Consumers sacrificing Privacy for Convenience

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It’s hard to believe that, according to a recent poll from the Pew Research Center, most Americans aren’t too upset that the government can track their e-mails and phone calls. There’s too much of a blasé attitude, it seems, with people thinking, “I don’t care if I’m monitored; I have nothing to hide.”

2PThis blows it for those of us who actually DO mind that the government is snooping around in our communications, even if we’re as innocent as a butterfly.

Privacy experts believe that governmental monitoring of online activities is just such a fixed part of Americans’ lives that we’ve come to accept it. But privacy experts are pushing for an increased awareness of the importance of digital privacy, and this begins with the U.S. masses putting out some demands for privacy.

An article on arcamax.com points out that as long as Americans are sitting pretty with cheap and easy-to-use Internet experiences, nothing much will change. “People are very willing to sacrifice privacy for convenience,” states Aaron Deacon, as quoted in the article. He manages a group that explores issues pertaining to Internet use.

The article says that Pew’s research reveals that since the NSA revelation, 20 percent of Americans have become more privacy-conscious in a variety of easy ways like using a private web browser.

But most Americans shy away from the more complicated privacy protection methods. Furthermore, some people don’t even know of the extent of governmental monitoring.

Nevertheless, ease of use has made people complacent. Who wants to hassle around with encryption, decoding, coding, etc.? This stuff is great for techy people but not the average user.

The good news is that there is somewhat of a revolution geared towards making privacy methods less intimidating to Joe and Jane User. It just won’t happen overnight, but the market is “emerging,” says Deacon in the article.

Theoretically, if everyone turned techy overnight or privacy protection instantly became as easy as two plus two, this would make unhappy campers out of the businesses that flourish from tracking users’ online habits. The government wouldn’t be smiling, either, as it always wants to have fast access (e.g., “backdoor”) to electronic communications: the first communication choice of terrorists.

Thus far it seems that people have two choices: a fast, easy, cheap Internet experience that gives up privacy, or a techy, expensive, confusing experience that ensures privacy. The first choice is currently winning by miles.

Forewarned is forearmed. Pay attention. This is getting real.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to TheBestCompanys.com discussing  identity theft prevention.

Beware every time the Phone rings

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Don’t assume you’ll never be targeted by phone scammers just because you don’t have a cell phone; they continue to feast on landline users, especially those over 50.

9D“This is the IRS…”

  • Drill this into your head: The IRS never calls to collect back taxes. NEVER.
  • A common ploy is to threaten that the listener will go to prison if they don’t pay up immediately.
  • If you really do owe taxes, the IRS will contact you alright—but via snail mail, not a phone call, text or e-mail.
  • Scam calls may also sound professional with no threats, and may be a pre-recorded woman’s voice.
  • Scammers can make the caller ID show “IRS.”

Charities and Fundraisers

  • A call comes from the fraudster, claiming he represents a charity and wants your donation. The con artist may even say he’s with the local police department.
  • Want to help mankind? Hang up on the caller and give to a reputable foundation or give out homemade sack lunches to the homeless.
  • Go online and search the organization in question to verify they’re legit.
  • If the call has an automated message, hang up immediately.
  • A legitimate organization will not request your Social Security number or personal financial information.

“You’ve won a prize!”

  • No, you haven’t. These are scams; hang up.

Tech support never calls you…

  • You must call them first. So if you get a call from “tech support” asking for personal information, it’s a scam. Geek squads don’t just up and call people.
  • A call about installing an update is a scam.
  • Scammers can make the caller ID show “Microsoft.”

“Hi Grandma, it’s your favorite grandson!”

  • If relatives call asking for money, hang up and call them to verify that said caller is really your relative.

Avoiding Scam Calls

  • Must you answer the phone every time it rings? It’s perfectly legal to ignore a ringing phone.
  • If your phone has caller block, input numbers from suspected scammers. Next time they call, there’ll be barely one ring, then the caller will be blocked.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention.

3 Ways We are Tricked into Cyber Attacks

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So just how are hackers able to penetrate all these huge businesses? Look no further than employee behavior—not an inside job, but innocent employees being tricked by the hacker.

9DA recent survey commissioned by Intel Security reveals that five of the top seven reasons that a company gets hacked are due to employee actions.

One of the things that make it easy to trick employees into giving up critical information is the information employees share on social media about their company.

People just freely post things and tweet all day long about company matters or other details that can be used by a hacker to compromise the company. What seems like innocuous information, such as referring to a company big wig by their nickname, could lead to social engineering (tricking users into believing the request is legitimate so the user gives up sensitive information).

Between social media and the golden nuggets of information on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other platforms, hackers have a goldmine right under their nose—and they know it.

3 Key Pathways to Getting Hacked

  1. Ignorance. This word has negative connotations, but the truth is, most employees are just plain ignorant of cybersecurity 101. The survey mentioned above revealed that 38% of IT professionals name this as a big problem.
    1. Do not click on links inside emails, regardless of the sender.
    2. Never open an attachment or download files from senders you don’t know or only know a little.
    3. Never visit a website on the job that you’d never visit in public. These sites are often riddled with malware.
  2. Gullibility. This is an extension of the first pathway. The more gullible, naive person is more apt to click on a link inside an email or do other risky tings that compromise their company’s security.
    1. It’s called phishing(sending a trick email, designed to lure the unsuspecting recipient into visiting a malicious website or opening a malicious attachment. Even executives in high places could be fooled as phishing masters are truly masters at their craft.
    2. Phishing is one of the hacker’s preferred tools, since the trick is directed towards humans, not computers.
    3. To  check if a link is going to a phishing site, hover your cursor over the link to see its actual destination. Keep in mind that hackers can still make a link look like a legitimate destination, so watch our for misspellings and bad grammar.
  3. Oversharing. Malicious links are like pollen—they get transported all over the place by the winds of social media. Not only can a malicious link be shared without the sharer knowing it’s a bad seed, but hackers themselves have a blast spreading their nasty goods—and one way of doing this is to pose as someone else.
    1. Be leery of social media posts from your “friends” that don’t seem like things they would normally post about. It could be a hacker who is using your friend’s profile to spread malware. Really think…is it like your prude sister-in-law to send you a link to the latest gossip on a sex scandal?
    2. Don’t friend people online that you don’t know in real life. Hackers often create fake profiles to friend you and then use their network of “friends” to spread their dirty wares.
    3. Take care about what you post online. Even if your privacy settings are set to high, you should think that when you post on the Internet, it’s like writing in permanent ink—it’s forever. Because did we all really need to know that time you saw Kanye from afar?

All of us must be coached and trained to keep ourselves and our workplaces safe, and that starts with practicing good cyber hygiene both at home and at work.

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

6 Tips for Protecting Your Social Media Accounts

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10 years ago, many of us were hearing about social media for the first time. Now, social media plays a giant role in our lives, allowing us to share pictures, connect with family and friends, and get updated news. Through social media, we can express ourselves to our inner circle and the world.

14DSo how devastating would it be if someone got a hold of your social media accounts?

They could really wreak some havoc, like sending dirty links to all of your followers on Twitter. Or worse, take personal information in order to steal your identity, which could take years to fix. Sadly, breaking into your social media account can be easy—just one wrong click on a phishing scam or using a weak password that is easy to guess

Luckily, there are a few things you can do to protect your social media accounts from hackers. Here are my tips:

  1. Discard unused applications. Take inventory of your social media accounts to see if there are any third-party applications that have access to your personal social data. Delete the ones you don’t use or don’t need. And make sure you are ok with what information they are accessing from your social profile/account as these can be gateways to your account for hackers.
  2. Be careful who you friend online. Only accept friend requests from people you know in real life. Often hackers will send requests so they can see the information you are sharing to help them take advantage of
  3. Sharing is not always caring. Double check your privacy settings to control who sees your posts. Also, be careful what you share online—think of what you post online as being there forever, even if you have privacy setting enabled. For example, sharing that you’re away on vacation could inform a thief that you’re not home and indicate to them it’s a good time to rob you.
  4. Use strong passwords. Using “password” as a password isn’t going to cut it. The strongest passwords are at least eight characters in length, preferably 12; contain a combination of upper and lower case letters, symbols and numbers, and are unique to each account. For more information on how to create strong passwords, go to passwordday.org. And don’t forget to join us to celebrate World Password Day on May 7th. If you have trouble remembering and keeping track of all your user names and passwords, a safe option is to use a password manager. I like, which allows you to log into sites and apps using multiple factors that are unique to you, like your face and fingerprints and the devices you own.
  5. Multi-factor authentication. Imagine a hacker has your password, username and email and even knows the answer to your secret question. He can get into your account. But if you’ve enabled multi-factor authentication, the hacker will need another factor to truly access your account. So without your phone, fingerprint, face or whatever factor you’ve set up, the game’s over for him. With True Key, you have to keep you safe online.
  6. Use security software. Of course, keep all your devices updated with comprehensive security software like McAfee LiveSafe™ service.

Don’t let hackers hack into your digital life! For other tips, check out @IntelSec_Home on Twitter or like them on Facebook!

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

What is Spam?

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Everyone’s heard of spam as it pertains to emails. Spam isn’t necessarily a malicious message designed to trick you into revealing your credit card number or PayPal login information.

emailBut spam is an unsolicited message, sometimes referred to as junk mail. Spam can be very annoying and relentless in nature, often attempting to convince you to buy something. Sometimes these messages are untruthful, such as those advertising human growth hormone pills (when they actually contain nothing of the sort). Spam also includes phishing which are messages designed to trick you into giving up personal information. Other messages can be legitimate advertisements—nevertheless, you did NOT ask for these solicitations.

Spam arrives in the form of emails, instant messages, and text messages—and it can also affect smartphones.

Spammers buy lists from brokers that continuously harvest email addresses from the web. They also run dictionary attacks, throwing billions of combinations of words and numbers at an email database to find valid address combinations.

Though some emails are obvious spam, such as ones with particular keywords like Viagra, sex life, prescription drug discounts and fast weight loss, other spammy messages are not so obvious; they may appear legitimate or show a sender address of a family member, friend or business associate.

For instance, the sender may appear to be from your bank), with a subject line warning you to urgently update your account information. Similarly, the subject line may not be threatening, such as one referencing “your recent order from Amazon” or “your shipment from DHL,” yet it is not legitimate.

Spammers have found that if enough of these go out all at once, they’ll reach a statistically significant percentage of recipients who will have placed an order from Amazons within the previous 48 hours, or are expecting a delivery from DHL any day.

Here are some tips on how you can fight spam:

  • Be careful with your email address. Don’t supply your email address to sites you’re not sure about, and never post it in a public place.
  • Verify. If you’re not sure if an email is valid, even though it appears to be from your bank, medical carrier, employer, etc., don’t respond to the email. Contact the company or business by phone to verify the email’s validity.
  • Think before you click. Don’t click blindly. Never click on links in unsolicited emails. If you think the email is real, check the link URL to make sure you are being directed to a legitimate site.
  • Open with care. Think twice open attachments that you’re not expecting or from someone who normally wouldn’t send you an attachment.
  • Be cautious. Don’t be fooled by sensational subject lines. Another type of fraud is a subject line claiming you won a prize or are owed money.
  • Ignore it. If the email shows up in your spam or junk folder, chances are it’s spam, so LEAVE IT ALONE!

It’s simple: Never reply to spam.

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