Cyber Security Tips

10 Tips on how to Protect Your Personal Data

Target, Google, Yahoo, and eBay have all sent out announcements to change your password and secure your personal data.

When visiting a website you enter personal information sometimes without even knowing it.

eBay said that its corporate network was hacked and hackers obtained names, encrypted passwords, e-mail addresses, home addresses, and phone numbers.

Cyber-security experts say that this information leak could lead to spam e-mails and bogus applications.

To avoid cyber-criminals from accessing your personal data, follow these tips on how to protect yourself.

1.  Strong Passwords

Never, never, never use an easy-to-guess password for any of your accounts.  ie. password, 123456, admin

You know you are not supposed to do it, but you do anyway, right?

That is until your identity gets stolen and your life has entered into a state of chaos.

2.  Creative Passwords

Experts advise you to use complex passwords with multiple characters and numbers in them.

Thankfully most technologically advanced companies know the importance in this, so you are forced to create a complex password.

3.  Use Different Passwords

This is a very bad habit and increases the risk of all your accounts being tampered with.

A hacker can begin to profile a victim that uses the same password or very similar variations of a password to hack into accounts.

If one of the accounts are linked with a payment method, then your money is that much closer to being stolen.

4.  Do Not Use Family Names or Pet Names

Social media sites give-a-way more information than sometimes realized.  Personal data like; birthdays, pet names, and even a persons obsessions are public to followers and depending on your preference settings, possibly everyone.

Many people use their pet’s name for their password.  If a person is so into their pet that they would use it as a password, that pets name is probably posted on their social media site somewhere.

5.  Avoid Sharing Information

Avoid sharing credit card information on retail, e-commerce, or social networking sites.

Just by stating you have a specific credit card, provides information that cyber-crooks can tug on.

When posting personal information online, be sure not to share personal details because it can remain online for an infinite amount of time.

6.  Know Your Stuff

When receiving an email from an unknown sender, check the information to make sure all details make sense.

Gauge the name, email address, spelling, and format to see if their are visible red flags.  Cyber-criminals are getting witty and starting to put more detail into these emails.

Logos are being swiped from the legitimate companies and put into emails to fool users.

Even if you receive an email that is from a friend, it is important to know that their account may have been tampered with.

7.  Know Whats Bogus

If you reply to a bogus email, then a signal to hackers may be sent to other hackers for more spam emails to be sent out to you.

If anyone asks for log-in details, personal details, or for you to call a number within the email, refrain from further compliance.

8.  Legitimacy

Place your cursor or mouse over the website url and see what appears.  If there are a bunch of numbers or random characters, it may be a spam site.

Fake sites and web links sometimes have addresses that do not match the organization in the stated email.

Look for any grammar mistakes or spelling errors.  If the site is secure, the Web address should start with a “https”.

A green padlock in the address bar will often show that the website is secure and safe to visit.

9.  What to do if hacked

Change all your FTP, software, and email passwords.  Write them down on paper, do not save your password to your computer.

Run an antivirus scan on your computer.  Here are come recommended resources:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/
Excellent malware scanning software, with a free download option.
http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.aspx
Start with Microsoft’s website for free or low cost security options.
http://download.cnet.com/windows/internet-security-software-suites/
CNET writes fairly current reviews on the latest antivirus apps. I would start here.

10.  Close Your Account

Sometimes closing your account is safer and will limit the risk of hackers taking over your personal data.

Information associated with compromised accounts can be stored in other places.   Take into consideration to see weather information on a website is encrypted from one end to another, and stored securely.

Users are responsible for checking the website and making sure it is trustworthy.

Do you need professional advise to know if your computer has been compromised?

Follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet or “Like” us on Facebook to stay up-to-date on the latest tech news and PC security alerts.

References:
Chee, Kenny
10 tips on how to protect your personal data online
http://news.asiaone.com/news/digital1/10-tips-how-protect-your-personal-data-online?page=0%2C0
Published: May 26, 2014

IT Security and Risk Management Review

With the world turning digital, people are connected to multiple  devices throughout the day. Listening to your iPod at home, connecting to Wi-Fi at the coffee shop, or accessing your smartphone at work can leave you open to all kinds of cybercrime.

The digital world consists of the widespread use of mobile devices that cybercriminals are able to access through platforms, social networks, and the public cloud.

Organizations in particular need to protect against multi-faceted ‘advanced persistent threats’ (APTs – also known as ‘advanced targeted attacks, or ATAs).

The key attributes are:  the use of social engineering (such as spear phishing) to gain initial entry to a target organization’s network and execute a zero-day attack; the acquisition of privileges to further penetrate the target network; the establishment of communication links with external ‘command and control’ (C&C) servers; the theft or compromise of assets; and the covering of tracks after completing the mission.

Source: The Ponemon Institute/HP

 

Cost of a Cyberattack

The Ponemon Institute’s 2013 survey has found that the average annul cost of  cybercrime is $7.2 million per organization.

This represents a 30% increase from the year before.  The United States takes the greatest hit out of all countries surveyed.

Denial of Services (DoS) attacks account for the highest percentage of costs in both smaller(16%) and larger (22%) companies.

Attacks like viruses, worms and trojans, and phishing and social engineering (both 1.7x more prevalent in smaller organizations), malware (2.5x) and botnets (2.7x).

The larger companies are hit the hardest by Dos, and malicious insiders attacks.

Source: The Ponemon Institute/HP

Source: The Ponemon Institute/HP

The survey shows the average number of days that it takes to resolve the cyberattack ranges from 2.6 days for viruses, worms and trojans up to 53 days for malicious insider attacks:

Source: The Ponemon Institute/HP

To view more Internet Security full reports:

1. Symantec – Internet Security Threat Report 2013
2. Trustwave – 2013 Trustwave Gloval Security Report
3. PwC – 2013 Information Security Breaches Survey

Hyphenet can help you find the right type of cyberdefence for your company.  Rackmount appliances, cloud-based services and threat defense are all precautions you can take to protect your business and keep the bad guys out.

Call us today!  619-325-0990

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References:

McLellan, Charles
IT Security and Risk Management: An overview
http://www.zdnet.com/it-security-and-risk-management-an-overview_p3-7000022659/