I mentioned anti-SPAM software on a 9News piece regarding email scams and ways to avoid them. The anti-SPAM software that I use (and get paid nothing to mention) is called SpamSieve for Apple devices. In the future, I will review anti-SPAM software more comprehensively.
When JP Morgan was recently asked about reported cyber attacks, their spokesperson replied that they were “closely safeguarding information and would notify anyone affected” and went on to add that companies of its size experience cyber attacks “nearly every day”. It seems a rather casual reply for an event that may have resulted in the theft of multiple gigabytes of sensitive data!
Yet that is the reality today. In fact, the financial industry, and most of the business world, has been described as being in a state of almost perpetual cybersiege. Cyber attacks have become so commonplace that most businesses have almost come to expect it.
Which is why we have stopped paying attention, because breach is so normal. And breach is so normal because corporations don’t train their employees correctly on how to avoid it.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KbMw2aNZ-s&rel=0]
One of the quickest identity theft prevention tips is to protect your purse or wallet from being stolen. Here are three tips from ID theft expert John Sileo on protecting wallet identity.
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.
The so-called “Inheritance Scam” is resurfacing in Colorado, but it has a new look.
No longer do you simply receive an email claiming to be from the representative of a long-lost relative. The new format involves what security experts call the “Accomplice Ploy” in which the thieves attempt to engage you through a long series of queries (one method) reaching out to you as if they know who you might be.
We have developed five questions you should ask about any email or phone call you suspect might be a scam. They are called the 5 indicators of the inheritance scam:
1. Were you expecting a windfall?
2. Is it too good to be true?
3. Are you being rushed/threatened?
4. Do they ask for secrecy?
5. Do they request more information?
It often amazes me to find out how many people shy away from implementing ideas that they KNOW will make them safer. There are a multitude of reasons I know:
Quite a while ago, not long after the Target data breach, I wrote a detailed blog about the importance of the United States catching up to more than 80 other countries who already employ EMV security measures for their credit and debit cards. (EMV refers to “Europay, Mastercard, and Visa” or “Chip and PIN” technology.) Why so important? This one statistic should answer that question: Almost half of the world’s credit card fraud now happens in the United States —even though only a quarter of all credit card transactions happen here.
As a consumer, you should be glad of the change because you will be much better protected than with traditional magnetic stripe technology we’ve clung to for so long. EMV authentication includes a cryptographic message that makes each transaction unique. Having a card that is difficult to hack or duplicate and requires something YOU know (a PIN) will provide extra layers of protection.
Data Breach Expert Alert: The restaurant chain P.F. Chang’s China Bistro has reported a security breach that may have led to the theft of customer data from credit and debit cards used at 33 restaurants. In addition to stolen card numbers, the intruder may have gotten names and expiration dates as well. The breach took place between October 19th of 2013 and June 11th of 2014 and supposedly has affected 33 locations.
If P.F. Changs follows in the footsteps of the recent Target breach, you can expect an expanding number of stores and customers affected over the coming days. It seems that the data breach playbook suggests that companies initially under-report the severity of the security lapse in order to keep customer shock and defection to a minimum. Once the news cycle has worn out the topic (generally 3-5 days), the breached company generally issues news on additional stores affected, customer data lost, increases in the actual data affected, etc. Let’s hope P.F. Chang’s does a better job of communicating damage the first time.
When you read the recent blog post from Facebook about how they’re going to “Make Ads Better” and “Give People More Control”, you really want to believe them. You want to believe that they’re really just trying to make your life easier by providing ads relevant to your “likes” and apps you choose to install. Sure, if I have the MLB app, why wouldn’t I want to know about a sale on caps for my favorite ball team? Or if I’m an exercise nut, getting the latest gear for my next triathlon might be really important to me and save me the time of searching for it.
But the bottom line is this: Facebook is going back on something they promised years ago. Not only are they using our likes and apps to market to us, they’re also using our browsing history to target ads. They can “only” use information from sites that have Facebook buttons (to like, recommend or share) or that you can login to with your Facebook account, but these days, that’s practically any site!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Rvl5JuQJM&rel=0]
The average security keynote speaker is technical in nature (Zzz), which sometimes means they can be dry and boring. Death by PowerPoint! This is not good for your event. In fact, it can be disastrous for a meeting planner’s career or an organization’s entire conference. You want a keynote speaker who will interact with your audience, make them laugh, help them to understand where the worlds of human behavior, technology and the Internet converge, so that they walk out of the presentation with greater insight into securing the information that defines them.
Ideally, the perfect cyber security keynote speaker for your event will blend content, laughter, entertainment and cutting-edge data with the specific outcome necessary to change your audience’s behavior. That won’t just make you the hero, it will make the event a home run for the attendees, which is what it’s all about anyway. Take a quick look of this video to see what an engaging security keynote looks like (on stage).
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