Brit ISP TalkTalk blocks control tool TeamViewer TalkTalk has blocked remote desktop management tool TeamViewer from its network, following a spate of scammers using the software to defraud customers. A spokeswoman for the UK ISP confirmed it had blocked "a number of sites and applications" including TeamViewer from its network to protect customers from phishing and scamming …
Exactly... instead of fixing things the proper way, they're making life miserable for a lot of customers who are using a legitimate piece of software on their network...
If ShutupShutup really wanted to address the problem, maybe they could generate a brand-new account-number for every customer and send it to them accompanied by a letter stating that everyone using their old account number is probably a scammer...
Outsourcing to less civilised countries like Indian is probably a major reason why this information leaks; other businesses have also discovered this the hard way! I've seen poorer work from India and that may compromise security too.
Talk Talk should have at least made this block controllable via a switch/optional-domain-white-list in the user account, priority emailed all customers that it will be blocked by default, like for the adult material block, then set the switch to block, that way most customers would be automatically protected, but those who really do need it can could login and set the switch to unblocked.
My Draytek broadband router (Delight version) has loads of network-application/cloud blocking switches in it, and I have blocked plenty, including TeamViewer; Talk Talk and other ISPs may need to consider something like this too in the user account, because there are plenty of other network applications which can be abused and I'm not sure that their customer broadband routers are good enough to do this.
"Yeah those less civilised countries that can that put up over 100 satellites in a single launch...Who needs em?"
This is primarily because it's cheaper due to lower labour costs and fewer safety cares. If a rocket crashes somewhere it's much less of an issue out there! Life is cheaper in a third world country, and the cost is a much larger concern for nano satellites.
There was no special technology used here or any real technical claim to fame - the just chucked 100 mostly tiny (<10KG) nano satellites out the door.
This post has been deleted by its author
Outsourcing to less civilised countries like Indian is probably a major reason why this information leaks;
I'd put it down more to just generally not giving a shit about the customers. You can see that in the way they handled the whole leaking of data fiasco.
"Talk Talk should have at least made this block controllable via a switch/optional-domain-white-list in the user account,
Doesn't that imply that they might have a clue what they're doing instead of, you know, turning everything off at one time...
@infernoz
While most of your comment it utter arse gravy (nationality plays no part in work quality) talk talk could have implemented an option to allow it on individual connections.
For example BT have a parental filter that can be switched on and off and blocks proxy and alternate DNS server access it can be switched on and off at will by the end user. Perhaps something similar from talk talk.
@d3vy
Since your post seems like LSD(Liberal Socialist Dementia), we are most likely not getting through to you, but...:
Nationality has a LOT to do with quality of work. Inheritance and Environment together decides the outcome.
A good example is Micro$haft, where most of the work is now done by third rate Elephant Washers, and one of them have now become CEO!
The result is that the quality of their software and support has never been worse..
Remember the saying about Peanuts and Monkeys!
The problem with the degenerative brain disease known as Political Correctness continues to further emasculate the tech world, seen no clearer than the forums of El Rag and Le Inq...!!
Be a Man, and Make Tech Great Again!
Many people have registered on the Do Not Call list in their country. For example both the US and Canada have a shared list and agreement for this. I believe the UK and Australia are part of the same list system. The idea is marketing companies buy a copy of this list and run a software that is supposed to disable their systems from being able to dial the phone numbers on the list. These phone numbers on the list are supposed to also be blocked in their system for solicited phone calls.
The malicious Scammers and etc., buy or obtain these lists. They use the lists as a call list rather than a Do Not Call list.
There is advertising and promotions going on to encourage people to participate in the list to avoid Scam calls and annoying marketing calls. The list is probably very effective locally, but not for any foreign countries where there is no way or possibility of prosecuting the Scammers in those countries. In the end, you are dammed if you do go in the list, and you can be dammed if you do not go on to the list.
From the three hacks of TalkTalk's customer data in around 14 months. That 's where they got the numbers and my guess is that a lot of the people falling for these scams are in the over 60's group.
The problem is that these clowns pretend to be Philippino or Indian. TalkTalk customer service is out of Manila or Mumbai. The TeamViewer program works on Mac, and PC’s using Windows or Linux. If you want some fun tell them your PC is running BeOS installed by a relative and you know nothing. That stumps them. Despite leaving TalkTalk last year, I’m getting 3 calls/day from these scammers on average after a peak of 11 calls/day last year.
E-mail is abused by scammers and phishers. They have therefore blocked E-mail on their network.
At least, that might explain why their mail service fails for days at a time.
Like when they stopped supporting Homechoice emails and told no one about it? Then when questioned about what they'd done the nice people in India said that they didn't have anything to do with Homechoice and we should contact the ISP direct. When I proved that Tiscali bought Homechoice and then Talk Talk bought Tiscali there was normally either silence or "We don't have any information on that service, sorry".
It's even worse, because it was network wide.
Teamviewer can be a business-critical application to many people, especially if you work from home.
Someone on the /r/UK thread about it mentioned that the reason they unblocked it is because their own service engineers use it, and couldn't do their jobs.
https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/5yf6lz/so_it_looks_like_talktalk_has_become_the_first_uk/deq8owt/
And without even emailing their own customers in advance to keep them informed...how hard would that have been?
This is what the ISP copyright law is doing. Block whole sites, which will catch good usage as well as the bad. And keep it in a hush/hush mode. This is kinda the reason why I do not like blanket ISP blocks. You either have false negatives or false positives. You can never have a filter that is completely perfect.
My mum is on Talk Talk and was recently called by the Indian scam merchants saying they were from Talk Talk, spotting problems with her computer and wanted to help. She said "I don't believe you because Talk Talk have never wanted to help me in the past and I don't think they do now." She then hung up and they haven't called back yet.
"I wonder where the scammers got hold of their client telephone numbers from in the first place."
And I wonder how long it'll take those scammers to use this situation to their advantage.
"Hello, im with talktalk. u got problems with teamviewer right now? yeah, we know, but we got fix for u. you just need to run as root and all will be good. u dont have root? np, we soon will!"
A Doh! moment if ever there was one.
TV is used for all sorts of very legal work. If I had a paid license for TV I'd be talking to my lawyers right now.
I use it for supporting customers all over the world. I'm doing an upgrade to a system in California as I type this (waiting for Oracle to export the old db, sigh)
But there again, I'm not siilly enough to use TT as my ISP.
so I suppose you get what you pay for don't you?
I agree that teamviewer is a great piece of software but it's expensive if you license it properly. Log me in, go to meeting etc have also gone to monthy subscription service. Unfortunately VNC is not up to the task of easily connecting basic users through firewalls etc.
I still use ScreenConnect after buying a perpetual license a few years ago. It's self hosted on a Centos VM total cost £450 and £60 a year for updates. You can't buy it anymore though... unless you want a monthly subscription or £**** up front.
yeash, i looked at screen connect about 4 years ago - at the time of the great logmein debacle when logmein revoked free access completely with about 5 days notice, and hiked prices for paying customers by ludicrous amounts (mine went from £200 per year to £1500), and also took those inflated amounts from peoples accounts without telling them that the amount had gone through the roof.
i hate logmein now. its a great product, but they are bastards, and i will never ever go back to them
i evaluated loads of different options, and screen connect came second. it was a great price but it just wasnt ready at the time i felt, and i went with teamviewer.
i get decent prices on teamviewer because i jumped on board a while ago - its £200 or so a year for unlimited on 1 channel. if i was to sign up now though i suspect it would be a shed load more
"thumb down...please explain..."
Not me but let me guess. Your inability/refusal to use your shift key?
Once upon a time we had teletypes which were single case. We got rid of that years ago which made it much easier to read stuff. Now we seem to be drifting back to that situation albeit with lower case rather than upper case.
I tried Screenconnect (Connectwise now) to replace Teamviewer but then I got a fixed IP address and switched software. Use NoMachine now. 4 years ago it has just been released and was not good enough. I just rediscovered it. Plus they're pretty decent guys and don't charge for the free version even for work use.
"Unfortunately VNC is not up to the task of easily connecting basic users through firewalls etc."
Yes it is, and it has been this way for years now. Both the original VNC as well as the spin off which I prefer: TightVNC.
The trick is to set up VNC on your client as usual, then set up a so called listening viewer on your end with all the right port forwarding configured. Call your client, ask them to right click on the VNC icon and then use "attach listening viewer" (TightVNC) or "Add new client" (vanilla VNC). Make them enter the name (I often used vnc.mydomain.com or remote.mydomain.com) and done.
I think that explains exactly why it's not there yet. if you just want to use it for a one off with an IT illiterate user that's a lot of hassle, it'd probably be easier to talk them through fixing the issue than connecting in to do it yourself.
With Teamviewer they have made the download button simple to find on their main screen, you can run it without installing it from the download, then it just gives you a number in your face you can ask the user for.
> TV is used for all sorts of very legal work. If I had a paid license for TV I'd be talking to my lawyers right now.
Ah, so you're using the Free, Non-Commercial verison...
> I use it for supporting customers all over the world. I'm doing an upgrade to a system in California as I type this (waiting for Oracle to export the old db, sigh)
but you're using it for commercial purposes...
> ... so I suppose you get what you pay for don't you?
Or in your case, *don't* pay for? ;-)
EXEC: Well, these bastards are using it, just BLOCK IT NOW!.
TECH: Sir, that's *really* not a good idea - there are lots of legitima....
EXEC: I said "NOW". Either that or there's the door.
Clearly someone is neither technologically inclined, nor particularly likely to listen to reasonable advise.
Next iteration:
These scammers are calling our customers on phones, TURN IT OFF!
(there's a foot surgeon somewhere that will be kept busy by this TT exec......)
Technically inept? Never!
I must have dreamed the Muppet who runs PcWorld taking about his IoT fridge on Radio 4. He's not worried about security because noone would be interested in the photos of the stuff in his fridge that it can supply supply over the internet.
If you needed another reason to avoid PCWorld...
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