watch out for their insistence on signing up for their premium and "other marketing services"). Noddle doesn't have the same access to the same information as other credit report agencies, so it isn't as comprehensive, but free for life is a useful thing to have!

So, to recap - If you think that you have potentially been a victim of the Carphone Warehouse hack (they aren't doing a thing about it as far as your data is concerned), check your bank statements carefully for the next few months, and consider signing up to a credit check site, but only if you are currently financially stable and are not going to commit to any large loans any time soon, just to be on the safe side.


My bank also informed me that all potentially affected customers will be issued with new debit cards, which is a pretty good idea.

Carphone Warehouse / Talkmobile Email to Customers

The dreaded Carphone Warehouse email to affected customers is out now, and I'd recommend that anyone who thinks that they might be affected follows the advice that it contains.


Here's a transcript:


Dear Customer,
I am writing to you as a precaution after we discovered on the 5th August that some of our IT systems had been subjected to a sophisticated cyber attack.
Up until February 2015, talkmobile's website was operated by Carphone Warehouse on the IT systems that were impacted by the attack. The systems that contain your billing and my account data are managed by talkmobile and have not been breached as part of this attack nor has talkmobiles new website introduced in February this year.
We immediately took action to secure these systems and launched a full investigation with a leading cyber security firm to help us understand the impact of this attack. Our investigation is still going on.
At this stage, our investigation indicates that some of the data held on our systems has been accessed and this may include some of your personal details, including your name, address, date of birth and bank details.
We take the security of your data extremely seriously, and we have put in place additional security measures to prevent further attacks. Nevertheless, we felt it was important to let you know as soon as possible..
To reduce the risk of fraudulent activity, we recommend that you consider taking the following steps:
 • Notifying your bank and credit card company, so that they can monitor activity on your account
• Checking for suspicious or unexpected online or account activity
• Be careful of anyone calling asking for personal information, bank details or passwords 
• You can check your credit rating to make sure no one has taken out loan and credit in your name. You can do this by visiting Experian or Equifax



If you think you have been a victim of fraud you should report it to Action Fraud, the UK's national fraud and internet crime reporting centre, on 0300 123 2040.
If you have any question regarding this email, please visit our website for further useful information.
http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/talkmobile-update?stop_mobi=yes
I appreciate that this is potentially concerning for you and I am very sorry that this attack on us has caused this inconvenience. 
Yours sincerely
Jeremy Fennell
Managing Director Carphone Warehouse

International Cat Day

I love cats.

My wife has a moody cat which hates everyone - luckily she loves me and in some ways, she's more like my cat these days.

But, this is a mobile phone blog, so I'll have to put some photos of my favourite cats that tie in with my business, so here we go...

The Cat B15Q toughphone

The Cat B25

These toughphones from Caterpillar are great, but unfortunately not that common in the UK.

Rival manufacturer JCB has had a bit more success in the UK, but today's crown has got to go to Cat. It wouldn't be right to ignore any cat on International Cat Day.

Carphone Warehouse Hacked, 2.4M Customer's Personal Details Stolen

Carphone Warehouse has announced today that sometime over the last two weeks (the attack was discovered on Wednesday the 5th of August), that they have been the target of a "sophisticated" cyber attack in which around 2.4 million customer's details have been stolen.
Personal information slurped from the Carphone Warehouse group includes bank details, names, addresses and dates of birth and email addresses - Pretty much all the data that criminals want the most. In addition, up to 90,000 customer's credit card details are also likely to have been accessed.

This cyber attack will be a big shock to Carphone Warehouse customers, and with the information obtained in the attack customers have every right to be very worried.

The news is being reported in the press quite widely now. Here is my pick from The Independent.

What seems to be glossed over is that this is a Carphone Warehouse problem. In fact, it is affecting the Dixons Carphone group, who operate under several different brands: e2save, mobiles.co.uk and OneStopPhoneShop.com - At this point it is possible that customers of these brands are also affected, as they come under the Carphone Warehouse umbrella.

Dixons Carphone also provide services to the following networks: iD Mobile, Talkmobile and Talk Talk Mobile. It is not clear if these websites have also been affected by this attack. Though, I found and reported that the iD Mobile website was down yesterday, but this could be pure coincidence. The Talk Talk Mobile website is currently down as I write this entry.

Are you a concerned customer? You're not alone and Carphone Warehouse say that they will contact affected customers by email soon.
This is a very worrying attack, given the scale and type of information accessed, but it won't be the last. Crime still pays, and unfortunately the more information that companies put into electronic formats, the more valuable and likely it is that criminals will target it - and succeed in exploiting it.

Google+

Having a Blogger account is an easy step into the world of blogging, but since I am trying to not only promote this blog, but also my Twitter account (https://twitter.com/aiikon1), website (http://mobile-networks-uk.weebly.com/) and my associated Facebook page, keeping things connected without being repetitive is troublesome.

There are solutions, but the biggest problem I have is with Google's insistence that I connect my Blogger account to my Google+ account.

I simply don't want to.

For one, my Google+ account is my personal account that I primarily set up to sync and store photos from my Android phones. I have two friends linked to my Google+ account, and I have hated Google+ since it first launched.
I thought that it might have a purpose, and if it had launched a year after Facebook, it might have even taken over from The Social Network, but it didn't - And Google+ remains as clunky and pointless as ever.

Naturally, all Android users unwittingly have a Google+ account, but that doesn't mean that they use it, or want it!

A big part of me sees my lack of Google+ connectivity to be a gaping hole in my marketing strategy. But, if no-one I know uses Google+ who really cares?

Now that Google+'s photo sync and storage service has been killed off by Google Photos, the only logical reason to use Google+ has now evaporated.

I shall continue to promote my website and Twitter account as best I can without Google+

Maybe one day, Google will even kill off Google+ as a failed experiment that never came close to challenging Facebook or changing the way that we network socially.