Despite the best efforts of the spam filters from the web-hosting company, WordPress and my own cyber security, the Sprite Club emails and website, like many sites these days, continues to get spammed and suffers attempts to hack in. Goodness knows what these hackers think they are going to find in our pages!
Cyber activity has significantly escalated in the past 12 months with the number of attempts to hack into businesses (and Clubs) more than doubling. For example, I cleared out the email spam filter at 0730 this morning and by morning tea there were half a dozen emails offering everything from website upgrades, cheap Chinese machining tools and the usual assortment of, err, medications. I’m sure you get the picture. In amongst that were unfortunately genuine emails from new members or other clubs and individuals reaching out to us so you can understand if sometimes we miss a letter or a notice to the Club.
There have also been attempts to send Committee members and general club members spam emails that appear to come from either my personal email or one of the Club emails. If it doesn’t make sense, then likely it isn’t real. If in doubt, look at the senders email address. Hackers/spammers cloak their real addresses with a fake one to make it appear real but if you look carefully you’ll see the underlying email address that isn’t one of ours. Unless you are absolutely sure of who its from, just don’t click the links in the body or the title of the email. Check the website or contact me.
As a result of the attempt to use my personal email to contact other members, I’ve changed the web settings and I’ll try to only use the ‘admin@spriteclub.com.au’ email address and will pass the details to the ‘assistant webmasters’ (Darryl and Gordon) who also need to log in or upload an article. I realise a change to the sending email will be frustrating for some as I know some of you have only just managed to de-spam the Club from your system. As always, if you are not getting emails (but are reading this online or on the BookFace site) please reach out to me on 0431 247 746 or admin@spriteclub.com.au. Don’t be shy about asking for help! Just ask!
I realise this is frustrating as, in this modern world, the emails and the website are our main, often only, forms of communications so we need to keep on top of it!
In the meantime, please keep an eye on the website for upcoming events! Hope to see you all at the Display Day in a few weeks!
Robin,
President/Webmaster, Sprite Club of South Australia