Why is (HTTPS) important on Cyber Monday?

(HTTPS) stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. This means the computer network is secure and uses encryption keys to exchange data between the client and server.

Seeing HTTPS in your web browser shows you the site is authenticated and you are safe against man-in-the-middle attacks, such as phishing or malicious sites.

Many consumers are online participating in Cyber Monday shopping this second. Cyber Monday is the perfect time for cybercriminals to take advantage of ambitious shoppers paying more attention to getting “the deal” instead of watching out for their security.

Most websites begin with http:// but if you are purchasing something and entering private data, the browser should always contain a https://. If you don’t see the “s” then you can not be certain your information is secure.

Also a “lock” symbol should appear in the lower-right corner of the check-out page.

It is warned there will be a 60 percent spike in cyber attacks this shopping season. Payment fraud, mobile and online account hijacking, and Denial of Service attacks are some issues that will come along with Cyber Monday scams.

Key Points to Remember on Cyber Monday:

1. Don’t Click on Pop-up Ads – Malicious pop-up ads are one of the largest threats to web shoppers.
2. Keep Software Up-To-Date -  Update your software as soon as new features become available.  Updating once a week is advised to avoid security holes.
3. Use Strong Passwords – Never use birthdays, family names, or consecutive numbers for passwords.  If your password is easy to remember, it is easy to hack.  Check out our guide:  How to Create a Secure Password.
4. Install Antivirus and Anti-Spyware Software – When shopping, you don’t want others to track the websites you’ve visited.  Here are the 5 Best Free Antivirus Software Options.
5. Enable “Timeouts” on Mobile - If you are a consumer that is doing your holiday shopping on your mobile phone, enable a lock screen password, in case your device is lost or stolen.
6. Use a Secure Connection – Any online financial transactions should be made on a private Wi-Fi connection.  Coffee shops and library’s are vulnerable to attacks.
7. Avoid Email Advertisements – Don’t click on e-mail advertisements and promotions from your inbox.  Go directly to the site to avoid fake links.
8. Shop at Companies You Know - Check the rating and number of sales for sites, make sure they have a good return policy and contact information.  You can check the company’s legitimacy through the Better Business Bureau.
9. Use Credit, Not Debit – Using your credit card for purchases gives you more insurance protection on fraudulent claims.  
10. Ensure Your Site Is Secure – Be sure the URL begins with https:// as oppesed to http:// and has a lock in the browser’s search bar.
11. Be Wary of Charity Sites – Check the legitimacy of charity websites, there are a lot of phony charities aiming to take your money to only help themselves.
12. Check You Location and Privacy Settings – Turn off the location sharing on your device.  Many apps and websites will automatically share your GPS location by default.
13. Check Your Statements Frequently - Some hackers will make small purchases on your credit card to avoid detection.  Stay on top of your account and check your statements often.
14. Add Browser Extensions and Security Apps -  Pop-up blockers and malware detection extensions will give you extra security.  Use some of these free tools: 8 Best Free Tools for Internet Security.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet or “Like” us on Facebook. You know you want to.

References:
Http vs. Https: What’s the difference? – MSDN
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/securitytipstalk/archive/2011/04/04/http-vs-https-what-s-the-difference.aspx
14 Tips to Avoid Cyber Monday Scams – Mashable
http://mashable.com/2013/11/25/cyber-monday-security/

Safely Shop on Black Friday and Cyber Monday [Infographic]

The holiday shopping season is the busiest time of year. Finding the perfect gift is on everyone’s to do list.

Some of us have made it a tradition to go Black Friday shopping every year.  Others are starting to do shopping online for holiday deals.

USA Today’s Byron Acohido has warned about the increasingly aggressive efforts made by cybercriminals to prey on Black Friday and Cyber Monday shoppers.

Digital crooks are bombarding emails, social media sites, and search results with corrupted links that lead to a scam that will infect your PC with malware.

Fake delivery confirmations from FedEx, UPS, Amazon, and Walmart may appear in your inbox which are likely to be phishing scams.

Did you know:

• 56% of people say that they only shop online at websites they know are safe
• 64% of people say that they have protection software installed and updated on their computers
• 54% of people are familiar with phishing emails
• 21% of respondents use an identity monitoring service to stay updated on their security identity status

Here is an infographic with tips on how to protect yourself during the shopping season.

[Via: IdentityHawk.com identity theft]

Be sure to follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet or “Like” us on Facebook. You know you want to.

References:

Shop Safe on Black Friday & Cyber Monday: 10 Tips to Protect Yourself While Shopping this Holiday Season [Infographic] – Identity Hawk
http://www.identityhawk.com/cyber-monday-black-friday-shopping-identity-theft-infographic

Careful What You Click, Cybercriminals Preying on Black Friday, Cyber Monday Shoppers – Hot HardWare
http://hothardware.com/News/Careful-What-You-Click-Cybercriminals-Preying-on-Black-Friday-Cyber-Monday-Shoppers/

Tis’ the Season for Cyberscams

Cyberscammers are out aiming for Black Friday and Cyber Monday shoppers.

Thieves feed off of money and this next week their will be a lot of that going around.  Everyone is anxious to get the best deal and the lowest prices, even though they may eventually spend more than anticipated.

But a deal is a deal, right?

Cybercriminals are concentrating on mobile devices and social media this year to see where all the shoppers are going.

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday right around the corner; cybercriminals have begun to invade e-mails, social media postings and search results with infected website links and offers for worthless products.

 

Phishing Scheme

Cybercriminals count on one in every 10 prospects of holiday-themed phishing scams to click on the corrupted link, or fill out fake forms handing over your personal data.

“We’re human; we’re compelled to click,” says David Knight, Proofpoint executive vice president. “And we’re even more human during the holiday season.”

Out of 10 million shopping transactions made in the past six months, 25% are from mobile devices, 10% on tablets and 14% from smartphones.

Smartphones are the least secure for purchasing anything.  Signifyd a fraud protection and chargeback prevention company for e-commerce, discovered that 1.3% of e-commerce sales on phones are fraudulent.

This is compared with 0.8% of sales on desktops and 0.5% from tablets.

Be sure to create different passwords for all your accounts.  This could be the extra security you need to protect your personal information from being taken.  This shopping season, it’s okay to be a little paranoid, at least you are being attentive in case someone is trying to gain your trust unworthily.

A few sites worth checking out are Hotspot Shield and TunnelBear, free virtual private networks that establish a secure tunnel between your computing device and the internet.  All your information remains inside the tunnel, which will protect your computer or mobile device from malware or phishing scams.

Don’t miss out on the latest tech news and computer security alerts! Follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet,  “Like” us on Facebook or add us to your circle on Google+


References:

Cyberscammers take aim at Black Friday, Cyber Monday – USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/cybertruth/2013/11/26/mobile-scams-key-off-black-friday-cyber-monday/3686047/

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Zbot/Zeus Malware Claiming to be a Security Patch

SophosLabs alerted a spam campaign that seemed to originate from a a different unknown security and anti-virus company.

The messages have a variety of subject lines, such as:
Windows Defender: Important System Update -
requires immediate action
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition: Important System Update -
requires immediate action
AVG Internet Security 2012: Important System Update -
requires immediate action
Kaspersky Anti-Virus: Important System Update -
requires immediate action
Microsoft Security Essentials: Important System Update -
requires immediate action
All emails being sent look pretty much the same, claiming to include an important security update to overcome “the new malware circulating over the net”.

Important System Update – requires immediate action
It’s highly important to install this security update due to the new malware circulating over the net. To complete the action please double click on the system patch KB923029 in the attachment. The installation will run in the silent mode. Please pay attention to this matter and inform us in case there is a problem.

Don’t be fooled

This email uses a CryptoLocker ransomware that locks your files and then makes you may them back to obtain them.

There is no “system patch KB923029,” and even if there were, neither Microsoft or any other security company would send you a reminder for a security update through an email attachment.

Also, if you are a native speaker of English, you should spot the grammatical errors and misuse of words.
→ The fact that an email is grammatically flawless, in English or any other language, is not an indicator of legitimacy. But language blunders in English, in an email purporting to come from the New York office of a legitimate software company, are a strong indicator of bogosity. If the crooks can’t even be both to trying rite and spel decent, you may as well use their linguistic sloppiness against them.

The ZIP file contains an EXE (a program file); that program file is one of the many variants of the Zbot malware, also known as Zeus, that we see on a regular basis.

You’re expected to open the ZIP and run the program inside, which has a name like this:

HOTFIX_patch_KB_00000...many digits...56925.exe

There’s nothing wrong with having an EXE inside a ZIP file.

But a ZIP that contains only an EXE, and that was delivered by email, is just as suspicious as a plain EXE that arrives as an attachment.

If you do run it, the EXE installs itself into:

C:\Documents and Settings\%USER%\Application Data\

with a random filename, and adds itself to the registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\

 CurrentVersion\Run

so that it gets launched every time you reboot or logon.

We shouldn’t need to remind you, but we’ll do so in case you want to remind someone else:

• Don’t open email attachments you weren’t expecting.
• Don’t believe emails that claim to be sending you a security patch – by email.
• Don’t ignore clues such as poor grammar or spelling in emails that claim to be official.

• Don’t neglect to keep your software patches up to date – but never by email.

Don’t miss out on the latest tech news and computer security alerts! Follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet,  “Like” us on Facebook or add us to your circle on Google+

References:

Spam from an anti-virus company claiming to be a security patch? It’s Zbot/Zeus malware… – Naked Security
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2013/11/21/spam-from-an-anti-virus-company-its-zeus-malware/

Black Friday Spam

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

A Quartz Storage disk that will last a million years?

http://www.hyphenet.com/blog/quartz-storage-disk-will-last-million-years/

How long do your disk drives last for?  Three, six, ten years maybe?  What if there were a disk that would last a million years?  How much space would that hold?  How much would it cost?

Researchers at Hitachi Data Systems recently unmasked quartz storage.  A readable optical microscope with the life expectancy of a million years.

Just as the Rosetta Stone preserved data in the stone for a couple thousand years, Hitachi is planning on preserving data in quartz for a few hundred million years.

Researchers also investigated a tungsten disk enveloped in silicon nitride which is expected to last a million years.  In comparison, a DVD is thought to be able to survive 1,000 years.

Even though none of us expect to live a million years or even close to that.  Wouldn’t it be helpful if our records and data would still exist for future Homo Sapiens?

To preserve data for that long is revolutionary.

This is the goal of the Human Document Project.


http://www.hyphenet.com/blog/quartz-storage-disk-will-last-million-years/

Quartz is so durable that it can withstand cataclysmic events like tsunamis, fires, and floods, just as long as it is not broken.  Even if it is broken, it’s possible to piece it back together to read data.

Hitachi did not announce current plans to put the quartz chip into practical use, but there are known data stores that would love to start using the quartz instead of the floor space and power to retain their data in storage.

Even removable media like tape and optical need power to maintain an environmentally controlled storage area.  The future of storage is likely to be quartz.

What do you think about the quartz storage?  Please leave your comments below!

Don’t miss out on the latest tech news and computer security alerts! Follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet,  “Like” us on Facebook or add us to your circle on Google+


References:

Building the million year disk – ZDNet
http://www.zdnet.com/building-the-million-year-disk-7000023407/
November 20, 2013

Hitachi Plans to Store Data for a Few Hundred Million Years – HDS Blogs
http://blogs.hds.com/hu/2012/09/hitachi-plans-to-store-data-for-a-few-hundred-million-years.html
September 28, 2012