by Alain Filotto | Jun 3, 2023 | Cybersecurity, General Topic
Introduction:
In the age of smartphones, spam calls have become an unwelcome intrusion in our daily lives. These persistent interruptions not only disrupt our routines but also pose security risks. Fortunately, Telus Mobility’s Call Control feature offers an effective solution to combat spam calls and regain control over our phone calls. In this blog post, we will explore how Call Control works and how it empowers users to manage and block unwanted calls with ease.
Understanding Call Control:
Telus Mobility’s Call Control feature provides users with a powerful call screening mechanism that effectively filters out unwanted calls, including robocalls and telemarketers. It employs a simple yet effective screening process that ensures genuine callers can connect with you while preventing spam calls from getting through.
How Call Control Works:
1. Caller Prompt: When a caller contacts you for the first time, Call Control prompts them to enter a number on their keypad. This process serves as a verification step to confirm the authenticity of the caller.
2. Successful Verification: If the caller enters the correct number successfully, the call will be connected to you, and they won’t be prompted again in the future, as long as they are one of your 25 most recent callers. This seamless connection ensures that genuine callers can reach you without any hassle.
3. Unsuccessful Verification: In case the caller fails to enter the correct number, they will hear an automatic message informing them that they have been prevented from reaching you. This mechanism effectively blocks robocalls and other unwanted calls, ensuring they do not disturb you.
Customization Options:
1. Accepted List: Telus Mobility’s Call Control allows users to create an Accepted list. By adding phone numbers to this list, you can ensure that calls from those numbers are not screened when they try to reach you. It is recommended to include the numbers of frequent or important callers, such as family members, school offices, doctors’ offices, libraries, and others who may use auto-dialing to contact you. This ensures that genuine callers can connect with you smoothly.
2. Blocked List: If there are specific numbers from which you do not want to receive any calls at all, Call Control lets you add them to your Blocked list. By doing so, you can ensure that calls from those numbers are completely blocked, providing you with a hassle-free experience.
Conclusion:
Telus Mobility’s Call Control feature offers a simple yet effective solution to combat unwanted calls and protect users from the nuisance of spam calls. With its caller verification process, customizable Accepted and Blocked lists, users can regain control over their incoming calls, ensuring that only genuine callers can connect while blocking unwanted and potentially harmful calls. By utilizing Call Control, users can enjoy a more peaceful and secure smartphone experience.
Remember, safeguarding your privacy and maintaining control over your phone calls is crucial. With Telus Mobility’s Call Control feature, you can reclaim your peace of mind and enjoy uninterrupted communication with the people who matter most.
If you have any questions or want to book a free consultation, contact me on LinkedIn. It is the best place to reach me.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alain-filotto
by Alain Filotto | May 10, 2023 | Cybersecurity, Forensics, General Topic
My name is Fox, Alex Fox
First, I need to state what’s obvious to me but maybe not to everyone. My company name is simply my initials, AF, in the military or phonetic alphabet. You know… alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, echo, fox…
It all originated when I started working for the RCMP. I worked with this guy named Dave Fox (Hi Dave!) and I thought he had the coolest last name LOL. And back in high school I had a friend who used to call me Alex for reasons that I can’t quite remember. But I liked the name. So I ended up merging the two and used the name Alex Fox as a sort of pseudonym. Back in the day, when there were telephone books, most police officers did not want to be listed. You had to pay to be unlisted but there was a little trick. You could be listed under any name. So I was listed in the phone book as Alex Fox for a long time.
Alphafox Digital Forensic Services Limited
This was my first company name. When I left the RCMP I wanted to do a lot of work with police still. So I wanted to be recognizable. The RCMP forensic unit is called DFS, digital forensic services. So I thought it would be neat to call my company ADFS. What I found out though, is that the name was too long, it would not even fit on a credit card! Long story short, I renamed the company Alphafox Forensics Limited. Nice, short and clear.
The fox is now my spirit animal!
I never really thought of the Fox as my spirit animal, but it found me rather than I found it. Sometimes we see things that were always there in a different light. Or maybe we just become more aware of them. I see foxes everywhere now! Interestingly, it reminds me of a sad story. Many years ago, a young girl named Mindy Tran was kidnapped. The suspect was driving a white van. I was working that day and I remember that after hearing that, I started seeing white vans everywhere! I never saw so many of them. Again, we become much more aware of our environment when we are focused.
So where have I seen foxes? Well for starters, it made me remember that my favourite story is “Le Petit Prince”, (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. If you haven’t read the book, do yourself a favour and read it for yourself and/or your kids. It’s a great story with deep meaning. At one point, when he lands on earth, The Little Prince meets a fox. The fox teaches him about friendship, love, and loss. Foxes are so smart!
I like computer and Playstation games. Recently, I played this great Japanese Samurai game called The Ghost of Tsushima. In the game you have to find these foxes that lead you to shrines that give you extra power. The fox has a great significance in Japanese culture. They are called Kitsune and are spiritual beings that can shape-shift into either male or female forms and possess superior intelligence.
Starbucks even had a cookie in the shape of a fox recently!
Finally the Canadian Mint created a special coin with a silver fox on it. Normally the Canadian $1 coin has a loonie. It was a special edition coin so of course I bought it!
Always happy to answer questions or if want to book a free consultation, contact me on LinkedIn. It is the best place to reach me.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alain-filotto
by Alain Filotto | Mar 29, 2023 | Cybersecurity, Forensics, General Topic
I was a guest on “The Protectors” Podcast recently
The episode is out now! Brought to you by the International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators https://www.iafci.org/ Great conversation with Mark Solomon and Mike Carroll. Thank you
https://protectorspodcast.com/episode/dont-get-held-hostage-by-ransomware-sextortion-and-online-scams/
If you have any questions or want to book a free consultation, contact me on LinkedIn. It is the best place to reach me.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alain-filotto
by Alain Filotto | Jan 21, 2023 | General Topic
After 29 years of police work this feels “right”
When you contact ALPHAFOX Forensics Ltd. for a workplace investigation, you are getting a one-stop shop. The best digital forensics and employee investigations. I’m am trained in interviewing techniques and statement analysis.
What can a private investigator do?
Private investigators in are licensed professionals who are authorized to conduct investigations on behalf of their clients. The following are some of the tasks that a private investigator can do:
- Serve legal documents on behalf of clients, such as subpoenas, summons, and other legal notices.
- Conduct corporate investigations including corporate fraud, embezzlement, or other illegal activities within a business organization.
- Conduct background checks on individuals to gather information about their criminal history, employment history, financial history, and other relevant information.
- Investigate insurance claims to verify the validity of the claim and to gather evidence to support or refute the claim.
- Locate missing persons, including lost relatives, runaway children, and individuals who have disappeared under suspicious circumstances.
- Conduct surveillance to gather information about a subject’s activities, behaviour, and movements.
If you have any questions or want to book a free consultation, contact me on LinkedIn. It is the best place to reach me.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alain-filotto
by Alain Filotto | Jan 19, 2023 | Cybersecurity, Forensics, General Topic
It’s time to book your FREE digital evidence presentation with me
Take advantage of my 15+ years working in this field including 10 years as an examiner with the RCMP. I can only book a very limited number of presentations every month so don’t wait. Contact me to schedule a very informative presentation on digital forensics and how it can help your case.
The image above is from my last in-person presentation in Ukraine. What great memories! I presented on investigative techniques and digital technologies to the Ukrainian National Police. I’ve presented internationally, nationally and at the local level. I’ve presented to police and lawyers alike including the BC Prosecution Service, the Department of Justice, and the association of French Jurists. Lastly, I was an instructor on several police courses including the Major Crime Investigation course, the Sexual Assault course and the Internet for Investigators course.
I’m very excited about this and going “on the road”! I can also present remotely if your firm is outside the Vancouver area.
If you have any questions or want to book a presentation, contact me on LinkedIn. It is the best place to reach me.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alain-filotto
by Alain Filotto | Jan 8, 2023 | Forensics, General Topic
What exactly is an email and how does it travel through the Internet?
I’ve testified about this numerous times, and I am sharing here how I explain it when I testify in court. When providing testimony to judges, juries and even lawyers, they want to have non-technical explanations that use plain language. I like to think that I am pretty good at that, and especially coming up with good simple analogies that everyone is familiar with. First you have to look at what an email is with its basic definition. “Email” stands for “electronic mail”, so it helps to compare it to regular mail using the good old fashion postal service. Let’s dig in on the journey of an email! (I’ve also included at the end how text messages travel from user A to user B in a similar manner).
Let’s compare an email to regular mail
First, there is a message which you place in an envelope. Second, there is a sender name and address and a recipient name and address. Let’s call them Bob and Tim. Bob wants to send a letter to Tim. He writes a message and places it in an envelope with his address as the sender and Tim’s address as the recipient. He drops the envelope in a mailbox. Now, does the envelope go directly to Tim’s address? No, it does not. The envelope has to go through the Postal Service which will redirect the envelope. For email, your Email Service Provider is like the post office. When Bob sends a letter to Tim, it first goes to the post office who sorts it, and then sends it to Tim. If Tim is in a different country, the post office in Bob’s country would send it to the post office in Tim’s country. Then, in the other country, they will send it to Tim’s address. Simple enough, yes?
The journey of an email
When you’re writing an email you type your message, pick a receiver and subject. The message is placed in a container by your email program which is similar to an envelope. Let’s assume that Bob has a Gmail account and Tim has a Hotmail account. The email service is like a post office and different services is kind of like being in different countries. Bob writes an email message from his Gmail account and sends it to Tim’s Hotmail account. The email does not go directly to Tim, just like a letter does not go directly to an individual. It must travel through “servers” which are like post offices. People sometimes don’t want to admit they do not know what a server is and are afraid to ask. A server is simply a computer somewhere. Therefore, a Gmail server is a computer that Google owns, and a Hotmail server is a computer that Microsoft owns. Still with me? Good.
When Bob sends an email, it first goes to a Gmail server because he has a Gmail account. When the Gmail server receives the email, it puts some information on it called a “header”. An email can have multiple entries in the header if it travels through multiple servers. This is like the ink stamp that the post office places on the envelope and over the stamp. Some of you may have never mailed an actual letter but trust me on this! LOL. When the Gmail server receives the email message for Tim, it says “oh, this needs to go to Hotmail”. The Gmail server then sends Bob’s email to a Hotmail server. When the Hotmail server receives the email, it looks at the address, adds information to the header, and then sends it to Tim’s email account. Voilà!
Actually, that’s not quite how it ends
The Hotmail server will hold the email until Tim fetches it. In fact, the sever will keep a copy until the email is deleted. This is one difference with paper letters. The post office does not, or should not, keep a copy of your letters. There are times when it does happen. When I was with the drug section, we intercepted packages all the time. But that’s another story. Email servers do keep copies of emails and this allows users to see or “download” their emails from multiple devices.
What about mobile text messages?
Mobile text messages are very similar except that your “post office” is your telephone’s cellular data provider. In Canada we have Telus, as an example, and in the US, they have Verizon. When Bob sends a text message to Tim and Bob is with Telus and Tim is with Verizon, they are using their cellular data to send messages back and forth. Again, the messages do not go straight to the other user. First, Bob’s message goes to a Telus server which is just a computer owned by Telus. Telus receives the text message and sees that the recipient is a Verizon phone number. Therefore Telus sends the message to a Verizon server. When Verizon receives it, it sees that the phone number is Tim’s account and sends the message to Tim’s mobile device.
What about WiFi messages and Apple iMessage?
Text messages are a little bit different than email because mobile devices can use cellular services or WiFi. The way I described WiFi messages and Apple iMessages is by using a courier analogy. By courier, I mean services like Purolator, UPS, or FedEx. Apple for instance has a service called iMessage. This service only works with other apple devices. You cannot send an iMessage from an iPhone to an Android phone for example. Basically the same service provider (Apple) receives and delivers the message. So if both Bob and Tim have iPhones, they can send each other iMessages only on WiFi and do not even need a cellular data provider. They in effect, “bypasses” the good old fashioned post office. Just like a Courier service receives and delivers a package, Apple handles all of the message transmission.
Conclusion
Using real-world and “common” analogies, like the post office and courier service, is very helpful in explaining technology to lay-persons. It avoids the use of technical terms and keeps things as simple as possible. It can be used to explain many other things. For example, email spoofing is when an attacker uses someone’s email address to send a malicious messages. This is like changing the sender email address on the envelope. Therefore never trust the contents inside the envelope. Just because you recognize the sender address does not meant they actually sent it!
If you have any questions, contact me on LinkedIn. It is the best place to reach me.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alain-filotto
