Cyber crooks are becoming more and more sophisticated in their attempts to victimize people and steal their sensitive information. Here are five tips that may help you stay one step ahead of cyber crooks.
Tip #1: Protect against spear phishing by looking for incorrect or unusual URLs.
Spear phishing is when cyber crooks send targeted emails to you hoping you will share personal financial information or passwords. Emails can look very sophisticated and may even address you by name or professional title and may even refer to a project you are working on.
You can check the URL by allowing your mouse to hover over the address bar until the full URL is revealed. Unless you are absolutely certain you know and trust the website revealed, DON’T do anything with the email! If the cyber crook is representing themselves as an organization you do business with, like a bank, you may want to notify them and/or forward the email so they can investigate.
Tip #2: Make sure your web browser is up-to-date. Internet Explorer users have been the most vulnerable to attacks.
You may be looking at a site that is perfectly harmless, but what you may not realize is that in the background you are being redirected to a series of other sites that will then send the attack. In many cases, the owner of the original site is also a victim and won’t even realize people are being redirected away from their site for malicious purposes.
Tip #3: Avoid using free wi-fi by setting up your smartphone as a secure hot spot or signing up for a VPN (virtual private network) service. If you must use unsecured wi-fi, avoid doing online financial transactions and consider using a browser extension like HTTPS Everywhere to encrypt your communications.
Even if the public network is legitimate, cyber crooks can use a “man-in-the-middle” attack to spy on your online time by going between your computer and the hot spot.
Tip #4: Before logging into any site that requires you to use a username and password, double check the URL to be sure you are on the correct website. Look for “https” in the address bar before typing in any credit card information. Verify that the home page of the site you intended to be looks like it should.
Cyber crooks are good at replicating legitimate websites in the hopes of fooling you into thinking you are on the right web page. They take advantage of simple typos you might make when typing in the web address – for example, if www.chse.com instead of www.chase.com. The cyber crooks will then set up the false site to look like the real one and capture your username and password when you attempt to log in. Therefore, double check the address bar to be sure you have entered the correct URL before you sign in.
Tip #5: When you shop online, check out as a guest. Don’t save your financial information to a retailer or company site.
Experts say that cyber crooks will continue to hack into big retailers and companies, like Target, and sell of the stolen information on the black market. Even though it might be convenient, not storing your sensitive data on a company server will reduce the risk of being a victim if that company gets hacked.
Taking a little extra time to follow these tips when you are online could help to reduce your risk of becoming a cyber crook’s next victim.
You can also reduce the risk of becoming a victim of identity theft by properly disposing of any unwanted data containing devices. When you leave data containing devices lying around until you figure out what to do with them, you leave all the data that is on them at risk. Data destruction is our specialty, so if you are concerned about your identity and privacy or the personally identifiable information of your customers and clients, then let us make sure that data is properly destroyed and the devices responsibly recycled.