🚨 Driving away with your data: Car rental company Avis says 299,006 people had their personal info stolen in an August data breach. We’re talking names, addresses, credit card numbers and driver’s license numbers. No word yet on how hackers got in. FYI, Texas was hit hardest, with 34,592 folks there exposed. Stay alert for phishing scams!
3 security steps every small business needs to take right now
Business accounts can be hacked as easily as personal accounts. Imagine all your hard work being held at ransom by a hacker or your data falling into the hands of someone who can sell it to the competition.
You need to secure your business as best you can, and here are three crucial tips to get started. This tip is brought to you by our sponsor, NetSuite.
1. Don’t let everyone see everything
Access to information is critical for any business. The right people need access to your records, client files, financials and everything else you need to run your company. But not everyone needs to see everything. Does the new guy need to see the accounts receivable file? Nope.
If you keep files in a cloud storage system, regularly check who has access to what. Restrict files on a need-to-know basis.
The same goes for software. You don’t want your employees accessing more than they should. NetSuite lets you set different access levels so only those who need to see certain things can access them.
2. Do a password check
We’ve warned you about using the same login credentials for multiple accounts. This is important for your personal accounts — and even more so for your business.
If you use the same credentials for multiple accounts, a bad actor needs only to crack one password, and they’ll have access to everything. And you could be in BIG trouble if one of your accounts is breached.
There are a few essential password tips to keep your accounts secure:
- A password manager stores and generates login information for all your devices and accounts. These programs can be installed as software or accessed through a website, browser extension or the cloud. Tap or click here for more information on these useful tools.
- Avoid using a common word as the basis of a password. Go bigger and use a sentence. But don’t just write out a sentence; change it to make it harder to crack. For example, take the phrase “Cubs won the World Series in 2016” and abbreviate it to “cwtwsi2016.” Substitute some characters and cases, and you’ll have “cwTw$i2016.”
- For even more security, go with a full passphrase. In this example, you can use cUb$W1nW0rLd$3r13$1NzOI6. Now, that’d be tough to crack! It’s also challenging to remember, so don’t go more complicated than you can keep track of.
Tap or click here for 10 ways to secure your accounts with strong passwords.
Hacker's latest threat - embracing AI chatbots
You: “Sweet! ChatGPT just wrote that email to my landlord for me.”
A hacker: “Sweet! ChatGPT just wrote some phishing emails for me.”
Don't fall for these Prime Day scams
Everyone’s pumped for this year’s Amazon Prime Day — including scammers. Last year, shoppers worldwide bought over 300 million items, giving criminals many opportunities to swoop in and steal information.
These crafty crooks have plenty of tricks up their sleeve, especially when it comes to phishing attacks. To avoid their schemes and order those Prime Day deals without a side of identity fraud, keep on reading.
3 tricks to see if your passwords are being sold on the Dark Web
Hackers can make a ton of money by selling your private information on underground forums. It’s possible that your passwords are being sold on the Dark Web right now. That’s why you should run a cybersecurity check now and then.
🚨 Have an iPhone or Mac? Apple is warning about a big uptick in phishing scams. Crooks are using sly tactics to get your personal details, most commonly with phony texts, pop-up ads and convincing calls. Protect yourself: Make sure URLs match the company site (apple.com), never give out your password, and enable two-factor authentification (2FA).
A Dell, rolling in the deep: A new data breach affects up to 49 million Dell customers. Names, physical addresses, Dell hardware and order information all were swiped. Good news: Financial deets, emails and phone numbers are safe. Stay alert for phishing scams and suspicious mail now that scammers know where you live.
Use an iPhone or Mac? Don't fall for this iCloud email promising free storage
Getting people to hand over sensitive information is one way cybercriminals rip people off. Sometimes they do this through phishing attacks, and a new campaign targets iPhone and Apple Mac computer users.
Read on to learn how this phishing scheme works and what you can do about it.
This copycat Zoom download is hiding malware
Video conferencing apps like Zoom became extremely popular during the pandemic. Even though many companies are back to working in the office, tons of people still rely on these programs to communicate daily. Tap or click here for Zoom tricks you’ll use all the time.
This tricky scam campaign goes after those who lost money in crypto
Cryptocurrency has always been a risky investment. Even though Bitcoin skyrocketed and made some investors millionaires, it’s difficult to predict when or why the crypto market will slide. Not only that, but the FBI warns that hackers have been targeting crypto platforms. Tap or click here for our report.
Why you keep getting fake emails from Dick's, Delta and Costco
Phishing emails are a common way for crooks to steal your details or infect your device with malware. Some malicious emails pretend to be from a prominent company or government agency and encourage you to click on a link.
Holiday shopping scams are here - 8 ways to stay safe
Ready or not, the holidays are upon us. That means you’re probably trying to complete your Christmas gift list. If you’re ordering gifts online, you don’t want to leave a trail that will ruin the surprise. Tap or click here for the best ways to hide what you purchase online.
Your stolen information is on the Dark Web - What to do next
The Dark Web keeps internet activity private and anonymous. Dark Web content isn’t indexed by search engines, and you need special software to access it. You can imagine the applications for this, such as avoiding government censorship and keeping one’s identity private.
New phishing scams targeting your bank account
Your personal information is precious to cybercriminals, but they also want to make some hard cash. When they are not selling malware or sensitive data on the Dark Web, many work on financial phishing scams.
While the tactics often vary, the end goal is to steal as much of your money as possible. And it’s not just one bank’s customers who are targeted. Over the last few months, many scams used fraudulent details for almost every bank in the U.S.
6 hidden uses for password managers
By now you know you need strong, original passwords for every account. There’s just one problem: It’s impossible to remember all the complicated passwords you come up with.
You don’t have to stretch your brain to its limits or write everything in a notebook. You can use a password manager, an app on your phone and computer that keeps track of your accounts. Password managers encrypt all of your passwords — and a password also protects them, so only you can access your library of login information.
Scam alert! Here's why you just got a receipt for a $1K iPhone
Scammers have all sorts of strange ways to lure you into clicking their links. Now, scammers are trying to draw you into a fake iPhone scam by sending a $1,000 receipt.
Open the unexpected email and you’ll see a message saying you bought a new iPhone, and that it will charge this amount to your bank account, credit card or Amazon account. They want you to panic — and there’s a nasty psychological reason behind this trickery.
Use a payment app? New scam stealing thousands from unsuspecting victims
There are plenty of dangers associated with online shopping. User-driven platforms like eBay and Facebook Marketplace are hotspots for scammers trying to tell fake products or not shop the items.
If that isn’t enough to put you off from shopping online, several other scams can be more damaging to your wallet. Cybercriminals will often go out of their way to launch sophisticated phishing scams to make a quick buck.
Watch out - This fake DocuSign site could steal your personal details
You don’t always need to sign a physical document these days. Instead, you can turn almost any document into a digital version and sign it electronically. Tap or click here for 15 important documents you need to digitize right now.
How to start using a password manager
With all the malware, spyware, phishing scams and data breaches out there, you can never be too safe. As long as your devices are connected to the internet, you’ll constantly be exposed to cybercriminals.
While it’s convenient to create an easy-to-remember password and use it across your accounts, this is a big mistake. A crook needs only access to that one password to make things difficult for you. Tap or click here to check out password mistakes Americans are making.
That Zoom invite might be a clever phishing trick - Red flags to watch for
Even though people are returning to work in their offices, video conferencing is still common. We’ve been bitten by the video chat bug and regularly have virtual meetings with coworkers and chat with loved ones and friends through webcams and smartphones.