Login
Cybercriminals will always try to cash in on a good thing, and football is no exception. Online scammers are ramping up for the big game with all types of schemes designed to rip you off and steal your personal info—but you have several ways you can beat them at their game.
Like shopping holidays, tax season, and even back-to-school time, scammers take advantage of annual events that get people searching for deals and information online. You can include big games and tournaments in that list too.
Specific to this big game, you can count on several types of scams to rear their heads this time of year—ticket scams, merchandise scams, betting scams, and phony sweepstakes as well. They’re all in the mix, and they’re all avoidable. Here, we’ll break them down.
As of two weeks out, tickets for the big game on the official ticketing website were going for $6,000 or so, and that was for the so-called “cheap seats.” Premium seats in the lower bowl 50-yard line, sold by verified resellers, were listed at $20,000 a pop or higher.
While the game tickets are now 100% mobile, that hasn’t prevented scammers from trying to pass off phony tickets as the real deal. They’ll hawk those counterfeits in plenty of places online, sometimes in sites like your friendly neighborhood Craigslist.
So if you’re in the market for tickets, there are certainly a few things to look out for:
If you plan on enjoying the game closer to home, you may be in the market for some merch—a hat, a jersey, a tee, or maybe some new mugs for entertaining when you host the game at your place. With all the hype around the game, out will come scammers who set up bogus online stores. They’ll advertise items for sale but won’t deliver—leaving you a few dollars lighter and the scammers with your payment information, which they can use on their own for identity fraud.
You can shop safely with a few straightforward steps:
This is a great one to start with. Directly typing in the correct address for reputable online stores and retailers is a prime way to avoid scammers online. In the case of retailers that you don’t know much about, the U.S. Better Business Bureau (BBB) asks shoppers to do their research and make sure that retailer has a good reputation. The BBB makes that easier with a listing of retailers you can search simply by typing in their name.
If you feel like doing extra sleuthing, look up the address of the website and see when it was launched. A visit to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) at ICANN.org gives you the option to search a web address and see when it was launched, along with other information about who registered it. While a recently launched site is not an indicator of a scam site alone, sites with limited track records may give you pause if you want to shop there—particularly if there’s a chance it was just propped up by a scammer.
Look for the lock icon in your browser when you shop.
Secure websites begin their address with “https,” not just “http.” That extra “s” in stands for “secure,” which means that it uses a secure protocol for transmitting sensitive info like passwords, credit card numbers, and the like over the internet. It often appears as a little padlock icon in the address bar of your browser, so double-check for that. If you don’t see that it’s secure, it’s best to avoid making purchases on that website.
Credit cards are a good way to go. One reason why is the Fair Credit Billing Act, which offers protection against fraudulent charges on credit cards by giving you the right to dispute charges over $50 for goods and services that were never delivered or otherwise billed incorrectly. Your credit card companies may have their own policies that improve upon the Fair Credit Billing Act as well. Debit cards don’t get the same protection under the Act.
Comprehensive online protection software will defend against the latest virus, malware, spyware, and ransomware attacks plus further protect your privacy and identity. In addition to this, it can also provide strong password protection by generating and automatically storing complex passwords to keep your credentials safer from hackers and crooks who may try to force their way into your accounts. And, specific to the scams floating around this time of year, online protection can help prevent you from clicking links to known or suspected malicious sites.
It’s hard to watch sports these days without odds and stat lines popping up onto the screen, along with a fair share of ads that promote online betting. If you’re thinking about making things interesting with some betting, keep a few things in mind:
As it is every year, you’ll see kinds of sweepstakes and giveaways leading up to the game, plenty of them legitimate. Yet as they do, scammers will try and blend in by rolling out their own bogus promotions. Their aim: to part you from your cash or even your personal information.
A quick way to sniff out these scams is to take a close look at the promotion. For example, if it asks you to provide your bank information to send you your prize money, count on it being a scam. Likewise, if the promotion asks you to pay to claim a prize in some form or other, it’s also likely someone’s trying to scam you.
In all, steer clear of promotions that ask something for something in return, particularly if it’s your money or personal information.
As it is of late, all kinds of scams will try to glom onto the big game this year. And some of the best advice for avoiding them is not to give in to the hype. Scammers prey on scarcity, a sense of urgency, and keyed-up emotions in general. Their hope is that these things may make you less critical and more likely to overlook things that would otherwise seem sketchy or too good to be true. Staying focused as you shop, place a wager, or otherwise look to round out your enjoyment of the big game is some of your absolute best defense against scammers right now, and any time.
The post Super Scams – Beat the Online Scammers Who Want to Sack Your Big Game appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Data Privacy Week is here, and there’s no better time to shine a spotlight on one of the biggest players in the personal information economy: data brokers. These entities collect, buy, and sell hundreds—sometimes thousands—of data points on individuals like you. But how do they manage to gather so much information, and for what purpose? From your browsing habits and purchase history to your location data and even more intimate details, these digital middlemen piece together surprisingly comprehensive profiles. The real question is: where are they getting it all, and why is your personal data so valuable to them? Let’s unravel the mystery behind the data broker industry.
Data brokers aggregate user info from various sources on the internet. They collect, collate, package, and sometimes even analyze this data to create a holistic and coherent version of you online. This data then gets put up for sale to nearly anyone who’ll buy it. That can include marketers, private investigators, tech companies, and sometimes law enforcement as well. They’ll also sell to spammers and scammers. (Those bad actors need to get your contact info from somewhere — data brokers are one way to get that and more.)
And that list of potential buyers goes on, which includes but isn’t limited to:
These companies and social media platforms use your data to better understand target demographics and the content with which they interact. While the practice isn’t unethical in and of itself (personalizing user experiences and creating more convenient UIs are usually cited as the primary reasons for it), it does make your data vulnerable to malicious attacks targeted toward big-tech servers.
Most of your online activities are related. Devices like your phone, laptop, tablets, and even fitness watches are linked to each other. Moreover, you might use one email ID for various accounts and subscriptions. This online interconnectedness makes it easier for data brokers to create a cohesive user profile.
Mobile phone apps are the most common way for data brokerage firms to collect your data. You might have countless apps for various purposes, such as financial transactions, health and fitness, or social media.
A number of these apps usually fall under the umbrella of the same or subsidiary family of apps, all of which work toward collecting and supplying data to big tech platforms. Programs like Google’s AdSense make it easier for developers to monetize their apps in exchange for the user information they collect.
Data brokers also collect data points like your home address, full name, phone number, and date of birth. They have automated scraping tools to quickly collect relevant information from public records (think sales of real estate, marriages, divorces, voter registration, and so on).
Lastly, data brokers can gather data from other third parties that track your cookies or even place trackers or cookies on your browsers. Cookies are small data files that track your online activities when visiting different websites. They track your IP address and browsing history, which third parties can exploit. Cookies are also the reason you see personalized ads and products.
Data brokers collate your private information into one package and sell it to “people search” websites. As mentioned above, practically anyone can access these websites and purchase extensive consumer data, for groups of people and individuals alike.
Next, marketing and sales firms are some of data brokers’ biggest clients. These companies purchase massive data sets from data brokers to research your data profile. They have advanced algorithms to segregate users into various consumer groups and target you specifically. Their predictive algorithms can suggest personalized ads and products to generate higher lead generation and conversation percentages for their clients.
We tend to accept the terms and conditions that various apps ask us to accept without thinking twice or reading the fine print. You probably cannot proceed without letting the app track certain data or giving your personal information. To a certain extent, we trade some of our privacy for convenience. This becomes public information, and apps and data brokers collect, track, and use our data however they please while still complying with the law.
There is no comprehensive privacy law in the U.S. on a federal level. This allows data brokers to collect personal information and condense it into marketing insights. While not all methods of gathering private data are legal, it is difficult to track the activities of data brokers online (especially on the dark web). As technology advances, there are also easier ways to harvest and exploit data.
As of March 2024, 15 states in the U.S. have data privacy laws in place. That includes California, Virginia, Connecticut, Colorado, Utah, Iowa, Indiana, Tennessee, Oregon, Montana, Texas, Delaware, Florida, New Jersey, and New Hampshire.[i] The laws vary by state, yet generally, they grant rights to individuals around the collection, use, and disclosure of their personal data by businesses.
However, these laws make exceptions for certain types of data and certain types of collectors. In short, these laws aren’t absolute.
Some data brokers let you remove your information from their websites. There are also extensive guides available online that list the method by which you can opt-out of some of the biggest data brokering firms. For example, a guide by Griffin Boyce, the systems administrator at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, provides detailed information on how to opt-out of a long list of data broker companies.
Yet the list of data brokers is long. Cleaning up your personal data online can quickly eat up your time, as it requires you to reach out to multiple data brokers and opt-out.
Rather than removing yourself one by one from the host of data broker sites out there, you have a solid option: our Personal Data Cleanup.
Personal Data Cleanup scans data broker sites and shows you which ones are selling your personal info. It also provides guidance on how you can remove your data from those sites. And if you want to save time on manually removing that info, you have options. Our McAfee+ Advanced and Ultimate plans come with full-service Personal Data Cleanup, which sends requests to remove your data automatically.
If the thought of your personal info getting bought and sold in such a public way bothers you, our Personal Data Cleanup can put you back in charge of it.
[i] https://pro.bloomberglaw.com/insights/privacy/state-privacy-legislation-tracker/
The post How Data Brokers Sell Your Identity appeared first on McAfee Blog.
In our fast-moving digital world, today’s conversations can take on new meanings years down the line. Then you might find yourself explaining posts that no longer reflect who you are.
This reality makes it crucial to start a conversation in your family about social media archives. Teens and tweens are constantly posting, snapping, tweeting, and commenting every day. According to the latest research, 97% of teens go online daily, with many saying they are “almost constantly” connected.
With so much activity, it’s just a matter of time before some questionable content resurfaces, potentially compromising a job, scholarship, or personal relationship. Old social posts don’t just haunt celebrities; in today’s digital culture, everyone’s online activity is open to scrutiny.
1. Vet your content. Ask yourself some key questions: Is there anything in this post or comment that could hurt me in the future? Does this post defame a specific race, religion, or lifestyle? Is this content contributing to the conversation or just noise?
2. Be Careful with Humor: Not everyone shares your sense of humor. What seems funny today could be viewed differently in the future. Just look at how comedians and public figures are often held accountable for jokes or comments made years ago.
3. Don’t pick at it—purge it. No doubt, people change. You may not be the 20-something hothead who began tweeting or blogging nearly a decade ago, but your archives are still out and say otherwise. In her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, some of which we can apply here. 1) Don’t analyze everything and just pair down — purge. 2) Get rid of anything that doesn’t spark joy for you 3) Don’t ask yourself what you like about a photo or post, ask yourself ‘Why should this stay?’ 4) Keep only the content that makes you happy or inspires you. Chop everything else.
4. Use X’s advanced search. Some of us have tweeted out several novels worth of content. Who has time to go through that? Twitter has advanced search features that will help you quickly find questionable tweets. Just go to https://twitter.com/search-advanced and enter keywords and phrases, along with your user account name. This search will help isolate tweets that could be compromising.
5. Am I being true to who I am? Most tweens and teens are not asking themselves this question, but we can still encourage our kids to engage in this specific self-reflection. Encourage young publishers to think about what message and image they hope to project to go through their archives with that in mind. Encourage them to review everything about their profiles from their bio to the kinds of movies and books they’ve called out, to their Facebook groups. Ask: Is this still who you are? Are these still the interests you’d like to project?
6. Delete immediately:
7. Review likes and post privacy settings. Even the posts of others (that are marked public) that you like or comment on will show up on Google, which means others could judge you guilty by association. It may be time-consuming, but you can clean up your Facebook ‘like’ history in the Activity Log. If you want to share but still limit who can view your posts, McAfee’s Social Privacy Manager helps you adjust your social media privacy settings based on how public or private you want to be online.
8. Google yourself. See what comes up. Be sure to check images, videos, news, and more tabs. You just never know what content will make it into remote circles. If you find something surprising, contact the site host and request they remove the content.
The post Could Your Social Media History Come Back to Bite You? appeared first on McAfee Blog.
A safer internet isn’t a nice thing to have. It’s a necessity because we rely on it so heavily. And there’s plenty we can do to make it happen.
A safer internet might seem like it’s a bit out of our hands as individuals. The truth is that each of us plays a major role in making it so. As members, contributors, and participants who hop on the internet daily, our actions can make the internet a safer place.
So, specifically, what can we do? Take a few moments to ponder the questions that follow. Using them can help frame your thinking about internet safety and how you can make yourself, and others, safer.
Device safety is relatively straightforward provided you take the steps to ensure it. You can protect your things with comprehensive online protection like our McAfee+ plans, you can update your devices and apps, and you can use strong, unique passwords with the help of a password manager.
Put another way, internet safety is another way to keep your house in shape. Just as you mow your lawn, swap out the batteries in your smoke alarm, or change the filters in your heating system, much goes the same for the way you should look after computers, tablets, phones, and connected devices in your home. They need your regular care and maintenance as well. Again, good security software can handle so much of this automatically or with relatively easy effort on your part.
If you’re wondering where to start with looking after the security of your devices, check out our article on how to become an IT pro in your home. It makes the process easy by breaking down the basics into steps that build your confidence along the way.
This includes all kinds of topics. The range covers identity theft, protecting your personal info, privacy, cyberbullying, screen time, when to get a smartphone for your child, and learning how to spot scams online. Just to name a few. And if you visit our blogs from time to time, you see that we cover those and other topics in detail. It offers a solid resource any time you have questions.
Certainly, you have tools that can give you a big hand with those concerns. That includes virtual private networks (VPNs) that encrypt your personal info, built-in browser advisors that help you search and surf safely, plus scam protection that lets you know when sketchy links pop up in emails and messages.
However, internet safety goes beyond devices. It’s a mindset. As with driving a car, so much of our online safety relies on our behaviors and good judgment. For example, one piece of research found that ninety-one percent of all cyberattacks start with phishing emails.i
As Tomas Holt, professor of criminal justice at Michigan State University, states, “An individual’s characteristics are critical in studying how cybercrime perseveres, particularly the person’s impulsiveness and the activities that they engage in while online that have the greatest impact on their risk.”
Put another way, scammers bank on an itchy clicker-finger — where a quick click opens the door for an attack. Educating your family about the risks out there, such as phishing attacks and sketchy links that crop up in search goes a long way to keep everyone out of trouble. In combination with online protection software like ours covers the rest of the way.
A big part of a safer internet is us. Specifically, how we treat each other — and how we project ourselves to friends, family, and the wider internet. With so much of our communication happening online through the written word or posted pictures, all of it creates a climate around each of us. It can take on an uplifting air or mire you in a cloud of negativity. What’s more, it’s largely out there for all to see. Especially on social media.
Take time to pause and reflect on your climate. A good place to start is with basic etiquette. Verywell Family put together an article on internet etiquette for kids, yet when you give it a close read, you’ll see that it provides good advice for everyone.ii
In summary, their advice focuses on five key points:
Of course, the flip side to all of this is what to do when someone targets you with their bad behavior. Such as when an online troll who hurls hurtful or malicious comments your way. That’s a topic in itself. Check out our article on internet trolls and how to handle them. Once again, the advice there is great for everyone in the family.
We’ve shared quite a bit of info in this article and loaded it up with plenty of helpful links too. Don’t feel like you have to take care of everything in one sitting. See what you have in place and make notes about where you’d like to make improvements. Then, start working down the list. A few minutes each week dedicated to your security can greatly increase your security, safety, and savvy.
[i] https://www.darkreading.com/endpoint/91–of-cyberattacks-start-with-a-phishing-email/d/d-id/1327704
[ii] https://www.verywellfamily.com/things-to-teach-your-kids-about-digital-etiquette-460548
The post Internet Safety Begins with All of Us appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Phishing attacks have all kinds of lures. And many are so tried and true that it makes them easy to spot.
The target of a phishing attack is you. More specifically, your personal info and your money. Whether a scammer reaches out by email, with a text, or through a direct message, that’s what they’re after. And with a link, they whisk you off to a sketchy site designed to take them from you.
Just how much phishing is going on? To date, we’ve identified more than half a billion malicious sites out there. A number that grows daily. Because these attacks often succeed. One big reason why — they play on people’s emotions.
Phishing attacks always involve a form of “social engineering,” which is an academic way of saying that scammers use manipulation in their attacks. Commonly, scammers pretend to be a legitimate person or business.
You can get a better idea of how this works by learning about some of the most popular scams circulating today:
The CEO Scam
This scam appears as an email from a leader in your organization, asking for highly sensitive info like company accounts, employee salaries, and Social Security numbers. The hackers “spoof”, or fake, the boss’ email address so it looks like a legitimate internal company email. That’s what makes this scam so convincing — the lure is that you want to do your job and please your boss. But keep this scam in mind if you receive an email asking for confidential or highly sensitive info. Ask the apparent sender directly whether the request is real before acting.
The Urgent Email Attachment
Phishing emails that try to trick you into downloading a dangerous attachment that can infect your computer and steal your private info have been around for a long time. This is because they work. You’ve probably received emails asking you to download attachments confirming a package delivery, trip itinerary, or prize. They might urge you to “respond immediately!” The lure here is offering you something you want and invoking a sense of urgency to get you to click.
The “Lucky” Text or Email
How fortunate! You’ve won a free gift, an exclusive service, or a great deal on a trip to Las Vegas. Just remember, whatever “limited time offer” you’re being sold, it’s probably a phishing scam designed to get you to give up your credit card number or identity info. The lure here is something free or exciting at what appears to be little or no cost to you.
The Romance Scam
This one can happen completely online, over the phone, or in person after contact is established. But the romance scam always starts with someone supposedly looking for love. The scammer often puts a phony ad online or poses as a friend-of-a-friend on social media and contacts you directly. But what starts as the promise of love or partnership, often leads to requests for money or pricey gifts. The scammer will sometimes spin a hardship story, saying they need to borrow money to come visit you or pay their phone bill so they can stay in touch. The lure here is simple — love and acceptance.
While you can’t outright stop phishing attacks from making their way to your computer or phone, you can do several things to keep yourself from falling for them. Further, you can do other things that might make it more difficult for scammers to reach you.
The content and the tone of the message can tell you quite a lot. Threatening messages or ones that play on fear are often phishing attacks, such as angry messages from a so-called tax agent looking to collect back taxes. Other messages will lean heavily on urgency, like a phony overdue payment notice. And during the holidays, watch out for loud, overexcited messages about deep discounts on hard-to-find items. Instead of linking you to a proper e-commerce site, they might link you to a scam shopping site that does nothing but steal your money and the account info you used to pay them. In all, phishing attacks indeed smell fishy. Slow down and review that message with a critical eye. It might tip you off to a scam.
Some phishing attacks can look rather convincing. So much so that you’ll want to follow up on them, like if your bank reports irregular activity on your account or a bill appears to be past due. In these cases, don’t click on the link in the message. Go straight to the website of the business or organization in question and access your account from there. Likewise, if you have questions, you can always reach out to their customer service number or web page.
When scammers contact you via social media, that can be a tell-tale sign of a scam. Consider, would an income tax collector contact you over social media? The answer there is no. For example, in the U.S. the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) makes it clear that they will never contact taxpayers via social media. (Let alone send angry, threatening messages.) In all, legitimate businesses and organizations don’t use social media as a channel for official communications. They’ve accepted ways they will, and will not, contact you. If you have any doubts about a communication you received, contact the business or organization in question directly. Follow up with one of their customer service representatives.
Some phishing attacks involve attachments packed with malware, like ransomware, viruses, and keyloggers. If you receive a message with such an attachment, delete it. Even if you receive an email with an attachment from someone you know, follow up with that person. Particularly if you weren’t expecting an attachment from them. Scammers often hijack or spoof email accounts of everyday people to spread malware.
On computers and laptops, you can hover your cursor over links without clicking on them to see the web address. Take a close look at the addresses the message is using. If it’s an email, look at the email address. Maybe the address doesn’t match the company or organization at all. Or maybe it looks like it almost does, yet it adds a few letters or words to the name. This marks yet another sign that you might have a phishing attack on your hands. Scammers also use the common tactic of a link shortener, which creates links that almost look like strings of indecipherable text. These shortened links mask the true address, which might indeed be a link to a scam site. Delete the message. If possible, report it. Many social media platforms and messaging apps have built-in controls for reporting suspicious accounts and messages.
On social media and messaging platforms, stick to following, friending, and messaging people who you really know. As for those people who contact you out of the blue, be suspicious. Sad to say, they’re often scammers canvassing these platforms for victims. Better yet, where you can, set your profile to private, which makes it more difficult for scammers to select and stalk you for an attack.
How’d that scammer get your phone number or email address anyway? Chances are, they pulled that info off a data broker site. Data brokers buy, collect, and sell detailed personal info, which they compile from several public and private sources, such as local, state, and federal records, plus third parties like supermarket shopper’s cards and mobile apps that share and sell user data. Moreover, they’ll sell it to anyone who pays for it, including people who’ll use that info for scams. You can help reduce those scam texts and calls by removing your info from those sites. Our Personal Data Cleanup scans some of the riskiest data broker sites and shows you which ones are selling your personal info.
Online protection software can protect you in several ways. First, it can offer web protection features that can identify malicious links and downloads, which can help prevent clicking them. Further, features like our web protection can steer you away from dangerous websites and block malware and phishing sites if you accidentally click on a malicious link. Additionally, our Scam Protection feature warns you of sketchy links in emails, texts, and messages. And overall, strong virus and malware protection can further block any attacks on your devices. Be sure to protect your smartphones in addition to your computers and laptops as well, particularly given all the sensitive things we do on them, like banking, shopping, and booking rides and travel.
The post How to Spot Phishing Lures appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Before your phone gets lost or stolen, put some basic steps in place.
You’ll want to act quickly, so preparation is everything. With the right measures, you can find it, recover it, or even erase it if needed. These steps can get you set up so you can do exactly that.
Lock your phone.
Locking your phone is one of the most basic smartphone security measures you can take. Trouble is, few of us do it. Our recent global research showed that only 56% of adults said that they protect their smartphone with a password, passcode, or other form of lock.[i] In effect, an unlocked phone is an open book to anyone who finds or steals a phone
Setting up a lock screen is easy. It’s a simple feature found on iOS and Android devices. iPhones and Androids have an auto-lock feature that locks your phone after a certain period of inactivity. Keep this time on the low end, one minute or less, to help prevent unauthorized access.
We suggest using a six-digit PIN or passcode rather than using a gesture to unlock your phone. They’re more complex and secure. Researchers proved as much with a little “shoulder surfing” test. They looked at how well one group of subjects could unlock a phone after observing the way another group of subjects unlocked it.[ii]
Turn on “Find My Phone.”
Another powerful tool you have at your disposal is the Find My Phone feature made possible thanks to GPS technology. The “find my” feature can help you pinpoint your phone if your lost or stolen phone has an active data or Wi-Fi connection and has its GPS location services enabled. Even if the phone gets powered down or loses connection, it can guide you to its last known location.
Setting up this feature is easy. Apple offers a comprehensive web page on how to enable and use their “Find My” feature for phones (and other devices too). Android users can get a step-by-step walkthrough on Google’s Android support page as well.
Back up your stuff in the cloud.
Thanks to cloud storage, you might be able to recover your photos, files, apps, notes, contact info, and more if your phone is lost or stolen. Android owners can learn how to set up cloud backup with Google Drive here, and iPhone users can learn the same for iCloud here.
Write down your phone’s unique ID number.
Here are a couple of acronyms. IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) or MEID (Mobile Equipment Identifier) are two types of unique ID numbers assigned to smartphones. Find yours and write it down. In case of loss or theft, your mobile carrier, police department, or insurance provider might ask for the info to assist in its return or reimbursement for loss.
Beyond digital security measures, plenty of loss and theft prevention falls on you. Treat your phone like the desirable item it is. That’s a big step when it comes to preventing theft.
Keep your phone close.
And by close, we mean on your person. It’s easy to leave your phone on the table at a coffee shop, on a desk in a shared workspace, or on a counter when you’re shopping. Thieves might jump on any of these opportunities for a quick snatch-and-grab. You’re better off with your phone in your pocket or zipped up in a bag that you keep close.
Secure your bags and the devices you carry in them.
Enterprising thieves will find a way. They’ll snatch your bag while you’re not looking. Or they might even slice into it with a knife to get what’s inside, like your phone.
Keep your bag or backpack close. If you’re stopping to grab a bite to eat, sling the handles through a chair leg. If you have a strong metal carabiner, you can use that too. Securing your bag like that can make it much tougher for a thief to walk by and swipe it. For extra security, look into a slash-resistant bag.
If you have a credit card and ID holder attached to the back of your phone, you might want to remove your cards from it. That way, if your phone gets snatched, those important cards won’t get snatched as well.
In the event of your phone getting lost or stolen, a combination of device tracking, device locking, and remote erasing can help protect your phone and the data on it.
Different device manufacturers have different ways of going about it. But the result is the same — you can prevent others from using your phone, and even erase it if you’re truly worried that it’s in the wrong hands or gone for good. Apple provides iOS users with a step-by-step guide, and Google offers up a guide for Android users as well.
Apple’s Find My app takes things a step further. Beyond locating a lost phone or wiping it, Find My can also mark the item as lost, notify you if you’ve left it behind, or trigger a sound to help you locate it. (A huge boon in that couch cushion scenario!) Drop by Apple’s page dedicated to the Find My app for more details on what you can do on what devices, along with instructions how.
With preparation and prevention, you can give yourself reassurance if your phone gets lost or stolen. You have plenty of recovery options, in addition to plenty of ways to prevent bad actors from getting their hands on the sensitive info you keep on it.
[i] https://www.mcafee.com/content/dam/consumer/en-us/docs/reports/rp-connected-family-study-2022-global.pdf
[ii] https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.04959
The post What Should I do If My Phone Gets Stolen or Lost? appeared first on McAfee Blog.
In today’s interconnected world, our mobile devices serve as essential tools for communication, productivity, and entertainment. However, for some tech-savvy users, the allure of unlocking the full potential of their devices through jailbreaking (for iOS) or rooting (for Android) can be tempting. While these processes offer users greater control and customization over their devices, they also raise significant questions about security implications.
To “jailbreak” means to allow the phone’s owner to gain full access to the root of the operating system and access all the features. Jailbreaking is the process of removing the limitations imposed by Apple and associated carriers on devices running the iOS operating system. Jailbroken phones came into the mainstream when Apple first released their iPhone and it was only on AT&T’s network. Users who wanted to use an iPhone with other carriers were not able to unless they had a jailbroken iPhone.
Similar to jailbreaking, “rooting” is the term for the process of removing the limitations on a mobile or tablet running the Android operating system. By gaining privileged control, often referred to as “root access,” over an Android device’s operating system, users can modify system files, remove pre-installed bloatware, install custom ROMs, and unlock features not accessible on stock devices.
Rooting or jailbreaking grants users deeper access to the device’s operating system, allowing for extensive customization of the user interface, system settings, and even hardware functionality. Advanced users can optimize system performance, remove unnecessary bloatware, and tweak settings to improve battery life, speed, and responsiveness.
However, hacking your device potentially opens security holes that may have not been readily apparent or undermines the device’s built-in security measures. Jailbroken and rooted phones are much more susceptible to viruses and malware because users can avoid Apple and Google application vetting processes that help ensure users are downloading virus-free apps.
In addition to security vulnerabilities, hacking your device may lead to a voided manufacturer’s warranty, leaving you without official support for repairs or replacements. Altering the device’s operating system can also lead to instability, crashes, and performance issues, especially if incompatible software or modifications are installed.
While rooting or jailbreaking may offer users enticing opportunities for customization and optimization of their mobile devices, the associated risks cannot be overlooked. By circumventing built-in security measures, users expose their devices to potential security vulnerabilities, making them more susceptible to viruses and malware. Ultimately, the decision to root or jailbreak a mobile device should be made with careful consideration of the trade-offs involved, as the security risks often outweigh the benefits.
When thinking about mobile security risks, consider adding reputable mobile security software to your device to augment the built-in security measures. These security solutions provide real-time scanning and threat detection capabilities, helping to safeguard sensitive data and maintain the integrity of the device’s operating system.
The post How Does Jailbreaking Or Rooting Affect My Mobile Device Security? appeared first on McAfee Blog.
“Vishing” occurs when criminals cold-call victims and attempt to persuade them to divulge personal information over the phone. These scammers are generally after credit card numbers and personal identifying information, which can then be used to commit financial theft. Vishing can occur both on your landline phone or via your cell phone.
The term is a combination of “voice,” and “phishing,” which is the use of spoofed emails to trick targets into clicking malicious links. Rather than email, vishing generally relies on automated phone calls that instruct targets to provide account numbers. Techniques scammers use to get your phone numbers include:
Once vishers have phone numbers, they employ various strategies to deceive their targets and obtain valuable personal information:
To protect yourself from vishing scams, you should:
Staying vigilant and informed is your best defense against vishing scams. By verifying caller identities, being skeptical of unsolicited requests for personal information, and using call-blocking tools, you can significantly reduce your risk of falling victim to these deceptive practices. Additionally, investing in identity theft protection services can provide an extra layer of security. These services monitor your personal information for suspicious activity and offer assistance in recovering from identity theft, giving you peace of mind in an increasingly digital world. Remember, proactive measures and awareness are key to safeguarding your personal information against vishing threats.
The post How to Protect Yourself from Vishing appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Summer is synonymous with vacations, a time when families pack their bags, grab their sunscreen, and embark on exciting adventures. In the digital age, smartphones have become an indispensable part of our lives, serving as cameras, maps, entertainment hubs, and communication tools. While these devices enhance our travel experiences, they also become prime targets for theft or damage while we’re away from home. From keeping us connected with family and friends, assisting in navigation, capturing moments, to even helping us with language translation – it is a device of many conveniences. However, when you bring your smartphone while vacationing, like any other valuable item, it becomes a target for theft and damage. Not to mention the potential for high roaming charges.
Don’t let the fear of losing or damaging your valuable devices dampen your vacation spirit! By taking some simple precautions and implementing effective strategies, you can ensure that your family’s smartphones remain safe and secure throughout your travels. In this blog post, we’ll share essential tips and tricks for safeguarding your devices, so you can focus on creating unforgettable memories without any tech-related worries. This article will provide you with tips on how to protect your family’s smartphones while on vacation. We will cover strategies like enabling security settings, backing up data, checking for travel insurance policies, and utilizing helpful apps. Ensuring the safety of your devices will make your vacation more enjoyable and worry-free.
Traveling without smartphones seems almost impossible. However, having them on vacation puts them at risk. In tourist hotspots, where distractions are many, it is easy to lose or have your device stolen. Moreover, using public Wi-Fi networks can expose your smartphone to cyber attacks.
→ Dig Deeper: The Risks of Public Wi-Fi and How to Close the Security Gap
Therefore, it is vital to be proactive in securing both your smartphones and the data they contain. Not only will it save you from the high costs of replacing a lost or damaged phone, but it also prevents potential misuse of personal and financial information. Implementing even just a few of these safety measures can help ensure your family’s smartphones are well-protected during your vacation. So let’s dive into the practical steps you can take.
The first layer of protection for your phone should be a physical one. It starts with investing in a good quality, durable phone case. A waterproof case is always a good idea, especially if you’re planning on vacationing near the beach or a pool. A screen protector can also keep your screen from shattering or getting scratched. Remember, you’re more likely to drop your phone while on vacation as you juggle through maps, travel apps, and numerous photo opportunities.
Another aspect of physical protection is to be mindful of where you store your phone. Avoid leaving it in plain sight or unattended, which could invite potential thieves. Instead, carry it in a secure, zipped pocket or bag. If you’re staying at a hotel, consider using the safe to store your phone when not in use. Most importantly, be aware of your surroundings and keep your phone safely tucked away in crowded places.
McAfee Pro Tip: Activating the correct features can determine whether your personal data is lost permanently or if your device can swiftly recover. Install McAfee Mobile Security and learn more tips on what to do if your phone gets stolen on this blog.
Safeguarding your phone is not just about protecting the physical device—your personal and sensitive data deserves protection too. Before you leave for your vacation, make sure that your phone is password-protected. Optimally, use a complex password, fingerprint, or face recognition feature instead of a simple four-digit PIN. This singular step can deter any prying eyes from accessing your information if your phone is lost or stolen.
Ensure your phone’s software is up to date. Regular updates not only enhance the device’s performance but also incorporate vital security patches, fortifying its defenses against potential threats like malware. By staying vigilant and keeping your phone’s software current, you contribute to a more secure environment, minimizing the risk of unauthorized eyes accessing your valuable information in the event of a loss or theft.
Backing up your smartphone’s data before leaving for vacation can save you from a lot of stress. In case of loss, theft, or damage, having a backup ensures that you won’t lose your cherished photos, contacts, and other essential data. Most smartphones allow you to back up your data to the cloud. Make sure to do this over a safe, secure network and not on public Wi-Fi.
For Android users, Google provides an automatic backup service for things like app data, call history, and settings. You can check if this feature is enabled on your phone by going to the Google Drive App and checking in the Backups section. For iPhone users, iCloud Backup can help save most of your data and settings. To enable it, go to Settings, tap on your name, then tap iCloud and scroll down to tap iCloud Backup.
Without proper management, staying connected while abroad can result in expensive roaming charges. Before you leave, check with your mobile provider to understand the costs associated with using your phone abroad. Some providers offer international plans that you can temporarily switch to for your vacation. If your provider’s charges are too high, consider purchasing a local SIM card once you arrive at your destination or use an international data package.
Another way to avoid roaming charges is by using Wi-Fi. Most hotels, cafes, and many public spaces have free Wi-Fi available. However, again, public Wi-Fi is not always safe. So, avoid accessing sensitive information such as bank accounts, and before traveling, download maps and essential content before traveling to reduce the need for constant data usage. This is especially helpful for navigation apps. To protect your data in such situations, it’s advisable to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
Several apps can help protect your phone and its data during your vacation. Most smartphone operating systems offer a “Find My Phone” feature that can locate, lock, or erase your device if it is lost or stolen. Make sure this feature is enabled before you leave.
Again, antivirus apps can provide an extra layer of protection against virus and malware threats. Password manager apps can help you create and store complex, unique passwords for your accounts to enhance security.
VPN apps can protect your data from being intercepted when using public Wi-Fi networks. There are also apps that monitor your data usage and can alert you if you’re near your limit to avoid unexpected charges. Research and install these apps prior to your vacation for added security and peace of mind.
Your family’s smartphones are essential travel companions that deserve as much protection as any other valuable item during your vacation. By physically safeguarding the device, securing your data, backing up regularly, understanding roaming charges, and utilizing productive apps, you can enjoy a worry-free vacation. Remember, in the event of a mishap, having travel insurance can provide an extra layer of financial protection. So, before setting off, review your policy and check if it covers lost or stolen devices. In the end, preparation is key, so take the time to implement these safety measures and enjoy your vacation with peace of mind.
Above and beyond security settings and software, there’s you. Get in the habit of talking with your child for a sense of what they’re doing online. As a mom, I like to ask them about their favorite games, share some funny TikTok clips or cute photos with them, and generally make it a point to be a part of their digital lives. It’s great, because it gives you peace of mind knowing what types of things they are doing or interactions they are having online.
For those of you hitting the road in the coming weeks, enjoy your travels, wherever they take you!
The post How To Protect Your Family’s Smartphones While on Vacation appeared first on McAfee Blog.
My mother recently turned 80, so of course a large celebration was in order. With 100 plus guests, entertainment, and catering to organise, the best way for me to keep everyone updated (and share tasks) was to use Google Docs. Gee, it worked well. My updates could immediately be seen by everyone, the family could access it from all the devices, and it was free to use! No wonder Google has a monopoly on drive and document sharing.
But here’s the thing – hackers know just how much both individuals and businesses have embraced Google products. So, it makes complete sense that they use reputable companies such as Google to devise phishing emails that are designed to extract our personal information. In fact, the Google Docs phishing scam was widely regarded as one of the most successful personal data extraction scams to date. They know that billions of people worldwide use Google so an invitation to click a link and view a document does not seem like an unreasonable email to receive. But it caused so much grief for so many people.
Emails designed to trick you into sharing your personal information are a scammer’s bread and butter. This is essentially what phishing is. It is by far the most successful tool they use to get their hands on your personal data and access your email.
‘But why do they want my email logins?’ – I hear you ask. Well, email accounts are what every scammer dreams of – they are a treasure trove of personally identifiable material that they can either steal or exploit. They could also use your email to launch a wide range of malicious activities from spamming and spoofing to spear phishing. Complicated terms, I know but in essence these are different types of phishing strategies. So, you can see why they are keen!!
But successful phishing emails usually share a few criteria which is important to know. Firstly, the email looks like it has been sent from a legitimate company e.g. Microsoft, Amex, or Google. Secondly, the email has a strong ‘call to action’ e.g. ‘your password has been changed, if this is not the case, please click here’. And thirdly, the email does not seem too out of place or random from the potential victim’s perspective.
Despite the fact that scammers are savvy tricksters, there are steps you can take to maximise the chances your email remains locked away from their prying eyes. Here’s what I suggest:
Never respond to an unexpected email or website that asks you for personal information or your login details no matter how professional it looks. If you have any doubts, always contact the company directly to verify.
Make sure you have super-duper internet security software that includes all the bells and whistles. Not only does internet security software McAfee+ include protection for daily browsing but it also has a password manager, a VPN, and a social privacy manager that will lock down your privacy settings on your social media accounts. A complete no-brainer!
Avoid using public Wi-Fi to log into your email from public places. It takes very little effort for a hacker to position themselves between you and the connection point. So, it’s entirely possible for them to be in receipt of all your private information and logins which clearly you don’t want. If you really need to use it, invest in a Virtual Private Network (VPN) which will ensure everything you share via Wi-Fi will be encrypted. Your McAfee+ subscription includes a VPN.
Public computers should also be avoided even just to ‘check your email’. Not only is there a greater chance of spyware on untrusted computers but some of them sport key-logging programs which can both monitor and record the keys you strike on the keyboard – a great way of finding out your password!
Ensuring each of your online accounts has its own unique, strong, and complex password is one of the best ways of keeping hackers out of your life. I always suggest at least 10-12 characters with a combination of upper and lower case letters, symbols, and numbers. A crazy nonsensical sentence is a great option here but better still is a password manager that will remember and generate passwords that no human could! A password manager is also part of your McAfee+ online security pack.
Even if you have taken all the necessary steps to protect your email from hackers, there is the chance that your email logins may be leaked in a data breach. A data breach happens when a company’s data is accessed by scammers and customers’ personal information is stolen. You may remember the Optus, Medibank and Latitude hacks of 2022/23?
If you have had your personal information stolen, please be assured that there are steps you can take to remedy this. The key is to act fast. Check out my recent blog post here for everything you need to know.
So, next time you’re organising a big gathering don’t hesitate to use Google Docs to plan or Microsoft Teams to host your planning meetings. While the thought of being hacked might make you want to withdraw, please don’t. Instead, cultivate a questioning mindset in both yourself and your kids, and always have a healthy amount of suspicion when going about your online life. You’ve got this!!
Till next time,
Stay safe!
Alex
The post How To Prevent Your Emails From Being Hacked appeared first on McAfee Blog.
According to Pew, three-in-ten U.S. adults say they have used a dating site or app. That number climbs to 53% for people under the age of 30. More and more people are turning to digital platforms to find love and companionship or simply to expand their social circles. However, as the popularity of online dating grows, so do the potential risks associated with it. From privacy concerns to identity theft, the digital dating world can be fraught with peril if you’re not careful. But fear not, by following a few simple guidelines, you can navigate the online dating scene safely and securely.
This article is for you or anyone you know who may be hopping onto an online dating app like Match, Bumble, Plenty of Fish, eHarmony, Tinder, or OkCupid. Think of it as an advice column of a different sort, where we talk about dating in light of your online privacy and safety.
For starters, we have a couple of previous blogs that offer sound advice about online dating. The first covers ways you can protect your privacy when you’re using online dating apps, which starts with picking a dating app that has a good reputation. The second rounds out the topic with further online dating advice for adults and teens alike. Give them a look!
It starts with basic hygiene. Digital hygiene, that is. Before you dive into a dating app, ensure that your device (and all your connected devices while you’re at it) has a comprehensive security solution in place. As you surf, chat, and meet up online, you’ll want to know that you’re protected against malware, viruses, phishing attacks, sketchy links, and so forth. Other features will come in handy (and be necessary as well), like ones that help you manage your passwords, protect your identity, safeguard your privacy, and more—all of which we’ll talk about in a bit.
Picking the right app is like picking the right date. From a security standpoint, these apps are the keepers of highly personal information about you, so you’ll want to know how they handle data, what privacy protections are in place, what information they gather when you first sign up, and what they continue to gather as you use the app. Do your research. Read up on their privacy policies. See what other people have to say about their experiences. And get a sense of what the app is all about. What’s its approach to dating? What kind of relationships are they focusing on? Make sure all of it feels right to you.
Only give the app the information that’s absolutely necessary to sign up. Dating apps ask questions so that they can help you find an ideal match, yet only share what you feel comfortable sharing. This is true from a personal standpoint, but it’s true from a security standpoint too. Anything you share along those lines could be at risk of a hack or a breach, the likes of which were reported by Wired and Forbes last year. If your info is compromised, it could lead to anywhere from identity theft to harassment, so when you use a dating app, keep the sharing to a minimum—and keep your eyes peeled for any suspicious activity across your social media, online accounts, and even your finances.
Another password to remember! That’s just what you need, right? Right! It absolutely is, and a strong one is vital. You can create one and manage all of your passwords with McAfee+’s password manager. It’ll encrypt your passwords and use multi-factor authentication, which offers even further protection from hacks and attacks on your account.
You can help keep your chats more private, and just about anything else you’re doing online, by using a VPN (virtual private network). For example, our VPN uses bank-level encryption to keep your personal data and activities private from hackers. And it’ll hide other information associated with your dating account while you’re online, like personal details, credit card numbers, and so forth. Given the security risks we’ve talked about so far, you’ll want to look into a VPN.
If you’re not using a VPN on your device, don’t use your dating app on public Wi-Fi. The issue is this: plenty of public Wi-Fi hotspots aren’t secure. Someone else on the network could easily intercept the information you send over it, including your passwords, any photos you share, and any chats you have. In other words, using public Wi-Fi without protection is like opening a door that leads right to you and your most personal data. This applies to everything on public Wi-Fi, not just dating apps. If you use public Wi-Fi at all, you really should use a VPN.
In the ever-evolving landscape of online dating, safeguarding your privacy and security is paramount. By implementing strategies such as using strong passwords, employing a reliable VPN, and exercising caution on public Wi-Fi, you can navigate the digital dating sphere with confidence. Remember, your safety and privacy are non-negotiable priorities in the pursuit of love and companionship online.
The post How to Safely Date Online appeared first on McAfee Blog.
For years now, the popularity of online dating has been on the rise—and so have the number of online romance scams that leave people with broken hearts and empty wallets.
In a recent CBS News story, one Texan woman was scammed out of $3,200 by a scammer claiming to be a German Cardiologist. After months of exchanging messages and claiming to be in love with her, he said that he’d been robbed while on a business trip in Nigeria and needed her help.
According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the reported cost of online romance scams was $1.14 billion in 2023.
Dating and romance scams aren’t limited to online dating apps and sites, they’ll happen on social media and in online games as well. However, the FTC reports that the scam usually starts the same way, typically through an unexpected friend request or a message that comes out of the blue.
With the phony relationship established, the scammer starts asking for money. The FTC reports that they’ll ask for money for several bogus reasons, usually revolving around some sort of hardship where they need a “little help” so that they can pay:
The list goes on, yet that’s the general gist. Scammers often employ a story with an intriguing complication that seems just reasonable enough, one where the romance scammer makes it sound like they could really use the victim’s financial help.
People who have filed fraud reports say they’ve paid their scammer in a few typical ways.
One is by wiring money, often through a wire transfer company. The benefit of this route, for the scammer anyway, is that this is as good as forking over cash. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. The victim lacks the protections they have with other payment forms, such as a credit card that allows the holder to cancel or contest a charge.
Another way is through gift cards. Scammers of all stripes, not just romance scammers, like these because they effectively work like cash, whether it’s a gift card for a major online retailer or a chain of brick-and-mortar stores. Like a wire transfer, once that gift card is handed over, the money on it is highly difficult to recover, if at all.
One more common payment is through reloadable debit cards. A scammer may make an initial request for such a card and then make several follow-on requests to load it up again.
In all, a romance scammer will typically look for the easiest payment method that’s the most difficult to contest or reimburse, leaving the victim in a financial lurch once the scam ends.
When it comes to meeting new people online, the FTC suggests the following:
Scammers, although arguably heartless, are still human. They make mistakes. The stories they concoct are just that. Stories. They may jumble their details, get their times and dates all wrong, or simply get caught in an apparent lie. Also, keep in mind that some scammers may be working with several victims at once, which is yet another opportunity for them to get confused and slip up.
As mentioned above, some romance scammers troll social media and reach out through direct messages or friend requests. With that, there are three things you can do to cut down your chances of getting caught up with a scammer:
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and others give you the option of making your profile and posts visible to friends only. Choosing this setting keeps the broader internet from seeing what you’re doing, saying, and posting, which can help protect your privacy and give a romance scammer less information to exploit.
Be critical of the invitations you receive. Out-and-out strangers could be more than a romance scammer, they could be a fake account designed to gather information on users for purposes of cybercrime, or they can be an account designed to spread false information. There are plenty of them too. In fact, in Q4 of 2023 alone, Facebook took action on 693 million fake accounts. Reject such requests.
Online protection software like ours can help you spot fakes and scams. Features like Text Scam Detector use advanced AI to detect scam links in texts, email, and social media messages before you click. Our Personal Data Cleanup can keep you safer still by removing your personal info from sketchy data broker sites — places where scammers go to harvest useful info on their victims. And if the unfortunate happens, we offer $2 million in identity theft coverage and identity restoration support.
If you suspect that you’re being scammed, put an end to the relationship and report it, as difficult as that may feel.
Notify the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov for support and next steps to help you recover financially as much as possible. Likewise, notify the social media site, app, or service where the scam occurred as well. In some cases, you may want to file a police report, which we cover in our broader article on identity theft and fraud.
If you sent funds via a gift card, the FTC suggests filing a claim with the company as soon as possible. They offer further advice on filing a claim here, along with a list of contact numbers for gift card brands that scammers commonly use.
Lastly, go easy on yourself. If you find yourself a victim of online dating or romance fraud, know that you won’t be the first or last person to be taken advantage of this way. By reporting your case, you in fact may help others from falling victim too.
The post How to Spot Dating Scams appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Over the past year and a half, workers everywhere have gotten used to working from home. They have adopted an entirely new work from home mindset and diverted their weekly commuting hours to other productive and more enjoyable pursuits. As parts of the world return to a “new normal,” another change is on the way: a gradual return to the office.
The hybrid working model is met with mixed reviews from employees and business security teams alike. For some employees, a clearer separation between work and home is a welcome change. CTV News reports 66% of Canadian respondents to an International Workplace Group poll say they are looking forward to splitting their working hours between the office and home.
For business security teams who are just catching their breath after the monumental shift to a remote workforce, they are now gearing up for the new online safety challenges posed by the hybrid work model. According to a VMware Canada Threat Report, 86% of security professionals agree that cyberattacks aimed at their organizations have become more sophisticated since the onset of the pandemic. Additionally, 91% of global respondents cite employees working from home as the cause of cyberattacks. Challenges of the hybrid workforce include the constant back-and-forth of company-issued devices, the lack of control over home office setups, and mixing personal and company devices with company and personal business respectively. For example, if you pay your bills or shop online using your work device, it opens several new avenues for a hacker to walk right onto the corporate network. When your guard is down even a little bit when you are off the clock, you could fall victim to e-skimmers, fake login pages, or phishing scams.
No matter how advanced your company’s threat detection system, hackers know where vulnerabilities lie and are on the hunt to exploit them. Check out these tips to ensure you are not the weak link in your organization.
A virtual private network (VPN) is a service that scrambles online browsing data, making it impossible for nefarious characters to decipher your activity. This is an excellent way to deter hackers from tracking your movements and picking up sensitive pieces of information.
VPNs are essential if you are working in a public area, sharing a wireless network with strangers, or using a Wi-Fi connection that is not password protected. Public Wi-Fi networks are notoriously easy pickings for hackers seeking entry into unsuspecting users’ devices. On the days where you are not in the office, make sure your wireless connection is secure.
While a VPN is an excellent tool, security measures and your accounts are vulnerable without a strong and private password or passphrase to protect them. The gigantic Colonial Pipeline hack is being blamed on a hacker gaining entry through an unused VPN that was not secured with multifactor authentication. Multifactor authentication is an online safety measure where more than one method of identity verification is needed to access the valuable information that lies within password-protected accounts.
Consider using a password manager to organize all your passwords and logins. Password managers remember each pairing so you don’t have to, plus most managers are secured with multifactor authentication. A password manager makes it easier to add variety to your passwords and prevents you from ever having to write them down.
Professionals who travel between their home and an office are likely transporting their devices back and forth, increasing the number of opportunities for devices to be forgotten at either location or in transit. As convenient as it may be, never use your personal device for official business. Even if you pride yourself on sound online safety habits, your company device likely has more defenses ingrained in its hardware than your personal devices.
With your personal devices, you should carefully vet everything you download. With your work-issued devices, this vetting process is even more important as company information is at stake. The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario states that employees should never download applications to their work devices without permission from the IT team. Apps and programs often have security vulnerabilities that could open a gateway for hackers.
Zero Trust is a security philosophy that is exactly what it sounds like: trust no one. Businesses are employing Zero Trust models to greatly limit who has access to sensitive data sources. Adopt your own personal Zero Trust philosophy concerning your passwords, logins, and device access. This means never sharing passwords or log in details, especially over email, instant messenger, or over a video conference. Hackers commonly eavesdrop on all three mediums. Also, even your most trusted coworker could mishandle your passwords and login details, such as writing them down and leaving them in a public place.
A key aspect of the Zero Trust model is only granting employees access to platforms that are vital to their job. Sharing your logins with coworkers who may not be authorized for using that platform undermines all the hard work the IT team does to keep tabs on data access.
Every time you turn on the nightly news, another ransomware attack has hit another organization, each one bigger than the last. This heightened prevalence is a reflection on the wiliness of hackers, but also the number of security holes every company must plug.
There are several vulnerable points of entry in every company, and some of those vulnerabilities are heightened by the hybrid work model. Always heed the advice of your company’s IT team, and make sure to do your part to keep your devices and work information secure.
The post Hybrid Workplace Vulnerabilities: 4 Ways to Promote Online Safety appeared first on McAfee Blog.
When you open your laptop or your mobile device, what is the first thing you do? Do you head to your favorite social media site to skim the latest news, or do you place your weekly grocery delivery order? No matter what your daily online habits are, even the slightest degree of caution can go a long way in staying secure online.
That’s because hackers are experts at hiding malware in your everyday online routines, or even infiltrating your cookies to steal login information and learn about your personal preferences.
According to a StatsCan Canadian internet use survey, six out of ten internet users reported experiencing a cybersecurity incident. There are many hoops to jump through when navigating the digital landscape. By taking the necessary steps to remedy vulnerabilities in your digital activity, you can dramatically improve your online protection.
Cybercriminals take advantage of online users through routine avenues you would not expect. Here are three common ways that cybercriminals eavesdrop on online users.
Adware, or advertising-supported software, generates ads in the user interface of a person’s device. Adware is most often used to generate revenue for the developer by targeting unsuspecting online users with personalized ads paid by third parties. These third parties usually pay per view, click, or application installation.
Though not always malicious, adware crosses into dangerous territory when it is downloaded without a user’s consent and has nefarious intent. In this case, the adware becomes known as a potentially unwanted application (PUA) that can remain undetected on users’ devices for long periods of time. According to a report by the Cybersecure Policy Exchange, an unintentionally installed or downloaded computer virus or piece of malware is one of the top five cybercrimes that Canadians experience. The PUA can then create issues like frequent crashes and slow performance.
Users unknowingly download adware onto their device when they download a free ad-supported program or visit a non-secure site that does not use the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) to encrypt online communication.
Hackers also use invasive tactics known as ad injections, where they inject ads with malicious code for increased monetary gain. This is a practice known as “malvertising.” If a user clicks on a seemingly legitimate and well-placed ad, they risk exposing themselves to numerous online threats. These ads can be infected with malware such as viruses or spyware. For example, hackers can exploit browser vulnerabilities to download malware, steal information about the device system, and gain control over its operations. Hackers can also use malvertising to run fraudulent tech support scams, steal cookie data, or sell information to third-party ad networks.
Another vulnerability that many may not realize is their browser’s built-in autofill functions. As tempting as it is to use your browser’s autofill function to populate a long form, this shortcut may not be safe. Cybercriminals have found ways to capture credentials by inserting fake login boxes onto a web page that users cannot see. So, when you accept the option to autofill your username and password, you are also populating these fake boxes.
Take a proactive approach to your digital protection the next time you are browsing the internet by reassessing your online habits. Check out these five tips to ensure you are staying as safe as possible online.
Cookie data can contain anything from login information to credit card numbers. Cybercriminals looking to exploit this information can hijack browser sessions to pose as legitimate users and steal cookies as they travel across networks and servers. As a result, it is essential for online users to regularly clear out their cookies to better protect their information from falling into the wrong hands. Navigate to your browser’s history, where you can wipe the data associated with each browser session, including your cookies.
Clearing your browser’s cookie data will also remove your saved logins, which is why leveraging a password manager can make it easier to access regularly visited online accounts.
Many browsers come with a built-in password generator and manager; however, it is better to entrust your logins and password to a reputable password manager. Browser password managers are not as secure as password managers, because anyone who has access to your device will also access your online information. A password manager, provides a more secure solution since it requires you to log in with a separate master password. A password manager also works across various browsers and can generate stronger passwords than those created by your browser.
In addition to clearing cookie data, users should adjust their browser settings to ensure their online sessions remain private.
Another option is to access the internet in Private Browsing Mode to automatically block third-party tracking, making it a quick and easy option to ensure private browsing. Users can also enable the “do not track” function of their browser to prevent third-party tracking by advertisers and websites. Additionally, you can adjust your browser settings to block pop-up ads and control site permissions, such as access to cameras and locations.
Ad blockers suppress unwanted and potentially malicious ads to ensure a safer browsing experience. Ad blockers can also make it easier to view page layout by removing distracting ads and optimizing page load speed. Additionally, they prevent websites from tracking your information that third parties can sell.
Deploying a security solution like McAfee+ Ultimate ensures the safest internet browsing experience through a holistic approach for threat detection, protection, and remediation. Equipped with a password manager, antivirus software, and firewall protection, users can effectively sidestep online threats while browsing the internet. Moreover, it includes comprehensive privacy and identity protection, such as our Personal Data Cleanup, dark web monitoring, credit monitoring, along with ways you can quickly Lock or freeze your credit file to help prevent accounts from being opened in your name.
Your online behavior can say a lot about you so make sure you safeguard your internet protection. Whether it is through malvertising or invisible forms, hackers can glean information to paint a picture of who you are to target you through deceptive tactics. Cybercriminals are always looking for vulnerabilities which is why assessing your online habits sooner rather than later is a critical first step to smarter online browsing.
The post How to Protect Your Online Privacy appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Smart speakers. Banking online. Location tracking. If you are a senior adult, there’s no doubt, the digital leaps and bounds you’re asked to consider each day can be daunting. If you are the child of a senior adult trying to make digital life more accessible, helping your parent consistently stay safe online can also be a challenge.
According to a recent Pew study on the topic, senior adults continue to become more digitally connected, but adoption rates continue to trail younger users, and digital divides remain. The study also revealed that 77% of older adults needed assistance in learning how to use technology.
As a senior, it’s easy to feel intimidated and even try to avoid technology altogether as a safety plan. However, more healthcare, banking, and retailers become almost 100% digital, opting out of digital life is becoming impossible.
Still, there’s a way forward. As with any challenge, it’s best to begin one step at a time. First, put your stake in the ground by committing to increase your awareness and consistency in the digital realm. Doing so will help you reduce your fear about potential data breaches, malware attacks, or worse, falling prey to an online scam. Here are seven more ways to build upon your privacy path.
Online protection software safeguards your privacy while also looking after your privacy too. McAfee+ Family plans include personalized protection for each member of the family, including older family members outside the home. For example, a grandparent can set up and manage their own protection for their identity, privacy, computers, and phones. And inviting a grandparent onto the plan is as simple as sending an email.
Updating your passwords regularly is an online privacy gamechanger. The only problem? It’s tough to remember all those passwords, so who wants to risk changing them, right? Consider a password manager (find the software packages that have a password manager built-in). Your Password Manager (PM) stores then populates the username and password fields every time you log on to a favorite site or app. Better yet, it makes changing your password an easy task since you don’t need to do any remembering—your PM does it all for you.
What in the world? 2FA sounds complicated! Don’t worry, it’s not. Opting for 2FA means that before logging onto your account, you will have one more step to verify it’s you logging on. When given this privacy option, take it. Commonly, the 2FA process is a code generated by a smartphone app—no biggie. If you want to try, go to your settings in your favorite apps, such as Google or Facebook, and turn on the 2FA option.
Along with strong passwords, updating your software is a front-line defense against identity theft and fraud. Installing software updates (those pesky pop-up notices that are critical to your privacy) is essential in securing your IoT devices, PCs and phones, and the social media, banking, and healthcare portals connected to them.
5. Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
If we could write this one tip down a hundred times without losing our readers, we surely would. Every senior adult needs a VPN for practical, powerful privacy protection and peace of mind. A VPN keeps credit card and personal info contained in a secure network and away from prying eyes.
Fraudulent emails connected to fraudulent websites can look very legitimate. A secure website will have an “HTTPS” in the browser’s address bar. The “s” stands for “secure.” If the web address or URL is just HTTP, it’s not a secure site. Still unsure? Read reviews of the site from other users before making a purchase. Never send cash, cashier’s check, or a personal check to any online vendor. If purchasing, always use a credit card in case there is a dispute. Stay up-to-date on scams that target seniors specifically. Lately, elder scams have been constructed around COVID, dating apps, tax returns, employment, and, of course, the common military catfish scams.
Like it or not, companies gather, share, and sell plenty of information about us online. Among them, online data brokers that collect information about people from public records and third parties, like shopping information from the discount cards we use to get deals at the supermarket or drug store. They compile this information and post it online for anyone to see, for a price. And they’ll sell it to anyone. That includes marketers, advertisers, and even bad actors who use it for scams and to help them commit identity theft. You can clean up these digital breadcrumbs, though. Our Personal Data Cleanup scans some of the riskiest data broker sites and show you which ones are selling your personal info. We’ll also provide guidance on how you can remove your data from those sites and with select products, we can even manage the removal for you.
When trying to boost your digital skills, don’t forget about all the amazing instructional content at your fingertips. A quick search of YouTube will render easy-to-understand videos on how to do just about everything (including install security software, change your router password, secure the smart devices in your home, and how to adjust your privacy settings on any device).
Learning or building a new skill isn’t always easy, but if you stop to think about it, as a senior, you’ve gained so many skills over your lifetime (far more than your juniors). So, practically speaking, building up your tech skills is one is just one more task to ace. So, lean into the challenge, have fun learning, and don’t hesitate to ask for help if you need it.
The post 7 Savvy Ways Senior Adults Can Safeguard Digital Privacy appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Just when they need financial security the most, job seekers face another challenge—getting ripped off by job scams.
Scammers will capitalize on any opportunity to fleece a victim, like the holidays with ecommerce scams and tax time with IRS scams. Now, with surging employment figures, scammers have turned to job scams that harvest money and personal information from job seekers.
In some ways, the tactics bear resemblance to online dating and romance scammers who hide behind a phony profile and tell their victims a story they want to hear, namely that someone loves them. With job scams, they take on the persona of a recruiter and lure their victims with what seems like an outstanding job offer. Of course, there’s no job. It’s a scam.
These attacks have gained a degree of sophistication that they once lacked. Years prior, scammers relied on spammy emails and texts to share their bogus job offers. Now, they’re using phony profiles on social media platforms to target victims.
Social media platforms have several mechanisms in place to identity and delete the phony profiles that scammers use for these attacks. Of note, LinkedIn’s latest community report cited the removal of more than 21 million fake accounts in the first half of 2022:
Likewise, Facebook took action on 1.5 billion fake accounts in Q3 of 2022 alone, with more than 99% of them acted on before users reported them.
Still, some scammers make their way through.
As Steve Grobman, our senior vice president and chief technology officer, was quoted in an article for CNET, the continued shift to remote work, along with remote hiring, has also made it easier for online job scams to flourish. And the figures bear that out.
In 2021, the FTC called out $209 million in reported losses due to job scams. In just the first three quarters of 2022, reported job scam losses had already reached $250 million. While year-end figures have yet to be posted, the final tally for 2022 could end up well over $300 million, a 50% uptick. And the median loss per victim? Right around $2,000 each.
While the promise of work or a job offer make these scams unique, the scammers behind them want the same old things—your money, along with your personal information so that they can use it to cause yet more harm. The moment any so-called job offer asks for any of those, a red flag should immediately go up.
It’s possibly a scam if:
In the hands of a scammer, your SSN or tax ID is the master key to your identity. With it, they can open up bank cards, lines of credit, apply for insurance benefits, collect benefits and tax returns, or even commit crimes, all in your name. Needless to say, scammers will ask for it, perhaps under the guise of background check or for payroll purposes. The only time you should provide your SSN or tax ID is when you know that you have accepted a legitimate job with a legitimate company, and through a secure document signing service, never via email, text, or over the phone.
Another trick scammers rely on is asking for bank account information so that they can wire payment to you. As with the SSN above, closely guard this information and treat it in exactly the same way. Don’t give it out unless you actually have a legitimate job with a legitimate company.
Some scammers will take a different route. They’ll promise employment, but first you’ll need to pay them for training, onboarding, or equipment before you can start work. Legitimate companies won’t make these kinds of requests.
Aside from the types of information they ask for, the way they ask for your information offers other clues that you might be mixed up in a scam. Look out for the following as well:
You can sniff out many online scams with the “too good to be true” test. Scammers often make big promises during the holidays with low-priced offers for hard-to-get holiday gifts and then simply don’t deliver. It’s the same with job scams. The high pay, the low hours, and even the offer of things like a laptop and other perks, these are signs that a job offer might be a scam. Moreover, when pressed for details about this seemingly fantastic job opportunity, scammers may balk. Or they may come back with incomplete or inconsistent replies because the job doesn’t exist at all.
Job scammers hide behind their screens. They use the anonymity of the internet to their advantage. Job scammers likewise create phony profiles on networking and social media websites, which means they won’t agree to a video chat or call, which are commonly used in legitimate recruiting today. If your job offer doesn’t involve some sort of face-to-face communication, that’s an indication it may be a scam.
Scammers now have an additional tool reel in their victims—AI chatbots like Chat GPT, which can generate email correspondence, chats, LinkedIn profiles, and other content in seconds so they can bilk victims on a huge scale. However, AI has its limits. Right now, it tends to use shorter sentences in a way that seems like it’s simply spitting out information. There’s little story or substance to the content it creates. That may be a sign of a scam. Likewise, even without AI, you may spot a recruiter using technical or job-related terms in an unusual ways, as if they’re unfamiliar with the work they’re hiring for. That’s another potential sign.
Scammers love a quick conversion. Yet job seekers today know that interview processes are typically long and involved, often relying on several rounds of interviews and loops. If a job offer comes along without the usual rigor and the recruiter is asking for personal information practically right away, that’s another near-certain sign of a scam.
This is another red flag. Legitimate businesses stick to platforms associated with networking for business purposes, typically not networking for families, friends, and interests. Why do scammers use sites like Facebook anyway? They’re a gold mine of information. By trolling public profiles, they have access to years of posts and armloads of personal information on thousands of people, which they can use to target their attacks. This is another good reason to set your social media profiles on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and other friend-oriented sites to private so that scammers of all kinds, not just job scammers, can’t use your information against you.
As a job hunter you know, getting the right job requires some research. You look up the company, dig into their history—the work they do, how long they’ve been at it, where their locations are, and maybe even read some reviews provided by current or former employees. When it comes to job offers that come out of the blue, it calls for taking that research a step further.
After all, is that business really a business, or is it really a scam?
In the U.S., you have several resources that can help you answer that question. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) offers a searchable listing of businesses in the U.S., along with a brief profile, a rating, and even a list of complaints (and company responses) waged against them. Spending some time here can quickly shed light on the legitimacy of a company.
Also in the U.S., you can visit the website of your state’s Secretary of State and search for the business in question, where you can find when it was founded, if it’s still active, or if it exists at all. For businesses based in a state other than your own, you can visit that state’s Secretary of State website for information. For a state-by-state list of Secretaries of State, you can visit the Secretary of State Corporate Search page here.
For a listing of businesses with international locations, organizations like S&P Global Ratings and the Dun and Bradstreet Corporation can provide background information, which may require signing up for an account.
Given the way rely so heavily on the internet to get things done and simply enjoy our day, comprehensive online protection software that looks out for your identity, privacy, and devices is a must. Specific to job scams, it can help you in several ways, these being just a few:
Job searches are loaded with emotion—excitement and hopefulness, sometimes urgency and frustration as well. Scammers will always lean into these emotions and hope to catch you off your guard. If there’s a common thread across all kinds of online scams, that’s it. Emotion.
A combination of a cool head and some precautionary measures that protect you and your devices can make for a much safer job-hunting experience, and a safer, more private life online too.
Editor’s Note:
Job scams are a crime. If you think that you or someone you know has fallen victim to one, report it to your authorities and appropriate government agencies. In the case of identity theft or loss of personal information, our knowledge base article on identity theft offers suggestions for the specific steps you can take in specific countries, along with helpful links for local authorities that you can turn to for reporting and assistance.
The post Job Scams—How to Tell if that Online Job Offer is Fake appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Technology has permeated almost every aspect of our lives, including our romantic involvements. This is especially evident in the increasing prevalence of dating apps among teenagers. While these platforms can offer exciting opportunities for meeting new people and exploring romantic interests, they also present a considerable risk, especially to a vulnerable age group.
As a parent, you might feel caught in a dilemma. On one hand, you want to respect your teen’s privacy and independence. On the other, you worry about the potential dangers lurking behind these digital platforms. This article aims to shed light on the risks associated with teenage use of dating apps and offers practical advice on how to navigate this tricky territory.
Before we delve into the potential harm associated with dating apps, it’s important to comprehend why they are increasingly popular among teenagers. Essentially, these platforms provide an easy and convenient way for teens to connect with others, particularly during a pandemic when physical interactions are limited.
Moreover, dating apps may seem enticing due to their perceived freedom and anonymity. They allow teens to explore their own identities and relationships without the immediate scrutiny or judgment inherent in offline social settings. Such apps also hold the promise of romance and excitement, feeding into the natural curiosity and development of adolescents.
While dating apps can help in forging connections, they also have a darker side that cannot be ignored. One of the main issues is that they often cater to an adult audience, exposing teenagers to mature content and interactions they might not be equipped to handle. This could include explicit sexual content, cyberbullying, or even predatory behavior.
Further, many apps do not verify users’ ages, making it easy for older individuals to interact with younger users – a practice that can potentially lead to grooming and exploitation. While some might argue that ‘age is just a number,’ when it comes to online safety, even a few years can make a significant difference. A 19-year-old chatting with a 14-year-old might not seem like a big deal, but when you factor in the vast differences in maturity and life experience, the dynamic becomes more concerning.
→ Dig Deeper: AI Goes Dating: McAfee Study Shows 1 in 3 Men Plan to Use Artificial Intelligence to Write Love Letters this Valentine’s Day
In addition to the immediate dangers of inappropriate content and interactions, the use of dating apps also raises serious concerns about online privacy and data security. These platforms usually require a significant amount of personal information from users — everything from their name and location to personal preferences and pictures.
This data can be misused, leading to identity theft, online stalking, or other forms of cybercrime. Also, once information is shared online, it becomes almost impossible to completely erase it. A seemingly innocent picture or remark can resurface years later, potentially affecting future career prospects or personal relationships.
Dating apps have become increasingly prevalent, opening up new avenues for meeting people. While these platforms can be a way to connect, they also pose potential dangers, especially for young users. As a parent, it’s crucial to be proactive in safeguarding your kids from the risks associated with dating apps. This guide will provide you with essential tips and insights on how to protect your children and educate them about responsible online behavior, ensuring their safety in the world of digital dating:
Confronting your teen about the risks of dating apps can be a daunting task, especially if you are met with resistance or the classic “You just don’t understand” retort. So, how can you approach this subject effectively? One of the most crucial steps is to maintain open lines of communication.
Encourage your teen to share their experiences online, and assure them that they can come to you with their concerns or fears without judgment. Regularly discussing online safety might seem repetitive, but it is a crucial aspect of ensuring your child is well-equipped to navigate the online world safely and responsibly.
Remember, banning or strictly controlling internet use might seem like the easiest solution, but it can backfire by causing your teen to become more secretive or rebellious. Instead, strive to cultivate an environment where your teen feels comfortable discussing their online activities, helping them understand the potential risks and consequences.
McAfee Pro Tip: Balancing screen time and healthy device use is a constant challenge for parents. While devices connect kids to identity and peer acceptance, they also open the door to issues like cyberbullying, predators, risky behavior, and self-image struggles. We advise you to find and identify the right time to implement parental controls.
The next step after open communication is teaching responsible online behavior. It is essential to educate our children on the basic principles of online safety. This includes understanding privacy settings, the dangers of sharing personal information, and the importance of reporting any suspicious activity.
Moreover, explaining the permanence of internet actions can help teens grasp the seriousness of their online conduct. Highlight real-life examples of individuals who have faced the consequences due to inappropriate online behavior to drive your points home.
If your child is using or is interested in using dating apps, it’s crucial to do your homework. Familiarize yourself with the apps they are using or are curious about – download them, explore their interfaces, and understand their privacy settings. This will help you create a natural dialogue about their usage and will empower you to offer guidance on their functionality and potential risks. For instance, some apps may have location-sharing features that might be dangerous, while others might have robust reporting systems against harassment or bullying.
Then, open a conversation about these apps. Discuss the benefits and dangers of using them, reinforcing the principles of responsible online behavior. This discussion should cover what information should never be shared (like home address or school location), the importance of reporting inappropriate behavior, and the potential emotional implications of engaging romantically with strangers online. By maintaining an approachable and non-judgmental attitude, your teen is more likely to listen and take your advice seriously.
→ Dig Deeper: New Global McAfee Cyberbullying Report Reveals Children Now Regularly Face Threats of Racism and Physical Harm Online
While education and open conversation are the foundation of promoting online safety, sometimes, they might not be enough. In such cases, it might become necessary to put certain restrictions in place, which can be done in collaboration with your teen. These could include setting time limits for app usage, employing parental control software, or checking the age restrictions for each app. You could also encourage your teen to only use apps with verified users.
However, these restrictions should not be imposed without discussion. It is important to involve your teen in the decision-making process, explaining your concerns and hearing their point of view. By treating them as partners in their online safety, you not only empower them to make wise decisions but also foster a sense of responsibility towards their online behavior.
Finally, building resilience in your teenager is an invaluable tool in navigating the online world. Dating apps can amplify feelings of rejection, comparison, and inadequacy. Regularly reminding them that their online interactions do not define their worth can help cultivate a healthy online attitude. You should reassure them that it’s okay to turn down advances or stop conversations that make them feel uncomfortable.
Encouraging them to keep their real-world connections strong and to participate in offline activities can also help in grounding their sense of self-worth outside of the digital realm. This resilience will not only safeguard them within the online dating scene but is a life skill that can be applied in all aspects of their lives.
→ Dig Deeper: A Safer Internet for You, Your Family, and Others Too
As parents, we find ourselves in uncharted territories, navigating a digital landscape that we did not experience in our adolescence. But with open communication, education, implementing safety measures, and building resilience, we can help our teens explore these platforms safely. Remember, the goal is not to control every aspect of their online life but to guide and empower them to make responsible choices. After all, we are not just raising children, but future adults. It might seem daunting and even overwhelming at times, but together, we can equip them with the tools they need to stay safe in the online world.
Ensuring your child’s online safety is vital, and McAfee is here to help you safeguard them against the dangers of social media platforms and dating apps. Empower yourself with online safety – opt for McAfee for a more secure and protected online experience.
The post Parents: Are Your Kids Ignoring the Danger of Dating Apps? appeared first on McAfee Blog.
As with any major holiday or special occasion, Valentine’s Day is unfortunately not immune to scammers looking for an opportunity to exploit unsuspecting individuals. Their deceitful acts can break hearts and bank accounts. In this article, we spotlight some common Valentine’s Day scams, offer tips on how to protect yourself and navigate this romantic day with confidence and caution.
Valentine’s Day is a time when love is in the air. It’s a time to express your feelings for that special someone in your life, or perhaps even embark on a new romantic journey. But while you’re busy planning that perfect dinner or choosing the ideal gift, there’s an unromantic side to the day that you should be aware of – the potential for scams.
Scammers, always looking for new ways to trick people into parting with their money, use the heightened emotions of Valentine’s Day to their advantage. They prey on the unwary, the love-struck, and even the lonely – anyone who might let their guard down in the quest for love or the pursuit of the perfect gift. And in our increasingly digital world, these unscrupulous individuals have more ways than ever to reach potential victims.
→ Dig Deeper: AI Goes Dating: McAfee Study Shows 1 in 3 Men Plan to Use Artificial Intelligence to Write Love Letters this Valentine’s Day
Knowledge is power, as the saying goes, and that’s certainly true when it comes to protecting yourself from scams. By understanding the types of scams that are common around Valentine’s Day, you can be better prepared to spot them – and avoid falling victim.
One of the most common Valentine’s Day scams is the romance scam. Scammers, often posing as potential love interests on dating websites or social media, manipulate victims into believing they are in a romantic relationship. Once they have gained their victim’s trust, they ask for money – perhaps to pay for a flight so they can meet in person, or because of a sudden personal crisis. These scams can be emotionally devastating, and they can also result in significant financial loss.
→ Dig Deeper: Fraudulent Adult Dating Services Turn 10 Years Old, Still Evolving
Another popular scam around Valentine’s Day involves online shopping. With many people seeking the perfect gift for their loved ones, scammers set up fake websites that appear to sell everything from jewelry to concert tickets. After making a purchase, the unsuspecting victim either receives a counterfeit product or, in some cases, nothing at all. Additionally, these sites may be designed to steal credit card information or other personal data.
Phishing scams are also common. In these scams, victims receive emails that appear to be from a legitimate company – perhaps a florist or a candy company – asking them to confirm their account information or to click on a link. The goal is to steal sensitive information, such as credit card numbers or login credentials.
While the existence of these scams is unquestionably concerning, the good news is that there are steps you can take to protect yourself. Valentine’s Day should be a celebration of love, not a source of stress and worry.
One of the most important is to be aware that these scams exist and to be cautious when interacting with unfamiliar people or websites. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
When shopping online, make sure the website you are using is secure, and consider using a credit card, which offers greater protection against fraud compared to other forms of payment. Be wary of emails from unknown sources, especially those that ask for personal information or urge you to click on a link.
For shopping scams, it’s recommended to do research on any unfamiliar online retailer before making a purchase. Look for reviews or complaints about the retailer on independent consumer websites. If the website is offering items at a price that seems too good to be true, it likely is. Also, consider the website’s URL. A URL that begins with ‘https://’ indicates that the website encrypts user information, making it safer to input sensitive information than on websites with ‘http://’ URLs.
Forewarned is forearmed, and having advanced strategies to detect and avoid scams is also a strong line of defense. When it comes to online dating, be sure to thoroughly vet any potential romantic interests. This involves doing a reverse image search of profile photos, which can quickly reveal if a picture has been stolen from another online source. Additionally, be aware of red flags such as overly-flattering messages or requests to move the conversation to a private email or messaging app.
McAfee Pro Tip: If you’re considering using one of these for a bit of dating beyond a dating app or simply to stay connected with family and friends, the key advice is to do your homework. Look into their security measures and privacy policies, especially because some have faced security issues recently. For more information, take a look at this article on video conferencing to ensure you can keep hackers and uninvited guests away when you’re chatting.
If you come across a scam or fall victim to one, it’s crucial to report it to the appropriate authorities. This helps law enforcement track down scammers and alert others to the scam. In the U.S., you can report scams to the Federal Trade Commission through their website. If the scam involves a financial transaction, also report it to your bank or credit card company. They may be able to help recover your funds or prevent further losses.
Additionally, take steps to protect yourself after falling victim to a scam. This could involve changing passwords, monitoring your financial accounts for unusual activity, or even freezing your credit. It can also be beneficial to alert your friends and family to the scam, both to protect them and to gain their support and assistance in dealing with the aftermath of the scam.
→ Dig Deeper: How To Report An Online Scam
The unfortunate reality is that scammers are ever-present and always looking for new ways to exploit unsuspecting victims. However, by being informed, cautious, and proactive, you can significantly decrease your chances of falling victim to a Valentine’s Day scam. Whether you’re looking for love or shopping for the perfect gift, remember to always prioritize your safety and security.
And if you do encounter a scam, take comfort in knowing that you’re not alone and there are resources available to help. McAfee’s blogs and reports are just some of them. By reporting scams to the authorities, you’re doing your part to help stop scammers in their tracks and protect others from falling victim. Remember, Valentine’s Day is a day for celebrating love, not for worrying about scammers. Stay safe, stay informed, and don’t let a scammer ruin your Valentine’s Day.
Remember to always stay vigilant. Protect your heart and your bank account, and make sure your Valentine’s Day is filled with love and happiness, not regret and frustration. Don’t let scammers break your heart or your bank account – on Valentine’s Day or on any other day.
The post Valentine’s Alert: Don’t Let Scammers Break Your Heart or Your Bank Account appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Bullying is a pervasive problem in our society, occurring in schools, workplaces, online, and even within families. It can cause immense physical and emotional pain, leading to decreased self-esteem, increased anxiety, and even suicide in extreme cases. Given its severe potential consequences, it’s critical for every one of us to take steps to end the hate and stomp out bullying.
This article explores 10 ways in which you can stand up against bullying, ranging from individual actions to community-based initiatives. Remember, each effort counts. Together, we can create a world where respect, kindness, and acceptance rule over hate and intimidation.
Before we delve into the various ways to combat bullying, it’s important to first understand what it is. The World Health Organization defines bullying as “repeated exposure to negative actions from one or more individuals.” These actions may involve physical aggression, verbal abuse, intentional exclusion, public humiliation, or harmful manipulation.
Understanding the nature and effects of bullying is the first step in combating it. Recognizing the signs of bullying is essential in identifying victims or perpetrators. Those who are bullied often exhibit signs such as unexplained injuries, poor performance or attendance at school or work, changes in eating habits, or sudden loss of friends. On the other hand, those who bully often exhibit increased aggression, difficulty accepting responsibility for their actions, and a constant need to dominate or control others.
Education is a powerful tool in the fight against bullying. By educating yourself about different forms of bullying, its impact, and why it happens, you can better understand the reasons behind these harmful behaviors and approaches to address them. Learn about not just physical and verbal bullying, but also cyberbullying, sexual bullying, prejudicial bullying, and relational aggression.
There are plenty of resources available that can help increase your understanding of bullying. Anti-bullying organizations offer detailed information on different types of bullying, how to identify them, and ways to prevent them. Books and documentaries can also provide personal narratives and insights into the effects of bullying, giving you a deeper understanding of its impact on individuals.
After educating yourself about bullying, the next step is to raise awareness. By spreading the word about bullying and its harmful effects, you can bring this issue to the forefront of more people’s minds. This can be achieved through discussions, presentations, social media campaigns, or organizing events focused on bullying prevention.
Bullying often thrives on silence and ignorance. By bringing the issue to light, you empower victims, bystanders, and even bullies to change their behaviors and attitudes. Remember, change starts with awareness. The more people know about the issue, the more they can do to help combat it.
→ Dig Deeper: What You Do Now To Protect Your Child From Cyberbullying
Empathy is a powerful weapon against bullying. By empathizing with the victim, you are not only providing emotional support but also validating their feelings and experiences. It can help them feel less isolated and more confident to stand up against the bully.
Showing empathy also extends to those who bully. It’s essential to understand that bullies often act out due to their own difficulties. Demonstrating empathy doesn’t mean condoning their actions, but rather understanding their problems and helping them seek the needed support. It also means helping them realize the harm they’re causing and encouraging them to change their patterns of behavior.
→ Dig Deeper: Digital Strategies to Safeguard Your Child from Upsetting and Violent Content Online
Good behavior is often emulated. Thus, being a good role model can have a significant effect on how others treat people around them. Show respect, kindness, and understanding in your everyday interactions, and stand up against any form of intimidation or humiliation you witness.
If you’re in a position of authority (like a parent, teacher, or manager), your role modeling has an even greater impact. Show how conflicts can be resolved calmly and respectfully, and do not tolerate any form of bullying. This not only creates a positive environment but also teaches others about the importance of respectful interactions.
→ Dig Deeper: Helping Kids Think Critically About Influencers They Follow Online
Encouraging open and honest communication can empower victims and bystanders to speak up against bullying. Many times, children and even adults are afraid to express their feelings or fear being dismissed or ridiculed. By promoting a safe and open communication environment, you can help them voice their concerns and experiences without fear of judgment or backlash.
Remember, communication goes both ways. While it’s important to encourage victims and bystanders to speak up, it’s equally crucial for parents, teachers, and friends to listen actively and offer support, guidance, and intervention if necessary.
Don’t be a silent bystander. If you witness bullying, stand up and speak out against it. Bystander intervention can make a significant difference, as it can deter the bully and comfort the victim. It can also encourage other bystanders to take action. But always ensure your own safety before intervening. If you fear a violent reaction, you should report the incident to a trusted adult or authority figure instead.
Speaking out against bullying also means challenging discrimination and prejudice whenever you encounter them. Whether it’s racism, sexism, homophobia, or any other form of bias, these attitudes often underpin bullying behavior. By challenging them, you’re helping to create a more inclusive and respectful society.
→ Dig Deeper: Instagram Takes Huge Step to Filter Bullies, Become a Kinder Social Hub
If you know someone who is a victim of bullying, reach out to them. Let them know that they’re not alone and that you’re there to support them. Encourage them to report the bullying, and offer to accompany them if they’re anxious about doing so. You can also help by listening to their experiences, validating their feelings, and providing advice or resources for coping with bullying.
Remember, bullying can have a deep psychological impact on its victims. They may be struggling with issues like anxiety, depression, or low self-esteem. So, your support can make a real difference to their mental well-being. If you’re worried about a victim’s mental health, urge them to seek help from a mental health professional.
If you witness or experience bullying, report it to a trusted adult or authority figure. This could be a teacher, school principal, HR manager, or police officer, depending on the context. Many victims of bullying fear retaliation and so, don’t report their experiences. However, reporting can initiate the process of addressing the issue and holding the bully accountable.
When reporting bullying, it’s important to be specific about what happened. Include details like who was involved, when and where it occurred, what was said or done, and whether there were any witnesses. If the bullying is happening online, take screenshots as evidence. Remember, your report can help protect not only you but also other potential victims.
There are many organizations and programs dedicated to preventing bullying and supporting victims. You can support these initiatives in various ways, such as by donating money or time, participating in their events, or spreading the word about their work. By doing so, you can contribute to their efforts to create a bully-free world.
These anti-bullying organizations and programs often provide resources for education, prevention, and intervention, as well as support services for victims. Their work is crucial in raising awareness about bullying, teaching people how to stand up against it, and giving victims the help they need to recover.
Here are some notable anti-bullying organizations and programs:
If you’re a victim of bullying, it’s essential to practice self-care. Bullying can take a toll on your mental and physical health, but taking care of yourself can help you cope with its effects. This could involve activities like exercising, meditating, journaling, or spending time with loved ones. It could also involve seeking help from a mental health professional.
Self-care is equally important for those supporting victims. Standing up against bullying is a daunting task, and it can leave you feeling stressed or overwhelmed. So, make sure to take care of your own well-being too. Remember, you can’t pour from an empty cup.
Bullying is a grave issue that affects countless individuals worldwide. Its impacts can be devastating, leading to physical, emotional, and psychological harm. However, each one of us can play a crucial role in combating bullying. By educating ourselves, raising awareness, demonstrating empathy, being good role models, encouraging communication, standing up against bullying, reaching out to victims, reporting incidents, supporting anti-bullying initiatives, and practicing self-care, we can contribute to creating a world free from bullying. Remember, every effort counts. Together, with McAfee, we can end the hate and stomp out bullying.
The post End the Hate: 10 Ways to Stand Up and Help Stomp Out Bullying appeared first on McAfee Blog.
When we come across the term Artificial Intelligence (AI), our mind often ventures into the realm of sci-fi movies like I, Robot, Matrix, and Ex Machina. We’ve always perceived AI as a futuristic concept, something that’s happening in a galaxy far, far away. However, AI is not only here in our present but has also been a part of our lives for several years in the form of various technological devices and applications.
In our day-to-day lives, we use AI in many instances without even realizing it. AI has permeated into our homes, our workplaces, and is at our fingertips through our smartphones. From cell phones with built-in smart assistants to home assistants that carry out voice commands, from social networks that determine what content we see to music apps that curate playlists based on our preferences, AI has its footprints everywhere. Therefore, it’s integral to not only embrace the wows of this impressive technology but also understand and discuss the potential risks associated with it.
→ Dig Deeper: Artificial Imposters—Cybercriminals Turn to AI Voice Cloning for a New Breed of Scam
AI, a term that might sound intimidating to many, is not so when we understand it. It is essentially technology that can be programmed to achieve certain goals without assistance. In simple words, it’s a computer’s ability to predict, process data, evaluate it, and take necessary action. This smart way of performing tasks is being implemented in education, business, manufacturing, retail, transportation, and almost every other industry and cultural sector you can think of.
AI has been doing a lot of good too. For instance, Instagram, the second most popular social network, is now deploying AI technology to detect and combat cyberbullying in both comments and photos. No doubt, AI is having a significant impact on everyday life and is poised to metamorphose the future landscape. However, alongside its benefits, AI has brought forward a set of new challenges and risks. From self-driving cars malfunctioning to potential jobs lost to AI robots, from fake videos and images to privacy breaches, the concerns are real and need timely discussions and preventive measures.
AI has made it easier for people to face-swap within images and videos, leading to “deep fake” videos that appear remarkably realistic and often go viral. A desktop application called FakeApp allows users to seamlessly swap faces and share fake videos and images. While this displays the power of AI technology, it also brings to light the responsibility and critical thinking required when consuming and sharing online content.
→ Dig Deeper: The Future of Technology: AI, Deepfake, & Connected Devices
Yet another concern raised by AI is privacy breaches. The Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal of 2018, alleged to have used AI technology unethically to collect Facebook user data, serves as a reminder that our private (and public) information can be exploited for financial or political gain. Thus, it becomes crucial to discuss and take necessary steps like locking down privacy settings on social networks and being mindful of the information shared in the public feed, including reactions and comments on other content.
McAfee Pro Tip: Cybercriminals employ advanced methods to deceive individuals, propagating sensationalized fake news, creating deceptive catfish dating profiles, and orchestrating harmful impersonations. Recognizing sophisticated AI-generated content can pose a challenge, but certain indicators may signal that you’re encountering a dubious image or interacting with a perpetrator operating behind an AI-generated profile. Know the indicators.
With the advent of AI, cybercrime has found a new ally. As per McAfee’s Threats Prediction Report, AI technology might enable hackers to bypass security measures on networks undetected. This can lead to data breaches, malware attacks, ransomware, and other criminal activities. Moreover, AI-generated phishing emails are scamming people into unknowingly handing over sensitive data.
→ Dig Deeper: How to Keep Your Data Safe From the Latest Phishing Scam
Bogus emails are becoming highly personalized and can trick intelligent users into clicking malicious links. Given the sophistication of these AI-related scams, it is vital to constantly remind ourselves and our families to be cautious with every click, even those from known sources. The need to be alert and informed cannot be overstressed, especially in times when AI and cybercrime often seem to be two sides of the same coin.
As homes evolve to be smarter and synced with AI-powered Internet of Things (IoT) products, potential threats have proliferated. These threats are not limited to computers and smartphones but extend to AI-enabled devices such as voice-activated assistants. According to McAfee’s Threat Prediction Report, these IoT devices are particularly susceptible as points of entry for cybercriminals. Other devices at risk, as highlighted by security experts, include routers, and tablets.
This means we need to secure all our connected devices and home internet at its source – the network. Routers provided by your ISP (Internet Security Provider) are often less secure, so consider purchasing your own. As a primary step, ensure that all your devices are updated regularly. More importantly, change the default password on these devices and secure your primary network along with your guest network with strong passwords.
Having an open dialogue about AI and its implications is key to navigating through the intricacies of this technology. Parents need to have open discussions with kids about the positives and negatives of AI technology. When discussing fake videos and images, emphasize the importance of critical thinking before sharing any content online. Possibly, even introduce them to the desktop application FakeApp, which allows users to swap faces within images and videos seamlessly, leading to the production of deep fake photos and videos. These can appear remarkably realistic and often go viral.
Privacy is another critical area for discussion. After the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal of 2018, the conversation about privacy breaches has become more significant. These incidents remind us how our private (and public) information can be misused for financial or political gain. Locking down privacy settings, being mindful of the information shared, and understanding the implications of reactions and comments are all topics worth discussing.
Awareness and knowledge are the best tools against AI-enabled cybercrime. Making families understand that bogus emails can now be highly personalized and can trick even the most tech-savvy users into clicking malicious links is essential. AI can generate phishing emails, scamming people into handing over sensitive data. In this context, constant reminders to be cautious with every click, even those from known sources, are necessary.
→ Dig Deeper: Malicious Websites – The Web is a Dangerous Place
The advent of AI has also likely allowed hackers to bypass security measures on networks undetected, leading to data breaches, malware attacks, and ransomware. Therefore, being alert and informed is more than just a precaution – it is a vital safety measure in the digital age.
Artificial Intelligence has indeed woven itself into our everyday lives, making things more convenient, efficient, and connected. However, with these advancements come potential risks and challenges. From privacy breaches, and fake content, to AI-enabled cybercrime, the concerns are real and need our full attention. By understanding AI better, having open discussions, and taking appropriate security measures, we can leverage this technology’s immense potential without falling prey to its risks. In our AI-driven world, being informed, aware, and proactive is the key to staying safe and secure.
To safeguard and fortify your online identity, we strongly recommend that you delve into the extensive array of protective features offered by McAfee+. This comprehensive cybersecurity solution is designed to provide you with a robust defense against a wide spectrum of digital threats, ranging from malware and phishing attacks to data breaches and identity theft.
The post AI & Your Family: The Wows and Potential Risks appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Keeping your child safe online is a growing concern for many parents. Instagram, a popular social media platform among tweens and teens, is no exception. Despite privacy settings that can effectively limit who sees your child’s posts, their Instagram bio nonetheless remains public by default. This leaves an opening through which those with ill intentions can glean personal information about your child. However, there are ways you can help safeguard your child’s Instagram bio and enhance their online safety. Here are 5 tips to consider:
The first step towards protecting your child’s online identity on Instagram starts with their profile picture. This image is the face your child presents to the world, and unfortunately, it can sometimes attract unwanted attention. As such, it’s crucial that you approve your child’s profile picture. Make sure that the photo does not in any way make your child look older than their age. For instance, if your child is 13, their photos should reflect their age and not make them look 20.
Moreover, it’s important to ensure that their chosen profile picture is not suggestive or revealing. It’s worth noting that what may seem normal to your child might come off as suggestive to others. As a parent, you need to hold your ground and make the final decision on what constitutes an appropriate profile picture.
→ Dig Deeper: McAfee Survey: Parents Share Pictures of Their Kids Online, Despite Understanding the Risks Involved
Another critical step to safeguarding your child’s Instagram bio is to carefully oversee its contents. While it’s tempting for your child to share personal information such as their age, hometown, school, favorite sports team, etc., these can potentially serve as breadcrumbs for predators. By piecing together these nuggets of data, it’s easy for individuals with ill intentions to form a complete picture of your child’s life. Therefore, it’s best to either completely omit these details or edit the bio in a way that it does not divulge any personal information.
Teach your child about digital privacy and the dangers of sharing too much online. Explain that while it may seem like sharing a tidbit about their favorite band or TV show is harmless when combined with other pieces of information, it can end up providing a clear window into their personal life.
→ Dig Deeper: Oversharing: Are You Ignoring Your Child’s Privacy When You Post Online?
Often, Instagram users will add a link to their bio that directs to another social media platform, an email address, or some other online platform. While this might seem like a simple way of connecting different aspects of their online presence, it can, unfortunately, also provide potential predators with additional ways to access your child’s personal information.
Therefore, do not allow your child to include any links in their Instagram bio. By limiting the information available about your child online, you make it harder for anyone to trace or track them, thereby enhancing their online safety.
The Geo-Tagging feature on Instagram allows users to add their exact location to their posts. While this might seem like a fun and harmless feature to your child, it can unfortunately put them at risk. Predators can use this feature to track your child’s routines, activities, and even their real-world location. This is why it’s crucial to turn off Geo-Tagging/Location-based services on your child’s Instagram account.
→ Dig Deeper: What Are the Risks of Geo-Location?
Teach your child that it’s not safe to share their location online. Make sure they understand that leaving the location feature enabled can potentially allow strangers to figure out where they live, go to school, or hang out. You can turn off this feature by going to the settings in the Instagram app and turning off the location services. Remind your child not to manually add their location to posts. If they need to share their location, they should do it privately and only with trusted friends or family.
One of the most effective ways to ensure your child’s online safety is to stay involved and keep a close eye on their online activity. While this might seem like an invasion of your child’s privacy, it’s crucial to remember that as a parent, your number one priority is keeping your child safe. Let them know that you’ll be checking their Instagram account regularly, and make sure they’re aware of the potential risks they face online.
Studies show that about 50% of teens would change their online behavior knowing their parents are watching. Digital safeguards are an essential part of maintaining online safety. Make it a regular habit to browse your child’s Instagram and monitor their posts, their followers, and the people they follow. This can help you to quickly pick up on anything suspicious and take necessary action.
McAfee Pro Tip: Although parental controls can play a significant role in nurturing positive online behaviors, it’s vital for these tools to work in tandem with a devoted and actively involved parent who is enthusiastic about guiding their children through the digital world. Explore how parental controls can contribute to the development of healthy habits.
Ensuring your child’s online safety requires a combination of education, open discussion, and vigilant monitoring. Profile pictures should be age-appropriate, and their bio free from personal details or links. Location services should be switched off for Instagram to avoid sharing real-world locations. Finally, a regular check of their Instagram account helps to keep a tab on their online activity. Remember, safeguarding your child’s Instagram bio is not about controlling them but rather, it’s about protecting them from potential online threats.
By taking these steps to safeguard your child’s Instagram bio, you not only protect them but also teach them the importance of online safety and the steps they can take themselves. In the age of growing digital threats, it is crucial to stay vigilant and proactive in protecting our children online.
The post 5 Ways to Safeguard Your Child’s Instagram Bio appeared first on McAfee Blog.
If you are the parent of a tween or teen, you know the challenge of setting and following through with consequences. You’ve worked hard to establish ground rules, but human nature and the sometimes rocky road to maturity guarantees your child will push, step, and even leap outside the agreed-upon lines. If you are like many parents, your first instinct is to restrict the thing they love the most, which is communication with their peers and the dependence they have on their phones.
There are a few problems with taking away your teen’s phone, the first of which, you know well: Taking their phone is hard on you as well because you’ve become just as dependent on instant communication via the phone as they have. Too, if your teen drives a vehicle or is away from home for the day, the phone adds a layer of safety to the family dynamic.
The second hurdle — which you may or may not realize — is that with or without their phones, most teens have created an alternative communication grid that ensures there’s barely a hiccup if anyone gets a phone taken away. To clarify: This post is not an ‘us against them’ post, or an ‘outsmart them’ strategy, it’s simply a dose of reality that may influence and inform everyday parenting decisions.
→Dig Deeper: Should You Use Near-Field Communications?
A few ways kids can maintain their social life without their phones include:
Because schools now require kids to be online to get assignments via internal assignment platforms and email, your child will likely ask you to log onto his or her laptop or family PC to do homework. In doing that, they will also quietly log on to their favorite apps SnapChat, Twitter, or Instagram account, and talk to friends non-stop. Solution: Monitor homework time.
McAfee Pro Tip: Our children who have grown up in the digital age are deeply immersed in smartphone culture. Even if you desire to disconnect and return to a simpler way of life, it would be quite challenging to achieve this while ensuring that your child remains academically competitive with their peers. Get smarter about phones and homework time with our tips.
Kids will also be asked to read or do an assignment via the iPad or tablet; you can’t cut them off from learning, right? Wrong. They can again download their favorite social apps as well as chat apps they hope you know nothing about, such as Kik Messenger. Solution: Monitor homework and TV time.
I hate to make it sound like your kids are part of the teen tech mafia, but they keep their old phones for a reason. While that old iPhone and Android may be without phone service, the social and texting apps on them can still be used—and you can bet they are. Solution: 1) If you are restricting your smartphone, you need to take away the iPod (music) as well 2) Be upfront. Ask your kids if they’ve borrowed a phone 3) Check backpacks for rogue phones.
→ Dig Deeper: The Privacy Problems with Mobile Messaging Apps
Gaming systems have chat and messaging that kids use all the time. In addition, social media and television are now overlapping, so all of the apps you get on your phone can be easily accessed via most TVs. Solution: 1) Go to the network settings on your TV and password protect it 2) Monitor media 3) Take away all media in addition to the phone.
→ Dig Deeper: How To Get Your Head Around Your Kids’ Online Gaming Life
Everything seems quiet on the posting front. You’ve checked, and your child is not posting on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, and you have their phone, so Snapchat is out, right? Not so much. If your kids are logging on to their apps via any of the devices listed above, chances are they know better than to post in the public stream. What they will be doing is using the private messaging of Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat (accessed via other devices) as an alternative way to text and communicate without feeling the loss of their personal smartphone.
So what’s the alternative to taking your child’s tech as a consequence? If you know the loopholes listed above, tech restriction is still an option (even though your child will be clearly annoyed with your roadblocks). If your child is over 16 and loves the freedom of driving, that restriction is always an excellent option.
Experts agree: Strong ground rules and equally strong communication provide the best discipline. If family rules are vague or brought up only when your child messes up (i.e., grades, responsibilities, or behavior), he or she will have a tough time staying on track. Look for empowering opportunities for your child to take responsibility for his or her mistakes.
In truth, the only way to ensure appropriate behavior both online and offline is to teach your kids about personal responsibility. This is the key aspect of parenting that sets your child up for success in the real world. The ability to manage themselves, especially when it comes to online activities, is an invaluable life skill that they will bring with them into adulthood. The best way to teach responsibility is to model it. Show them through your actions and decisions that you are worthy of their respect, and they will follow suit.
Teens need to be taught how to behave responsibly online, how to protect their privacy, avoid scams, and how to deal with cyberbullying. They need to understand the consequences of inappropriate behavior online. One good way to teach them about cyber ethics is to have regular discussions about these topics. Create an open environment where they feel comfortable to share their experiences and concerns. Then, guide them on how to respond appropriately to these situations.
Communication is the cornerstone of a healthy relationship between parent and child. As a parent, it’s important to create an atmosphere of trust, openness, and respect. Regular discussions about proper digital etiquette and responsible internet behavior are key. Make time to discuss what your teen is doing online, who they are communicating with, and what type of content they are sharing. Be open about your expectations and why they are in place. If they understand why the rules exist, they will be more likely to follow them.
Consistent communication also enables you to keep up with the rapidly changing digital landscape teens navigate daily. By maintaining an open dialogue, you will be more attuned to the latest apps, games, and social media platforms your teen is using. This way, you can stay informed about developments that might affect your teens’ online safety.
→ Dig Deeper: 10 Easy Ways to Build Up Your Family’s Online Security
Trust is a two-way street. While it’s important that your child trusts you as a parent, it’s equally important for you to demonstrate trust in them. This means giving them some level of freedom and privacy online, while also making it clear that you expect them to act responsibly. Trusting your teens to make good decisions online shows them respect which encourages them to validate your trust.
However, trust is not about blind faith. It’s about setting boundaries and expectations and then allowing your teen to prove they can stay within those boundaries. When trust is breached, it’s important to discuss why it happened, the consequences, and how it can be rebuilt. Trust building is a process, and it takes time and consistency.
Managing your teen’s digital life can be challenging, but with open communication, respect, trust and a strong focus on personal responsibility, you can navigate this digital world together. Ultimately, the goal isn’t to control your teen’s every online interaction. Rather, it’s to equip them with the knowledge, skills, and values they need to navigate the increasingly complex digital landscape safely and responsibly. Removing a teen’s phone may seem like an easy solution, but it’s far more effective to guide them toward responsible digital citizenship.
Take the step to safeguard your teen’s digital journey today, and empower them to thrive in the digital age, all while providing you with the control and confidence you need as a parent. Explore McAfee’s parental controls now and create a secure and nurturing digital environment for your teens.
The post Why Taking Your Teen’s Phone Away Doesn’t Work Anymore appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Given the climate surrounding COVID-19, many of us have had to substitute in-person social interactions with virtual communication. For parents, this includes organizing virtual playdates, hangouts, and video chats for their kids. While this provides an excellent solution for children to continue interacting with their peers, it has also opened up a new avenue for potential risks and dangers. It is imperative to ensure these virtual platforms are safe for all involved. In this article, we will provide some essential strategies for maintaining a secure and enjoyable online social environment for everyone.
The advent of technology has significantly transformed the way we communicate and interact with each other. However, as with any great invention, it also comes with potential risks and dangers, especially for kids who may not fully comprehend the implications of their online activities. With cyberbullying, online predators, and inappropriate content being just a few of the digital risks, it is crucial to establish robust safety measures when kids engage in online social activities such as virtual playdates, hangouts, and video chats.
In this article, we will explore the different ways parents and caregivers can keep these activities secure and fun. By understanding the risks involved, staying informed on the latest developments in online safety, and taking actionable steps, everyone can navigate the digital world safely and confidently.
Navigating the potential pitfalls of online interaction requires proactive measures and informed strategies. Let’s take a look at these tips on how to safeguard everyone from the inherent dangers of virtual communication, promoting a secure and positive digital experience for all.
The first step in ensuring a safe online environment for children is understanding the potential risks and how they can be mitigated. Internet safety is not just about blocking and filtering inappropriate content; it’s also about educating ourselves and our children on how to behave responsibly online and understanding the potential repercussions of our digital footprint.
Online activities, especially those involving video chats, can expose children to various risks, including cyberbullying, identity theft, and exposure to inappropriate content. These risks can have devastating consequences on a child’s mental health, self-esteem, and overall well-being. As such, it is vital for parents and caregivers to have regular conversations about these potential dangers with their children. It’s also crucial to ensure that children feel comfortable expressing any concerns or reporting any uncomfortable situations they encounter online.
→ Dig Deeper: Messenger Rooms: New Video Chat Option is Fun But Has Risks
The market is flooded with countless communication platforms, each with its features, safety measures, and potential loopholes. As a parent, choosing the right tool for your child’s online activities can be quite overwhelming. Not all platforms are created equal, and while some prioritize user safety and provide robust parental controls, others may not provide the same level of security.
When choosing a platform for your child’s virtual playdates or hangouts, consider aspects like age restrictions, privacy settings, and whether the platform allows parental controls. Additionally, evaluate the platform’s reputation regarding safety – a quick internet search can provide insights into any security issues or breaches the platform may have had in the past. Remember, the goal is to create a safe and enjoyable online experience for children.
One of the essential ways to ensure online safety for kids is by properly setting up privacy settings and parental controls on the communication tools they use. These settings can limit what information is shared and with whom, restrict access to certain content, and even set time limits for usage. Parental controls are a fantastic way of managing and monitoring your child’s online activities without being overly intrusive.
However, it’s important to note that these controls and settings are not foolproof. They should be used in conjunction with open communication and education about online safety. It’s essential to explain to children why these measures are in place, rather than just imposing them. They are more likely to follow these guidelines if they understand their purpose.
McAfee Pro Tip: Parental controls are effective in monitoring children, but nothing beats proactive digital parenting. Managing digital parenting doesn’t need to be daunting, especially when you approach it step by step. Know how parental controls and digital parenting can help create good habits.
Establishing clear guidelines for online communications is another critical aspect of ensuring a secure online environment for kids. These guidelines should be age-appropriate and cover aspects like sharing personal information, accepting friend requests, and how to behave respectfully online.
It’s also important to educate kids on the permanence of their online activities. Once something is shared online, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to completely remove it. They should understand the potential impact of their online behavior on their future, such as college admissions or job opportunities. Encouraging safe and responsible online behavior can go a long way in mitigating many of the potential risks associated with online communication.
→ Dig Deeper: Teens’ Online Behavior Can Get Them in Trouble
In addition to safety measures, it’s also important to establish some etiquette for virtual playdates to ensure they are enjoyable and respectful for everyone involved. These guidelines should include respecting others’ time, muting when not speaking to avoid background noise, and understanding when to use the chat feature versus when to speak up.
It’s also important to discuss how to handle disagreements or misunderstandings that may arise during these virtual gatherings. Encourage kids to express themselves respectfully and listen to others’ perspectives. Remind them that it’s okay to disagree with someone but that it should be done in a respectful and kind manner.
Depending on the age of your child, you may need to monitor the amount of time they spend on virtual activities. It’s easy for kids to lose track of time when they are engrossed in a fun virtual playdate or hangout. Setting and enforcing time limits can help prevent screen addiction and ensure your child has a balanced life with ample time for physical activities, schoolwork, and offline social interactions.
To make this process easier, you can use the built-in screen time management features available on most devices or utilize third-party apps that provide more detailed monitoring and control. Talk to your child about the importance of balancing online and offline activities. Make sure they understand that these limits are set out of concern for their well-being, not as a form of punishment.
Just like offline interactions, teaching kids to be respectful in their digital communications is crucial. They should understand that the same rules of kindness and respect apply, whether they’re interacting with others face-to-face or through a screen. Cyberbullying is a significant concern for many parents, and teaching children to treat others respectfully can help mitigate this risk.
Encourage your child to empathize with others by imagining how they would feel if the roles were reversed. Foster an online culture of acceptance, understanding, and respect by setting a positive example through your own online interactions. Remember, kids often emulate the behavior they see around them.
→ Dig Deeper: 5 Digital Family Values to Embrace to Make the Internet a Better Place
Open communication is the key to any successful relationship, and this holds true for your relationship with your child. Encourage them to talk to you about their online experiences, both good and bad. This can help you identify any potential problems before they escalate and provide guidance on how to handle various situations.
Ensure your child feels comfortable coming to you with any issues or concerns they may have. Make it clear that you’re there to help, not to chastise them for making mistakes. Remember, the online world can be a confusing and intimidating place for kids, and they need to know they have a trusted adult to turn to when they need help navigating it.
The online world is constantly evolving, so staying up-to-date with the latest safety tips is crucial. Regularly check reliable online safety resources and learn about the latest threats, trends, and best practices. This can help you prepare for and mitigate potential risks before they impact your child.
Consider joining online communities where parents share tips and advice about online safety. These platforms can be a great source of information and support as you navigate the digital world with your child. Remember, knowledge is power, and the more informed you are, the better you can protect your child.
In conclusion, ensuring online safety during virtual playdates, hangouts, and video chats involves a combination of selecting the right communication platforms, using privacy settings and parental controls, establishing guidelines for online communications, and promoting open, respectful interactions. As parents and caregivers, it’s essential to remain vigilant and proactive in teaching our children about online safety.
However, it’s equally important to remember that our ultimate goal isn’t to eliminate all online risks but to create a balance where our kids can enjoy the benefits of the virtual world while being mindful of its potential pitfalls. By employing the strategies discussed in this article, you can provide a safe and enjoyable online environment for your child, fostering their growth and development while ensuring their safety.
The post Keeping Virtual Play Dates, Hangouts, and Video Chats Safe for Everyone appeared first on McAfee Blog.
SMiShing, a term from ‘SMS phishing’, is a growing cyber threat that is as dangerous, if not more, than its sibling, “Phishing.” While the terms may seem comical, the repercussions of falling victim to these scams are no laughing matter. In an increasingly digital age, cybercriminals are taking advantage of our reliance on technology to steal personal information and leverage it for malicious purposes. This article provides an in-depth explanation of SMiShing, how it works, and, most importantly, how you can protect yourself from it.
In essence, SMiShing is a deceptive practice where scammers send fraudulent text messages masquerading as reputable institutions, aiming to dupe recipients into clicking on a link, calling a number, or providing sensitive personal information. The risk with SMiShing is that mobile users tend to trust their SMS messages more than their emails, making it an effective scamming tool. The best line of defense is awareness and understanding of what SMiShing is, how it operates, and the protective measures you can take against it.
The term ‘SMiShing’ is a concatenation of ‘SMS’ (short message service) and ‘Phishing’. The latter is a cybercriminal strategy, where scammers send emails that impersonate legitimate organizations with the aim of luring victims into clicking links and/or entering their login data or credentials. The word ‘Phishing’ is a play on the word ‘fishing’, depicting the tactic of baiting victims and fishing for their personal information.
SMiShing is a variant of phishing, a social engineering tactic where scammers resort to sending text messages instead of emails. These messages are engineered to appear as though they’ve been sent by legitimate, trusted organizations, leading the recipient to either click on a link or respond with their personal details. The transition from emails to text messages signals a shift in cybercrime trends, as scammers exploit the trust users place in their text messages, as opposed to their scrutiny of emails.
→ Dig Deeper: What Is Smishing and Vishing, and How Do You Protect Yourself?
Cybercriminals use sophisticated technology that allows them to generate cell phone numbers based on area codes. These phone numbers include a cell carrier’s provided extension, plus the last four random numbers. Once these phone numbers are generated, the scammers utilize mass text messaging services to disseminate their SMiShing bait, much like casting a large fishing net hoping to snare unsuspecting victims. A simple online search for “mass SMS software” will yield numerous free and low-cost programs that facilitate mass texting, revealing the ease with which these scams can be carried out.
→ Dig Deeper: What You Need to Know About the FedEx SMiShing Scam
SMiShing has proven to be effective mainly because most people have been conditioned to trust text messages more than emails. Moreover, unlike emails accessed on a PC, text messages do not allow for easy link previewing, making it risky to click on links embedded within the texts. The links either lead to malicious websites intended to steal data or prompt the download of keyloggers, tools that record every keystroke on your device, facilitating the theft of personal information. Alternatively, some SMiShing texts may trick recipients into calling specific numbers which, when dialed, incur hefty charges on the victim’s phone bill.
The first step towards protecting yourself against SMiShing is recognizing the threat. Cybercriminals often capitalize on the victim’s lack of understanding about how these scams work. They prey on the recipient’s trust in their text messages and their curiosity to view links sent via SMS. By understanding how SMiShing works, you are able to spot potential scams and protect yourself against them.
Typically, SMiShing messages are crafted to impersonate familiar, reputable organizations such as banks, utility companies, or even government institutions. They often induce a sense of urgency, pushing the recipient to act swiftly, leaving little to no time for scrutiny. The messages may alert you of suspicious activity on your account, a pending bill, or offer incredible deals that seem too good to be true. Any SMS message that prompts you to click on a link, call a certain number, or provide personal information should be treated with suspicion.
More often than not, recognizing an SMiShing scam relies on your observational skills and your ability to spot the tell-tale signs. One common red flag is poor grammar and spelling. Although this is not always the case, several SMiShing scams tend to have mistakes that professional communications from reputable institutions would not.
Another sign is that the message is unsolicited. If you didn’t initiate contact or expect a message from the supposed sender, you should treat it with suspicion. Additionally, reputable organizations usually employ a secure method of communication when dealing with sensitive information; they would rarely, if ever, ask for personal data via SMS.
Pay attention to the phone number. A text from a legitimate institution usually comes from a short code number, not a regular ten-digit phone number. Also, check whether the message uses a generic greeting instead of your name. Finally, use your common sense. If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. Also, remember that verifying the legitimacy of the text message with the supposed sender can never harm.
Many of these signs can be subtle and easy to overlook. However, staying vigilant and taking the time to scrutinize unusual text messages can save you from falling victim to SMiShing.
→ Dig Deeper: How to Squash the Android/TimpDoor SMiShing Scam
Psychological Manipulation is a critical aspect of this cyber threat, involving the art of exploiting human psychology and trust to trick individuals into revealing sensitive information or engaging in harmful actions. Even individuals with the intelligence to steer clear of scams might become vulnerable if the psychological manipulation is exceptionally compelling.
Smishing attackers employ a range of social engineering techniques that tap into human emotions, including fear, curiosity, and urgency. They often impersonate trusted entities or use personalized information to lower recipients’ guard and establish trust. The use of emotional manipulation and emotional triggers, such as excitement or outrage, further intensifies the impact of these attacks. Recognizing and understanding these psychological tactics is paramount for individuals and organizations in fortifying their defenses against smishing, empowering them to identify and resist such manipulative attempts effectively.
→ Dig Deeper: Social Engineering—The Scammer’s Secret Weapon
Arming yourself with knowledge about SMiShing and its modus operandi is the initial line of defense. Once you comprehend the nature of this scam, you are better equipped to identify it. However, understanding alone is not enough. There are several practical measures that you can adopt to safeguard your personal information from SMiShing scams.
At the top of this list is exercising caution with text messages, especially those from unknown sources. Resist the impulse to click on links embedded within these texts. These links often lead to malicious websites engineered to steal your data or trigger the download of harmful software like keyloggers. Do not respond to text messages that solicit personal information. Even if the message seems to originate from a trusted entity, it is always better to verify through other means before responding.
Furthermore, be wary of text messages that create a sense of urgency or evoke fear. SMiShers often manipulate emotions to spur immediate action, bypassing logical scrutiny. For instance, you may receive a message supposedly from your bank alerting you about a security breach or unauthorized transaction. Instead of panicking and clicking on the provided link, take a moment to contact your bank through their officially listed number for clarification.
There is also the option of using comprehensive mobile security applications. These apps provide an array of features such as text message filtering, antivirus, web protection, and anti-theft measures. Applications like McAfee Mobile Security can significantly enhance your defense against SMiShing attacks and other cyber threats.
McAfee Pro Tip: Try McAfee Mobile Security’s scam protection. It scans the URLs within your text messages to enhance your online safety. If a suspicious or scam link is detected, it will send an alert on Android devices or automatically filter out the problematic text. Additionally, it actively blocks potentially harmful links in emails, text messages, and social media if you happen to click on them by mistake, adding an extra layer of protection to your online experience.
SMiShing is a serious cyber threat that aims to exploit the trust that individuals place in their text messages. By impersonating reputable organizations and creating a sense of urgency, scammers try to trick recipients into providing personal information or clicking on malicious links. Protecting oneself from SMiShing involves understanding what it is, recognizing the threat, and adopting effective protective measures. These include being cautious of unsolicited text messages, refraining from clicking on links within these texts, and using comprehensive mobile security applications. Additionally, being aware of the red flags, such as poor grammar, unsolicited messages, and requests for sensitive information via SMS, can help in detecting potential scams. In an increasingly digital age, staying vigilant and proactive is the best way to protect your personal information from cybercriminals.
The post Understanding and Protecting Yourself from SMiShing appeared first on McAfee Blog.
As a parent and a professional in the cybersecurity industry, I am incredibly aware of the importance of online safety, particularly as it relates to children. Despite vast improvements in technology and cybersecurity, the reality is that kids lack the resources and knowledge to protect themselves against the multitude of threats that exist online. The majority of domestic tech devices, such as personal computers and smartphones, only have basic consumer antivirus software, if any at all. This puts children at significant risk of falling victim to cyber threats like malware and phishing attacks.
However, the risks children face online aren’t limited to just these digital threats. The internet, in all its vastness, also exposes our children to many other potential dangers, from online predators in gaming environments to unrestricted internet usage in their downtime. This guide is geared towards educating and providing effective strategies for parents and other concerned individuals to ensure the online safety of children.
→ Dig Deeper: Reports of Online Predators on the Rise. How to Keep Your Kids Safe.
Recent statistics from Pew Research Center found that 46% of U.S. teenagers aged 13 to 17 have encountered at least one of six different cyberbullying behaviors. Among these behaviors, name-calling is the most prevalent, with 32% of teens reporting that they have been subjected to offensive name-calling online or on their phones. Additionally, 22% have had false rumors spread about them online, and 17% have received unsolicited explicit images.
Furthermore, 15% of teenagers have dealt with persistent inquiries from someone other than a parent about their whereabouts, activities, and companions. Additionally, 10% have faced physical threats, and 7% have had explicit images of themselves shared without their consent. In total, 28% of teenagers have experienced multiple forms of cyberbullying.
→ Dig Deeper: More Dangers of Cyberbullying Emerge—Our Latest Connected Family Report
The high level of exposure and the increasing number of online threats led to the development of the McAfee’s Digital Safety Program, previously known as McAfee’s Online Safety for Kids. This program provides essential resources that can be used by cybersecurity experts to educate school children about the potential dangers that lurk online and how best to protect themselves. Over the past five years, the highly interactive program has been implemented in numerous school systems across the United States, shedding light on the depth and extent of the threats that children encounter daily.
→ Dig Deeper: McAfee Relaunches Award-Winning Online Safety Program for Kids
The McAfee Digital Safety Program is a collaborative effort that brings together the expertise of security professionals, the experiences of children, and the efforts of community partners. It involves not just theoretical learning, but also anecdotal sharing of online experiences, which greatly enhances the effectiveness of the program. Participants of the program, both children and adults alike, often leave with a profound sense of the multitude of threats that children encounter online. By sharing these real-world experiences, it allows everyone involved in the program to better understand the landscape of online dangers and reinforces the importance of adequate protection measures.
Recently, at our Technical Forum in Puerto Rico, the McAfee team and our partners introduced the Digital Safety Program to a private middle school, engaging more than 100 students from grades 6 to 8. Previous participants in the program have ranged from company owners and senior executives to sales and marketing teams. However, at this event, it was the technical experts delivering the message. This not only allowed their technical peers to understand the ease and satisfaction of participating in such a program but also inspired them to consider innovative ways of protecting children and getting their fellow peers and clients involved.
The McAfee Digital Safety Program does more than just promote online safety – it serves as a vessel of corporate social responsibility, connecting security professionals with their local communities and raising awareness of the need for better cybersecurity measures. Additionally, the program offers tangible benefits for partners involved. Many have reported increased brand awareness and appreciation from the communities they serve. Plus, delivering the online safety message serves as a valuable training tool that improves their sales and marketing skills.
While the quest for online safety for children comes with business benefits, it is an endeavor that is worth pursuing regardless. We encourage all our partners and anyone interested to learn more about the McAfee Digital Safety Program and consider how they can implement it in their local communities.
While certain elements of digital threats are beyond our control, what we can do is educate our children and ourselves about online safety and equip ourselves with tools that can help guard against such risks. McAfee’s Digital Safety Program aims to provide adequate knowledge and resources for this purpose. However, it is also important to use the available protection measures that can make the digital playground safer for our children.
One of the first measures to ensure online safety is having a strong and reliable security software installed on the devices used by children. This software should be effective in protecting against malware, phishing attacks, and other online threats. It is also important to keep the software updated, as new threats emerge regularly. Furthermore, parental control features, such as content filters and usage restrictions, can provide an extra layer of protection by limiting the exposure of children to inappropriate or dangerous online content.
Despite implementing technological measures to ensure online safety, the most effective tool is open and thorough conversations about the potential risks and threats that exist online. Children are often unaware of the potential dangers or may not fully comprehend the gravity of these threats. Therefore, it is essential to engage kids in an ongoing dialogue about online safety, equip them with the knowledge to make informed decisions, and encourage them to seek adult assistance when they encounter something unfamiliar or suspicious online.
It is important to have these discussions as early and as often as possible. But, of course, the content and tone of conversations should be age-appropriate. It is equally important to create a safe and non-judgemental environment where children feel comfortable discussing their online experiences without fear of punishment or ridicule. Building trust with children can go long way toward ensuring their safety online.
McAfee Pro Tip: Implement parental controls on their devices gradually, even if your kids may not be enthusiastic about it. This is akin to encouraging them to consume vegetables; it’s a measure taken for their well-being.
The internet is a wonderful tool for learning and communication but, like every innovation, it comes with its own set of risks and threats, especially for our children who are particularly vulnerable. As adults, we need to play our part in en/suring their online safety. Through proactive measures and ongoing open conversation’s, we can create a safer online environment for our children. Initiatives like McAfee’s Digital Safety Program are essential in making this a reality. It is a continuous journey, but the efforts to protect our children from online threats and to educate them about online safety are undoubtedly worth it.
The post Keeping Kids Safe from Online Threats appeared first on McAfee Blog.
With the reality of the digital age, the internet has become a vital part of our daily lives. While it offers immense benefits, the online world also has its potential risks. One such alarming issue involves extremist groups targeting impressionable teenagers online. An example of this is the Orlando nightclub massacre, where the gunman was believed to have been radicalized online. This guide aims to shed light on how these extremist groups operate and provide helpful measures for parents to protect their children.
According to experts, extremist groups approach their targets subtly, often presenting their ideologies as non-threatening at first. These manipulations are not limited to only social media platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter, but can be encountered in various forms like pop-up ads, hashtags, blog posts, and even videos. Extremist content is widespread online, and it has become increasingly crucial to educate your family about these threats.
Influence from these groups does not happen overnight. It often starts with behavioral changes. Common signs that a teen may be exposed to extremist ideologies include physical changes, sudden interest in fundamental values, increasingly critical towards the U.S., or constantly praising extremist violence in the news. These changes may seem minor at first, but they can lead to sinister results if left unchecked.
ISIS, among other extremist groups, has used the internet extensively for propaganda and recruitment. Their online presence is state-of-the-art and their recruitment methods are sophisticated. They primarily target impressionable teens and young adults who are often at the peak of their emotional turmoil and rebellion. They capitalize on the young person’s desire for acceptance, camaraderie and the urge to act out.
Extremist ideology is presented in a way that validates and glorifies this rebellion, treating it as an act of bravery. These groups lure in both males and females with promises of material rewards, eternal favor, adventure, and even heroism. All these appeal to the human desire for acceptance and significance, making it more appealing for impressionable youths.
The Family Institute for Online Safety (FOSI) released a report entitled “Violent Extremism: The New Online Safety Discussion”. It highlighted the ongoing threat of online extremism and the potential exposure of children to extremist content. The report recommends proactive measures such as awareness, education, and collaboration among government, community leaders, and social media companies to keep families safe from these threats.
Parents play a critical role in curbing this menace. They need to discuss current world events and the reliability of online content their children might encounter online. They should help their children develop critical thinking skills about the content they consume online, understand the motivations behind posted content and the potential manipulation involved.
As a parent, it is important to observe your child’s online behavior. This does not imply invading their privacy but rather maintaining open communication about their online activities. As recommended by the FOSI report, parents should be aware of the sites their children visit and the content they consume. Encourage your child to discuss questionable content or unusual interactions they encounter online. This open communication helps build trust and promotes a safer online environment.
Teaching your children about digital footprint is also essential. Explain how their online behavior can have real-life consequences. This can range from damaging their reputation to attracting unwanted attention from malicious figures, such as those from extremist groups. Encourage them to think twice before posting or responding to content online, and remind them that nothing they do online is truly hidden or erased.
→ Dig Deeper: 6 Tips to Help Protect and Improve Your Child’s Online Reputation
There are numerous online resources available to assist parents in mitigating the influence of online extremism on their children. These include guides on dealing with tragedy and resources to help identify and address childhood depression. Utilizing these resources can equip parents with the knowledge to address difficult situations appropriately and limit the impact on their child’s mental health. Here are some sources you might want to check out:
→ Dig Deeper: Does Your Child Have an Unhealthy Relationship with Social Media?
The digital age brings with it immense benefits and potential risks. Online extremism is a real threat, but proactive and involved parenting can help minimize its influence on our children. By staying informed about extremist tactics, maintaining open dialogue with our children about their online activities, and utilizing available resources, we can help ensure their online safety. After all, armed with knowledge and understanding, we are well-equipped to face, address, and overcome these challenges.
Improve yours and your children’s understanding of the online world with the help of McAfee. Whether it’s through educational content, parental control solutions, or security features, McAfee empowers both parents and children to make informed decisions, practice responsible online behavior, and stay safe in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
The post How Extremist Groups Target Teens Online appeared first on McAfee Blog.
In the ever-growing digital age, our mobile devices contain an alarming amount of personal, sensitive data. From emails, social media accounts, banking applications to payment apps, our personal and financial lives are increasingly entwined with the convenience of online, mobile platforms. However, despite the increasing threat to cyber security, it appears many of us are complacent about protecting our mobile devices.
Survey revealed that many mobile users still use easy-to-remember and easy-to-guess passwords. With such an increasing dependence on mobile devices to handle our daily tasks, it seems unimaginable that many of us leave our important personal data unguarded. Theft or loss of an unsecured mobile device can, and often does, result in a catastrophic loss of privacy and financial security.
The unfortunate reality of our digital era is that devices are lost, misplaced, or stolen every day. A mobile device without password protection is a gold mine for anyone with malicious intent. According to a global survey by McAfee and One Poll, many consumers are largely unconcerned about the security of their personal data stored on mobile devices. To illustrate, only one in five respondents had backed up data on their tablet or smartphone. Even more concerning, 15% admitted they saved password information on their phone.
Such statistics are troubling for several reasons. The most obvious is the risk of personal information —including banking details and online login credentials— falling into the wrong hands. A lost or stolen device is not just a device lost— it’s potentially an identity, a bank account, or worse. The lack of urgency in securing data on mobile devices speaks to a broad consumer misunderstanding about the severity of the threats posed by cybercriminals and the ease with which they can exploit an unprotected device.
→ Dig Deeper: McAfee 2023 Consumer Mobile Threat Report
Perhaps one of the most surprising findings of the survey is the difference in mobile security behaviors between men and women. This difference illustrates not just a disparity in the type of personal information each group holds dear, but also the degree of risk each is willing to accept with their mobile devices.
Broadly speaking, men tend to place greater value on the content stored on their devices, such as photos, videos, and contact lists. Women, on the other hand, appear more concerned about the potential loss of access to social media accounts and personal communication tools like email. They are statistically more likely to experience online harassment and privacy breaches. This could explain why they are more concerned about the security of their social media accounts, as maintaining control over their online presence can be a way to protect against harassment and maintain a sense of safety.
The loss of a mobile device, which for many individuals has become an extension of their social identity, can disrupt daily life significantly. This distinction illustrates that the consequences of lost or stolen mobile devices are not just financial, but social and emotional as well.
Despite the differences in what we value on our mobile devices, the survey showed a worrying level of risky behavior from both genders. Over half (55%) of respondents admitted sharing their passwords or PIN with others, including their children. This behavior not only leaves devices and data at risk of unauthorized access but also contributes to a wider culture of complacency around mobile security.
Password protection offers a fundamental layer of security for devices, yet many people still choose convenience over safety. Setting a password or PIN isn’t a failsafe method for keeping your data safe. However, it is a simple and effective starting point in the broader effort to protect our digital lives.
→ Dig Deeper: Put a PIN on It: Securing Your Mobile Devices
While the survey results raise an alarm, the good news is that we can turn things around. It all begins with acknowledging the risks of leaving our mobile devices unprotected. There are simple steps that can be taken to ramp up the security of your devices and protect your personal information.
First and foremost, password-protect all your devices. This means going beyond your mobile phone to include tablets and any other portable, internet-capable devices you may use. And, while setting a password, avoid easy ones like “1234” or “1111”. These are the first combinations a hacker will try. The more complex your password is, the sturdier a barrier it forms against unauthorized access.
Another important step is to avoid using the “remember me” function on your apps or mobile web browser. Although it might seem convenient to stay logged into your accounts for quick access, this considerably amplifies the risk if your device gets stolen or lost. It’s crucial to ensure you log out of your accounts whenever not in use. This includes email, social media, banking, payment apps, and any other accounts linked to sensitive information.
McAfee Pro Tip: If your phone is lost or stolen, employing a combination of tracking your device, locking it remotely, and erasing its data can safeguard both your phone and the information it contains. Learn more tips on how to protect your mobile device from loss and theft.
Sharing your PIN or password is also a risky behavior that should be discouraged. Admittedly, this might be challenging to implement, especially with family members or close friends. But the potential harm it can prevent in the long run far outweighs the temporary convenience it might present.
Having highlighted the importance of individual action towards secure mobile practices, it’s worth noting that investing in reliable security software can also make a world of difference. A mobile security product like McAfee Mobile Security, which offers anti-malware, web protection, and app protection, can provide a crucial extra layer of defense.
With app protection, not only are you alerted if your apps are accessing information on your mobile that they shouldn’t, but in the event that someone does unlock your device, your personal information remains safe by locking some or all of your apps. This means that even if your device falls into the wrong hands, they still won’t be able to access your crucial information.
It’s also critical to stay educated on the latest ways to protect your mobile device. Cyber threats evolve constantly, and awareness is your first line of defense. McAfee has designed a comprehensive approach to make the process of learning about mobile security not just informative but also engaging. Our array of resources includes a rich repository of blogs, insightful reports, and informative guides. These materials are meticulously crafted to provide users with a wealth of knowledge on how to protect their mobile devices, ensuring that the learning experience is not only informative but also engaging and enjoyable.
While the current state of mobile device security may seem concerning, it’s far from hopeless. By incorporating simple security practices such as setting complex passwords and avoiding shared access, we can significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized data access. Additionally, investing in trusted mobile security products like McAfee Mobile Security can provide a robust defense against advancing cyber threats. Remember, our digital lives mirror our real lives – just as we lock and secure our homes, so too must we protect our mobile devices.
The post How to Protect Your Mobile Device From Loss and Theft appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Amidst the recent heartbreaking events in the Middle East, parents now face the challenge of protecting children from the overwhelming amount of violent and disturbing content so easily accessible to children online.
Reports of unimaginable acts, including graphic photos and videos, have emerged on popular social networks, leading child advocates to call for heightened monitoring and, in some cases, the removal of these apps from children’s devices. According to a recent investigation by The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, the team adopted the personas of 13-year-olds to establish accounts on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. During a 48-hour period spanning from October 14 to 16, the researchers unearthed over 300 problematic posts. Surprisingly, a significant majority of these problematic posts, approximately 78%, were discovered on Instagram, with Snapchat hosting about 5% of them.
In today’s digital age, the consensus is clear: keeping older children informed about global events is important. However, given the abundance of real-time, violent content, the urgency to protect them from distressing material that could harm their mental well-being has become even more imperative.
In such times, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy, but we can provide valuable tips to help you monitor and minimize your child’s exposure to violent content.
To wrap up, don’t lose sight of mental and physical well-being by implementing the strategies mentioned here. By setting a strong example of a balanced digital life and open communication about real-life crises, your children will naturally pick up on how to navigate the online world. Your actions speak volumes, and they will follow your lead.
The post Digital Strategies to Safeguard Your Child from Upsetting and Violent Content Online appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Unfortunately, cyberbullying has become a prevalent and emerging threat in our digital age. This type of bullying, carried out through computers and similar technologies, including cell phones, often involves harmful or intimidating comments and public posts created with malevolent intent to humiliate the victim. It’s a phenomenon that doesn’t only affect adults but is incredibly common among young people. As a result, it’s crucial to understand how to help your children navigate and mitigate this pervasive, especially now that they can leave digital footprints anywhere and encounter people with bad intentions.
One of the distinguishing factors of cyberbullying is that, unlike traditional in-person bullying, it doesn’t simply end when the bully is out of sight. Today, bullies can virtually pursue their victims everywhere through technology. This implies that bullying can transpire without the victim’s immediate consciousness, and due to the extensive reach of social media, the bullying can be witnessed by a significantly larger audience than the conventional school playground.
Bearing in mind the challenges in getting a cyberbully to cease their harmful behavior, the most effective strategy is to educate your children about safe online habits to prevent such situations from arising in the first place.
→ Dig Deeper: More Dangers of Cyberbullying Emerge—Our Latest Connected Family Report
Evolved from the classic schoolyard bullies of old, these cyberbullies can take various forms depending on their attack vector and intent. In fact, there are said to be four types of cyberbullies: the Vengeful Angel, the Power Hungry Cyberbully, Revenge of the Nerds/Inadvertent Cyberbully, and Mean Girls. The Vengeful Angel bullies in order to protect the weak/other victims and often takes action to protect a loved one or friend. The Power Hungry archetype, however, is just a nasty, unkind person who wants to display dominance and control over others. Then there’s the Inadvertent Cyberbully, who are usually the ones getting bullied online or in real life and are typically trying to enact some form of justice or revenge anonymously from the web. Mean Girls are the opposite – and take their online actions in order to impress a group of friends or gain social status.
Not only is there a variety in the kinds of bullies across the web, but also many types of cyberbullying techniques these meanies use to bother their victims. First and foremost, there’s harassment, which involves repeated, offensive messages sent to a victim by a bully on some type of online medium. These messages can be rude, personal, and even threatening, with one recent example emerging between two wives of professional hockey players. Similar to harassment is Flaming – an online fight conducted via emails, social media messages, chat rooms, you name it.
Then there are very targeted attacks, named Exclusion and Outing. With Exclusion, cyberbullies select one individual to single out. Exclusion is a popular method, with examples everywhere, from high students in Iowa to well-known celebrities. With Outing, these harassers share private information, photos, and videos of a single person to humiliate them online. There’s also the anonymous angle, AKA Masquerading, where a cyberbully creates a fake online identity to belittle, harass, and degrade their victim – which a nurse in New Zealand was a victim of for a whopping five years.
Parents should inform their children that their online activities will be monitored using parental control software. Explaining how this software works and how it can protect them is essential. This policy should be well established before your child gets their phone or computer.
Furthermore, parents should discuss cyberbullying with their children and help them understand how it happens. This discussion should take place before your child gets their devices. Before a child gets their own digital devices, they must disclose their passwords to their parents. Parents can reassure them that these passwords will only be used during emergencies.
A condition set before children get their own digital devices is that they should consent to instructions on smart online habits. Importantly, they must understand that once something is posted online, it stays there forever.
Another essential guideline for owning a device is that children should be cautious about their personal information. They should be advised not to publicly share their cell phone number and email address and should never disclose their passwords, even to close friends.
→ Dig Deeper: 8 Signs It May Be Time for Parental Controls
Once your child obtains their digital devices, engaging in role-playing exercises with them is suggested. This allows parents to simulate scenarios where the child might encounter a cyberbully, teaching them appropriate responses. This exercise can also provide a safe space for your child to practice dealing with cyberbullying tactics and learn to act assertively without resorting to aggression or submission.
In this role-playing activity, parents should encourage their children to report any bullying incidents, even if it is simulated or perceived as insignificant. This activity not only cultivates resilience but also reassures children that they won’t be blamed or punished for being a victim of cyberbullying.
Parents must maintain vigilance regarding their child’s internet activities despite all preventive measures. Regular check-ins and encouraging open communication about their online experiences can create a strong bond of trust between parents and children. Assure them they can approach you without fear if they are bullied online. Encourage them to share any suspicious interactions and reassure them that they won’t be in trouble for reporting cyberbullying incidents.
If possible, try to familiarise yourself with the social media platforms that your children are using. Understanding these platforms can provide insight into their online experience and potential risks. Such knowledge can be valuable when initiating discussions about cyberbullying, providing tangible examples and relatable scenarios.
McAfee Pro Tip: Get McAfee’s parental control to safeguard your children against online threats and cyberbullying. With its features, you can actively supervise your kids’ online interactions, establish usage time restrictions, and prevent exposure to inappropriate content. This reassures you that your children can explore the online realm while enjoying a layer of protection.
Cyberbullying is a complex issue that evolves with the rapid advancements of technology and social media platforms. Therefore, parents must stay updated about the latest forms of cyberbullying and the newest safety settings available on various platforms. Parents should also regularly educate themselves about digital safety and responsible internet usage and share this information with their children to boost their awareness and readiness.
Parents and children can attend webinars, workshops, and seminars about cyberbullying and online safety. Learning together provides a good bonding exercise and ensures that both parties are on the same page. Schools and local community centers often offer resources and programs for cyberbullying awareness and prevention.
→ Dig Deeper: Cyberbullying’s Impact on Both Society and Security
Typically, cyberbullying is common among teens navigating the trials and tribulations of middle and high school. But that doesn’t mean it’s exclusive to teens, and that doesn’t mean there aren’t steps parents and kids alike can do to stop cyberbullying in its tracks.
If you’re the subject of cyberbullying, the first thing you need to do is block the bully. Then, make sure you collect evidence – take screenshots, print the proof, and do whatever you can to have material to back up your claim. It depends on the type of cyberbullying at work, but you can also use the internet to your advantage and look up relevant resources to aid with your issue.
If you’re a parent, the most important thing is communication. Make yourself available as a resource and remind your kids that they can tell you anything happening in their online world. Beyond that, continuously weave cybersecurity into your family discussions. Remind kids of the simple steps to be safe online, and ensure they know when to flag a cyberbully or online scheme.
There are also technical avenues you can take to protect your kid online. Look into solutions that will help you monitor your family’s online interactions, such as McAfee Safe Family. This solution, for instance, can help you set rules and time limits for apps and websites and see what your kids are up to at a glance. Of course, these solutions are not the be-all and end-all for stopping cyberbullying, but they can help.
Now, there’s still a lot more research that has to be done to understand the cyberbullying problem society is faced with fully. So, as this problem continues to evolve, so must the research, solutions, and regulations that will be created to combat the issue. With the right proactive action, people everywhere can stand up to cyberbullies.
→ Dig Deeper: Cyberbullying – How Parents Can Minimize Impact On Kids
In conclusion, cyberbullying is a pressing issue that requires continuous attention and education. By teaching your children what it is and how it happens, setting up rules for responsible device usage, conducting role-play exercises together, and staying informed about their online activities, you can better equip them to navigate the digital world safely. Remember, the ultimate goal is not to control your child’s online activities but to empower them with the tools and understanding necessary to protect themselves online.
The post A Detailed Guide on Cyberbullying appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Despite the extensive media coverage and awareness campaigns, it’s harrowing to admit that children, particularly vulnerable teenagers, are still targeted by online predators. This is not a matter exclusive to the “other” kids – it affects everyone, and young individuals’ innocent and accepting nature often leads them into the dangerous trap of these predators.
As parents, caregivers, and mentors, it’s our responsibility to educate and guide our children about the virtual perils that lurk within their screens. An essential part of this is continuous communication, ensuring they understand the gravity of the situation and can recognize the deceptive tactics employed by these predators.
A heartbreaking example of how these predators operate is the story of Nicole Lovell, a 13-year-old girl who made headlines not long ago. Nicole met David Eisenhauer, an engineering student from Virginia Tech, through the messaging app Kik. Their relations initially seemed harmless, characterized by playful flirtations and shared stories. However, their friendship took a horrific turn when they decided to meet in person, leading to Nicole’s tragic demise. Her body was found shortly after their encounter.
David exhibited no signs of having a ‘dark side,’ an aspect that made their meeting seem all the more innocent. This incident is a stark reminder that anyone can fall prey to such predators, regardless of their background or circumstances. This is why discussing and dissecting such incidents with our children is crucial to teaching them the harsh realities of the digital world.
Identifying an online predator’s markers is a critical aspect of child safety education. More often than not, these individuals are cunning and mentally unbalanced and spend a significant amount of their time seeking and ‘grooming’ their prospective victims online. The ultimate goal of these predators is to exploit children, either by convincing them to send inappropriate photos or by meeting them in person.
Initiating a continuous dialogue with your children about these predators is crucial. Make them aware of the tactics these individuals employ, such as appearing overly friendly or empathetic. Let them know that predators will go to any length to appear younger and more relatable.
→ Dig Deeper: Reports of Online Predators on the Rise. How to Keep Your Kids Safe
Addressing such a sensitive issue with your children can be challenging but necessary. Start by discussing cases like Nicole’s, focusing not only on the tragic outcome but also on the lead-up events and why she may have developed such a strong online connection. Discussing how innocent online friendships can spiral into dangerous situations can be an excellent eye-opener for your kids.
It’s crucial to teach your kids to look out for strangers who are “too friendly” or excessively understanding. Tell them that predators keep themselves updated with the latest movies, music, and trends to seem younger and easily start conversations with children. Remember, predators will say anything to appear more youthful than they actually are.
You don’t always know what your children are doing online. Their digital footprints could be anywhere. That’s why it is imperative to understand the red flags and warning signs that may signal a hazardous online interaction, especially when they already encounter a predator, and you’re still in the shadow.
Reinforcing the importance of online privacy is a crucial step in protecting your kids from virtual predators. Teach your children that personal information such as their full name, address, school, and phone number should never be shared online. They must also understand that specific images and details about their life can also reveal too much to an online predator. Remind them to limit geotagged photos as this can expose their location, and also to strictly control who is able to view their social media accounts.
→ Dig Deeper: Why You Should Think Before Geotagging that Selfie
Explain to your kids the dangers of accepting friend requests or communicating with strangers online. Make them aware that individuals posing as children or teenagers could be adults with malicious intent. Reinforce that anyone who asks them to keep a conversation secret or requests for personal information or inappropriate content is a potential danger, and they should inform you immediately if this occurs.
→ Dig Deeper: Making Online Safety a Priority for Our Tech-Savvy Children
As parents, we must stay informed about our children’s online activities, which goes far beyond just asking them about it. This can involve regularly reviewing their social media profiles and friends lists and ensuring they only interact with people they know personally. Familiarize yourself with the platforms and apps your children use to comprehend their functionalities and potential risks better.
Creating house rules regarding internet use can be an effective measure to ensure online safety. This could involve having specific periods when the internet can be used, limiting the time spent online, and setting out where internet-access devices can be used. For instance, allowing internet use only in common areas instead of bedrooms can be a good practice. It is essential to have ongoing dialogues about these rules and their reasons so your children can understand and appreciate their importance.
In an age where the online world is a significant part of our children’s lives, online safety education is essential. It’s crucial that, as parents, caregivers, and mentors, we take proactive steps to protect our children from the pervasive threat of online predators. This means having open and ongoing conversations about the real dangers that can lurk behind a screen, teaching kids to guard their online presence, and implementing online safety measures. Together, we can ensure the internet becomes safer for our children to learn, explore, and connect with others. Protect your whole family with McAfee+ Family plans.
The post Could Your Kids Spot an Online Predator? appeared first on McAfee Blog.
In today’s world, most communication happens through the internet, facilitated by numerous applications. The web is a lively center filled with various activities such as news, videos, education, blogs, gaming, activism, and entertainment. Notably, social media apps have morphed into the digital meeting points for netizens. Our society is undeniably superbly interconnected, and our digital persona is greatly treasured.
However, this isn’t always beneficial, especially for teenagers who may be overwhelmed by the deluge of information, leading to stress. Stress is a common part of our daily lives, emerging from our education, employment, relationships, and surroundings. A similar situation transpires online. In fact, we tend to cope with stress by expressing our frustrations, confronting problems directly, or evading the issue altogether. Yet, the ways to cope with stress in the virtual world differ. Online stress can arise from unique triggers, and its repercussions can rapidly escalate and proliferate at an alarming rate.
The rise of social media has brought a concerning phenomenon – social media stress in children. As these young individuals navigate the complex virtual world, they often encounter a range of stressors that can significantly impact their emotional and psychological well-being. Understanding these underlying causes is a crucial step in addressing and mitigating the adverse effects of social media on our younger generations. Let’s delve into the causes of social media stress in children and shed light on the various factors that contribute to this growing issue:
Besides the more obvious and well-documented sources of social media stress in children, there exist several other significant triggers that contribute to the overall stress levels experienced by young individuals in the digital age, and these may include:
→ Dig Deeper: The Ultimate Guide to Safe Sharing Online
→ Dig Deeper: More Dangers of Cyberbullying Emerge—Our Latest Connected Family Report
→ Dig Deeper: 5 Screen Time Principles to Establish When Your Kids are Still Babies
Parenting plays a major role in helping children learn how to tackle social media stress. As parents, you know your children the best. Yes, even teens. Observe them, and if you note any change in their social media habits or general behavior, talk to them. The earlier you start having frank one-to-one conversations, the easier it will be for you later. But before that, you may need to modify your response to stress and learn to control your reactions. That way, you will teach them a very important lesson without using a single word.
Children can learn to manage social media stress by developing a healthy online etiquette and creating boundaries for their online activities. Encourage them to accept differences and realize that people have varied opinions. Remind them not to make judgments based on someone’s online bio and pictures and to understand that life isn’t a bed of roses for anyone. Another important step is to help them understand how important it is to respond tactfully when things get heated online. It’s essential that they understand the power of choosing not to engage in online altercations. Being silent doesn’t mean they’re weak but smart enough not to get provoked. If any online situation becomes too intense, they should be encouraged to report and block the perpetrator immediately.
McAfee Pro Tip: Since each child’s level of maturity and cognitive capacity to manage online challenges varies, a one-site-fits-all approach to balancing social media and mental health won’t work for everyone. Find tips on how to find the best method for your child.
One of the keys to managing stress caused by social media is ensuring that kids practice digital balance. Set screen time limits and encourage them to make and maintain friendships in the real world. In-person interactions promote emotional growth and provide a well-rounded social experience. Moreover, it’s crucial to instill the idea that maturity is about staying true to their values and wisdom lies in identifying the negatives and avoiding them. Just as they would in the physical world, they should be aware that the digital world comprises both good and bad elements. This awareness can help them navigate online spaces safely. Let them know the importance of applying their real-life values in the digital world and the mantra of STOP, THINK, CONNECT, should always be in their mind before posting anything online.
→ Dig Deeper: 6 Steps to Help Your Family Restore Digital Balance in Stressful Times
In conclusion, parents play a crucial role in helping their children tackle social media stress. By observing their kids’ behavioral changes, having open conversations, and setting appropriate boundaries for their online activities, parents can help their kids navigate the digital world safely. Encouraging children to accept differences, practice tact, maintain digital balance, and be aware of the good and bad online can help alleviate the stress caused by social media. Ultimately, the goal is to create a healthier and happier online space for children, free from unnecessary stress.
Improve your digital parenting with McAfee’s Parental Controls. This security tool allows parents to monitor device usage, set limits on screen time, and even keep tabs on kids’ whereabouts.
The post Handling Social Media Stress for Teens appeared first on McAfee Blog.
As we all look forward to the sunshine and freedom of summer, it’s important to remember that not all elements of the school year disappear with the ringing of the final bell. In our increasingly digital age, cyberbullying has become a pervasive issue that can affect kids even during their summer break. This guide will help parents understand the issue, recognize the signs, and provide practical strategies to protect their kids from cyberbullies.
Summer break should be a time of fun-filled days, exploration, relaxation, and a break from the rigors of the school year. However, with the increase in leisure time comes a corresponding increase in screen time, and, unfortunately, this often results in an uptick in instances of cyberbullying. As the McAfee survey in 2014 revealed, 87% of teenagers reported witnessing cyberbullying, a significant increase from the previous year. The reasons for being targeted varied, with appearance, race, religion, and sexual orientation all cited as factors. Given this reality, parents must remain vigilant during the summer months. Keeping an eye on your child’s online activities, encouraging open communication, and intervening when necessary can make the difference between a summer of fun and one of fear and isolation. → Dig Deeper: More Dangers of Cyberbullying Emerge—Our Latest Connected Family Report
When confronted with bullying, our instinctive reactions aren’t always the best. Here are three things you should avoid doing when addressing cyberbullying:
Prevention is the best cure, and there are several proactive steps you can take to minimize the risk of your child being cyberbullied:
→ Dig Deeper: Protecting Your Privacy on Social Media
→ Dig Deeper: Beware of Malicious Mobile Apps
Despite taking precautions, there may be instances where cyberbullying can’t be immediately prevented. In such situations, it is crucial to know what steps to take to mitigate the impact and bring the bullying to an end:
Addressing the issue of cyberbullying can be a complex task. The emotional wounds inflicted by this abuse can be deep and long-lasting. Therefore, it’s indispensable that your child feels supported and understood. Maintain an open line of communication with your child, creating a secure and trusting environment where they can comfortably express their feelings and fears. It might also be beneficial to seek professional help when dealing with cases of severe bullying. Therapy or counseling can provide your child with effective coping strategies, helping them regain their confidence and self-esteem. McAfee Pro Tip: While numerous aspects of the digital world remain beyond our control, one aspect where we wield significant influence is our commitment to protecting the well-being of our family members in both the digital and mental realms. Mental health always matters. Find ways to support your child online and offline.
Preventing cyberbullying starts at home. By teaching our children the values of empathy and respect, we can contribute to a more positive online culture. Incorporate digital citizenship lessons into your everyday conversations, emphasizing the importance of treating others kindly offline and online. Teach your children to think before they post and remind them that behind every screen, there’s a real person who can be hurt by their words. Building respect and empathy can discourage cyberbullying and inspire children to stand against it. → Dig Deeper: Cyberbullying’s Impact on Both Society and Security
Parenting in the digital age brings with it new challenges and responsibilities. Cyberbullying is a significant issue that requires our attention and vigilance, especially during the summer when screen time increases. Equip your child with the right tools to protect themselves online, foster open communication at all times, and support them in the face of adversity. Remember, the goal is for our children to enjoy their digital interactions and have a safe, enjoyable summer free from the threat of cyberbullying. Improve your family’s digital habits, privacy, and safety with McAfee’s Parental Controls. This security tool allows parents to oversee device usage, establish screen time restrictions, and even track the locations of their children.
The post Help Kids Steer Clear of Cyberbullies During Summer Break appeared first on McAfee Blog.
We reported earlier this year, a fresh rash of online job scams continue to rope in plenty of victims. Now, those victims are taking to TikTok with a warning.
https://www.tiktok.com.mcas.ms/@thenamesamber/video/7188616142062275886
Source, thenamesamber on TikTok
Take the story thenamesamber told on TikTok. It starts out like many. Amber wanted a job that allowed remote work, and luckily enough, a recruiter reached out to her through an online recruiting site with an opportunity.
From there, the recruiter directed Amber to download a messaging app, which the company would use for the interview process. The interview went just fine, Amber got a job offer, and then the company asked Amber for a home address.
Here’s where the catch comes in.
Amber goes on to say that the company sent her a check by overnight mail, a check she should use to buy equipment. A check for nearly $5,000. For days, the check didn’t post. The company repeatedly asked for update. Had it posted yet? Had it posted yet?
At this point, Amber said she got suspicious. She contacted her bank. The check had a hold placed on it, and according to Amber, she was charged a fee and her account frozen for days. In speaking with her bank, Amber was told that the check was bad and that she was the victim of a scam. The bank has seen a lot of it lately, said Amber.
Yet based on what we’ve seen, Amber got lucky.
Victims and banks sometimes fail to spot the scam as it unfolds. In those cases, the check gets posted and the scammers tell the victim to forward the money to another person who’ll purchase equipment for them. Usually by way of an online payment app.
Days later, the check bounces for insufficient funds. Meanwhile, victims get burdened with the fraud reporting process — with their bank and with the payment app they used. Depending on the means and terms of payment, some or all of that money might be gone for good. And as a result, the scammers get a few thousand dollars richer.
If you spend some time on social media, you’ll stumble across plenty of videos that tell this exact story in one form or another. And with each story, you’ll find dozens of people sharing that the same thing happened, or almost happened, to them.
We’re glad people are taking to TikTok to share their stories, even as sharing those stories can get painful. You can avoid these scams. Part of it involves awareness. They’re still going strong. The next part counts on you and your sharp eye to spot sketchy behavior when you see it.
We’ll show you how, and that begins with a look at where these scams take place.
Employment figures continue to surge. It’s a hot job market out there, and when things get hot, you’ll find scammers looking to turn a buck. It’s much like tax season and gift-giving holidays. Scammers will take advantage of trends and seasonal events where people go online and there’s money involved. Job scams are no different.
Where do these scams crop up?
As we reported earlier this year and as TikTok videos have shared, many appear to originate from trusted online recruiting platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed. Scammers will either set up a bogus company or pose as a representative of a legitimate company. In other cases, job scams take root on social media. Here, scammers play the same game—set up a bogus company or impersonate a legitimate one.
From there, stories like Amber’s unfold.
Without question, recruiting and social media platforms know what’s going on and take steps to quash scam accounts.
For example, LinkedIn’s latest community report cited the removal of more than 21 million fake accounts in the first half of 2022:
Likewise, Facebook took action on 426 million fake accounts in Q1 of 2023 alone, with nearly 99% of them acted on before users reported them.
In its guidelines for a safe job search, Indeed mentions the global teams “dedicated to the safety and authenticity of the jobs posted on our platform.”
Still, some scammers make their way through to these platforms and others like them.
Our earlier advice on the topic still holds true. You can spot scams several ways, particularly when you know that scammers want your money and personal information as quickly as possible. The moment any so-called job offer asks for any of those, a red flag should immediately go up.
It’s possibly a scam if:
They ask for your Social Security or tax ID number.
In the hands of a scammer, your SSN or tax ID is the key to your identity. With it, they can open up bank cards, lines of credit, apply for insurance benefits, collect benefits and tax returns, or even commit crimes, all in your name. Needless to say, scammers will ask for it, perhaps under the guise of a background check or for payroll purposes. The only time you should provide your SSN or tax ID is when you know that you have accepted a legitimate job with a legitimate company. Only sent it through a secure document signing service, never via email, text, or over the phone.
They want your banking information.
Another trick scammers rely on is asking for bank account information so that they can wire a payment to you. As with the SSN above, closely guard this information and treat it in exactly the same way. Don’t give it out unless you have a legitimate job with a legitimate company.
They want you to pay before you get paid.
Some scammers will take a different route. They’ll promise employment, but first you’ll need to pay them for training, onboarding, or equipment before you can start work. Legitimate companies won’t make these kinds of requests. Amber’s check story provides a good example of this.
They tell you to download a specific messaging app to communicate with them.
Victims report that the scammers require a specific app to chat and, sometimes, to conduct the interview itself. Apps like Signal and Wire get mentioned, yet rest assured that these apps themselves are legitimate. The scammers are the problem, not the apps. Consider it a warning sign if someone asks you to largely communicate this way.
Aside from the types of information they ask for, the way they ask for your information offers other clues that you might find yourself mixed up in a scam. Look out for the following as well:
1) The offer is big on promises but short on details.
You can sniff out many online scams with the “too good to be true” test. Scammers often make big promises during the holidays with low-priced offers for hard-to-get holiday gifts and then don’t deliver. It’s the same with job scams. The high pay, the low hours, and even the offer of things like a laptop and other perks, these are signs that a job offer might be a scam. Moreover, when pressed for details about this seemingly fantastic job opportunity, scammers might balk. Or they might come back with incomplete or inconsistent replies because the job doesn’t exist at all.
2) They communicate only through email or chat.
Job scammers hide behind their screens. They use the anonymity of the internet to their advantage. Job scammers likewise create phony profiles on networking and social media websites, which means they won’t agree to a video chat or call, which are commonly used in legitimate recruiting today. If your job offer doesn’t involve some sort of face-to-face communication, that indicates it might be a scam.
3) And the communications seem a little …off.
Scammers now have an additional tool to reel in their victims — AI chatbots like Chat GPT, which can generate email correspondence, chats, LinkedIn profiles, and other content in seconds so they can bilk victims on a huge scale. However, AI has its limits. Right now, it tends to use shorter sentences in a way that seems like it’s spitting out information. There’s little story or substance to the content it creates. That might be a sign of a scam. Likewise, even without AI, you might spot a recruiter using technical or job-related terms in unusual ways, as if they’re unfamiliar with the work they’re hiring for. That’s another potential sign.
4) Things move too quickly.
Scammers love quick conversion. Yet job seekers today know that interview processes are typically long and involved, often relying on several rounds of interviews and loops. If a job offer comes along without the usual rigor and the recruiter is asking for personal information practically right away, that’s another near-certain sign of a scam.
5) You get job offers on Facebook or other social media sites not associated with job searches.
This is another red flag. Legitimate businesses stick to platforms associated with networking for business purposes, typically not networking for families, friends, and interests. Why do scammers use sites like Facebook anyway? They’re a gold mine of information. By trolling public profiles, they have access to years of posts and armloads of personal information on thousands of people, which they can use to target their attacks. This is another good reason to set your social media profiles on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and other friend-oriented sites to private so that scammers of all kinds, not just job scammers, can’t use your information against you.
As a job hunter you know that getting the right job requires some research. You look up the company, dig into their history—the work they do, how long they’ve been at it, where their locations are, and maybe even read some reviews provided by current or former employees. When it comes to job offers that come out of the blue, it calls for taking that research a step further.
After all, is that business really a business, or is it really a scam?
In the U.S., you have several resources that can help you answer that question. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) offers a searchable listing of businesses in the U.S., along with a brief profile, a rating, and even a list of complaints (and company responses) waged against them. Spending some time here can quickly shed light on the legitimacy of a company.
Also in the U.S., you can visit the website of your state’s Secretary of State and search for the business in question, where you can find when it was founded, if it’s still active, or if it exists at all. For businesses based in a state other than your own, you can visit that state’s Secretary of State website for information. For a state-by-state list of Secretaries of State, you can visit the Secretary of State Corporate Search page here.
For a listing of businesses with international locations, organizations like S&P Global Ratings and the Dun and Bradstreet Corporation can provide background information, which might require signing up for an account.
Given the way we rely so heavily on the internet to get things done and enjoy our day, comprehensive online protection software that looks out for your identity, privacy, and devices is a must. Specific to job scams, it can help you in several ways, these being just a few:
Amber’s story, and stories like hers have racked up nearly a quarter-billion dollars in reported losses in the first half of this year here in the U.S. The median loss, somewhere around $2,000 per victim.
Job scams persist. In fact, they’ve increased by nearly 25% this year compared to this time last year. It’s no surprise that scam stories on TikTok keep racking up. Yet as you’ve seen, awareness and a sharp eye can help you avoid them.
Editor’s Note:
Job scams are a crime. If you think that you or someone you know has fallen victim to one, report it to your authorities and appropriate government agencies. In the case of identity theft or loss of personal information, our knowledge base article on identity theft offers suggestions for the specific steps you can take in specific countries, along with helpful links for local authorities that you can turn to for reporting and assistance.
The post Online Job Scams – TikTokers Tell Their Stories, with a Warning appeared first on McAfee Blog.
You can almost feel it in the air. Wi-Fi is everywhere. And if you tap into public Wi-Fi, do it with a VPN.
The keyword in public Wi-Fi is “public.” That means anyone else on the network can see what you’re connecting to and what data you’re passing along, with a little effort. Your credit card number while you shop. Your password when you bank. That confidential contract you just sent to a client. And your logins for social media too. It’s all an open book to anyone who has the tools to snoop.
What tools let them snoop? Network analyzers, or packet sniffers as many call them, can read the data traffic that travels across a network. And because public Wi-Fi networks are open, so is the data traffic — loaded with your credentials, personal info, and so on. A bad actor can gather up data with a packet sniffer, analyze it, and pluck out the sensitive bits of information that are of value.
This is where a VPN comes in. It makes any network private. Even on public Wi-Fi.
Let’s take a look at what a VPN is, how it works, and why it’s your friend on public Wi-Fi.
A VPN is an app that you install on your device to help keep your data safe as you browse the internet. When you turn on your VPN app, your device makes a secure connection to a VPN server that routes internet traffic. Securely. This keeps your online activity private on any network, shielding it from prying eyes. Thus, while you’re on a VPN, you can browse and bank with the confidence that your passwords, credentials, and financial information are secure. If any malicious actors attempt to intercept your web traffic, they’ll only see garbled content, thanks to your VPN’s encryption functionality.
Every internet connection is assigned a unique set of numbers called an IP address, which is tied to information such as geographic location or an Internet Service Provider (ISP). A VPN replaces your actual IP address to make it look like you’ve connected to the internet from the physical location of the VPN server, rather than your real location. This is just one reason so many people use VPNs.
To change your IP address, you open your VPN app, select the server location you’d like to connect to, and you’re done. You’re now browsing with a new IP address.
An ideal case for using a VPN is when you’re using public Wi-Fi at the airport, a café, hotel, or just about any place “free Wi-Fi” is offered. The reason being is that these are open networks, and any somewhat enterprising cybercriminal can tap into these networks and harvest sensitive information as a result. One survey showed that 39% of internet users worldwide understand public Wi-Fi is unsafe, yet some users still bank, shop, and do other sensitive things on public Wi-Fi despite the understood risks.
Further, you have your privacy to consider. You can use a VPN to help stop advertisers from tracking you. Searches you perform and websites you visit won’t get traced back to you, which can prevent advertisers from gleaning information about you and your online habits in general. Moreover, some ISPs collect the browsing history of their users and share it with advertisers and other third parties. A VPN can prevent this type of collection as well.
A VPN protects your search history through the secure connection you share. When you search for a website, or type a URL into your navigation bar, your device sends something called a DNS request, which translates the website into the IP address of the web server. This is how your browser can find the website and serve its content to you. By encrypting your DNS requests, a VPN can hide your search habits and history from those that might use that info as part of building a profile of you. Others might use this info in a wide variety of ways, from legitimately serving targeted ads to nefarious social engineering.
Note that a VPN is quite different and far, far more comprehensive than using “Private Mode” or “Incognito Mode” on your browser. Those modes only hide your search history locally on your device—not from others on the internet, like ISPs and advertisers.
No, a VPN can’t make you anonymous. Not entirely anyway. They help secure what you’re doing, but your ISP still knows when you’re using the internet. They just can’t see what you’re doing, what sites you visit, or how long you’ve been on a site.
Apple’s Private Relay is similar to a VPN in that it changes your IP address so websites you visit can’t tell exactly where you are. It works on iOS and Macs as part of an iCloud+ subscription. Yet there is one important distinction: it only protects your privacy while surfing with the Safari browser.
Per Apple, it works like this:
When Private Relay is enabled, your requests are sent through two separate, secure internet relays. Your IP address is visible to your network provider and to the first relay, which is operated by Apple. Your DNS records are encrypted, so neither party can see the address of the website you’re trying to visit. The second relay, which is operated by a third-party content provider, generates a temporary IP address, decrypts the name of the website you requested, and connects you to the site. All of this is done using the latest internet standards to maintain a high-performance browsing experience while protecting your privacy.
Check to see if Apple Private Relay is available in your country or region. If you travel somewhere that Private Relay isn’t available, it’ll automatically turn off and will notify you when it’s unavailable and once more when it’s active again. You can learn more about it here , and how you can enable it on your Apple devices.
Private Relay only works with Safari on iOS and macOS as part of an iCloud+ subscription. Even if you are using an Apple device, a VPN is still a good idea because it’ll protect the information that your device sends outside of Safari — such as any info passed along by your apps or any other browsers you might use.
An unlimited VPN with bank-grade encryption comes as part of your McAfee+ subscription and provides the security and privacy benefits above with bank-grade encryption. Additionally, it turns on automatically any time you connect to an unsecured Wi-Fi network, which takes the guesswork out of when you absolutely need to use it.
In all, our VPN makes it practically impossible for cybercriminals or advertisers to access so that what you do online remains anonymous, so you can enjoy your time online with confidence.
The post On Public Wi-Fi, a VPN is Your Friend appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Vanquishing aliens, building virtual amusement parks, mashing buttons in online battles royale. For some, playing video games is a way to unwind from the day and momentarily journey to new worlds. Others game because they love the competition or enjoy participating in the online community around their favorite game.
But just like other online realms, gaming isn’t free of cybercriminals. Cybercriminals take advantage of highly trafficked online gaming portals to make a profit on the dark web.
The next time you log on to your virtual world of choice, level up your gaming security to protect your device and your personally identifiable information (PII).
Gaming companies host a trove of valuable information. Gamers trust these platforms with their payment information, personal details, passwords, and with the safety of their gaming characters on which they spend thousands of hours and hundreds of dollars upgrading.
Cybercriminals also target gamers through malware disguised as an advantage. Cheat software for online games is common as players strive to be the best among their opponents. For instance, a malware scam targeted players seeking an advantage for “Call of Duty: Warzone.” The malware creators advertised the “cheat software” on YouTube with instructions on how to download it. The video received thousands of views and hundreds of comments, which made it look legitimate.
One of the steps in installing the “cheat software” was that users had to disable antivirus programs and firewalls. Users let the cybercriminals walk right into their device! From there, an aggressive type of fileless malware called a dropper infected the device. A dropper doesn’t download a malicious file; rather, it creates a direct pathway to deliver an additional payload, such as credential-stealing malware.1
Competitive gaming is, well, competitive. So, if you invest a lot of real money into your characters, be especially vigilant and follow these five important tips to protect your online accounts.
It’s common for gamers to use variations of their real names and birthdates in their public-facing usernames. Doing this could reveal personal information that you’d rather keep private. Consider using a nickname or a combination of random numbers instead. Along this same vein, don’t reveal personal details about yourself (phone number, hometown, places you visit regularly, etc.) on chats or streams. Lurking cybercriminals can gather these personal details to impersonate you.
On some online PC games, you can join campaigns with gamers from all over the world. While the interconnectivity is great, carefully vet who you allow to follow your online profile. If a stranger sends a friend request out of the blue, be on alert. They could have nefarious motives, such as phishing for valuable data. It’s best to customize your privacy settings to make your profile invisible to strangers.
Developers spend a lot of time creating amazing games, so make sure you purchase games legally and play them as they are intended. Research revealed that cracked versions – or unauthorized versions – of popular games sometimes hid ChromeLoader malware, which has the ability to steal credentials stored in internet browsers. Cracked versions of Call of Duty, Elden Ring, Dark Souls 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Roblox were found to be harboring malware.2
Be especially wary of free downloads and cheat software. Instead, go for a challenge and have fun with the game as it’s written.
A virtual private network (VPN) scrambles your online data traffic, foiling nosy digital eavesdroppers you may encounter while online gaming. A VPN makes it nearly impossible for anyone to access your IP address or spy on your online browsing.
Antivirus software can make your online gaming experience more secure. McAfee antivirus software, which is included in McAfee+, provides real-time threat protection, which means your devices are covered with 24/7 protection from ever-evolving malware and online threats.
1Ars Technica, “Malicious cheats for Call of Duty: Warzone are circulating online”
2TechRadar, “Be very careful when downloading these games online – they could be malware”
The post 5 Online Gaming Tips to Stay Safe From Cybercriminals appeared first on McAfee Blog.
When it comes to protecting your privacy, take a close look at your social media use—because sharing can quickly turn into oversharing.
The term “oversharing” carries several different definitions. Yet in our case here, oversharing means saying more than one should to more people than they should. Consider the audience you have across your social media profiles. Perhaps you have dozens, if not hundreds of friends and followers. All with various degrees of closeness and familiarity. Who among them can you absolutely trust with the information you share?
And you might be sharing more than you think. Posts have a way of saying more than one thing, like:
“This is the pool at the rental home I’m staying at this week. Amazing!” Which also tells everyone, “My home is empty for the next few days.”
“I can’t start my workday without a visit to my favorite coffeeshop.” Which also says, “If you ever want to track me down in person, you can find me at this location practically any weekday morning.”
One can quickly point to other examples of oversharing. Unintentional oversharing at that.
A first-day-of-school picture can tell practical strangers which elementary school your children attend, say if the picture includes the school’s reader board in it. A snapshot of you joking around with a co-worker might reveal a glimpse of company information. Maybe because of what’s written on the whiteboard behind the two of you. And in one extreme example, there’s the case an assault on a pop star. Her attacker tracked her down through her selfie, determining her location through the reflection in her eyes.
The list goes on.
That’s not to say “don’t post.” More accurately, it’s “consider what you’re posting and who gets to see it.” You have control over what you post, and to some degree, who gets to see those posts. That combination is key to your privacy—and the privacy of others too.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and others give you the option of making your profile and posts visible to friends only. Choosing this setting keeps the broader internet from seeing what you’re doing, saying, and posting—not to mention your relationships and likes. Taking a “friends only” approach to your social media profiles can help protect your privacy, because that gives a possible scammer or stalker much less material to work with. Yet further, some platforms allow you to create sub-groups of friends and followers. With a quick review of your network, you can create a sub-group of your most trusted friends and restrict your posts to them as needed.
Be critical of the invitations you receive. Out-and-out strangers might be more than just a stranger. They might be a fake account designed to gather information on users for purposes of fraud. There are plenty of fake accounts too. In fact, in Q1 of 2023 alone, Facebook took action on 426 million fake accounts. Reject such requests.
Think about posting those vacation pictures after you get back so people don’t know you’re away when you’re away. Also consider if your post pinpoints where you are or where you go regularly. Do you want people in your broader network to know that? Closely review the pics you take and see if there’s any revealing information in the background. If so, you can crop it out (think notes on a whiteboard, reflections in a window, or revealing location info). Further, ask anyone you want to include in their post for their permission. In all, consider their privacy too.
While we’re on the topic, you can take a few other steps that can make you more private online. In addition to your social media usage, other steps can help keep more of your private and personal information with you—where it belongs:
Granted, “social” is arguably the opposite of “private.” Using social media involves sharing, by its very definition. Yet any oversharing can lead to privacy issues.
Maybe you want close friends to know what’s going on, but what about that so-so acquaintance deep in your friends list? How well do you really know them? And to what extent do you want them to know exacting details about where you are, where your kids go to school, and so on? Those are questions you ultimately must answer, and ultimately have some control over depending on what you share on social media.
Also important to consider is this: if you post anything on the internet, consider it front page news. Even with social media privacy settings in place, there’s no guarantee that someone won’t copy your posts or pics and pass them along to others.
The flipside to the topic of social media and privacy is the platform you’re using. It’s no secret that social media companies gather hosts of personal information about their users in exchange for free use of their platforms. Certainly, that’s a topic unto itself. We cover what social media companies know about you in this article here—along with a few steps that can help you limit what they know as well.
When it comes to your privacy and social media, it depends largely on how you use it. How you use various privacy and audience settings offers one way to manage it. The other is you and the information you put out there for others to see.
The post How to Help Protect Your Online Privacy appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Sarah didn’t see it coming.
A single mom in her late 40s, “Sarah” was especially lonely after her divorce (name changed to protect her identity). Her teenager had convinced her to join a dating site, so she created a profile on a popular app. After a handful of dates fell flat, she found Scott (name also changed). He was charismatic, kind. “We had an instant connection,” according to Sarah.
They spent hours on the phone sharing their deepest secrets and even started imagining a future together. But after about three months, Scott fell on hard times. At first, he needed to borrow $400 to pay for airfare to visit a dying relative, which he paid back immediately. Over the next few months, the numbers grew to $1,000 for rent and $3,000 for a business venture.
Repayments for those loans never came, and before long, Sarah had loaned her new love over $8,500. When she pressed him for the money, Scott ghosted Sarah online, moved out of town, and she never saw him again. She didn’t share her story with many people. She didn’t report it. She was too embarrassed and humiliated and even became depressed following what she calls “the Scott scam.” Painfully, she lost her trust in others.
Sarah isn’t alone. In the U.S. alone, about 70,000 people reported a romance scam in 2022, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Reported losses hit $1.3 billion, with a median loss of $4,400. And with such statistics, those figures reflect only what was reported. How many other “Sarahs” in the U.S. got scammed and never reported it? How many worldwide?
That’s the pain of online dating and romance scams. Feelings of embarrassment and humiliation compound financial and emotional pain. After all, the victims were looking for love and companionship.
And that’s what scammers count on. Yet that shouldn’t stop you from a romance that springs online. With a strong heart and sharp eye, you can spot a scam and put an end to it before any damage gets done.
Dating and romance scams can start in several ways. They might begin on dating apps and sites, just like in Sarah’s case. Yet they can happen elsewhere and even pop out of the blue too. Scammers prowl around on social media, texts, and online games by pinging potential victims with an unexpected introductory message — a sort of digital opening line. In fact, the FTC reports that 40% of online dating and romance scams began with a message on social media, versus only 19% on dating apps.
With the initial connection made, a chat begins, and a friendship (or more) blossoms from there. Along the way, the scammer will often rely on a mix of somewhat exotic yet believable storytelling to lure the victim in. Often, that will involve their job and where they’re working. Reports say that scammers will talk of being workers on an offshore oil rig, members of the military stationed overseas, doctors working alongside an international organization or working in the sort of jobs that prevent them from otherwise easily meeting up in person.
With the phony relationship established, the scammer starts asking for money. The FTC reports that they’ll ask for money for several bogus reasons, usually revolving around some sort of hardship where they need a “little help” so that they can pay:
The list goes on, yet that’s the general gist. Scammers often employ a story with an intriguing complication that seems just reasonable enough, one where the romance scammer makes it sound like they could really use the victim’s financial help.
People who have filed fraud reports say they’ve paid their scammer in a few typical ways.
One is by wiring money, often through a wire transfer company. The benefit of this route, for the scammer anyway, is that this is as good as forking over cash. When it’s gone, it’s gone. The victim lacks the protections they have with other payment forms, such as a credit card that allows the holder to cancel or contest a charge.
Another way is through gift cards. Scammers of all stripes like these because they effectively work like cash, whether it’s a gift card for a major online retailer or a chain of brick-and-mortar stores. Like a wire transfer, when that gift card is handed over, the money on it is highly difficult to recover, if at all.
One more common payment method is reloadable debit cards. A scammer might make an initial request for such a card and then make several follow-on requests to load it up again.
In all, a romance scammer typically looks for the easiest payment method that’s the most difficult to contest or reimburse, leaving the victim in a financial lurch when the scam ends.
When it comes to meeting new people online, the FTC suggests the following:
Scammers, although heartless, are still human. They make mistakes. The stories they concoct are just that. Stories. They might jumble their details, get their times and dates all wrong, or simply get caught in an apparent lie. Also, remember that some scammers might be grifting several victims at once, which is yet another opportunity for them to get confused and slip up. Keep an eye out for that. Inconsistencies are the watermarks of a scam.
Lastly, take note that romance scammers have an entirely new set of tricks at their disposal. AI deepfakes. With inexpensive and readily available AI tools, scammers can make themselves look and sound like an entirely different person. All in real-time. As striking as that sounds, keep it in mind. Romance deepfakes now exist in the realm of possibility.
It once was that if a person didn’t want to hop on a voice chat, it might count as a sign of a scam. That’s no longer the case with deepfake technology in play. Even so, many of the same tried-and-true means of avoiding a romance scam still apply.
1. Lock down your privacy on social media.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and others give you the option of making your profile and posts visible to friends only. Choosing this setting keeps the broader internet from seeing what you’re doing, saying, and posting, which can help protect your privacy and give a romance scammer less info to exploit. Using our Social Privacy Manager can make that even easier. With only a few clicks, it can adjust more than 100 privacy settings across their social media accounts — making them more private as a result.
2. Google yourself, and then remove what you find.
Have you ever googled yourself online? You’ll find personal info like your date of birth, previous addresses, names of your children and their ages, your estimated income, and more. This info is collected by data brokers and available for sell to advertisers or worse — like scammers. Sophisticated scammers use this info to profile and exploit their victims further. A Personal Data Cleanup service can help you remove this kind of personal data from the web.
3. Say “no” to strangers bearing friend requests.
Be critical of the invitations you receive. Out-and-out strangers might be more than a romance scammer. They might front fake accounts designed to gather info on users for cybercrime, or they can be an account designed to spread false info. There are plenty of them too. In fact, in Q4 of 2023 alone, Facebook took action on 691 million fake accounts. Reject such requests.
4. Go light on the details in your dating profile.
To the extent that you can, provide the minimum amount of details in your dating profile. Granted, this requires a bit of a balancing act. You want to put some info out there to help find a match, yet too much can give you and your location away. Same for your profile pics. Be sure yours have a generic-looking background, rather than anything that might identify where you live, work, or go to school.
5. Protect yourself and your devices.
Online protection software can steer you clear from clicking on malicious links that a scammer might send you online, while also steering you clear of other threats like viruses, ransomware, and phishing attacks in general. It can look out for your personal info as well, by protecting your privacy and monitoring your email, SSN, bank accounts, credit cards, and other info that a scammer or identity thief might put to use. With identity theft a rather commonplace occurrence today, security software is really a must.
If you suspect that you’re being scammed, put an end to the relationship and report it, as difficult as that might feel.
Notify the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov for support and next steps to help you recover financially as much as possible. Likewise, notify the social media site, app, or service where the scam occurred as well. In some cases, you might want to file a police report, which we cover in our broader article on identity theft and fraud.
If you sent funds via a gift card, the FTC suggests filing a claim with the company as soon as possible. They offer further advice on filing a claim here, along with a list of contact numbers for gift card brands that scammers commonly use.
Lastly, go easy on yourself. If you find yourself a victim of online dating or romance fraud, know that you won’t be the first or last person to be taken advantage of this way. By reporting your case, you might help others from falling victim too.
The post How Online Dating Scams work and How to Spot Them appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Cybercrime has a price. One that more and more business owners find themselves paying.
The costs push well into the six figures, according to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) 2022 cybercrime report. On average, a business email compromise (a form of usually through targeted phishing or other account hacking) siphons $125,611 in funds. Ransomware attacks hold company data hostage for an average of $14,403. And data breaches level businesses for an average loss of $164,336.
Cybercriminals increasingly wage these attacks against businesses with revenues of $500,000 or less, which makes the thought of a six-figure loss for them even more sobering. Retailers, professional service providers, real estate companies, medical practices, and other businesses like them now find themselves the preferred targets for a growing body of cybercriminals.
Yet you can help prevent your business from getting hit.
To counter this rise in attacks, we created McAfee Business Protection in partnership with Dell. It offers an all-in-one solution, with automated protection features that helps secure a company’s employees, along with their data, devices, and online connections. Intuitive setup and guidance for each employee strengthens their personal security posture and fortifies the overall security of your business as a result.
And today, there’s an absolute need for that kind of protection.
Cybercriminals have good reasons for targeting businesses with revenues of $500,000 and less:
Cybercriminals may take in smaller hauls from these businesses, yet they make up for that in volume. They will attack several smaller businesses for smaller dollar amounts, which can rival the funds they’d reap by attacking one large target for one large amount—and with less relative risk.
Another factor that makes these businesses so attractive to cybercriminals is that one hack can lead to another.
Case in point, you might recall the massive data breach at Target during the holiday shopping season in 2013. It exposed some 41 million customer records, which cost Target nearly $300 million in settlements and losses. How did the hackers get in? By hacking a local HVAC contractor that used Target’s systems for billing, contracts, and project management.
This shows how a breach in even the smallest of links in the supply chain can lead to yet another breach that impacts millions of people.
As always, hackers look for easy, low-risk targets that offer the highest reward. In the case of businesses that make $500,000 a year or less, they’ve found exactly that.
Even as cybercriminals increase their attacks, both time and remote work only increase the risk to businesses.
Time is an issue business owners know well already. There’s never enough of it, which means some aspects of the business get prioritized over others. In this mix, cybersecurity suffers.
Our own research in the U.S. and Europe found that 63% of small business owners spend an hour or less on protecting their business a week. Moreover, 45% manage security in an ad-hoc way. It’s understandable, given that business owners would rather invest time in growing their business rather than managing their security. However, this low prioritization puts the business at risk, which could result in those six-figure losses mentioned above.
The advent of remote work introduces further security issues as well. In the wake of the pandemic, many employees continue to work remotely or remotely part of the time.
The implications for security can be significant. Whether working from home or some other location like a café, these employees may not have proper cybersecurity protection in place. Further, they may be using unsecure networks or Wi-Fi that can put company data at risk—not to mention their data as well. In all, remote workers can find themselves quite vulnerable.
As we created McAfee Small Business protection, we kept these issues in mind. We created protection that’s strong, and we made it straightforward as well. Business owners can set it up for their employees quickly and put controls in place to ensure they’re secure. Meanwhile our Protection Score measures the overall security of the business and offers guidance that can make it even more secure.
By design, it offers:
Further features secure your business in breadth and depth:
These are just a few of the security features offered, and you can see a full list on our partnership page with Dell here.
Cybercrime indeed has a price. Beyond the dollars involved, the costs can run yet deeper from there. Downtime in the wake of an attack hits the bottom line. The recovery efforts that follow do as well. Additionally, businesses can suffer reputational damage if an attack also affects its customers, clients, and partners.
Now, a shift has taken place. Cybercriminals still go after big businesses and major organizations, yet an increasing number of them go after businesses with revenues in the seven or even six figures. Poor security posture is one reason. Another is that even relatively amateur operations can wage attacks with “off-the-shelf” hacking tools found on the dark web.
In short, every business faces the risk of cybercrime today.
Yet with the right protection in place, you can avoid paying the price of cybercrime. And the introduction of our new McAfee Business Protection makes it easy in a time when it’s needed most.
The post The Price of Cybercrime: Protecting the Business You’ve Built from Hacks and Attacks appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Do you remember the days of printing out directions from your desktop? Or the times when passengers were navigation co-pilots armed with a 10-pound book of maps? You can thank location services on your smartphone for today’s hassle-free and paperless way of getting around town and exploring exciting new places.
However, location services can prove a hassle to your online privacy when you enable location sharing. Location sharing is a feature on many connected devices – smartphones, tablets, digital cameras, smart fitness watches – that pinpoints your exact location and then distributes your coordinates to online advertisers, your social media following, or strangers.
While there are certain scenarios where sharing your location is a safety measure, in most cases, it’s an online safety hazard. Here’s what you should know about location sharing and the effects it has on your privacy.
Location sharing is most beneficial when you’re unsure about new surroundings and want to let your loved ones know that you’re ok. For example, if you’re traveling by yourself, it may be a good idea to share the location of your smartphone with an emergency contact. That way, if circumstances cause you to deviate from your itinerary, your designated loved one can reach out and ensure your personal safety.
The key to sharing your location safely is to only allow your most trusted loved one to track the whereabouts of you and your connected device. Once you’re back on known territory, you may want to consider turning off all location services, since it presents a few security and privacy risks.
In just about every other case, you should definitely think twice about enabling location sharing on your smartphone. Here are three risks it poses to your online privacy and possibly your real-life personal safety:
Does it sometimes seem like your phone, tablet, or laptop is listening to your conversations? Are the ads you get in your social media feeds or during ad breaks in your gaming apps a little too accurate? When ad tracking is enabled on your phone, it allows online advertisers to collect your personal data that you add to your various online accounts to better predict what ads you might like. Personal details may include your full name, birthday, address, income, and, thanks to location tracking, your hometown and regular neighborhood haunts.
If advertisers kept these details to themselves, it may just seem like a creepy invasion of privacy; however, data brokerage sites may sell your personally identifiable information (PII) to anyone, including cybercriminals. The average person has their PII for sale on more than 30 sites and 98% of people never gave their permission to have their information sold online. Yet, data brokerage sites are legal.
One way to keep your data out of the hands of advertisers and cybercriminals is to limit the amount of data you share online and to regularly erase your data from brokerage sites. First, turn off location services and disable ad tracking on all your apps. Then, consider signing up for McAfee Personal Data Cleanup, which scans, removes, and monitors data brokerage sites for your personal details, thus better preserving your online privacy.
Location sharing may present a threat to your personal safety. Stalkers could be someone you know or a stranger. Fitness watches that connect to apps that share your outdoor exercising routes could be especially risky, since over time you’re likely to reveal patterns of the times and locations where one could expect to run into you.
Additionally, stalkers may find you through your geotagged social media posts. Geotagging is a social media feature that adds the location to your posts. Live updates, like live tweeting or real-time Instagram stories, can pinpoint your location accurately and thus alert someone on where to find you.
Social engineering is an online scheme where cybercriminals learn all there is about you from your social media accounts and then use that information to impersonate you or to tailor a scam to your interests. Geotagged photos and posts can tell a scammer a lot about you: your hometown, your school or workplace, your favorite café, etc.
With these details, a social engineer could fabricate a fundraiser for your town, for example. Social engineers are notorious for evoking strong emotions in their pleas for funds, so beware of any direct messages you receive that make you feel very angry or very sad. With the help of ChatGPT, social engineering schemes are likely going to sound more believable than ever before. Slow down and conduct your own research before divulging any personal or payment details to anyone you’ve never met in person.
Overall, it’s best to live online as anonymously as possible, which includes turning off your location services when you feel safe in your surroundings. McAfee+ offers several features to improve your online privacy, such as a VPN, Personal Data Cleanup, and Online Account Cleanup.
The post 3 Reasons to Think Twice About Enabling Location Sharing appeared first on McAfee Blog.
When my boys were in the thick of their teen years (pre pandemic), bad mouthing their seeming gaming obsession was almost a sport amongst my mum friends. And it would sound something like this:
‘They just waste so much time on those stupid games’. ‘No matter what I try, I just can’t seem to get them off that silly Xbox’. ‘Can you believe they want to spend all their pocket money on the new version of COD?’ ‘I am so close to throwing all their gaming stuff in the bin!!’
Fast forward to life post pandemic and I think it’s fair to say that most of us have changed our attitude around gaming. There is no doubt that gaming helped many of us survive the incredible loneliness that resulted from protracted quarantine periods and seemingly endless lockdowns. It took just a few days of lockdown for things to change real fast in our house: daily gaming time caps were scrapped; screen time limits became a thing of history as survival became our top priority!
But now that life has returned to our ‘new normal’, have our gaming habits and attitudes really changed? Well, a 2022 report, entitled Digital Australia, has done a deep-dive into the gaming lives of Aussies and the insights are quite fascinating. Here are the most interesting takeaways:
So, there’s no doubt that gaming has become both a more regular and widely accepted part of our daily lives. But that doesn’t mean that we can take our eye off the ball. While there is a lot to love about gaming, there are still steps we should all take to ensure the experience is safe and positive for everyone, particularly our kids. Here are my top tips:
If you read my blog regularly, I have no doubt you’re rolling your eyes! Yes, I’m talking about passwords again!! And here’s why – if you (or your kids) use the same password for each of your online accounts and one of those accounts get hacked, then you risk losing control of your entire digital life. Yes, I know it sounds dramatic but that is the reality. The easiest way of avoiding this scenario is by ensuring each of your online accounts, including your gaming accounts, has its own unique password. Now remember, passwords need to be at least 10 characters, have a combination of numbers, symbols and upper and lower-case letters and have no connection to anything about you at all. I’m a fan of a long, nonsensical sentence but, I’m an even bigger fan of a password manager that can both create and remember these unique passwords for you. Check out McAfee+ – it will make your life so much easier!
Keeping your location on the ‘down low’ when you game online is an important way of securing your privacy and a Virtual Private Network (or VPN) can do that. When you connect using a VPN, your location is concealed making it impossible for hackers or stalky types to find you. A VPN can also protect you against DDoS attacks which can be used by gaming opponents when the competition stakes are high! McAfee’s True Protection security software offers a VPN, check it out here.
‘Yes please’ needs to be the answer if your online gamer is offered 2-factor or multi factor authentication from a game or distributor. This adds another layer of security by adding an additional stage to the login process. Usually, a code will be sent to an email address or mobile phone number that needs to be entered before the user can access their account. And it appears as though distributors are getting behind player security with some games even offering in-game rewards to those who sign up for it. How good!
Scammers know we love gaming, so they have spent much energy creating websites that offer free downloads of the most popular online games. But unfortunately, visitors to these websites won’t be getting free games anytime soon as these websites are all about extracting vital personal information from gaming hungry types. So, ensure your kids understand this and that it is essential that they only download games, third-party add-ons, or cheat codes from reputable sites otherwise they risk introducing viruses or game malware into their beloved machines.
If you’ve got kids, then helping them choose the right games to play is essential. Instead of taking an authoritarian approach here, why not think of it as a collaboration? Ask them to do some research on the games they would like to play and ask them to include the recommended age, an overview of the content & whether there are privacy settings available. I then suggest reviewing the list together to see whether the potential games are good for problem solving skills, creativity, or purely social interactions. I also recommend checking out the Australian Classification Board’s review of potential games plus top notch digital parenting sites like Common Sense Media before making your final decision.
Without doubt, the best way you can keep your kids safe while online gaming is to ensure the lines of communication are open and clear. If they know they can come to you if they experience an issue while gaming (and that you won’t immediately punish them and ack away the Xbox) then you’re ahead. Not sure how to kick start the communication? How about a family session on the Xbox. I promise, it will be time well spent!
Happy digital parenting!
Alex
The post The Best Way to Stay Safe While Gaming appeared first on McAfee Blog.
If you’ve got teens, then no doubt you’ve received the SOS texts. ‘Mum, I need a haircut, can you just spot me $30?’ or ‘I’ve just finished footy and I’m starving, can you transfer me some money?’. Where would the modern parent be without online banking? How did our non-digital forefathers ever cope??
Online banking is just so convenient and basically a necessity of modern life. If you’ve recently tried to conduct a transaction at a branch, then you’ll know exactly what I mean. One of my boys recently tried to set up a new account at a local banking branch and they were told to come back the following day. Instead, we went home and did it online in less than 20 minutes!
Aussie banks are world class at implementing a range of security measures to keep our banking safe however there are still things we can do to avoid our banking details getting into the hands of hackers. But many of us just assume that ‘all is well’ – our banking apps work seamlessly, so why do we need to worry? And that’s where many come unstuck. If it doesn’t appear to be broken, why do we need to fix it? Well, being ahead of the risks is how you keep yourself safe, my friends. So, here are my top tips to ensure all your family members are banking online in the securest way possible.
If you’re changing banks or helping your child set up their online banking, it’s essential that you download your bank’s official app. Imitations do exist! Ideally, download the app from the bank’s website however if this isn’t an option use a genuine app store like Apple’s AppStore or Google Play for Android devices. And always verify the app is legitimate by checking the developer details and reading the reviews.
Budgeting or financial management apps are an incredibly popular way to help manage finances, but you need to be cautious here too as many will require you to share your banking logins. Always check the app’s reviews, its history of data breaches and its security policies before you download.
Using the name of your puppy, your kids or worse still, your birthday, is one of the fastest ways of getting your banking details into the hands of hackers. Passwords need to have no connection to any part of your life, should never be stored in your banking app or anywhere on your phone and NEVER, EVER written on the back of your debit card!! Here are my top tips:
Make them long – choose a phrase instead of just 1 word. I love a nonsensical sentence with at least 10 characters.
Always include lower and uppercase letters, a number or 2 and a few symbols.
Every online account needs its own unique password – no exceptions.
Put a reminder in your calendar to update your passwords regularly – at least every 3-6 months.
All sounds too hard? Try a password manager that will not only create complex passwords that no human could ever think of, but it will also remember then for you. Check out McAfee +, complete no brainer!
Geez, public Wi-Fi is convenient, particularly if you are travelling. But, using it to undertake any banking or financial dealings is just too risky in, my opinion. Why? I hear you ask. Well, there are many ways hackers can hack public Wi-Fi, let me share a few:
‘Evil twin’ attack. This is when hackers set up malicious hotspots with seemingly logical and trustworthy names eg ‘Free Café Wi-Fi’. But as soon as you connect, they can easily get their hands on your data.
Man-in-the-middle attack (MitM). This is when hackers break into a network and eavesdrop on data as it travels between connected devices and the Wi-Fi router. For example, your online banking password!
Password cracking attack. Scammers use software that automatically tries a huge volume of usernames and passwords so they can control the router. And once they’ve gained control, they can dupe you into downloading malicious software (that could steal your identity) or redirects you to a webpage that phishes for your personal information.
If you don’t think you can possibly survive without public Wi-fi then you need to invest in a VPN that will ensure everything you share is protected.
If your bank offers two-factor authentication to its customers, then your answer needs to be ‘yes please’! Two-factor authentication or multi factor authentication adds another layer of verification to your banking which minimises the chances of hacker causing you harm. If you’ve activated it, you’ll be asked to provide another piece of information after you’ve entered your login details. Usually a special code, this may be delivered to you via an app, text message or even an automated phone call.
It will take just a few minutes to ring your bank and request to be notified when an activity occurs on your account. Every bank will manage this differently, however most banks can alert you on request via email or text if the following occur:
And if anything at all seems a little fishy, contact your bank immediately!
Unfortunately, few things are guaranteed in life and that includes your online safety. And whether you’re an online banking fan or not, opting out isn’t really an option. So, take some time to tighten up your online banking. Only use legit apps; change your passwords so they are long, strong and complex; invest in a VPN so you can use public Wi-Fi and say yes to two-factor authentication. You’ve got this!
Happy banking!!
Alex
The post Online Banking – The Safe Way appeared first on McAfee Blog.
The dark web. The name raises all kinds of questions. What is the dark web, really? Where is it? Can anyone use it?
Answering these questions can help you stay safer online.
The story of the dark web is a complicated one. It’s a small and highly anonymous portion of the internet. As a result, it has a reputation for harboring criminal activity. We often mention the dark web in our blogs, typically when the conversation turns to identity theft, data breaches, and stolen personal info. Rightfully so. Plenty of cybercrime can be traced right back to the dark web.
Yet cybercriminals didn’t create the dark web. And they’re far from the only people who use it. News outlets like the BBC and the New York Times have a presence there, as does the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Journalists, activists, and everyday citizens use it as well, often to work around oppressive censorship. Even Facebook is there, providing people access to the social media site in regions where it’s blocked.
Anonymity reigns on the dark web. It was designed to work that way. With that, it’s home to a mixed bag of activity, legitimate and illicit alike. Yet that anonymity doesn’t stop us from putting a face onto the dark web — from understanding what it is, where it is, and what happens there.
That starts with a look at the internet and the two primary layers that make it up.
The layers of the internet: The surface web and the deep web
If you visualize the internet as an ocean, you’ll find it populated with websites and collections of data at all depths. Yet, the typical internet user only has access to the first few feet, a layer of the internet known as the surface web.
The sights you’ll see within the surface web will look familiar. It’s all the blogs, shops, social media sites, and so on that you visit regularly. And it’s easy to get to. You only need to fire up your browser and go. All the sites are public-facing. With a quick search, you can find them.
In all, the surface web contains any destination you can reach through search. To put it more precisely, the surface web accounts for areas of the internet that search engines can “crawl” and index for search. Estimates vary, yet the surface web accounts for roughly 4 to 5% of the internet.
Now, enter the deep web, the next 95% of the internet that is not searchable. Yet, that’s not to say that you don’t travel down into its depths from time to time. In fact, you likely do it daily. Any time you go through a paywall or use a password to access internet content, you’re entering the deep web. The content found there is hidden from search. Examples include logging into your bank account, accessing medical records through your healthcare provider, or using corporate web pages as part of your workday. Even streaming a show can involve a trip to the deep web. None of that content is searchable.
As such, the overwhelming majority of activity within the deep web is legitimate. So while this layer of the internet runs deep, it isn’t necessarily dark. The dark web is something altogether different.
What is the dark web?
The dark web lives within the deep web. Like the other depths of the deep web, it’s not searchable from the surface web. The people behind the sites and repositories on the dark web keep themselves anonymous. And the reasons vary. Some of them are entirely legitimate, others questionable, and several are outright illegal in nature.
Its origins go back to the 1990s when the U.S. Department of Defense developed the dark web as a means of sending anonymous and encrypted communications. That story might sound familiar. It’s quite like the origin story for the broader internet. That had its roots in the Department of Defense as well. So, just as the broader internet eventually became available to the public, so too did the dark web.
Getting there calls for a special browser because the protocols for the dark web differ from the surface web. Moreover, these browsers strip web traffic of identifiable info, encrypt it, and send it through a series of server jumps. The browsing traffic will appear to go through a server in one country, then a different server in another, and then another.
These steps make it highly difficult to identify the person using the browser. On the flip side, it also makes it difficult to identify the people hosting the sites and services on the dark web.
Without question, privacy is everything on the dark web. For good and for bad.
While the notion of the dark web typically gets raised in the context of cybercrime and other illegal activity, it has legitimate uses. Some of these use cases include:
Circumventing censorship
Well-regarded news outlets such as the BBC and Pro Publica maintain a presence on the dark web to ensure that anyone can access their reporting. This includes people in nations and regions where certain news sources are censored.
Private communication
For the particularly privacy-conscious, the dark web hosts several resources for encrypted communication. That includes email clients, internet chat, and even social media sites.
Whistleblowing
Anonymous tips are a part of national security, law enforcement, and journalism as well. The private nature of the dark web confers an added degree of anonymity to tipsters.
The dark web isn’t a place everyday internet users will need, or even want, to go. It’s far more complicated than the surface web—and going in without taking several security measures can make the trip a risky one.
This is where the rubber meets the road from an online protection standpoint. The dark web is also a marketplace for hackers and bad actors. In several ways — as a place to buy or rent malware, a repository for stolen info, and a place to communicate and coordinate attacks.
For starters, the dark web is populated with dark marketplaces. And difficult-to-trace cryptocurrency is the coin of the realm. With dark web stores stocked with ready-made malware kits, bad actors can launch attacks with little technical expertise. Others have done the work for them.
Cybercrime groups of all sizes prop up these shops, which they also use to rent out other services for attacks. For example, a small-time bad actor could easily lease a botnet to wage an attack that slows a targeted website to a crawl. Some cybercrime groups will provide hackers who can run attacks on someone else’s behalf, creating a mercenary “hacker for hire” gig economy.
Likewise, info stolen from a data breach can end up in dark web marketplaces as well. The personal info posted in these marketplaces can range anywhere from emails and passwords to in-depth info like tax ID numbers, health info, and driver’s license numbers.
Some of it goes up for sale. Some of it gets dumped there for free. With the right info in hand, cybercriminals can commit acts of identity theft. That includes claiming unemployment benefits and tax refunds in someone else’s name. In extreme cases, it can lead to bad actors outright impersonating their victims, racking up debts and criminal records along the way.
In all, if it’s hackable and has value, it’s likely for sale on the dark web.
With all this shady activity on the dark web, you might wonder how you can protect yourself. In fact, you can take several steps to help prevent your info from finding its way there. And you also can take other steps if your info, unfortunately, ends up on the dark web.
Installing online protection software is the first step. Online protection software can help prevent many of the attacks that bad actors can buy on the dark web. It protects against ransomware, adware, spyware, and all manner of malware, whether it’s pre-existing or entirely new.
Yet today’s online protection goes far beyond antivirus. Comprehensive protection like ours protects your privacy and identity as well. It can keep tabs on your identity and credit, create strong passwords, and clean up your personal info online.
Monitor your identity:
An identity monitoring service can actively scan the dark web for personal info like your date of birth, email addresses, credit card numbers, personal identification numbers, and much more. In the event you fall victim to identity theft, our identity theft coverage and restoration can provide up to $1 million in coverage to cover the costs. Plus, it provides the services of a recovery expert with limited power of attorney to help you repair the damage done.
Keep an eye on your credit:
If you spot unusual or unfamiliar charges or transactions in your account, bank, or debit card statements, follow up at once. In general, banks, credit card companies, and many businesses have countermeasures to deal with fraud. Moreover, they have customer support teams that can help you file a claim if needed.
Given all the accounts you likely have a credit monitoring service can help. McAfee’s credit monitoring service can help you keep an eye on changes to your credit score, report, and accounts with prompt notifications and provide guidance so you can tackle identity theft.
Create strong, unique passwords:
With the high number of accounts you need to protect, creating strong, unique passwords for each one can get time consuming. Further, updating them regularly can become a time-consuming task. That’s where a password manager comes in.
A password manager does the work of creating strong, unique passwords for your accounts. These will take the form of a string of random numbers, letters, and characters. They will not be memorable, but the manager does the memorizing for you. You only need to remember a single password to access the tools of your manager.
Close old, risky accounts:
The more online accounts you keep, the greater the exposure you have to data breaches. Each account will have varying degrees of personal and financial info linked to it. And that means each one carries a varying degree of risk if it gets breached. Moreover, some sites and services protect data better than others, which adds another dimension of risk. Closing old and particularly risky accounts can decrease the risk of your personal and financial info winding up in the hands of an identity thief.
With security and savings in mind, McAfee created Online Account Cleanup. It finds and requests the deletion of unused accounts and protects your personal data from data breaches as a result. Monthly scans across your online accounts show a risk level for each account and help you decide which ones to delete.
Use two-factor authentication:
Two-factor authentication is an extra layer of defense on top of your username and password. It adds a one-time-use code to access your login procedure, typically sent to your smartphone by text or call. Together, that makes it tougher for a crook to hack your account if they get hold of your username and password. If any of your accounts support two-factor authentication, the few extra seconds it takes to set up is more than worth the big boost in protection you’ll get.
The “dark” in the dark web stands for anonymity. And with anonymity, all kinds of activity follow. Good and bad.
From a security standpoint, the dark web is a haven for all manner of cybercriminals. Understanding how they use the dark web can help you protect yourself from their activities. You have tools for prevention, and you have resources available if your info ends up there or leads to identity theft.
By putting a face on the dark web, you put a face on cybercrime and can help reduce the risk of it happening to you.
The post What is the Dark Web? appeared first on McAfee Blog.
If you’re a parent of a teen, there’s a good chance that Instagram is the culprit behind a good chunk of their screen time. However, woven into the stream of reels, stories, selfies, and Insta-worthy moments, are potential risks to your child’s privacy and safety.
According to a recent Pew Research Center report, 62 percent of teens use Instagram, making it the third most popular social media platform after YouTube and TikTok. Teens use the photo and video-sharing platform to share their creativity, connect with friends, and get updates on their favorite celebrities and influencers.
Instagram’s format makes it easy for kids (and adults!) to spend hours using filters and stickers, commenting, liking posts, and counting likes. But all this fun can take a turn if kids misuse the platform or fail to take the risks seriously.
Whether your child is new to Instagram or a seasoned IG user, consider pausing to talk about the many aspects of the platform.
Here are a few critical topics to help you kick off those conversations.
Acknowledging the impulsive behavior and maturity gaps unique to the teen years is essential. Do you feel like you are repeating yourself on these topics? That’s okay—it means you are doing it right. Repetition works. Advise them: Sharing too many personal details online can set them up for serious privacy risks, including identity theft, online scams, sextortion, or cyberbullying. Also, oversharing can negatively influence potential schools and employers who may disapprove of the content teens choose to share online.
Suggestion: Sit down together and review Instagram’s privacy settings to limit who can see your child’s content. Please encourage them to use strong passwords and two-factor authentication to secure accounts. Also, advise them to think twice before posting something and warn them about the risks of sharing intimate photos online (even with friends), as they can be easily shared or stolen. Now may be the time if you’ve never considered adding security software to protect your family devices. McAfee+ provides all-in-one privacy, identity, and device protection for families. It includes helpful features, including identity monitoring, password manager, unlimited VPN, file shredding, protection score, and parental controls. The software has updated features to include personal data cleanup and credit monitoring and reporting to protect kids from identity theft further.
This acronym stands for Fear of Missing Out. This word came from the subtle undercurrent of emotions that can bubble up when using social media. It’s common for kids to feel anxious or even become depressed because they think they are being excluded from the party. FOMO can lead them to spend too much time and money on social media, neglect their family or school responsibilities, or engage in risky behaviors to fit in with or impress others.
Suggestion: Help your child understand that it’s normal to sometimes have FOMO feelings. Please encourage them to focus on their strengths and to develop fulfilling hobbies and interests offline. To reduce FOMO, encourage your child to take breaks from social media. Also, install software to help you manage family screen time.
Akin to FOMO, comparing oneself to others is an ever-present reality among teens that is only amplified on Instagram. According to several reports, Instagram’s photo-driven culture and photo filters that enhance facial and body features can make teens feel worse about their bodies and increase the risk of eating disorders, depression, and risky behaviors. Girls, especially, can develop low self-esteem, comparing themselves to unrealistic or edited images of celebrities, influencers, or friends. Social comparison can also lead to the fixation on getting more likes, followers, or comments on their posts.
Suggestion: Create a safe space for your teen to discuss this topic with you. Help them understand the differences between Instagram life and real life. Help them be aware of how they feel while using Instagram. Encourage them to follow accounts that inspire and uplift them and unfollow accounts that spark feelings of comparison, jealousy, or inferiority.
Hurtful events that impact teens, such as gossip, rumor spreading, peer pressure, criticism, and conflict, can increase in online communities. If your child posts online, they can receive mean or sexual comments from people they know and strangers (trolls). Cyberbullying can surface in many ways online, making kids feel anxious, fearful, isolated, and worthless.
Suggestions: Keep up on how kids bully one another online and check in with your child daily about what’s happening in their life. Encourage them not to respond to bullies and to block and report the person instead. Also, if they are getting bullied, remind them to take and store screenshots. Such evidence can be helpful if they need to confide with a parent, teacher, or law enforcement.
Understanding how to discern true and false information online is becoming more complicated daily. In the McAfee 2023 Threat Predictions: Evolution and Exploitation, experts predict that AI tools will enable more realistic and efficient manipulation of images and videos, which could increase disinformation and harm the public’s mental health. Understanding online content is a great way to help your kids build their confidence and security on Instagram and other networks.
Suggestion: Encourage critical thinking and guide kids to use fact-checking tools before believing or sharing content that could be fake and using ethical AI frameworks. Remind them of their digital footprints and how the things they do online can have long-lasting consequences.
It’s important to remember that all social networks come with inherent dangers and that Instagram has taken a number of steps to reduce the potential risks associated with its community by improving its security features and safety rules for kids. Remember, nothing protects your child like a solid parent-child relationship. As a parent or caregiver, you play a critical role in educating your child about their digital well-being and privacy. Working together, as a family, your child will be equipped to enjoy the good stuff and avoid the sketchy side of the digital world.
The post Instagram Safety for Kids: Protecting Privacy and Avoiding Risks appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Everyone loves a great deal when they shop online. Until they discover it’s a rip-off.
Social media ads for vintage wear. Website ads for home entertainment gear. Search ads for handbags. Some of these ads aren’t what they seem. Instead of leading you to deals on a trustworthy ecommerce site, the ads take you to a bogus page designed to steal your money and personal info.
Unfortunately, it happens. And one global report estimated that online shoppers lost $41 billion to fraud in 2022. How do scammers pull it off? With the same tools that legitimate businesses use.
Let’s look at how they do it and how you can steer clear of their tricks.
Many of today’s scammers work in organized fashion. They oversee large cybercrime operations that run much like a business. They employ web designers, coders, marketing teams, and customer call centers that mimic a genuine online retailer. Which makes sense. The more they can look and act like the real thing, the more likely they can lure victims into their online stores.
Smaller bands of scammers get in on this action as well. Just as a small business can easily create an online store with any number of off-the-shelf services and solutions, so can a couple of scammers.
In this way, scammers large and small can readily create a professional-looking website, create effective ads to drive traffic to it, and collect financial information from there.
Yet, some scammers don’t steal financial information outright. They might indeed ship you the goods, but they won’t be the goods you ordered. They’re counterfeit. And it might be part of a large-scale operation that exploits child workers.
Whether they’re out to steal your money or sell you knockoff goods, online shopping scams tend to ramp up around gift-giving seasons. They’ll bait shoppers with hard-to-find items, tout steep discounts on other popular items, and otherwise play into the rush of holiday gift buying. Yet they crop up year-round as well. Really, any time you shop is a time to be on the lookout for them.
This is a great piece of advice to start with. Directly typing in the correct address for online stores and retailers is a prime way to avoid scammers online. In the case of retailers that you don’t know much about, the U.S. Better Business Bureau (BBB) asks shoppers to do their research. Ensure that the retailer has a good reputation. The BBB makes that easier with a listing of retailers you can search by typing in their name.
Also in the U.S., you can visit the website of your state’s Secretary of State. There you can search for the business in question, learn when it was founded, if it’s still active, or if it exists at all. For businesses based in a state other than your own, you can visit that state’s Secretary of State website for information. For a state-by-state list of Secretaries of State, you can visit the Secretary of State Corporate Search page here.
For a listing of businesses with international locations, organizations like S&P Global Ratings and the Dun and Bradstreet Corporation can provide background information.
Never heard of that retailer before? See when they launched their website. A relatively new site might be a sign that it’s part of a scam.
A quick visit to the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) website can show you certain background information for any website you type in. Given how quickly and easily scammers can register and launch a website, this kind of information can help you sniff out a scam.
Of course, it might also indicate a new business that’s entirely legitimate, so a little more digging is called for. That’s where reviews come in. Aside from the resources listed above, a simple web search of “[company name] reviews” or “[company name] scam” can help you find out if the retailer is legit.
3. Look for the lock icon in your browser when you shop.
Secure websites begin their addresses with “https,” not just “http.” That extra “s” stands for “secure,” which means that it uses a secure protocol for transmitting sensitive info like passwords, credit card numbers, and the like over the internet. It often appears as a little padlock icon in the address bar of your browser, so double-check for that. If you don’t see that it’s secure, it’s best to avoid making purchases on that website.
4. Pay with a credit card instead of your debit card.
Credit cards offer fraud protections that debit cards don’t. Another key difference: when fraud occurs with a debit card, you fight to get your money back—it’s gone straight out of your account. With a credit card, the issuer fights to get their money back. They’re the ones who take the financial hit.
Additionally, in the U.S., the Fair Credit Billing Act offers the public protection against fraudulent charges on credit cards. The act gives citizens the power to dispute charges over $50 for goods and services that were never delivered or otherwise billed incorrectly. Note that many credit card companies have their own policies that improve upon the Fair Credit Billing Act as well. However, debit cards aren’t afforded the same protection under the Act. Avoid using a debit card while shopping online and use your credit card instead.
Two-factor authentication is an extra layer of defense on top of your username and password. It adds a one-time-use code to access your login procedure, typically sent to your smartphone by text or call. Together, that makes it tougher for a crook to hack your account. If any of your accounts support two-factor authentication, the few extra seconds it takes to set up is more than worth the big boost in protection you’ll get.
Public Wi-Fi in coffee shops and other public locations can expose your private surfing to prying eyes because those networks are open to all. A virtual private network (VPN) encrypts your browsing, shopping, and other internet traffic. That makes it secure from bad actors who try to intercept your data on public Wi-Fi, which can include your passwords and credit card numbers.
A complete suite of online protection software like McAfee+ can offer layers of extra security while you shop. It includes web browser protection that can block malicious and questionable links that might lead you down the road to malware or a phishing scam— along with a password manager that can create and securely store strong, unique passwords.
Social media has made it easier for sellers large and small to reach customers online. It’s made it easier for scammers to reach victims too.
If you’re on social media, you’ve certainly seen your share of ads. Some are from companies and retailers you know and trust. Yet more are from names you’ve likely never heard of. They might be legitimate businesses, yet they might be fronts for a convincing-looking scam.
These ads end up on social media the same way ads from legitimate businesses do, by way of social media ad platforms. Social media companies created these platforms so advertisers can reach millions of individual users based upon their age group, hobbies and interests, past purchases, and so on.
For example, a scammer might target younger shoppers with an interest in retro fashion. From there, the scammer can narrow that down to target people who live in metropolitan areas who like 1980s memorabilia. The scammers then create an ad that takes that audience to a phony website loaded with bogus t-shirts, coats, and bags.
All of it costs relatively little. A small ad budget of a few hundred dollars can give scammers exposure to millions of potential victims.
The best way to avoid getting stung by these sites is to do your homework. Seek out the company’s track record. Look for reviews. And if you’re unsure, take a pass. Don’t shop with that company.
Shopping scams can look and feel rather sophisticated today. With a host of low-cost and easy-to-use tools for publishing and advertising online, scammers of all sizes can create bogus shopping experiences that look convincing.
So buyers be wary. Before you click or tap on that ad, do some research. Determine if the company is legitimate, if it’s had complaints waged against it, and how those complaints were resolved. And always use your credit card. It offers the best consumer protections you have in the event you do end up getting scammed.
The post Steer Clear of Rip-offs: Top Tips for Safer Online Shopping appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Ping, it’s a scammer!
The sound of an incoming email, text, or direct message has a way of getting your attention, so you take a look and see what’s up. It happens umpteen times a week, to the extent that it feels like the flow of your day. And scammers want to tap into that with sneaky phishing attacks that catch you off guard, all with the aim of stealing your personal information or bilking you out of your money.
Phishing attacks take several forms, where scammers masquerade as a legitimate company, financial institution, government agency, or even as someone you know. And they’ll come after you with messages that follow suit:
You can see why phishing attacks can be so effective. Messages like these have an urgency to them, and they seem like they’re legit, or they at least seem like they might deal with something you might care about. But of course they’re just a ruse. And some of them can look and sound rather convincing. Or at least convincing enough that you’ll not only give them a look, but that you’ll also give them a click too.
And that’s where the troubles start. Clicking the links or attachments sent in a phishing attack can lead to several potentially nasty things, such as:
However, plenty of phishing attacks are preventable. A mix of knowing what to look for and putting a few security steps in place can help you keep scammers at bay.
How you end up with one has a lot to do with it.
There’s a good chance you’ve already seen your share of phishing attempts on your phone. A text comes through with a brief message that one of your accounts needs attention, from an entirely unknown number. Along with it is a link that you can tap to follow up, which will send you to a malicious site. In some cases, the sender may skip the link and attempt to start a conversation with the aim of getting you to share your personal information or possibly fork over some payment with a gift card, money order, rechargeable debit card, or other form of payment that is difficult to trace and recover.
In the case of social media, you can expect that the attack will come from an imposter account that’s doing its best to pose as one of those legitimate businesses or organizations we talked about, or perhaps as a stranger or even someone you know. And the name and profile pic will do its best to play the part. If you click on the account that sent it, you may see that it was created only recently and that it has few to no followers, both of which are red flags. The attack is typically conversational, much like described above where the scammer attempts to pump you for personal info or money.
Attacks that come by direct messaging apps will work much in the same way. The scammer will set up a phony account, and where the app allows, a phony name and a phony profile pic to go along with it.
Email gets a little more complicated because emails can range anywhere from a few simple lines of text to a fully designed piece complete with images, formatting, and embedded links—much like a miniature web page.
In the past, email phishing attacks looked rather unsophisticated, rife with poor spelling and grammar, along with sloppy-looking layouts and images. That’s still sometimes the case today. Yet not always. Some phishing emails look like the real thing. Or nearly so.
Case in point, here’s a look at a phishing email masquerading as a McAfee email:
There’s a lot going on here. The scammers try to mimic the McAfee brand, yet don’t quite pull it off. Still, they do several things to try and be convincing.
Note the use of photography and the box shot of our software, paired with a prominent “act now” headline. It’s not the style of photography we use. Not that people would generally know this. However, some might have a passing thought like, “Huh. That doesn’t really look right for some reason.”
Beyond that, there are a few capitalization errors, some misplaced punctuation, plus the “order now” and “60% off” icons look rather slapped on. Also note the little dash of fear it throws in at the top of the email with mention of “There are (42) viruses on your computer.”
Taken all together, you can spot many email scams by taking a closer look, seeing what doesn’t feel right, and then trusting you gut. But that asks you to slow down, take a moment, and eyeball the email critically. Which people don’t always do. And that’s what scammers count on.
Similar ploys see scammers pose as legitimate companies and retailers, where they either ask you to log into a bogus account page to check statement or the status of an order. Some scammers offer links to “discount codes” that are instead links to landing pages designed steal your account login information as well. Similarly, they may simply send a malicious email attachment with the hope that you’ll click it.
In other forms of email phishing attacks, scammers may pose as a co-worker, business associate, vendor, or partner to get the victim to click a malicious link or download malicious software. These may include a link to a bogus invoice, spreadsheet, notetaking file, or word processing doc—just about anything that looks like it could be a piece of business correspondence. Instead, the link leads to a scam website that asks the victim “log in and download” the document, which steals account info as a result. Scammers may also include attachments to phishing emails that can install malware directly on the device, sometimes by infecting an otherwise everyday document with a malicious payload.
Email scammers may also pose as someone you know, whether by propping up an imposter email account or by outright hijacking an existing account. The attack follows the same playbook, using a link or an attachment to steal personal info, request funds, or install malware.
While you can’t outright stop phishing attacks from making their way to your computer or phone, you can do several things to keep yourself from falling to them. Further, you can do other things that may make it more difficult for scammers to reach you.
The content and the tone of the message can tell you quite a lot. Threatening messages or ones that play on fear are often phishing attacks, such angry messages from a so-called tax agent looking to collect back taxes. Other messages will lean heavy on urgency, like the phony McAfee phishing email above that says your license has expired today and that you have “(42)” viruses. And during the holidays, watch out for loud, overexcited messages about deep discounts on hard-to-find items. Instead of linking you off to a proper ecommerce site, they may link you to a scam shopping site that does nothing but steal your money and the account information you used to pay them. In all, phishing attacks indeed smell fishy. Slow down and review that message with a critical eye. It may tip you off to a scam.
Some phishing attacks can look rather convincing. So much so that you’ll want to follow up on them, like if your bank reports irregular activity on your account or a bill appears to be past due. In these cases, don’t click on the link in the message. Go straight to the website of the business or organization in question and access your account from there. Likewise, if you have questions, you can always reach out to their customer service number or web page.
When scammers contact you via social media, that in of itself can be a tell-tale sign of a scam. Consider, would an income tax collector contact you over social media? The answer there is no. For example, in the U.S. the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) makes it quite clear that they will never contact taxpayers via social media. (Let alone send angry, threatening messages.) In all, legitimate businesses and organizations don’t use social media as a channel for official communications. They have accepted ways they will, and will not, contact you. If you have any doubts about a communication you received, contact the business or organization in question directly and follow up with one of their customer service representatives.
Some phishing attacks involve attachments packed with malware like the ransomware, viruses, and keyloggers we mentioned earlier. If you receive a message with such an attachment, delete it. Even if you receive an email with an attachment from someone you know, follow up with that person. Particularly if you weren’t expecting an attachment from them. Scammers will often hijack or spoof email accounts of everyday people to spread malware.
On computers and laptops, you can hover your cursor over links without clicking on them to see the web address. Take a close look at the addresses the message is using. If it’s an email, look at the email address. Maybe the address doesn’t match the company or organization at all. Or maybe it looks like it almost does, yet it adds a few letters or words to the name. This marks yet another sign that you may have a phishing attack on your hands. Scammers also use the common tactic of a link shortener, which creates links that almost look like strings of indecipherable text. These shortened links mask the true address, which may indeed be a link to scam site. Delete the message. If possible, report it. Many social media platforms and messaging apps have built-in controls for reporting suspicious accounts and messages.
On social media and messaging platforms, stick to following, friending, and messaging people who you really know. As for those people who contact you out of the blue, be suspicious. Sad to say, they’re often scammers canvassing these platforms for victims. Better yet, where you can, set your profile to private, which makes it more difficult for scammers select and stalk you for an attack.
How’d that scammer get your phone number or email address anyway? Chances are, they pulled that information off a data broker site. Data brokers buy, collect, and sell detailed personal information, which they compile from several public and private sources, such as local, state, and federal records, plus third parties like supermarket shopper’s cards and mobile apps that share and sell user data. Moreover, they’ll sell it to anyone who pays for it, including people who’ll use that information for scams. You can help reduce those scam texts and calls by removing your information from those sites. Our Personal Data Cleanup scans some of the riskiest data broker sites and shows you which ones are selling your personal info.
Online protection software can protect you in several ways. First, it can offer safe browsing features that can identify malicious links and downloads, which can help prevent clicking them. Further, it can steer you away from dangerous websites and block malware and phishing sites if you accidentally click on a malicious link. And overall, strong virus and malware protection can further block any attacks on your devices. Be sure to protect your smartphones in addition to your computers and laptops as well, particularly given all the sensitive things we do on them, like banking, shopping, and booking rides and travel.
Once phishing attacks were largely the domain of bogus emails, yet now they’ve spread to texts, social media, and messaging apps—anywhere a scammer can send a fraudulent message while posing as a reputable source.
Scammers count on you taking the bait, the immediate feelings of fear or concern that there’s a problem with your taxes or one of your accounts. They also prey on scarcity, like during the holidays where people search for great deals on gifts and have plenty of packages on the move. With a critical eye, you can often spot those scams. Sometimes, a pause and a little thought is all it takes. And in the cases where a particularly cagey attack makes its way through, online protection software can warn you that the link you’re about to click is indeed a trap.
Taken all together, you have plenty of ways you can beat scammers at their game.
The post How to Avoid Phishing Attacks on Your Smartphones and Computers appeared first on McAfee Blog.
It’s no secret that when it comes to social networks, teen preferences can change dramatically from year to year. That holds with Twitter. Even though the social network has seen a dip in use overall, Twitter has proven its staying power among certain communities, and that includes teens.
According to a 2022 Pew Center Study, 23 percent of teens online use Twitter (down from 33 percent in 2014-15). Because of Twitter’s loyal fanbase, it’s important for tweeting teens as well as parents, and caregivers to understand how to engage safely on the fast-moving platform.
Many teens love the public aspect of Twitter. They see it as a fun place to connect with friends and stay up to date on sports, school news, memes, online trends and challenges, and popular culture. However, because the platform’s brief, 140–280-word format is so distinct from other popular networks such as TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat, the online etiquette and ground rules for engagement are also distinct.
As fun as Twitter content is to share and consume, the platform still comes with hidden risks (as do all social networks).
Here’s a guide to help your family understand safe Twitter use and still have fun on this unique social network.
This is likely one of the most important phrases you can convey to your child when it comes to using Twitter. Every word shared online can have positive or negative repercussions. Twitter’s fast-moving, ticker-like feed can tempt users to underestimate the impact of an impulsive, emotionally charged tweet. Words—digital words especially—can cause harm to the reputation of the person tweeting or to others.
For this reason, consider advising your kids to be extra careful when sharing their thoughts or opinions, retweeting others, or responding to others’ tweets. We all know too well that content shared carelessly or recklessly online can affect future college or career opportunities for years to come.
There’s little more important these days than protecting your family’s privacy. Every online risk can be traced to underestimating the magnitude of this single issue.
It’s never too early or too late to put the right tools in place to protect your family’s privacy online. While Twitter has privacy and reporting features designed to protect users, it’s wise to add a comprehensive identity and privacy protection solution to protect your family’s devices and networks.
Kids get comfortable with their online communities. This feeling of inclusion and belonging can lead to oversharing personal details. Discuss the importance of keeping personal details private online reminding your kids to never share their full name, address, phone number, or other identity or location-revealing details. This includes discerning posting photos that could include signage, school or workplace logos, and addresses. In addition, advise family members not to give away data just because there’s a blank. It’s wise to only share your birthday month and day and keep your birth year private.
When is the last time you reviewed social media account settings with your child? It’s possible that, over time, your child may have eased up on their settings. Privacy settings on Twitter are easy to understand and put in place. Your child’ can control their discoverability, set an account to be public or private, and protect their tweets from public search. It’s easy to filter out unwanted messages, limit messages from people you don’t follow, and limit who can see your Tweets or tag you in photos. It’s also possible to filter the topics you see.
Respecting others is foundational to engaging on any social network. This includes honoring the beliefs, cultures, traditions, opinions, and choices of others. Cyberbullying plays out in many ways on Twitter and one of those ways is by subtweeting. This vague form of posting is a form of digital gossip. Subtweeting is when one Twitter user posts a mocking or critical tweet that alludes to another Twitter user without directly mentioning their name. It can be cruel and harmful. Discuss the dangers of subtweeting along with the concept of empathy. Also, encourage your child to access the platform’s social media guidelines and know how to unfollow, block, and report cyberbullies on Twitter.
Maintaining a strong parent-child bond is essential to your child’s mental health and the first building block of establishing strong online habits. Has your child’s mood suddenly changed? Are they incessantly looking at their phone? Have their grades slipped? An online conflict, a risky situation, or some type of bullying may be the cause. You don’t have to hover over your child’s social feeds every day, but it’s important to stay involved in their daily life to support their mental health. If you do monitor their social networks, be sure to check the tone and intent of comments, captions, and replies. You will know bullying and subtweeting when you see it.
We love to quote Spiderman’s uncle Ben Parker and remind families that “with great power comes great responsibility” because it sums up technology ownership and social media engagement perfectly. The more time kids spend online, the more comfortable they can become and the more lapses in judgment can occur. Consider discussing (and repeating often) that social media isn’t a right, it’s a privilege that carries responsibility and consequences.
The FBI estimates there are approximately 500,000 predators active online each day and that they all have multiple profiles. Anonymous, catfish, and fake accounts abound online wooing even the savviest digital native into an unsafe situation. Engaging on any social network can expose kids to a wide array of possible dangers including scammers, catfishes, and predators. Scams and predator tactics continue to get more sophisticated. For this reason, it’s important to candidly talk about online predator awareness and the ever-evolving tactics bad actors will go to deceive minors online.
Twitter continues to attract tweens and teens who appreciate its brevity and breaking news. While navigating online safety and social media can be daunting for parents, it’s critical to stay engaged with your child and understand their digital life. By establishing an open flow of communication and regularly discussing privacy and appropriate online behavior, you can create a culture of openness in your family around important issues. We’re rooting for you!
The post How to Protect Your Family’s Privacy on Twitter: A Guide for Parents and Kids appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Ping, it’s a scammer!
The sound of an incoming email, text, or direct message has a way of getting your attention, so you take a look and see what’s up. It happens umpteen times a week, to the extent that it feels like the flow of your day. And scammers want to tap into that with sneaky phishing attacks that catch you off guard, all with the aim of stealing your personal information or bilking you out of your money.
Phishing attacks take several forms, where scammers masquerade as a legitimate company, financial institution, government agency, or even as someone you know. And they’ll come after you with messages that follow suit:
You can see why phishing attacks can be so effective. Messages like these have an urgency to them, and they seem like they’re legit, or they at least seem like they might deal with something you might care about. But of course they’re just a ruse. And some of them can look and sound rather convincing. Or at least convincing enough that you’ll not only give them a look, but that you’ll also give them a click too.
And that’s where the troubles start. Clicking the links or attachments sent in a phishing attack can lead to several potentially nasty things, such as:
However, plenty of phishing attacks are preventable. A mix of knowing what to look for and putting a few security steps in place can help you keep scammers at bay.
How you end up with one has a lot to do with it.
There’s a good chance you’ve already seen your share of phishing attempts on your phone. A text comes through with a brief message that one of your accounts needs attention, from an entirely unknown number. Along with it is a link that you can tap to follow up, which will send you to a malicious site. In some cases, the sender may skip the link and attempt to start a conversation with the aim of getting you to share your personal information or possibly fork over some payment with a gift card, money order, rechargeable debit card, or other form of payment that is difficult to trace and recover.
In the case of social media, you can expect that the attack will come from an imposter account that’s doing its best to pose as one of those legitimate businesses or organizations we talked about, or perhaps as a stranger or even someone you know. And the name and profile pic will do its best to play the part. If you click on the account that sent it, you may see that it was created only recently and that it has few to no followers, both of which are red flags. The attack is typically conversational, much like described above where the scammer attempts to pump you for personal info or money.
Attacks that come by direct messaging apps will work much in the same way. The scammer will set up a phony account, and where the app allows, a phony name and a phony profile pic to go along with it.
Email gets a little more complicated because emails can range anywhere from a few simple lines of text to a fully designed piece complete with images, formatting, and embedded links—much like a miniature web page.
In the past, email phishing attacks looked rather unsophisticated, rife with poor spelling and grammar, along with sloppy-looking layouts and images. That’s still sometimes the case today. Yet not always. Some phishing emails look like the real thing. Or nearly so.
Case in point, here’s a look at a phishing email masquerading as a McAfee email:
There’s a lot going on here. The scammers try to mimic the McAfee brand, yet don’t quite pull it off. Still, they do several things to try and be convincing.
Note the use of photography and the box shot of our software, paired with a prominent “act now” headline. It’s not the style of photography we use. Not that people would generally know this. However, some might have a passing thought like, “Huh. That doesn’t really look right for some reason.”
Beyond that, there are a few capitalization errors, some misplaced punctuation, plus the “order now” and “60% off” icons look rather slapped on. Also note the little dash of fear it throws in at the top of the email with mention of “There are (42) viruses on your computer.”
Taken all together, you can spot many email scams by taking a closer look, seeing what doesn’t feel right, and then trusting you gut. But that asks you to slow down, take a moment, and eyeball the email critically. Which people don’t always do. And that’s what scammers count on.
Similar ploys see scammers pose as legitimate companies and retailers, where they either ask you to log into a bogus account page to check statement or the status of an order. Some scammers offer links to “discount codes” that are instead links to landing pages designed steal your account login information as well. Similarly, they may simply send a malicious email attachment with the hope that you’ll click it.
In other forms of email phishing attacks, scammers may pose as a co-worker, business associate, vendor, or partner to get the victim to click a malicious link or download malicious software. These may include a link to a bogus invoice, spreadsheet, notetaking file, or word processing doc—just about anything that looks like it could be a piece of business correspondence. Instead, the link leads to a scam website that asks the victim “log in and download” the document, which steals account info as a result. Scammers may also include attachments to phishing emails that can install malware directly on the device, sometimes by infecting an otherwise everyday document with a malicious payload.
Email scammers may also pose as someone you know, whether by propping up an imposter email account or by outright hijacking an existing account. The attack follows the same playbook, using a link or an attachment to steal personal info, request funds, or install malware.
While you can’t outright stop phishing attacks from making their way to your computer or phone, you can do several things to keep yourself from falling to them. Further, you can do other things that may make it more difficult for scammers to reach you.
The content and the tone of the message can tell you quite a lot. Threatening messages or ones that play on fear are often phishing attacks, such angry messages from a so-called tax agent looking to collect back taxes. Other messages will lean heavy on urgency, like the phony McAfee phishing email above that says your license has expired today and that you have “(42)” viruses. And during the holidays, watch out for loud, overexcited messages about deep discounts on hard-to-find items. Instead of linking you off to a proper ecommerce site, they may link you to a scam shopping site that does nothing but steal your money and the account information you used to pay them. In all, phishing attacks indeed smell fishy. Slow down and review that message with a critical eye. It may tip you off to a scam.
Some phishing attacks can look rather convincing. So much so that you’ll want to follow up on them, like if your bank reports irregular activity on your account or a bill appears to be past due. In these cases, don’t click on the link in the message. Go straight to the website of the business or organization in question and access your account from there. Likewise, if you have questions, you can always reach out to their customer service number or web page.
When scammers contact you via social media, that in of itself can be a tell-tale sign of a scam. Consider, would an income tax collector contact you over social media? The answer there is no. For example, in the U.S. the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) makes it quite clear that they will never contact taxpayers via social media. (Let alone send angry, threatening messages.) In all, legitimate businesses and organizations don’t use social media as a channel for official communications. They have accepted ways they will, and will not, contact you. If you have any doubts about a communication you received, contact the business or organization in question directly and follow up with one of their customer service representatives.
Some phishing attacks involve attachments packed with malware like the ransomware, viruses, and keyloggers we mentioned earlier. If you receive a message with such an attachment, delete it. Even if you receive an email with an attachment from someone you know, follow up with that person. Particularly if you weren’t expecting an attachment from them. Scammers will often hijack or spoof email accounts of everyday people to spread malware.
On computers and laptops, you can hover your cursor over links without clicking on them to see the web address. Take a close look at the addresses the message is using. If it’s an email, look at the email address. Maybe the address doesn’t match the company or organization at all. Or maybe it looks like it almost does, yet it adds a few letters or words to the name. This marks yet another sign that you may have a phishing attack on your hands. Scammers also use the common tactic of a link shortener, which creates links that almost look like strings of indecipherable text. These shortened links mask the true address, which may indeed be a link to scam site. Delete the message. If possible, report it. Many social media platforms and messaging apps have built-in controls for reporting suspicious accounts and messages.
On social media and messaging platforms, stick to following, friending, and messaging people who you really know. As for those people who contact you out of the blue, be suspicious. Sad to say, they’re often scammers canvassing these platforms for victims. Better yet, where you can, set your profile to private, which makes it more difficult for scammers select and stalk you for an attack.
How’d that scammer get your phone number or email address anyway? Chances are, they pulled that information off a data broker site. Data brokers buy, collect, and sell detailed personal information, which they compile from several public and private sources, such as local, state, and federal records, plus third parties like supermarket shopper’s cards and mobile apps that share and sell user data. Moreover, they’ll sell it to anyone who pays for it, including people who’ll use that information for scams. You can help reduce those scam texts and calls by removing your information from those sites. Our Personal Data Cleanup scans some of the riskiest data broker sites and shows you which ones are selling your personal info.
Online protection software can protect you in several ways. First, it can offer safe browsing features that can identify malicious links and downloads, which can help prevent clicking them. Further, it can steer you away from dangerous websites and block malware and phishing sites if you accidentally click on a malicious link. And overall, strong virus and malware protection can further block any attacks on your devices. Be sure to protect your smartphones in addition to your computers and laptops as well, particularly given all the sensitive things we do on them, like banking, shopping, and booking rides and travel.
Once phishing attacks were largely the domain of bogus emails, yet now they’ve spread to texts, social media, and messaging apps—anywhere a scammer can send a fraudulent message while posing as a reputable source.
Scammers count on you taking the bait, the immediate feelings of fear or concern that there’s a problem with your taxes or one of your accounts. They also prey on scarcity, like during the holidays where people search for great deals on gifts and have plenty of packages on the move. With a critical eye, you can often spot those scams. Sometimes, a pause and a little thought is all it takes. You can stay one step ahead of scammers with the power of AI, our new McAfee Scam Protection can alert you when scam texts pop up on your device or phone. Removing the guessing and it can block risky sites if you accidentally follow a scam link in a text, email, social media, and more. And in the cases where a particularly cagey attack makes its way through, online protection software can warn you that the link you’re about to click is indeed a trap.
Taken all together, you have plenty of ways you can beat scammers at their game.
The post How to Protect Yourself From Phishing Scams appeared first on McAfee Blog.
As people get into their 70s, they stand to lose more to fraud than any other age group—which makes a strong case for protecting the older people in our lives.
If you’re looking to protect them online, you have several ways to go about it. Our new McAfee+ Family plans are one way, where two adults and four children get personalized online protection that they can set up and manage on their own. With your McAfee+ Family plan a simple invitation, you can rest easy that they’re protected against online scams and other threats.
And threats certainly face us all, and hit older adults hardest.
In the following table courtesy of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), you can see the risks that adults faced in 2022. While younger victims reported fraud loss at a higher rate, their median losses were typically smaller than the losses of older adults. By the time victims reach their 70s and 80s, the reporting rate dropped, yet the median losses made a significant leap.
Note that these are reported cases of fraud, and those reported to the FTC. In other words, this represents just a slice of the fraud that occurred in 2022.
Moreover, as we’ve shared before in articles about elder scams, older adults may be less willing or able to report a scam. The reasons vary. They may not know how they were scammed or they may feel shamed by being scammed—all of which can lead to underreporting. Moreover, not every scam report includes an age range, which leads to further underreporting.
Yet the case is clear. Scams pose a significant threat to older adults.
Looking further into the FTC data, older adults in the U.S. lost more than $1.6 billion to scams in 2022 across four primary categories:
So many scams fail to pass the sniff test. The moment you scrutinize the incredible offer plastered on that ad or question why a so-called tax collector would hound you on social media, something immediately smells fishy. Yet people don’t always catch that whiff. People of all ages. Not just the elders in our lives.
One way we can help everyone stay safer online is through conversation. The knowledge that comes from a good, ongoing conversation about life online provides them with one pillar of protection. Talking about how they spend their time online and the types of scams that are out there arms them with the savvy they need to spot a scam. That will help them take that crucial moment when faced with a possible scam, a crucial moment to consider if that ad, email, or direct message is indeed bogus.
The second pillar comes from comprehensive online protection. Today’s protection goes far beyond antivirus. It protects devices the privacy and the identity of the people using them. In the case of our McAfee+ Family plans, they protect up to six people from viruses, credit card fraud, and identity theft with tailored guidance as they do what they do online. With an elder on your family plan, you can see which devices they’ve installed protection on, so you’ll know they’re protected.
More specific to some of the scams we talked about, it can help block older adults from accessing messages. Further, it can help prevent scam calls and texts in the first place. Personal Data Cleanup spots and removes their personal info from risky data broker sites that spammers use to find victims. And if their personal information has been compromised, our identity monitoring alerts them if their data is found on the dark web, an average of 10 months ahead of similar services—and get expert guidance about what to do next. Our identity theft protection and recovery service identity and credit if the unexpected happens to them.
Adding a parent to your family plan.
Adding someone to your McAfee+ Family plan is practically as simple as typing in an email address.
Think of it as sending an invitation, one where everyone gets their own personalized protection with their own unique login. This way, each member of the family can set up and manage their own protection for their identity, privacy, computers, and phones.
With this invitation, they’ll see that it comes from you and that all they need to do to start their protection is to click the link—no extra charges or fees. They’re simply part of your plan now.
From there, they can download their protection, set up their devices, and consult their McAfee Protection Score to see how secure they are. Then simple instructions make it easy to set up and fix gaps to improve their online security so that they’re safer still.
In all, it’s a highly straightforward process, for you and members of your family.
Spending any time online calls for online protection, no matter what age you are. While threats may look different across different age groups, every family member faces them. Another thing everyone has in common is that every family member can protect themselves from threats, far more thoroughly now than before. Comprehensive online protection has evolved far beyond antivirus. It protects the person, which is important because that’s who scammers target. They target people, so they can invade their privacy, steal their personal information, or simply rip them off.
Put plainly, knowing what today’s scams look like and using comprehensive online protection offer a one-two punch in the defense against online scams. You have several options to get it for the older adults in your life, our new McAfee+ Family plans being one of them. Whichever route you take, putting your family’s protection plan in place will absolutely reduce the chances of someone you love getting stung by a scam.
The post Protecting Your Parents from Scams with Our New Family Plans appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Dozens of content creators center their channels on highlighting the differences between today’s most prominent generations: the Silent Generation, baby boomers, Generation X, millennials, and Generations Z and Alpha. At quick glance, no generation seems to have much in common with the others.
Despite our vastly different life experiences and philosophies, there’s something that people of any age should get behind: identity and online privacy protection. Young or old, cybercriminals don’t discriminate against who they target. In fact, some generations are more prone to certain scams than others.
Education on current cyber threats is the first step to defending against them. Here’s how to protect every member of the family against online threats.
Cybercriminals can steal identities even from young children who don’t yet have an online presence. Criminals can buy Social Security Numbers (SSNs) of minors on the dark web or gather them through medical record or school system breaches. Those SSNs are valuable to a cybercriminal, because the theft can go undetected for years. Since children aren’t opening credit cards or applying for mortgages, there’s seemingly no reason to keep tabs on their credit and ensure everything is normal.
To check up on the online safety of your youngest family members, it’s never too early to start identity monitoring. Also, consider putting a credit freeze on your child’s credit. A credit freeze does not negatively affect their credit score. Since they won’t be needing it for several years anyway, might as well make your child’s credit inaccessible to everyone, including criminals.
Teenagers crave independence. Often at this age, parents allow their teens to open and manage their first email addresses and social media profiles independently. It’s an important life lesson in organization, responsibility, and digital literacy; however, these platforms are not without risks like cyberbullying, fake news, and social engineering.
The best way to avoid falling for each is through education. Globally, 13% of children experienced the most severe forms of cyberbullying, including harassment, physical threats, and stalking. Ensure that your tweens and teens who spend time unsupervised on their connected devices know what to do if they encounter cyberbullying. The best course of action is to report the incident to an adult, and in the meantime, to suspend their accounts.
To steer clear of fake news perpetuated by social media bots and social engineering scams, a safe browsing extension may protect your teen’s device from risky sites. McAfee WebAdvisor not only alerts users to possible hidden malware, but also to phishing attempts, which may be difficult for teenagers to suss out. For teens who are eager to download a “free” TV or video game, they may miss the telltale signs of malicious sites, such as typos, blurry logos, or offers that are too good to be true.
While adults typically have more street smarts than teens, their schedules are brimming with important tasks. Juggling work, social obligations, and running a household often leaves adults feeling like they don’t have time to spare. The feeling that they have to rush through emails, social media direct messages, and even dating app correspondences could increase their susceptibility to phishing, malware, and computer viruses.
The best advice to adults to avoid phishing or malicious bugs is this: slow down! Take your time when you receive any message from someone you don’t know or have never met in person. If you feel even an iota of suspicion, don’t engage any further with the sender. Delete the message. If it’s important, the person or organization will follow up.
To fully protect expensive connected devices and the personally identifiable information they store, consider investing in safe browsing, antivirus software, and identity monitoring and restoration services to catch any threats that may have passed under your watchful eye.
Cybercriminals often seek out seniors as easy targets for online scams. Because they aren’t digital natives like millennials and Gen Zers, seniors are typically less confident in their online skills. For example, they may not realize that every email in their inbox isn’t necessarily sent by someone with good intentions. What can start out as a friendly online pen pal can quickly spiral into divulging sensitive personal information or sending huge sums of money to a criminal.
The best way to prepare the seniors in your life for online safety is to impart a few, easy-to-follow absolutes. Start with these three rules:
For peace of mind, enroll the seniors in your family in identity monitoring and restoration services. This will help them get back on their feet if their identity was compromised in a senior scam.
Get the whole family committed to safer and more private online lives with the help of McAfee+ Ultimate Family Plan. The Family Plan covers up to six individuals and protects their online lives with an entire suite of comprehensive privacy, identity, and device security features. For example, families can receive up to $2 million in identity theft recovery and $50,000 in ransomware coverage. The plan also includes preventive measures to fight online crime, such as safe browsing tools, an advanced firewall, unlimited VPN, and antivirus software for unlimited devices.
Empower your whole family with online confidence and protection for their digital life!
The post Protect the Whole Family with McAfee+ Ultimate Family Plan appeared first on McAfee Blog.
FreshRSS