McAfee 12 Scams Season of Sharing Sweepstakes: Win a Dell Ultrabook!

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It’s that time of year again. Yes, I know it seems like we just got past the spooks from Halloween, but the holidays are just around the corner. While we are busy buying gifts and making travel arrangements, cybercriminals are making their lists, and checking them twice, as they prepare to unleash a host of scams designed to take advantage of the seasonal surge in online shopping and sharing. Since it only takes one scam to spoil your holiday season, it’s a good idea to get familiar with our list of the 12 Scams of the Holidays, and learn how to avoid them.

To help you stay protected as you search high and low both on and offline for the perfect presents for your loved ones, McAfee has released its annual 12 Scams of Holidays list full of digital dangers to be on alert for as you surf the web for holiday deals and steals and how to be safe in the coming months and beyond.

And to make sure that we all have a safe and merry holiday, McAfee is hosting the Season of Sharing Sweepstakes*. By sharing the #12scams content with your friends and family, you’ll not only be helping others to stay safe online this holiday season, but you’ll also earn a chance to win a Dell™ XPS™ 12 Convertible Ultrabook or Dell Venue™ 8 Pro Tablet along with McAfee LiveSafe™ to make sure all your devices are protected! And while you’re at it, check out the deals on the Dell tablets as well!

12 Scams of holiday Here’s how you can help spread the joy so we can all avoid the 12 scams of the holidays.

HOW TO ENTER

  • Go to 12scams.com
  • Sign into the page using your Facebook or Twitter account
  • Share the #12scams content to earn entries into the sweepstakes drawing
  • Sit tight for winners to be announced on December 17.

WHAT YOU COULD WIN

  • Grand Prize: 1 winner will receive a Dell™ XPS™ 12 Convertible Ultrabook™ and a 1-year subscription to McAfee LiveSafe™
  • 1st Place: 1 winner will receive a Dell Venue™ 8 Pro Tablet and a 1-year subscription to McAfee LiveSafe
  • 2nd Places: Ten (10) winners will receive a 1-year subscription to McAfee LiveSafe

Have fun and stay safe this holiday!

*Sweepstakes open to US residents only. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Sweepstakes is from November 18 – December 13, 2013. See www.12scams.com for full terms and conditions.

Robert Siciliano is an Online Security Expert to McAfee. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Mobile was Hacked!  Disclosures.

5 Ways To Protect Your Mobile From Prying Eyes

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Do you know how to keep your phone from the prying eyes of exes, strangers, cops, other officials and even your own spouse? Here are tips to keep your mobile safe and secure.

5W#1 Common Sense

When it comes to the police, cooperate; this will lessen the chance of mobile confiscation. Though you aren’t required to talk to the police without an attorney present, and don’t need to fork over your passcode or give up your phone just because they ask for it, don’t be a pest, either. In general, police need a warrant to search your phone.

#2 Lock down your Phone

Encrypting important data is crucial for those who want to keep prying eyes—be they the police, a vindictive ex or a nosy coworker—from gaining access to their mobile device. The method of encrypting varies from one mobile device to the next, but here are some guidelines:

  • Android and iOS phones come with native data protection for encrypting. Take advantage of this. Remember, other models also offer encryption features, and the user needs to learn how to access these features.
  • Lock your SIM card so nobody can access the SIM without a known PIN.
  • Don’t always use the same phone; switch them up.
  • Protect any videos or photos you’ve taken with the mobile by saving them, then sharing them immediately to provide a backup.

#3 Store in a Cloud

Cloud storage enables you to store your data (videos, pictures, files, etc.) in a virtual storehouse which can be purchased or leased through a hosting company.

To store photos or videos, enable Camera Uploads on DropBox (Android, iOS). You can do the same with Google Drive. Each mobile device has a different way of shunting your valuable data to a cloud for cyber storage.

For Facebook enthusiasts, cloud storage can also be done via your mobile’s Facebook app.

iOS users can use AutoSnap to upload any image that’s taken with it to Facebook, DropBox, Twitter and Instagram. Just link the app with any social accounts that you have.

#4 Live broadcasting Yourself

  • Livestreaming puts anything you record on your phone onto the Internet; here, the phone acts as an inputting tool rather than a storage tool.
  • Justin.Tv (iOS, Android) is the leading livestream app, and the service is free.
  • UStream (iOS, Android). This livestreaming app focuses more on quality than on easy access. The service offers many broadcasting options.
  • Veetle (iOS, Android). This company is smaller than Justin.Tv and UStream, but has an advantage: free, easy integration with social media, plus some other perks.

#5 Use a VPN

When surfing the web on your local computer, mobile or tablet on a free, unprotected public network in a hotel, airport or coffee shop, your data is vulnerable to “sniffers.”

That’s where a Virtual Private Network (VPN) comes in to protect your data between your laptop, iPad, iPhone or Android and an internet gateway. This kind of VPN creates an impenetrable tunnel to prevent snoopers, hackers and ISPs from viewing your web-browsing activities, instant messages, downloads, credit card information or anything else you send over the network.

Hotspot Shield VPN is a great option that protects your entire web surfing session, securing your connection at both your home Internet network and public internet networks (both wired and wireless). Hotspot Shield’s free proxy protects your identity by ensuring that all web transactions (shopping, filling out forms, downloads, etc.) are secured through HTTPS—the protected internet protocol.

Robert Siciliano is an Identity Theft Expert to Hotspot Shield VPN. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Identity Was Stolen See him discussing internet and wireless security on Good Morning America. Disclosures.

Scrooge’s 12 Scams of the Holidays

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They’re baaaack! Actually, they never left—Scrooge’s little trolls work hard all year, scheming and scamming to steal holiday presents—or at least valuable information—from good girls and boys. From the North Pole to the South Pole, they target every one of us through phishing, SMiShing (text phishing), shipping and gift card scams. If you aren’t paying attention, they will hack your devices, spy on your surfing and empty your bank account.

12-scamsThe holidays are supposed to be a fun-filled time for celebrating with family and friends, so make sure you keep the cheer in your holiday and learn about the “12 Scams of the Holidays,” the dozen most dangerous online scams to watch out for this holiday season, revealed today by McAfee.

To make sure your holidays are not stolen by the Grinch, here are some tips on how to protect yourself against scams during the holidays, and year-round:

  • Educate yourself—Keep up-to-date on the latest scams and tricks cybercriminals use, so you can learn to recognize scams and avoid potential attacks.
  • Use strong passwords— Make sure your passwords are at least eight characters long and contain a variety of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols.
  • Be careful when clicking—Don’t click on links in messages from people you don’t know, and use a URL expander to know what site you are going to before clicking on a shortened URL.
  • Stay suspicious—Like mom said, be wary of any offer that sounds too good to be true.
  • Practice safe surfing—When searching for holiday gifts, use a safe search plug-in such as McAfee® SiteAdvisor®.
  • Practice safe shopping—Make sure you stick to reputable e-commerce sites that have been verified as safe by a trusted third-party, like the McAfee SECURE™ mark. Also look for “https” at the beginning of a site’s URL, which indicates that the site is using encryption to protect your information.
  • Use comprehensive computer security—Make sure you have comprehensive security protection for all your devices, including your mobile phone and tablet, that also protects your data and identity protection, like McAfee LiveSafe™ service.

Robert Siciliano is an Online Security Expert to McAfee. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Mobile was Hacked!  Disclosures.

What is a Firewall?

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Most of us may have heard the term, and know it’s related to security in some way, but do you really know what a firewall is? Traditionally, firewalls were built to keep danger at bay—they were doors (or walls) to block fire from coming into another area—hence the name firewall. When you’re thinking in terms of your online security, modern-day hardware and software firewalls are similar. They act as barriers to prevent unauthorized access to your personal information.

6DFirewalls are software programs or hardware devices that filter the information coming through your Internet connection to your computer (and all the devices that are connected to that connection). A firewall protects you and your devices by examining each piece of information that flows between your devices and the Internet.

Hardware firewalls, such as those included with some routers, are usually a good first line of defense against outside attacks, and they require little to no configuration. The one down sides of using only a hardware firewall is that it only protects you if you are at home. So if you take your computer to a cafe or on a trip, your device is no longer protected by the home-based firewall.

Fortunately, software firewalls can catch these kinds of threats because they are running on your computer and can take a closer look at the network traffic. This allows them to intercept a malicious program before it leaves your computer.

Now that you know the purpose of firewalls, follow these tips for greater security online:

  • Make sure you are using a router that includes a firewall as a first layer of protection
  • Use comprehensive security, like McAfee LiveSafe™ service, that includes a two-way firewall that filters both incoming and outgoing traffic, as well as protection for all your devices, your identity and your data
  • Turn off file-sharing and printer-sharing features if you don’t need them
  • Use common sense, don’t click on links or open attachments from people you don’t know—you could unknowingly be giving them access to your device
  • While the bad guys may always be looking to do harm, just remember that we all need to be vigilant about protecting ourselves and our devices, which in turn helps protect everyone else.

Robert Siciliano is an Online Security Expert to McAfee. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Mobile was Hacked!  Disclosures.

Crack Your WiFi Password To Protect Yourself

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Ever wanted to be a hacker? Today, anyone can learn code and understand the ins and outs of all the technology we are simultaneously blessed and cursed with. But once you know how all this technology works to the point of calling yourself a hacker (which, by the way, isn’t necessarily a bad word), then everyone in your life will be calling you to fix their devices. Hackers are often technologists that are inventive, curious and take technology to the edge of its limits. They often break it so they can fix it.

2WAnyway, one of the more interesting hacking professions is the “penetration tester,” which is someone hired by companies to determine the vulnerabilities in a company’s networks and then patches those vulnerabilities so bad guys can’t get in. “Penntesters,” as they are known, are good-guy hackers also known as “white hats.” Their counterpart bad-guy hackers, known as “black hats,” are also penntesters—but they don’t do it to look for vulnerabilities to then secure the network; they do it to ultimately get in and steal stuff for their own personal gain.

One of the best ways to protect your own network is to hack your own network, as Lifehacker shows us here. “A new, free, open-source tool called Reaver exploits a security hole in wireless routers and can crack most routers’ current passwords with relative ease. Here’s how to crack a WPA or WPA2 password, step by step, with Reaver—and how to protect your network against Reaver attacks.”

What this hacker does is explain how the attack works, seeing the vulnerabilities users can use to reverse engineer this process to protect themselves.

Whether on your own network or on someone’s free wireless network, a VPN such as Hotspot Shield VPN  will mask a user’s IP address and protect all wireless data from thieves. But if a router is hacked, that vulnerability may still allow for an attacker to plant code on various devices. So check out the Lifehacker post and lock down your router with encryption.

Robert Siciliano is an Identity Theft Expert to Hotspot Shield VPN. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Identity Was Stolen See him discussing internet and wireless security on Good Morning America. Disclosures. For Roberts FREE ebook text- SECURE Your@emailaddress -to 411247.

6 Shredding Tips To Prevent Identity Theft

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Shredding is fun! Repeat that 10 times and you just might start believing it. Certainly shredding is a tad bit of work, but that’s what kids and interns are for!

4HShredding might be inconvenient, but it’s absolutely necessary—and it’s fundamental to protecting your identity and the identities of those who have entrusted you with their data. Shredding is like recycling, eating well and exercise: You may not always want to do it, but it’s good for you.

Here’s how to better manage your shredables:

  1. Primary documents: I shred everything that comes in the mail with my name on it and that I don’t need. Shred or destroy prescription bottles, CDs with data on them, and supporting tax documents older than three years (some say seven), including investment statements, bank statements, canceled checks and paystubs.
  2. Secondary documents: Documents like ATM receipts, credit card statements, utility bills and insurance policies should all be kept for two years. The only reason to keep these is in case you determine a mistake was made so you can go back and look. Otherwise, if you can access any of these documents online, shred them now. Homeowner-related documents should be kept as long as you own the home and maybe a year after you eventually sell it.
  3. Devices: Don’t forget to shred or destroy hard drives, SD cards, mobile phones, SIM cards and thumb drives. While reformatting and reinstalling an operating system will get rid of most of the data, it’s just better to kill the drive with a special shredder for non-paper files—also known as a sledgehammer.
  4. Reduce paper: One way to reduce all the stuff needing shredding is to turn off the paper. At this point, most, if not all, of your bank, credit card, utilities, mobile phone and other accounts allow (and in some cases, require) e-statements. This means every month you’ll get an email stating, “Your statement is ready!” But don’t click that link, as it could be a phish. Get access to your statements through a password manager or via your favorite menu.
  5. Shred-a-thons: Many banks now sponsor shred-a-thons where one of those crankin’, big shredding trucks shows up to the bank’s parking lot and you can watch boxes and boxes of your stuff get decimated right in front of you. Bring the kids!
  6. Burn it: Depending on the amount of stuff you have to shred and your local ordinances regarding conflagrations, you might want to box up all of your shredables and burn them the same time you might burn leaves, or when you have a backyard bonfire.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing  identity theft prevention. For Roberts FREE ebook text- SECURE Your@emailaddress -to 411247. Disclosures.

Beware of iOS app vulnerabilities when on WiFi

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We know WiFi is insecure. When logging onto any open (often public and free) unencrypted WiFi, your data is there for all the snoopy snoopers to see and download for their own personal gain.

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But now researchers have found a whole new hack for you to protect yourself from. When iPhone users launch an application, the app sometimes has all its data right there on the device. But more often, the app is talking to its home server, meaning it’s calling home, and will download what you need on demand. An example would be a weather application that is definitely getting all its data from the app’s home server, while a game might have everything it needs on the device.

Still, even in the case of the game, there still may be ads on the game, and those would be streamed to the app. Researchers discovered that there seems to be an issue within iOS that allows for hackers to manipulate the server address the app calls out to in a way that allows the attacker to change the URL address to one that serves up malicious links that would download to the iOS device.

Currently, it is not known if criminal hackers are using this exploit; there are no known reports. The hopes are that Apple will make a quick fix and patch this vulnerability before attackers latch onto it.

Meanwhile, you should only download applications from trusted sources such as Google Play or iTunes—and only use a secure wired or wireless connection when going online. A VPN such as Hotspot Shield VPN will protect users data from the snoopy snoopers…but until Apples fixes this issue, all users are vulnerable.

Robert Siciliano is an Identity Theft Expert to Hotspot Shield VPN. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Identity Was Stolen See him discussing internet and wireless security on Good Morning America. Disclosures. For Roberts FREE ebook text- SECURE Your@emailaddress -to 411247.

7 tips to a secure mobile device

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Have you ever received an email like this…I did: “Robert, last night I was at a concert and I must have dropped my phone because I lost it. But then something awful happened. My friends knew I was with my other friend, and she got a call wondering if I was OK. Apparently whoever found or stole my mobile posted all my naked pictures to Facebook. I’ve finally got access to Facebook and I’ve deleted most of them, but it’s been a harrowing experience.”

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There are just so many things wrong with this. It’s amazing to me how lazy some people can be with their mobile security—especially if their devices have, ahem, “private” information on them.

  1. Passwords: Mobiles need to be password protected and automatically locked after one minute. A four- to six-letter/number password is sufficient.
  2. Erase on too many password attempts: Enable the option for when someone tries to enter a password in excess of 10 tries, the device erases the data. If you have kids, you may not want to activate the erase option.
  3. Lock/locate/wipe software: Many devices have a feature that allows users to locate the device in the event it’s lost or stolen. And added bonus is it allows you to lock it down (it should already be locked after one minute!) and erases the data remotely.
  4. Security software: Know that mobiles are targeted by virus writers in the same way PCs are. While there are millions of viruses targeting PCs, there still tens of thousands targeting mobiles.
  5. Wireless security: The 3/4G connection on your devices is relatively secure—but the WiFi is definitely not, especially on a public WiFi network. Hotspot Shield VPN is an excellent option to protect your data on an unsecured network.
  6. Update your operating system: Whenever you get a notification that an updated version of your OS is available, it’s often because there was a security vulnerability discovered. Download the update ASAP.
  7. Beware of SMiShing: Whenever you receive text messages to access an account, update your OS or offering cheap goods, be suspect. Really, if you aren’t expecting the text, hit delete.

Robert Siciliano is an Identity Theft Expert to Hotspot Shield VPN. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Identity Was Stolen See him discussing internet and wireless security on Good Morning America. Disclosures. For Roberts FREE ebook text- SECURE Your@emailaddress -to 411247.

6 Ways to erase your Digital Life

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You can make yourself “disappear” from the World Wide Web. But be forewarned: Most of the following tactics are irreversible. This includes losing any marketing presence you’ve built up over the years that can bring you business, and it can also result in being unable to restart an eliminated account with the same name or e-mail address.

1PSo before you begin the process of erasing yourself, ask why you wish to disappear in the first place. Are you merely a private person and don’t want your personal information where the whole world can see? Or do you feel threatened in some way (e.g., cyberstalking)?

Re-evaluate your reasons before proceeding. After all, you can create multiple e-mail accounts, for instance, in which one is strictly for business and one is strictly for family. And when registering on any new social media sites or forum boards, you can use a pseudonym. Nevertheless, here are tips on removing your cyber existence.

#1. Delete accounts. Systematically go through every account and delete. To nab every account you’ve ever created, since it’s possible you may not remember some, go through this list:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Flickr
  • eBay, Amazon, Craigslist
  • PayPal
  • Support forums (medical, parenting, pet ownership, business, etc.)
  • Gaming sites
  • Content sites you’ve written for
  • Freelance job sites
  • The local online newspaper where you’re registered to post comments to articles

 #2. Facebook. Go to Account Settings—Security—Deactivate account. This removes you from visibility, but the account remains just in case you change your mind. To eradicate the account altogether, go to Delete My Account and hit the blue button.

#3. Twitter. Go to Account Settings—Deactivate my account—Okay, fine, deactivate account. “Deactivate” means delete in this case, but you have a 30 day grace period to change your mind.

#4. LinkedIn. Go to Privacy & Settings—Account—Close your account.

#5. Google+.  To remove only your public information, click your name/e-mail address (upper right corner). Go to Account Management—Delete profile and remove related Google+ features—Delete Google+ content.

To remove the entire Google+ account, repeat the above, then hit Delete your entire Google profile. You’ll still be able to use, for instance, your e-mail (gmail), but to eradicate every molecule of Google+ (e.g., mail, calendar), go to your homepage and hit Close account and delete all services and info associated with it.

Mopping up Residue

With the big four gone, now go after smaller accounts. This includes the forum board you registered with 10 years ago for adult acne support but never posted anything. To aid in tracking everything down, use:

  • Account Killer. This tool provides direct links to every account deletion page.
  • Knowem. This tool does a username search on hundreds of social sites.

Then remove personal information from background check sites. This involves more complicated procedures.

#6. Hotspot Shield VPN is a free VPN service that protects your device’s data by ensuring that all web transactions (such as filling out forms, shopping, downloads, etc.) are secured through HTTPS.

With Hotspot Shield, your device basically will be surfing through a protected tunnel away from prying eyes and helps maintain some anonymity on an IP address that in most cases can’t be traced back to your home address or anywhere you’re at or have been.

Robert Siciliano is an Identity Theft Expert to Hotspot Shield VPN. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Identity Was Stolen See him discussing internet and wireless security on Good Morning America. Disclosures.

Cyber Monday Launches Black Hat Shopping Season

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Yup, the holidays are here. And I don’t know about y’all, but the last thing I plan on doing is walking into any store to buy anything. Other than to get food, most of my shopping is generally done online.

4WPeople always ask me, “Aren’t you concerned your identity will be stolen? Don’t you worry about always giving out your credit card over the internet?” And I say nope. Not worried. Don’t care. Never have been. And neither should you. Seriously.

BUT! You still have to do something first to make sure that, to a certain degree, you will not end up a victim of fraud. And there are things you should do after you hand over your account information to monitor your accounts.

But no, you shouldn’t worry. Just do this:

Secure your devices: No matter what device or operating system you use, your data is only as secure as its hardware and software. That means updating everything and locking everything up, too.

Operating system: Each device’s manufacturer provides frequent software updates with critical security patches designed to patch any vulnerabilities that were discovered by researchers or criminal hackers. Set critical security patches to update automatically.

Browser: Your browser needs to be updated to its latest version for the same reason an operating system does. Only enter credit card numbers in sites that have HTTPS in the address bar. That means there’s encryption on that page.

Wireless: Always use an encrypted wireless connection using, at a minimum, WPA or WPA2 encryption. Otherwise, use a virtual private network software like one from Hotspot Shield VPN.

Websites: Only buy from legitimate websites that you already use for shopping—sites like Amazon and eBay that you know are relatively safe. Once you stray too far off the ranch, you risk your device being infected, plus orders you place may never arrive and your credit card numbers risk being used without your authorization.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing  identity theft prevention. For Roberts FREE ebook text- SECURE Your@emailaddress -to 411247. Disclosures.