Cyber Security Insider Secrets – Page 6 – Protect Your Info

Daily Tip 18 – Public WiFi – Is it Safe?

Public WiFi is just that: PUBLIC. It’s NOT PRIVATE.

With public WiFi, other people may be able to intercept your communication. Hackers are known to use public WiFi against people. They listen in to your communication. They even set up their own Public WiFi systems. You may be at a cafe, or an airport. You think you are connecting to the “public” WiFi. Instead, you get conected to the hacker’s WiFi. They may now be able to see everything you do. They may even gain access to your bank account, if you check your account balance, or even if you only check your e-mail. Yes, it’s supposed to be encrypted, safe. But, a good hacker can get around that if you connect using public WiFi.

“Then, what should I do?”

Don’t use it for banking. Don’t use it for shopping. Don’t even use it for e-mail, even if the e-mail is: “I’ll be home in 20 minutes.” If you send that e-mail and a hacker is nearby, they may now have access to your e-mail and be able to access your bank account, social media accounts, and everything else. So, don’t do it.

Feel free to use public WiFi for things like traffic reports and directions, news updates, information on things of interest and anything else that you might discuss with a stranger.

Just don’t use it for anything sensitive and don’t use it to access any of your accounts, including e-mail.

Daily Tip 17 – Secure Your Home WiFi

Many of you have WiFi in your home. It’s convenient, fast, easy. No wires needed. If you get a new device, it connects automatically. Instant Internet access. This is great.

It’s also great for those outside your house that want to use your connection. (That’s illegal, by the way, so don’t do it.)

If you haven’t enabled security protections, or if the ones you have enabled are weak, anyone can park near your house and use your WiFi Internet connection.

Why should you care?

Here’s a short list:
* Your connection becomes “slower” (the least significant concern)
* Your online activity can be observed by others
* Someone else may use your computer for illegal activity:
    * Breaking into other people’s computers
    * Sending hate e-mail or threatening e-mail
    * Running a porn or child pornography site (simply having possession of a few child pornography images on your computer is illegal and could land you in serious trouble, bringing law enforcement to your door with search or arrest warrants)

****** Due to the importance of this information ******
I will be leaving the extended tip up longer than usual. You may read more about the risks and, more importantly, how to protect yourself, HERE

Daily Tip 16 – Update Your Software

Software has flaws. Hackers take advantage of flaws. That’s why it is important to update your software when updates are available.

For Windows, Automatic Updates does that for you.

Other programs may require you to do that yourself.

Some programs display a “pop-up message” when an update is detected. But how do you know it’s safe and not someone trying to infect your computer?

Go to the official site for the software and download from there.

Daily Tip 15 – Smile – Your Camera is Live on the Internet

Security cameras can help us keep safe. But what if everybody else can see what’s on our camera. Now, that’s the opposite of keeping us safe.

But they’d have to find me first. How are they going to do that?

What if it were as easy as going to a web site and choosing whose home I want to watch? Just click on any of 70,000+ links, you choose. One click and I get to watch YOU on the Internet.

Scary, huh?

Well, it happened. There’s some good news about that in the extended tip. But don’t rest too easy yet. You still need to secure your security camera (and other devices). Set a good password, and turn on strong security features. Hopefully, you have those.

Daily Tip 14 – Password Protected

“It’s password protected,” he said.

What he meant was, “Nobody can get to it except me.”

Little did he know how wrong he was.

The password protection that comes with many programs (Excel and Office programs, QuickBooks, zip files, etc.) is pretty good at keeping you from ever getting your data again if you forget your password. But it isn’t going to keep someone else from getting your data if they really want it and they know how to do that kind of thing.

Using the password-protection feature to keep your data safe with most common programs is very much like locking your door and then leaving the key under the doormat while you are on vacation.

Also, don’t rely on the claim that the data are encrypted. The same thing applies. That encryption isn’t usually very good. There are strong encryption solutions out there. However, keeping data safe with them requires following all the rules and most people don’t know what all the rules are or how to follow them.

If you need an encryption solution, become informed from knowledgeable sources and learn how to implement it properly.

Don’t rely on the password-protection feature in your programs to keep your data safe.

Daily Tip 13 – Remote Wipe or Remote Hype?

Yesterday we talked about theft of laptops, cell phones, etc.

Perhaps you aren’t worried because you can always “Wipe” the device remotely, if it is ever stolen.

Feel pretty confident? You shouldn’t.

Sometimes the remote wipe fails.

I can make sure it fails. Good thing I’m not a thief. But I’m not the only one that can figure that out.

The lesson? Use the technology, but don’t rely on it.

Daily Tip 12 – Computer Theft – Phone Theft

Data theft can occur in the old-fashioned way, through the theft of your computer, or tablet, or phone. Not only are you inconvenienced and have to pay for a new one, all your data are now in the hands of someone else. And one of the reasons these devices are stolen in the first place is for the data they contain.

You can probably think of some common-sense measures to protect your equipment. But, despite that, thousands of laptops are stolen every day. Millions of phones are stolen each year. More phones may be lost than stolen. All those lost phone owners probably would have said they were careful with their phones.

I expect people are more careful with their laptops than with their phones. Yet the thefts occur. Sometimes the owner wasn’t being as careful as they could have. Sometimes, the thief steals it right out of their hands.

Learn how to protect your electronic equipment. Don’t forget those flash drives (a.k.a. USB drives, thumb drives, memory sticks). And keep an especially close watch on your laptop when you are away from home with it.

Daily Tip 11 – Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

We like to hear from our friends. Hackers know that. So, they come to us disguised to look like our friends. Via e-mail.

I’ve been seeing an increase recently in e-mails that appear to be from someone I know, but that are actually from someone else. That someone else probably gained access to their address book, since they are sending out e-mails to lots of people that friend knows, pretending to be them.

They are not as thorough with their disguise in this latest variation as they could be, and that makes discovering their deception easier. But, it is still easy to be fooled, if you are not cautious.

Be alert to anything that doesn’t look right. Look carefully at the sender’s address. That may help you with this variation of deceptive e-mail. Unfortunately, next year’s variation may not be so easy to spot. Even the current ones can catch you by surprise. And they are catching a lot of people by surprise.

The biggest lesson?

Just because it says it comes from your friend, doesn’t mean it does.

Be alert to anything that doesn’t look quite right.

Daily Tip 10 – Credit Card Safety Tips

Yesterday, I wrote about the new chip cards and the fact that, while providing some protection against fraud when used with the PIN, they will not stop credit card fraud.

Today, I wanted to follow up with some practical tips you can use to limit your risks related to credit card fraud.

1. Check your account balances regularly. Report any errors immediately.

2. Have more than one card. Keep an extra card as a spare. Don’t use the extra card, except perhaps on rare occasion to keep it active. If the credit card you normally use at the retail store gets blocked because there was a breach at one of the stores where you use it, you have another card available to use.

This is especially important if you are traveling. Imagine you are in another state and about to pay for your hotel bill, or a meal. Your card is declined. You discover that there was a breach at one of the stores you use it at back home. They are sending you a new card which you will receive within 10 days. But, what do you do now? You are stranded.

If you have another card available, the situation just got a lot easier. You may have been able to work something out with the bank to pay that bill. But it would be a lot of trouble, and if you still had a couple days before you returned home, you still have a lot of additional transactions to deal with.

3. Have a low limit on your card. That way, if someone steals your credit card number, the amount they can charge to your card is limited to a low value. Since the banks are transferring responsibility to merchants with the new chip cards, if the merchants don’t meet all the necessary requirements of compliance, it may be harder or take longer to get your money back. By having a lower limit on your card, the amount that can be charged is lower and the amount that you have at risk is limited.

Daily Tip 09 – The New Chip Cards – the Good and the Bad

The new credit cards with the chip in them are being proclaimed as the solution to our credit card worries. But, just as we discussed over the last two days, the reality doesn’t match the claims.

These new cards will provide more protection from fraud when presented at a store and used in the chip-reading terminal if the customer enters their PIN.

However, fraud will still occur, even when using the chip.

In addition, these cards can still be used by the old “swipe” method. That defeats the security of the chip-and-PIN technology.

The data on the magnetic strip that is still on these cards can still be stolen just as it has been in the past. While it is harder to counterfeit the chip, it is not impossible. But one doesn’t even need to counterfeit the chip to use your stolen data. It could be put on an old-style card. But, what about phone orders or using your stolen data online? The chip doesn’t protect you against that.

The new cards put the cardholder at risk in a way that didn’t occur with the old cards. The banks may no longer protect you if fraud occurs. You may be able to get your money back from the merchant, but that may be harder to do than it used to be with the banks.