As a former owner of a cyber security firm, I feel it’s my duty to keep my friends abreast of current cyber threats. I am a member of Infragard (https://www.infragard.org/ ), a venture between the FBI, State, Local law enforcement and Utility Companies to protect our infrastructure.
I’ll put this latest scam in as simple terms as I can. You know how you can convert a MS Word Document to PDF or visa versa? Or you can extract sound (mp3) from a movie (mp4), or an image format .jpg to .png…etc? If you know what you’re doing, you can do this with tools and apps that come with MS Office and Windows.
Else you can ask google. How to convert…? There are thousands of legitimate sites that’ll do it for you for free. And of late, there are hundreds of sites that’ll do it for free, BUT, they’ll install Malware or Ransomware on your system that’ll steel your cookies…etc. to gain access to your online banking info and shit.
I get my hands on your cookies, I don’t need to run phishing attacks to get you to give me your CC and SS #'s. I OWN YOU! And your identity! There are actually programs that’ll parse that info from your cookies.
L0ftcrack is an app that’ll get your password, even if it takes weeks or more. Change your passwords to everything, quarterly. If the site allows you to generate an encrypted password automatically, USE it. Your computer will remember it. You can always use “Forgot password”.
The following are options for checking to see if you data has been breached. In other words, is your SS# or address available on the web.
PLEASE, if you, or someone you know, falls for some scam, let us all know. It’s called social engineering. These people are smarter than the lot of us together. They’re predators and they have nothing to lose but time.
My oldest son, knowing who and what I was/am, called me one day in a panic because he thought he might have made a mistake. Phishing attack. I was like, the F you talking to me for? Call your bank and cancel that debit card!
If you have ANY questions, comments or concerns regarding online security, hit me up!!!
Hell, got a question as simple as a great backup solution? Hit me up! I’m retired and bored. I’ll set you up with an enterprise backup/restore solution that’ll cost you next to nothing.
Some basic rules I can think of to start. If I think of more I’ll post them.
I don’t mean to insult your intelligence, but you’d be amazed at some of the crap I’ve seen from IT pro’s.
Do not use the same password for banking, C.C.'s…etc. for facebook, Snap Chat. I know it can be a pain to think of passwords that are hard to guess AND remember… How about TdmK$mtf0! I used that a long time ago when I was thinking that damn kid should move the F out!
Or, T&T=1gpw! This and That = 1 good password! I wouldn’t really use that. I bet a lot of people think they’re smart too:)
If you get an email you’re are not expecting, do not open it. From someone you know, but odd? Call 'em.
I was selling an expensive camera on ebay near Christmas, and someone made an offer for WAY more than I was asking, saying they needed me to ship it priority overnight. After rolling my eyes, I looked at the URL. https://us.ebay.com. Looked SO authentic. opened a new tab in my browser, entered that url, and Hmmm. We’re having trouble finding that site.
Website look suspicious? Hey, google. Is this site legit? Trustpilot.com has been around since 2007. I’ve reviewed many companies there. You create an account, take a photo of your ID, then they use facial rec to compare the 2 to prove you are who you say your are.
When available use 2 factor authentication. Password, and code sent to phone or email.
Make sure the url is secure. The little padlock and httpS://
Please feel free to add more that I’m sure this classic antique missed.
Well, that killed a couple hours. Perfect timing, too. Almost what we call O-Wine-hundred here.