5 Online Security Tips For Valentines Day

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For some, Valentines means they might be lonely. I’ve been there, and I know many who are there now. That loneliness can distort your perspective in a way that trumps common sense. This leads people to make badly considered decisions that only worsen their circumstances. Unfortunately, scammers use this raw emotion as leverage on online dating websites and social media.

These scammers are like loneliness relief valves. In a way, they provide a different perspective by making baseless promises that they never intend to fulfill. In the end, victims end up emptying their bank accounts.

The key to be safe and secure is awareness of yourself and your emotions and the intentions of others who contact you.

Don’t be an online dating statistic. Follow these tips:

#1 Look for red flags. If you are contacted online and they make no reference to you or your name, it may be a “broadcast” scam going to others.

#2  If they immediately start talking about marriage and love and showing immediate affection run really fast.

#3  Anyone asking for money for any reason is a con-man. Never under any circumstances wire money, send checks, cash etc.

#4 When communicating with someone online and it seems it takes days for them to respond, this may be a sign they are married.

#5 When communicating with a potential mate via online dating or even in the physical world, please do not give up any information to them until you are entirely sure they are “good”.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to ADT Home Security Source discussingGPS Dating Security on Good Morning America.

Barefoot Bandit Gets 7 Years

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You may recall the story about Colton Harris Moore who as a teenager was busted for committing over 100 burglaries in the Pacific Northwest. He stole cars, speedboats and airplanes and is known as the “Barefoot Burglar” because he kicked off his shoes running from the police through the woods.

Last summer he signed a movie deal to make $1.3 million with 20th Century Fox. However he won’t earn any money from this, as all the funds will go to restitution.

After 2 years of running, he was busted in a chase that involved police, boats and bullets. Most of these stories usually end up in the perpetrator being dead. But this now 20 year old will live to tell another tale, from prison.  He was recently sentenced to 7 years in state prison and pleaded guilty to numerous charges including burglary and identity theft.

In sentencing the judge was quoted saying “This case is a tragedy in many ways, but it’s a triumph of the human spirit in other ways, I could have been reading about the history of a mass murderer. I could have been reading about a drug abusive, alcoholic young man. That is the triumph of Colton Harris-Moore: He has survived.”

He survived and left many victims behind. He destroyed thousands of dollars in cars, airplanes and boats. He stole everything from food to cash and jewelry, electronics and clothing. As “romantic” as his story is, the victims of his crimes will never feel the same way again in their own homes.

Lock your doors and windows

Install a monitored alarm system. Consider ADT Pulse.

Give your home that lived in look

Leave the TV on LOUD while you are gone

Install timers on your lights both indoor and outdoor

Close the shades to prevent peeping inside

Use defensive signage

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing ADT Pulse on Fox News.

75 Million Unique Malware Samples By 2012

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Imagine your body being targeted by 75 million viruses. That is exactly what’s happening to your digital devices. Laptops, desktops, netbooks, notebooks, Macs, iPads, iPhones, BlackBerrys, Androids, and Symbian mobile phones are all being targeted. The most recent threats report from McAfee Labs reveals a grim outlook and a variety of threats.

Mobile: Android has become the most popular platform for new malware, and this past quarter, was targeted exclusively by all new forms of mobile malware. The Symbian OS (for Nokia handsets) remains the platform with the all-time greatest number of viruses, but Android is clearly today’s main target.

Malware: Rootkits, or stealth malware, are one of the nastiest threats we face. They are designed to evade detection, and thus are able to lurk on a system for prolonged periods. Fake AV, also known as fake alert or rogue security software, has bounced back strongly from previous quarters, while AutoRun and password-stealing Trojans remain at relatively constant levels. Mac malware continues to show a bit of growth as well.

Spam: Although spam volume has decreased significantly, McAfee Labs has observed major developments in targeted spam, or what’s often called “spear phishing.” Much like malware, total numbers are dropping but the severity of the threat and sophistication of the technique remain high.

Social engineering: Subject lines used for social engineering spam messages vary depending on geography and language. Bait can include holidays or sporting events, and often differs by month or season. Attackers have shown remarkable insight into what works for specific people at specific times.

Spam botnets: New spam botnet infections continued steadily from February through August of 2011, but dropped somewhat in September.

Bad URLs: Website URLs, domains, subdomains, and particular IP addresses can be “bad” or malicious, either because they are used to host malware, phishing websites, or potentially unwanted programs.

Phishing websites: McAfee identified approximately 2,700 phishing URLs per day during the second quarter of 2011, a slight decrease from the same period in 2010, when they counted 2900 per day.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing identity theft on YouTube.

How to encrypt your email with PGP

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Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) “is a data encryption and decryption computer program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. PGP is often used for signing, encrypting and decrypting texts, E-mails, files, directories and whole disk partitions to increase the security of e-mail communications.”

Say you have a manufacturing plant in China that makes a one of a kind widget and you have a U.S patent that you don’t want other companies stealing. Every so often you must send an email back and forth to your man of the ground in Beijing to update the specs and ways in which that product is to be created.  You know that if your emails are intercepted that it’s just a matter of time before a cheap knockoff comes on the market and kills your business. So, you better learn how to encrypt email.

This is where PGP email encryption comes in.

#1 There are PGP key generators online and others available in purchased or open source software. To create a PGP key you will plug in your email address and provide a password. Your security vendor can point you in a direction. Or go here to generate a PGP key.

#2 PGP keys are public and private. Your public key is posted to your website or contained in your email. People use this key to send you encrypted emails. The private key is kept private. My public key looks like this:

—–BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK—–

mI0ETt1GvAEEAInk6+FnNbDug/VTJTqladmbymCx3Oh3LT/YQpB1/j8PavNAAhtr

nC5dwhludRTE2bAG28ZcPkK5j8aRZTYTmSpCjUOfwNRaIott0L4SKSgLbkUWDfim

pbEOTLN9eTmStNispjWVdmP099t5SJqsGvkPBhCxLHOCxxPae0037Lb1ABEBAAG0

FnJvYmVydEByb2JlcnRzaWNpbGlhbm+InAQQAQIABgUCTt1GvAAKCRDVXcwnBdX+

k3poA/93D0usqCSemcf0jE8BMUlqIHxdblH7eH4IXngjV+bgfZxeX6pK6BuxMghN

6NaX8VqOHV574MctAnxVkGqqjJH4jALQn+ExoG9YFh004UK46pa4BCoh+xkD72zu

dGm3I3xVjj7g3e7XJ0R7aVDStK1s+7izd00PzbJP9xDI9MqJUA==

=22J2

—–END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK—–

 

#3 When receiving an encrypted email you plug in your private key that looks a lot like a public key and include the password.

Find here a cool free online tool that generates PGP keys for fun and lets you see how PGP email encryption is done.

Caution: I’m not sure of what’s going on in the background of this site so I can’t recommend using this key generator for ongoing secure use.

Robert Siciliano personal and small business security specialist toADT Small Business Security discussingADT Pulse on Fox News. Disclosures