You backed up your old phone — but have you wiped it clean? When switching to a new mobile device, removing personal information from your old device may not be something that comes to mind.
Public Wi-Fi: Proceed with Caution
Although it’s convenient to use public Wi-Fi in an airport, hotel, gym, library, or local business, remember that public Wi-Fi networks are often exploited by malicious actors seeking access to your sensitive data. For this reason, it’s critical that you remain aware of common Wi-Fi scam tactics and the best practices for safely connecting to and using public Wi-Fi.
Protect Who You Are Online
Being a victim of identity theft can cause anxiety and frustration, but there are corrective and preventive steps you can take. Below are some precautions that can lessen your likelihood of becoming a victim of identity theft, as well as some steps you can take if you are the victim of identity theft.
The Skinny on Short Links
Link shortening services can reduce URLs to 10-30 characters. Be mindful of the fact that the link shortening process masks the true destination URL and shortened URLs are often used by scammers to trick users into clicking malicious links. Stay safe by verifying the destination of shortened URLs.
Learn to Spot a Phony
Phone scams are a type of social engineering scam in which someone seek to trick often busy recipients into disclosing sensitive information or providing seemingly harmless responses to questions. This article reviews some of the common phone scams and provides recommendations and best practices.
Phishing, Spear Phishing, and Whaling
Email has become the most common avenue for phishing scams, which use social engineering to take advantage of users. Variations of phishing, each with different characteristics, include spear phishing and whaling. Learn how to spot these emails and how you can avoid enabling them to steal your data.
Ransomware Scams
Ransomware tricks users into installing itself on their devices. Ransomware scams most commonly occur via email social engineering scams, a/k/a phishing scams. In ransomware attacks, malware encrypts a user’s files and requests ransom payment to unlock the files and restore encrypted content.
Under Lock and Passphrase
When it comes to passwords for your various online accounts and services, a best practice is to use a unique password for each. After all, if passwords are shared between accounts and one is compromised, it creates a security risk for other accounts with the same password. It can also be very difficult to remember increasing numbers of strong passwords, many of which are required to contain special characters and capitalized letters.
Social Engineering Attacks and How You Can Protect Yourself
You receive a phone call from your bank or from your IT department, requesting some information so a problem with your account can be cleared up. Only it turns out the call wasn’t from your bank at all. You’ve just experienced social engineering.