How to Stop Wi-Fi Hotspot Hackers

We’ve all been there before–killing time at the airport, meeting up with a colleague at a local coffee shop, staying at a hotel…–and we want to connect to the Internet.   Nearly everyone offers free Wi-Fi these days, including lots of cyber criminals.  They’ve become so good at mimicking legitimate hotspots that you’d better know what you’re looking for before you connect!  Here are our top six tips to stop those Wi-Fi Hotspot Hackers.

Don’t connect to an Evil Twin.

An Evil Twin is a rogue wireless access point that masquerades as a legitimate Wi-Fi access point.  It’s relatively easy for hackers to set these up and gather personal or corporate information without the end-user’s knowledge. It will most likely have a name similar to the real hotspot. To prevent this from happening:

  • Make sure you’re connecting to a legitimate public Wi-Fi network by asking the café, airport, hotel, library, etc. for the correct hotspot name.
  • If the Wi-Fi hotspot forces you to enter a user name and password, it is considerably safer than those that require no password.
  • When you are finished using a hotspot, log off the Wi-Fi connection and forget the network. Failing to do so allows mobile devices to re-connect to that network when you simply walk by that location.

Tether your laptop or tablet to your phone.

Also known as a personal Wi-Fi hotspot, tethering is the act of using your smartphone’s encrypted cellular connection to the Internet to surf securely from your laptop or tablet.

  • To tether your computing device to your smartphone, simply contact your mobile provider (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc.) and let them know that you want to be able to connect your computing device to your smartphone.
  • It costs about $15 per month– well worth the protection. Your provider will turn it on and will walk you through setting up both your smartphone and device so that they communicate with the Internet in a well-protected manner.
  • Many tablets, like the iPad, now come with cellular data access built into the device so you never even have to utilize free Wi-Fi (though it’s still safe to use the secure Wi-Fi in your home and office).
  • Or, just use your smartphone!

Make sure you’re surfing with HTTPS.

In your browser’s URL bar, make sure that the address starts with https://. The “S” stands for secure, and encrypts your communication between the computer and the Internet, so that it can’t be easily “sniffed” by hackers.

  • HTTPS connections should show a lock symbol in the URL bar (and sometimes the bar itself turns green when you are on a secure connection).
  • If you don’t have HTTPS access, use your cellular connection to surf.
  • At a minimum, avoid all banking, credit card, email and financial transactions or anything that requires you to give out your personal information.

Patch your software.

  • Keep your browser and operating system up-to-date with security patches, but don’t do it on Wi-Fi; update when you have a secure connection at home or at work.
  • Having the latest software limits the “hacker back doors” that allow criminals into your system.

Turn off file sharing.

  • Both Macs and PCs have file sharing capabilities that when turned on, expose your files to others on your network (including strangers on a free Wi-Fi hotspot).
  • In your system settings, uncheck the box that allows file and printer sharing through your computer.

Turn on your VPN.

  • A Virtual Private Network encrypts (protects with a passcode) the traffic between your device and the VPN server. This effectively takes the man-in-the-middle (a Wi-Fi sniffer) out of your communication to the Internet.
  • VPNs can either be personal (e.g., SecurityKISS) or set up by your company’s IT department.

While all of these tips are valuable tools to keep your data secure, if you are the type of person who rarely even utilizes the Internet away from home, you may not want to take the time to do all of them.  At the very minimum, before you ever enter any information online (financial, passwords, personal information), INVESTIGATE how you’re connected, THINK about who has access to your data and consider whether it can wait until you KNOW you’re on a secure connection.

John Sileo is an an award-winning author and keynote speaker on identity theft, internet privacy, fraud training & technology defense. John specializes in making security entertaining, so that it works. John is CEO of The Sileo Group, whose clients include the Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security & Pfizer. John’s body of work includes appearances on 60 Minutes, Rachael Ray, Anderson Cooper & Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.

Equifax Data Breach Protection Tips

How to Protect Yourself from the Equifax Data Breach

Equifax, one of the three major consumer credit reporting agencies disclosed that hackers compromised Social Security and driver’s license numbers as well as names, birthdates, addresses and some credit cards on more than 143 million Americans. If you have a credit profile, you were probably affected.

Credit reporting companies collect and sell vast troves of consumer data from your buying habits to your credit worthiness, making this quite possibly the most destructive data security breach in history. By hacking Equifax, the criminals were able to get all of your personally identifying information in a one-stop shop. This is the third major cybersecurity breach at Equifax since 2015, demonstrating that they continue to place profits over consumer protection. Ultimately, their negligence will erode their margins, their credibility and their position as one of the big three.

But that isn’t your concern – your concern is protecting yourself and your family from the abuse of that stolen information that will happen over the next 3 years.

Minimize Your Risk from the Equifax Data Breach

  1. Assume that your identity has been compromised. Don’t take a chance that you are one of the very few adult American’s that aren’t affected. It’s not time to panic, it’s time to act.
  2. If you want to see the spin that Equifax is putting on the story, visit their website. Here’s how the story usually develops: 1. They announce the breach and say that fraud hasn’t been detected 2. A few days later when you aren’t paying attention, they retract that statement because fraud is happening, 3. Sometime after that they admit that more people, more identity and more fraud took place than originally thought. They encourage you to sign up for their free monitoring (which you should do), but it does nothing to actually prevent identity theft, it just might help you catch it when it happens.
  3. I recommend placing a verbal password on all of your bank accounts and credit cards so that criminals can’t use the information they have from the breach to socially engineer their way into your accounts. Call your banks and credit card companies and request a “call-in” password be placed on your account.
  4. Begin monitoring your bank, credit card and credit accounts on a regular basis. Consider watching this video and then setting up account alerts to make this process easier.
  5. Visit AnnualCreditReport.com to get your credit report from the three credit reporting bureaus to see if there are any newly established, fraudulent accounts set up. DON’T JUST CHECK EQUIFAX, AS THE CRIMINALS HAVE ENOUGH OF YOUR DATA TO ABUSE YOUR CREDIT THROUGH ALL THREE BUREAUS.
  6. MOST IMPORTANTLY, FREEZE YOUR CREDIT. The video above walks you through why this is such an important step. Some websites and cybersecurity experts will tell you to simply place a fraud alert on your three credit profiles. I am telling you that this isn’t strong enough to protect your credit. Freezing your credit puts a password on your credit profile, so that criminals can’t apply for credit in your name (unless they steal your password too). Here are the credit freeze websites and phone numbers for each bureau. Equifax is being overwhelmed by requests, so be patient and keep trying. Even if it doesn’t happen today, you need to Freeze Your Credit!

Equifax Credit Freeze
P.O. Box 105788 Atlanta, Georgia 30348
Toll-Free: 1.800.685.1111

TransUnion Credit Freeze
Fraud Victim Assistance Department P.O. Box 6790 Fullerton, CA 92834
Toll-Free: 1.888.909.8872

Experian Credit Freeze
P.O. Box 9554 Allen, TX 75013
Toll-Free: 1.888.397.3742

John Sileo is an an award-winning author and keynote speaker on cybersecurity. John specializes in making security entertaining, so that it works. John is CEO of The Sileo Group, whose clients include the Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security & Pfizer. John’s body of work includes appearances on 60 Minutes, Rachael Ray, Anderson Cooper & Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.

Trump Russia Investigation Update: Did Campaign HELP Russians Plot Disinformation Strategy?

Honestly, we don’t know yet. There was a time when our voting preferences, our political leanings, our policy choices were our own business. Now they are someone else’s business, quite literally. There are so many stories coming out about Donald Trump’s connections to and collusion with the Russians that it is getting hard to keep these accusations straight. Here’s the latest:

Trump Russia Investigation Update

The key word is help. As in, actively provide information that the Russians may not have been able to discover on their own. “Help” is not a synonym for encourage, appreciate or enjoy.

Without getting too political (because after all, this is a cyber security blog), here are the basics of the Trump-Russia Investigation from a cyber security perspective:

  1. The Trump campaign had possession of a huge amount of information about American voters from Cambridge Analytica, the data mining firm hired to help collect and use social media information to identify and persuade voters to vote (or not vote), through an activity known as political micro-targeting.
  2. Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and now a senior adviser in the White House, was head of digital strategy during the campaign, meaning he was overseeing this effort to micro-target voters.
  3. The Russians unleashed bots, or robotic commands, that swept across the Internet and picked up fake news stories or harshly critical news stories about Hillary Clinton and disseminated them across the United States. By Election Day, these bots had delivered critical and phony news about the Democratic presidential nominee to the Twitter and Facebook accounts of millions of voters.
  4. Some investigators suspect the Russians micro-targeted voters in swing states, even in key precincts where Trump’s digital team and Republican operatives were spotting unexpected weakness in voter support for Hillary Clinton.

So the question is this: Did the Trump campaign, using what we assume to be lawfully-obtained micro-targeted voter intelligence, give access to the Russians so that they could point harmful disinformation campaigns at those vulnerable  jurisdictions?

Many top security analysts doubt Russian operatives could have independently “known where to specifically target … to which high-impact states and districts in those states.” As Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said recently, “I get the fact that the Russian intel services could figure out how to manipulate and use the bots. Whether they could know how to target states and levels of voters that the Democrats weren’t even aware (of) really raises some questions … How did they know to go to that level of detail in those kinds of jurisdictions?”

And that is Senator Mark Warner’s mistake – that the micro-targeting had to be so specific that it only hit potential Trump voters in certain jurisdictions. It did not. The campaigns could have been aimed at every person in that state, let alone the jurisdiction, only touching the opinions of those who were ready to hear the message. A phishing campaign isn’t sent only to those people in an organization most vulnerable to that type of social engineering – it is sent to everyone, and the most vulnerable are the only ones that respond. Similarly, it was good enough for Russia to cast their anti-Hillary message in the general vicinity of the target; there was no need for a bullseye to render the disinformation campaign to be effective. Those who received the message but were slightly outside of the voter profile or geographical jurisdiction simply recognized it for what it was, false news. The rest were unethically influenced.

But we don’t know yet if there is a connection between the micro-targeting big data purchased by the campaign and the Russian botnet disinformation attack.  We do know, however, that Russia attempted to influence the outcome of the election – and that is what we as cyber security experts, must focus on. 

Either way – collusion or not – the implications against our privacy (let alone the political ramifications of foreign entities influencing our election process) are huge. Remember, the Trump campaign had obtained this huge volume of information on every voter, maybe as much as 500 points of data from what kind of food do they eat to what are their attitudes about health care reform or climate change. And yes, I’m sure the Democrats had much of the same information and probably didn’t “play fair” either. The point is that we have gotten so far beyond just accepting that our personal information is readily available and easily manipulated that no one is even bringing up that part of the story.

We, America, have been lulled into allowing everyone else – corporations, our government, even foreign nations – to have more access to our data footprint than even we do. 

John Sileo is an an award-winning author and keynote speaker on cyber security. John specializes in making security entertaining, so that it works. John is CEO of The Sileo Group, whose clients include the Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security & Pfizer. John’s body of work includes appearances on 60 Minutes, Rachael Ray, Anderson Cooper & Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.

Ransomware: Cyber Security Expert’s Next Big Threat

Ransomware: A Vital Course on the Next Big Cyber Threat

Ransomware is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: it holds your computer or mobile phone hostage and blackmails you into paying a ransom. It is a type of malware that prevents or limits users from accessing their system and forces its victims to pay the ransom through certain online payment methods in order to grant access to their systems or to get their data back.

It’s been around since about 2005, but earlier this year, the FBI issued an alert warning that all types of ransomware are on the rise. Individuals, businesses, government agencies, academic institutions, and even law enforcement agents have all been victims.

Crowti (also known as Cryptowall), and FakeBsod are currently the two most prevalent ransomware families. These two families were detected on more than 850,000 PCs running Microsoft security software between June and November 2015. Another to take note of is known as Fessleak, which attacks Adobe Flash flaws. It is a “malvertising” trend that pushes fileless exploit into memory and uses local system files to extract and write malware to disk from memory.

How Ransomware Paralyzes Your Computing

There are different types of ransomware. However, all of them will prevent you from using your computer normally, and they will all ask you to do something (pay a ransom) before you gain access to your data. Ransomware will:

  • Lock your desktop or smartphone and change the password or PIN code
  • Encrypt important files so you can’t use them (photos, taxes, financials, My Documents, etc.)
  • Restrict your access to management or system tools (that would allow you to clean the computer)
  • Disable input devices like your mouse and keyboard
  • Stop certain apps from running (like your anti-virus software)
  • Use your webcam to take a picture of you and display it on screen or on a social network
  • Display offensive or embarrassing images
  • Play an audio file to scare you (i.e. “The FBI has blocked your computer for a violation of Federal law.”)

Common Ransomware Demands

  • Generally they demand money in order to unlock your system. Usually, they demand payment through an anonymous payment system like Bitcoin or Green Dot cards, and promise to give you the key if you pay the ransom in time (for example, $17,000 to be paid within 72 hours was the demand given to the Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, which had all of it’s life-critical medical records frozen)
  • Sometimes the ransomware shows a “warning from the software company” telling you that you need to buy a new license to unlock your system. Other times, ransomware will claim you have done something illegal with your computer, and that you are being fined by a police force or government agency. These claims are false. It is a scare tactic designed to make you pay the money without telling anyone who might be able to restore your computer and files.

How to Prevent Ransomware Blackmail

The best way to avoid downloading malware is to practice good computer security habits:

  • Create an offsite backup of your files. Seriously, right now. And make it automatic, so that it happens at least once a day. An external hard drive is one option, but be sure to disconnect it from the computer when you are not actively backing up files. If your back-up device is connected to your computer when ransomware strikes, the program will try to encrypt those files, too. If you have a secure cloud back service that encrypts your files before sending, consider using that as an offsite backup.
  • Don’t click on links or open attachments in an email unless you know who sent it and what it is. Instead type the URL of the site you want directly into your browser. Then log in to your account, or navigate to the information you need.
  • Make sure your software is up-to-date.
  • Don’t download software from untrusted sources.
  • Minimize “drive-by” downloads by making sure your browser’s security setting is high enough to detect unauthorized downloads. For example, use at least the “medium” setting in Internet Explorer.
  • Don’t open “double extension” files. Sometimes hackers try to make files look harmless by using .pdf or .jpeg in the file name. It might look like this: not_malware.pdf.exe. This file is NOT a PDF file. It’s an EXE file, and the double extension means it’s probably a virus.
  • Install and use an up-to-date antivirus solution.
  • Ensure you have smart screen (in Internet Explorer) turned on.
  • Have a pop-up blocker running in your web browser.

If you Become a Victim of Ransomware

  • Stop work! TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER! Shut down your entire network, if possible until help arrives. You can do this by turning off your switches or routers inside of your premises. Ask your IT professional before taking this step if you think that you might be interrupting service.
  • Contact an IT Security firm that can visit your office (or home) in person. Handling this type of problem over the internet is not advised, as it could exacerbate your problem.
  • If you have an offsite backup of your data, have the IT Security firm reinstall your backup and clean it of any ransomware before putting the data and computers back on the network.
  • Alert other people on your network, as any work completed after infection will be overwritten when the backup is restored.

There is conflicting advice regarding paying ransom. Truly, there is no guarantee that paying the fine or doing what the ransomware tells you will give access to your PC or files again. Paying the ransom could also make you a target for more malware. On the other hand, if you have not backed up your files, you may have little choice. Almost 90% of the companies that we have studied as victims of ransomware end up paying the ransom to have their systems unlocked – but only about 50% of them ever receive the unlocking code promised. It’s a gamble, but if you don’t have an off-site backup, it’s probably one you are going to need to take.

John Sileo is an an award-winning author and keynote speaker on identity theft, internet privacy, fraud training & technology defense. John specializes in making security entertaining, so that it works. John is CEO of The Sileo Group, whose clients include the Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security & Pfizer. John’s body of work includes appearances on 60 Minutes, Rachael Ray, Anderson Cooper & Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.

Don’t Get Hooked With Phishing Scams

Common Phishing Scenarios:

“Your account has been suspended” or “We suspect fraudulent activity on your account” or “You’ve won a contest” or “We owe you a refund”

If you’ve ever received an email, voicemail or text with a message like one of the above, you know how visceral your reaction can be. And chances are very high that the message is a fake.

Just as fishing is one of the oldest occupations around, phishing is one of the oldest scams around. Ever since email was invented, thieves have been phishing to get your information by cleverly impersonating a business or an acquaintance. They hope to trick you into giving out your personal information or opening a link or an attachment that downloads malware onto your computer so that they can gain access all of your data.

Even though it’s been around for a while, it still works with alarming regularity. Almost 90% of all corporate data breach is the result of a phishing attack.  The ten companies that are targeted most often by phishers are attacked constantly, sometimes more than 1,000 times per month.  It’s always good to have a refresher of how to prevent getting hooked!

What to look for:

  • Pay attention to the URL of a website. Malicious websites may look identical to a legitimate site, but may contain a mismatched URL (may vary in spelling like Annazon.com) or the URL contains a misleading domain name. (.com vs. .net). Use the hover technique to verify legitimacy.
  • Beware if you receive unsolicited (or out of character) phone calls, visits, or email messages often with an urgent request or threatening punitive action if you don’t respond.
  • Think twice if a company that seems legitimate asks you to confirm or provide personal information (credit card and bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, passwords, etc.). Remember–legitimate companies don’t ask you to send sensitive information through insecure channels.

How to prevent/avoid phishing (It’s a lot, but every single tip matters!)

  • Never open email from an untrusted source and don’t open unexpected email attachments or instant message download links.
  • Don’t trust links in an email. Right click on the link to make sure it’s valid. Better yet, type in the real website address into a web browser.
  • Never give out personal or financial information upon email request.
  • Look carefully at the web address.
  • Be suspicious of unsolicited phone calls, visits, or email messages.
  • Don’t call company phone numbers in emails or instant messages. Check a reliable source such as a phone book or credit card statement.
  • If you are unsure whether an email request is legitimate, try to verify it by contacting the company directly. Do not use contact information provided on a website connected to the request; instead, check previous statements for contact information.
  • Install and maintain anti-virus software, firewalls, and email filters to reduce some of this traffic
  • Take advantage of any anti-phishing features offered by your email client and web browser.
  • Only provide personal or financial information through an organization’s website if you typed in the web address yourself and you see signals that the site is secure, like a URL that begins https (the “s” stands for secure). Unfortunately, no indicator is foolproof; some phishers have forged security icons.
  • Report phishing email to reportphishing@antiphishing.org

There is also SMiShing (fraud through SMS on your phone), Vishing (fraudulent voice calls) and Spear Phishing (customized email that appears to be from an individual or business that you know). As soon as a new method of communication is invented, I guarantee the fraudsters will be using it, so there will be a new term for that, too!

One of the most profitable steps you can take inside of your organization is training your people to detect phishing scams. They are a hacker’s first and favorite tool to separate you and your data.

John Sileo is an an award-winning author and keynote speaker on identity theft, internet privacy, fraud training & technology defense. John specializes in making security entertaining, so that it works. John is CEO of The Sileo Group, whose clients include the Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security & Pfizer. John’s body of work includes appearances on 60 Minutes, Rachael Ray, Anderson Cooper & Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.

Is CHIP & PIN Credit Card Security Worth $100M? (Are You Serious?)

I’ve had dozens of media requests for interviews and countless more email inquiries from people concerned about the Target data breach.  At first, everyone just wanted to know details of how it happened, how big the breach was, and what they should do about it if their credit cards were at risk.  Now that the initial shock of it is over, we are on to a bigger question:

How do we keep breach from negatively affecting so many Americans? 

Breach will always happen. If it’s digital, it’s hackable. It’s coming to light that the Target breach may have been due to the computer access an HVAC WORKER (no, not an entire company, an individual WORKER) had to Target’s systems. While there is no guaranteed way of preventing fraud, there is a pretty reliable answer out there, and it’s been around for decades.  That answer is for the US to finally catch up to more than 80 countries around the world and start using chip and PIN enabled credit cards, also known as EMV, smart cards, or microchip cards.

By placing microchips in credit cards, it makes it much harder for criminals to clone the cards than the relatively easy-to-crack magnetic stripes.  Chip cards take the cardholder information and turn it into a unique code for each transaction. They also often require additional authentication, such a personal identification number, or PIN. So in the case of the Target breach, the stolen data couldn’t be used to easily create duplicate credit cards, drastically reducing the value of the stolen data. The possibility for online abuse of the numbers (known as Card Not Present transactions) would remain a threat from the breach, but it would be a fraction of the problem (and solvable in other ways).

France has been using this technology since 1982, the UK since 2001, and Canada since 2007. In the first five years after the UK started using chip & PIN, fraud went down 70%.  In that same time period, the cost for fraud in the US had DOUBLED. It’s not that the technology is perfect, it’s that the increased security convinces criminals to target those who don’t use the technology (which to this point has only been, well, the United States). 

If there is such a great guarantee on fraud reduction by switching to chip and PIN cards, why is the US resisting it?  The answer:  MONEY.  Banks, credit card companies, and retailers have been caught in a battle of wills for many years now, with retailers not wanting to spend money on installing new chip-friendly card readers unless banks are committed to spending money on issuing new cards.

The cost of implementing the card system can be staggering. Target is expected to spend around $100 million to install new chip card readers in an effort to protect against cyber theft.

So is it worth $100 million to implement chip and PIN technology?

Without question. And even Target thinks so, or at least it did ten years ago when it was at the forefront of implementing chip & PIN technology.  From 2001-2004 they spent $40 million to adopt chip-based credit-card technology and installed 37,000 new point-of-sale terminals to handle chip cards across its U.S. stores.

Ultimately they backed out because their marketing strategy at the time just didn’t catch on with consumers and because it was taking “A FEW SECONDS” longer per customer to get through the line.  I don’t know about you, but I’d wait an extra two seconds in order to know my data is secure.  And I bet Target victims would take back the time it is taking them to change their credit card information with every online site or monthly automatic payment company their now-compromised card was used for.

To put the cost in perspective, $100 million is about $1.00 per Target breach customer. I bet the average credit card holder would be willing to foot the $1 bill to dramatically reduce their risk (even if it’s not a perfect solution). In fact, the cost of fraud gets passed on to customers anyway (higher credit card rates, higher retail prices), so why not spend that same money (or far less, in fact) on securing the transactions in the first place? 

  • A survey of 936 credit unions indicates the Target breach has cost credit unions an average of about $5.10 per card affected by the security lapse.  The Credit Union National Association said these costs most likely do not include any fraud losses, which are likely to occur later.
  • In 2012, the Ponemon Institute’s annual study showed the average cost of a data breach in the US is $188 per person notified.
  • For credit issuers, the average cost per record breached is set at $280.
  • Aite Group reports that card fraud in the U.S. already costs the card payment industry (primarily issuers) $8.6 billion a year.

 You tell me if it’s worth it! (Seriously, I want your thoughts and comments below)

How do we get there?

It seems crystal clear to me that fraudsters have gotten so sophisticated that we either need to join together (retailers, banks, and credit card companies) or we will fail to stop this trend of Mega-Breaches.  Pardon the pun, but clearly we have put the “target” on our own backs; criminals have increasingly focused on the US because we are so far behind.

James Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase sees this as an opportunity for real change.  He said,  “All of us have a common interest in being protected, so this might be a chance for retailers and banks to for once work together, as opposed to sue each other like we’ve been doing the last decade.”

I see 4 overarching steps that need to be taken:

  1. Retailers, credit card processors, banks, VISA, MasterCard and American Express need to stop focusing on their own self-interest (profit) and start to work together for the common good. Of course, they won’t do this without incentive, so…
  2. Congress should create  a U.S. equivalent of the U.K. Card Association that sets policy and has the authority to fine those stakeholders who fail to act.
  3. In other words, we will need legislation to ensure that the “liability shift” dates projected for 2015 are met.  This means that if credit card companies have issued chip and PIN cards, but retailers have not installed machines to read them, the merchants would be held accountable for any losses due to fraud.
  4. Everyone needs to understand that there will be costs associated with the change, just like there are costs when you install a security system, a lock on a door or a vault in a bank.

Will chip and PIN cost retailers? Yes. Will chip and PIN cost banks? Yes. Will it cost consumers? Yes. Will it cost (in total) as much as the fraud resulting from even a single major breach like Target. NO. It’s time to start thinking about security from a long-term perspective, and long-term profitability will follow.

John Sileo is an author and highly engaging speaker on internet privacy, identity theft and technology security. He is CEO of The Sileo Group, which helps organizations to protect the privacy that drives their profitability. His recent engagements include presentations at The Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security and Northrop Grumman as well as media appearances on Rachael Ray, 60 Minutes, Anderson Cooper and Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.

Benefits and Risks of Wearable Technology

Over the next ten years, wearable technology could change the way you live even more than smartphones have. Wearable technology combines all of the tracking, collecting and communicating power of current mobile devices with an intimate level of personal information captured in real-time. Common wearables include: Fitness Bands, GPS-enabled Cameras, Digital Glasses, Medical Devices and Smart Watches. Wearable technology can be a force for good, but you need to consider the privacy and security implications of the devices as well.

For the moment, wearable technology is more like a trendy hobby for early adopters than it is a means of recording highly accurate & useful information. In the future, businesses will likely utilize wearables to monitor everything from hours spent working to employee whereabouts throughout the day. It is this enterprise usage that will ultimately fuel the adoption of wearable technology in the consumer market. For now, your smart watch is a fun and shiny object with a few killer apps much like the computer back when email was introduced. Ten years from now, you might wonder how you lived without the increased convenience and connectivity.

John Sileo is an an award-winning author and keynote speaker on identity theft, internet privacy, fraud training & technology defense. John specializes in making security entertaining, so that it works. John is CEO of The Sileo Group, whose clients include the Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security & Pfizer. John’s body of work includes appearances on 60 Minutes, Rachael Ray, Anderson Cooper & Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.

Chip and PIN Credit Cards Finally Explained

Chip and Pin Credit Cards Lower Fraud by 700%

It will take at least 5 years for Chip and PIN (or EMV) transactions to make up the majority of retail card processing in the U.S.

  • Most large retailers are likely to implement Chip and PIN technology over the next two years
  • Other technologies, like mobile or electronic wallets (e.g. Apple Pay), could become the preferred payment method over Chip and PIN card technology due to their ease and advanced security.
  • Although Phase 1 (Chip and Signature) will prevent credit card fraud by making credit cards harder to clone, it WILL NOT make them harder to use if they get into the wrong hands. Therefore, continuing to closely monitor our accounts and personal information will help you avoid becoming a victim of fraud.
  • Phase 2 (Chip and PIN) WILL make credit cards harder for thieves to use, which is even more reason to support the transition to the new technology.

 

John Sileo is an an award-winning author and keynote speaker on keeping your organization from becoming the next data breach headline. John specializes in making security entertaining, so that it works. John is CEO of The Sileo Group, whose clients include the Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security & Pfizer. John’s body of work includes appearances on 60 Minutes, Rachael Ray, Anderson Cooper & Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.

Beware Cyber Security Grinches & Holiday Scams

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‘Tis the season to receive holiday scams in your email, on your Facebook page and via text. But you won’t be singing tra la la la la if you click on links that install malware on your computer! More and more of us seem to be conducting our holiday shopping online, and the cyber security Grinches are taking advantage of this new-found holiday convenience. There are several varieties of holiday scams that seem to come around each year.

The first red flag might be the Subject line of the email: “Order Confirmation”, “Acknowledgement of Order”, “Order Status”, “Thanks for Your Order”, “Problem With Your Order”, “Delivery Failure”, “Canceling Your Scheduled Delivery”, etc. It may tell you that an order is ready for you and you just need to click on the link to get the information about how to redeem it. Or, it may play on your fear of not getting a package out before Christmas and say you haven’t provided a correct address – this is a fear-based holiday scam.

Holiday scams usually appear to come from well-known companies, are VERY realistic looking and even use actual logos.

Once you click on the link, however, malware is installed on your computer that may gather email credentials, credit card data, logins and passwords in addition to making your computer a magnet for junk mail. It can also deploy a scanning technology that uses your computer to scan websites for vulnerabilities and then hack them!

Cyber Grinch or Real Deal? How to Tell the Difference…

If you do receive an email, scammy or otherwise, even if you did indeed order from that store, follow these steps:

  1. DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINKS IN THE EMAIL!
  2. Instead, open your web browser and type in the merchant site and log in to your account (which you had to establish to order from them).
  3. If it the email you received was about a legitimate order, they will provide you with an order or reference number which you can type into their website to verify activity.

In other words, verify that the email is legitimate by going directly to the site; don’t depend on the email. If for some reason you did click on a link that brought you to a website, make sure that you don’t click any more times on that site, and don’t fill out any information that they might be requesting.

(For more solutions to common scams related to the holidays, or really, all year long, check out our entire 12 Days to a Safe Christmas blog series.)

When not protecting readers around the holidays, John Sileo is an an award-winning author and keynote speaker on identity theft, cyber security, internet privacy & technology defense. John specializes in making security entertaining, so that it works. John is CEO of The Sileo Group, whose clients include the Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security & Pfizer. John’s body of work includes appearances on 60 Minutes, Rachael Ray, Anderson Cooper & Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.
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GameOver Zeus Virus Test

The original notice on GameOver Zeus appeared on the US-CERT site. If you’d like to go directly to the tests for the GameOver Zeus virus, scroll down.

Overview of GameOver Zeus

GameOver Zeus (GOZ), a peer-to-peer (P2P) variant of the Zeus family of bank credential-stealing malware identified in September 2011, [1] uses a decentralized network infrastructure of compromised personal computers and web servers to execute command-and-control. The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), is releasing this Technical Alert to provide further information about the GameOver Zeus botnet.

Systems Affected by GameOver Zeus Virus

  • Microsoft Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, and 8
  • Microsoft Server 2003, Server 2008, Server 2008 R2, and Server 2012

Impact of GameOver Zeus

A system infected with GOZ may be employed to send spam, participate in DDoS attacks, and harvest users’ credentials for online services, including banking services.

Solutions to GameOver Zeus

Users are recommended to take the following actions to remediate GOZ infections:

  • Use and maintain anti-virus software – Anti-virus software recognizes and protects your computer against most known viruses. It is important to keep your anti-virus software up-to-date.
  • Change your passwords – Your original passwords may have been compromised during the infection, so you should change them
  • Keep your operating system and application software up-to-date – Install software patches so that attackers can’t take advantage of known problems or vulnerabilities. Many operating systems offer automatic updates. If this option is available, you should enable it
  • Use anti-malware tools – Using a legitimate program that identifies and removes malware can help eliminate an infection. Users can consider employing a remediation tool (examples below) that will help with the removal of GOZ from your system.

F-Secure      

https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/home_global/online-scanner(link is external) (Windows Vista, 7 and 8)

https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/labs_global/removal-tools/-/carousel/view/142(link is external) (Windows XP)

Heimdal

https://goz.heimdalsecurity.com/(link is external) (Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1)   

McAfee

www.mcafee.com/stinger(link is external) (Windows XP SP2, 2003 SP2, Vista SP1, 2008, 7 and 8)

Microsoft

https://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx(link is external) (Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP)

Sophos

https://www.sophos.com/VirusRemoval(link is external) (Windows XP (SP2) and above) 

Symantec

https://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/international-takedown-wounds-gameover-zeus-cybercrime-network(link is external) (Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7)

Trend Micro

https://www.trendmicro.com/threatdetector(link is external) (Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2)

FireEye and Fox-IT

www.decryptcryptolocker.com(link is external) FireEye and Fox-IT have created a web portal claiming to restore/decrypt files of CryptoLocker victims. US-CERT has performed no evaluation of this claim, but is providing a link to enable individuals to make their own determination of suitability for their needs. At present, US-CERT is not aware of any other product that claims similar functionality.

The above are examples only and do not constitute an exhaustive list. The U.S. Government does not endorse or support any particular product or vendor.

References

Revisions

  • Initial Publication – June 2, 2014
  • Added McAfee – June 6, 2014
  • Added FireEye and Fox-IT web portal to Solutions section – August 15, 2014

 

John Sileo is an an award-winning author and keynote speaker on cyber security and data breach. He specializes in making security entertaining, so that it works. John is CEO of The Sileo Group, whose clients include the Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security & Pfizer. John’s body of work includes appearances on 60 Minutes, Rachael Ray, Anderson Cooper & Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.