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AI scams are becoming increasingly common. With the rise of artificial intelligence and technology, fraudulent activity is becoming more sophisticated and sophisticated. As a result, it is becoming increasingly important for families to be aware of the dangers posed by AI scams and to take steps to protect themselves.
By taking these steps, you can help protect your family from AI scams. Educating yourself and your family about the potential risks of AI scams, monitoring your family’s online activity, using strong passwords, installing anti-virus software, and checking your credit report regularly can help keep your family safe from AI scams.
No one likes to be taken advantage of or scammed. By being aware of the potential risks of AI scams, you protect your family from becoming victims.
In addition, it is important to be aware of emails or texts that appear to be from legitimate sources but are actually attempts to entice you to click on suspicious links or provide personal information. If you receive a suspicious email or text, delete it immediately. If you are unsure, contact the company directly to verify that the message is legitimate. By being aware of potential AI scams keep your family safe from financial loss or identity theft.
You can also take additional steps to protect yourself and your family from AI scams. Consider using two-factor authentication when logging in to websites or apps, and keep all passwords and usernames secure. Be skeptical of unsolicited emails or texts never provide confidential information unless you are sure you know who you are dealing with. Finally, always consider the source and research any unfamiliar company or service before you provide any personal information. By taking these steps, you can help to protect yourself and your family from the dangers posed by AI scams.
monitor your bank accounts and credit reports to ensure that no unauthorized activity is taking place. Set up notifications to alert you of any changes or suspicious activity. Make sure to update your security software to the latest version and be aware of phishing attempts, which could be attempts to gain access to your personal information. If you receive a suspicious email or text, do not click on any links and delete the message immediately.
Finally, stay informed and know the signs of scam. Be your online accounts and look out for any requests for personal information. If something looks suspicious, trust your instincts and don’t provide any information. Report any suspicious activity to the authorities and make sure to spread the word to others from falling victim to AI scams.
This blog post was co-written with artifical intelligence (AI) as a tool to supplement, enhance, and make suggestions. While AI may assist in the creative and editing process, the thoughts, ideas, opinions, and the finished product are entirely human and original to their author. We strive to ensure accuracy and relevance, but please be aware that AI-generated content may not always fully represent the intent or expertise of human-authored material.
The post How to Protect Your Family From AI Scams appeared first on McAfee Blog.
This script monitors a Bitcoin wallet address and notifies the user when there are changes in the balance or new transactions. It provides real-time updates on incoming and outgoing transactions, along with the corresponding amounts and timestamps. Additionally, it can play a sound notification on Windows when a new transaction occurs.
Python 3.x requests library: You can install it by running pip install requests. winsound module: This module is available by default on Windows.
FreshRSS python wallet_transaction_monitor.pyThe script will start monitoring the wallet and display updates whenever there are changes in the balance or new transactions. It will also play the specified sound notification on Windows.
This script is designed to work on Windows due to the use of the winsound module for sound notifications. If you are using a different operating system, you may need to modify the sound-related code or use an alternative method for audio notifications. The script uses the Blockchain.info API to fetch wallet data. Please ensure you have a stable internet connection for the script to work correctly. It's recommended to run the script in the background or keep the terminal window open while monitoring the wallet.
Read this statement, then read it again: Just five distracted seconds at 55 mph is equivalent to driving the length of a football field with your eyes closed. This alarming truth from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), highlights the need for parents to address the issue of distracted driving with their teens.
Additional distracted driving statistics are mind-blowing. According to the NHSTA, 77 percent of drivers admitted to using their phones while driving, 74 percent used their map app, 56 percent read emails or texts, 27 percent updated or checked their social media accounts, and shockingly, 19 percent of drivers—equivalent to one in five—engaged in online shopping while driving.
In the United States, distracted driving has become a leading cause of fatal crashes, accounting for 25 to 30 percent of all fatal crashes. Furthermore, overall highway fatalities have increased by 22 percent, as reported recently by The Los Angeles Times, which attributed this rise to the allure of technology turning our cars into “candy stores of distraction.”
While technology plays a significant role in distracted driving, other everyday choices and factors can also contribute to accidents. Eating while driving, managing a lively pet in the car, navigating unfamiliar streets, and even talking with peer passengers can distract young drivers. Studies have shown that crash risk doubles when teens drive with one peer passenger and quadruples with three or more teen passengers.
In the throes of summer, it’s a great time for parents to have a conversation with their teen drivers about the dangers of distracted driving and texting while driving. Here are some important topics to discuss and tips to help keep your kids safe on the road:
Remember, developing good (or better) habits takes time, effort, consistency, and parental involvement in teen driving. Preventing distracted driving with positive behavior change won’t happen overnight. Repeat yourself when it comes to road safety without apologies. Giving your child rules and expectations demonstrates love. By making some of these shifts, hopefully, you will worry less, raise wiser drivers, and improve safety for everyone on the roads.
The post Parent’s Guide: 8 Ways to Help Your Teen Combat Distracted Driving appeared first on McAfee Blog.
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These are a collection of security and monitoring scripts you can use to monitor your Linux installation for security-related events or for an investigation. Each script works on its own and is independent of other scripts. The scripts can be set up to either print out their results, send them to you via mail, or using AlertR as notification channel.
The scripts are located in the directory scripts/. Each script contains a short summary in the header of the file with a description of what it is supposed to do, (if needed) dependencies that have to be installed and (if available) references to where the idea for this script stems from.
Each script has a configuration file in the scripts/config/ directory to configure it. If the configuration file was not found during the execution of the script, the script will fall back to default settings and print out the results. Hence, it is not necessary to provide a configuration file.
The scripts/lib/ directory contains code that is shared between different scripts.
Scripts using a monitor_ prefix hold a state and are only useful for monitoring purposes. A single usage of them for an investigation will only result in showing the current state the Linux system and not changes that might be relevant for the system's security. If you want to establish the current state of your system as benign for these scripts, you can provide the --init argument.
Take a look at the header of the script you want to execute. It contains a short description what this script is supposed to do and what requirements are needed (if any needed at all). If requirements are needed, install them before running the script.
The shared configuration file scripts/config/config.py contains settings that are used by all scripts. Furthermore, each script can be configured by using the corresponding configuration file in the scripts/config/ directory. If no configuration file was found, a default setting is used and the results are printed out.
Finally, you can run all configured scripts by executing start_search.py (which is located in the main directory) or by executing each script manually. A Python3 interpreter is needed to run the scripts.
If you want to use the scripts to monitor your Linux system constantly, you have to perform the following steps:
Set up a notification channel that is supported by the scripts (currently printing out, mail, or AlertR).
Configure the scripts that you want to run using the configuration files in the scripts/config/ directory.
Execute start_search.py with the --init argument to initialize the scripts with the monitor_ prefix and let them establish a state of your system. However, this assumes that your system is currently uncompromised. If you are unsure of this, you should verify its current state.
Set up a cron job as root user that executes start_search.py (e.g., 0 * * * * root /opt/LSMS/start_search.py to start the search hourly).
| Name | Script |
|---|---|
| Monitoring cron files | monitor_cron.py |
| Monitoring /etc/hosts file | monitor_hosts_file.py |
| Monitoring /etc/ld.so.preload file | monitor_ld_preload.py |
| Monitoring /etc/passwd file | monitor_passwd.py |
| Monitoring modules | monitor_modules.py |
| Monitoring SSH authorized_keys files | monitor_ssh_authorized_keys.py |
| Monitoring systemd unit files | monitor_systemd_units.py |
| Search executables in /dev/shm | search_dev_shm.py |
| Search fileless programs (memfd_create) | search_memfd_create.py |
| Search hidden ELF files | search_hidden_exe.py |
| Search immutable files | search_immutable_files.py |
| Search kernel thread impersonations | search_non_kthreads.py |
| Search processes that were started by a now disconnected SSH session | search_ssh_leftover_processes.py |
| Search running deleted programs | search_deleted_exe.py |
| Test script to check if alerting works | test_alert.py |
| Verify integrity of installed .deb packages | verify_deb_packages.py |
With the number of cyber threats and breaches dominating the headlines, it can seem like a Herculean task to cover all your cybersecurity bases. We’re aware that there are ten sections on this cybersecurity awareness checklist, but it won’t take hours and hours to tick every box. In fact, some of these areas only require you to check a box on your device or invest in the cybersecurity tools that will handle the rest for you. Also, you may already be doing some of these things!
It’s easy to be cyber smart. Here are the cybersecurity awareness basics to instantly boost your safety and confidence in your online presence.
Software update notifications always seem to ping on the outskirts of your desktop and mobile device at the most inconvenient times. What’s more inconvenient though is having your device hacked. One easy tip to improve your cybersecurity is to update your device software whenever upgrades are available. Most software updates include security patches that smart teams have created to foil cybercriminals. The more outdated your apps or operating system is, the more time criminals have had to work out ways to infiltrate them.
Enabling automatic updates on all your devices only takes a few clicks or taps. Many major updates occur in the early hours of the morning, meaning that you’ll never know your devices were offline. You’ll just wake up to new, secure software!
Just because social media personalities document their entire days literally from the moment they wake up, doesn’t mean you should do the same. It’s best to leave some details about your life a mystery from the internet for various reasons.
The best way to avoid all of the above is to set your online profiles to private and edit your list of followers to only people you have met in real life and trust. Also, you may want to consider revising what you post about and how often.
If you genuinely love sharing moments from your daily life, consider sending a newsletter to a curated group of close friends and family. Aspiring influencers who still wants to capture and publish every aspect of their daily lives should be extremely careful about keeping sensitive details about themselves private, such as blurring their house number, not revealing their hometown, turning off location services, and going by a nickname instead of their full legal name.
Most sites won’t even let you proceed with creating an account if you don’t have a strong enough password. A strong password is one with a mix of capital and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. What also makes for an excellent password is one that’s unique. Reusing passwords can be just as risky as using “password123” or your pet’s name plus your birthday as a password. A reused password can put all your online accounts at risk, due to a practice called credential stuffing. Credential stuffing is a tactic where a cybercriminal attempts to input a stolen username and password combination in dozens of random websites to see which doors it opens.
Remembering a different password for each of your online accounts is almost an impossible task. Luckily, password managers make it so you only have to remember one password ever again! Password managers safeguard all your passwords in one secure desktop extension or smartphone app that you can use anywhere.
It’s best to create passwords or passphrases that have a secret meaning that only you know. Stay away from using significant dates, names, or places, because those are easier to guess. You can also leave it up to your password manager to randomly generate a password for you. The resulting unintelligible jumble of numbers, letters, and symbols is virtually impossible for anyone to guess.
Not all corners of the internet are safe to visit. Some dark crevices hide malware that can then sneak onto your device without you knowing. There are various types of malware, but the motive behind all of them is the same: To steal your personally identifiable information (PII) or your device’s power for a cybercriminal’s own financial gain.
Sites that claim to have free downloads of TV shows, movies, and games are notorious for harboring malware. Practice safe downloading habits, such as ensuring the site is secure, checking to see that it looks professional, and inspecting the URLs for suspicious file extensions.
Additionally, not all internet connections are free from prying eyes. Public Wi-Fi networks – like those in cafes, libraries, hotels, and transportation hubs – are especially prone. Because anyone can connect to a public network without needing a password, cybercriminals can digitally eavesdrop on other people on the same network. It’s unsafe to do your online banking, shopping, and other activities that deal with your financial or sensitive personal information while on public Wi-Fi.
However, there is one way to do so safely, and that’s with a virtual private network (VPN). A VPN is a type of software you can use on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. It encrypts all your outgoing data, making it nearly impossible for a cybercriminal to snoop on your internet session.
You’ve likely already experienced a phishing attempt, whether you were aware of it or not. Phishing is a common tactic used to eke personal details from unsuspecting or trusting people. Phishers often initiate contact through texts, emails, or social media direct messages, and they aim to get enough information to break into your online accounts or to impersonate you.
AI text generator tools are making it more difficult to pinpoint a phisher, as messages can seem very humanlike. Typos and nonsensical sentences used to be the main indicator of a phishing attempt, but text generators generally use correct spelling and grammar. Here are a few tell-tale signs of a phishing attempt:
Never engage with a phishing attempt. Do not forward the message or respond to them and never click on any links included in their message. The links could direct to malicious sites that could infect your device with malware or spyware.
Before you delete the message, block the sender, mark the message as junk, and report the phisher. Reporting can go a long way toward hopefully preventing the phisher from targeting someone else.
When a security breach occurs, you can be sure that the news will report it. Plus, it’s the law for companies to notify the Federal Trade Commission of a breach. Keep a keen eye on the news and your inbox for notifications about recent breaches. Quick action is necessary to protect your personal and financial information, which is why you should be aware of current events.
The moment you hear about a breach on the news or see an email from a company to its customers about an incident, change your account’s password and double check your account’s recent activity to ensure nothing is amiss. Then await further action communicated through official company correspondences and official channels.
Cybercriminals aren’t above adding insult to injury and further scamming customers affected in breaches. Phishers may spam inboxes impersonating the company and sending malware-laden links they claim will reset your password. Continue to scrutinize your messages and keep an eye on the company’s official company website and verified social media accounts to ensure you’re getting company-approved advice.
One great mantra to guide your cybersecurity habits is: If you connect it, protect it. This means that any device that links to the internet should have security measures in place to shield it from cybercriminals. Yes, this includes your smart TV, smart refrigerator, smart thermostat, and smart lightbulbs!
Compose a list of the smart home devices you own. (You probably have more than you thought!) Then, make sure that every device is using a password you created, instead of the default password the device came with. Default passwords can be reused across an entire line of appliances. So, if a cybercriminal cracks the code on someone else’s smart washing machine, that could mean they could weasel their way into yours with the same password.
Another way to secure your connected home devices is by enabling two-factor authentication (2FA). This usually means enrolling your phone number or email address with the device and inputting one-time codes periodically to log into the connected device. 2FA is an excellent way to frustrate a cybercriminal, as it’s extremely difficult for them to bypass this security measure. It may add an extra 15 seconds to your login process, but the peace of mind is worth the minor inconvenience.
Finally, encase your entire home network with a secure router, or the device that connects your home Wi-Fi network to the internet. Again, change the password from the factory setting. And if you decide to rename the network, have fun with it but leave your name and address out of the new name.
When flip phones arrived on the scene in the 1990s and early 2000s, the worst that happened when they went missing was that you lost a cache of your stored text messages and call history. Now, when you misplace or have your smartphone stolen, it can seem like your whole online life vanished. Mobile devices store a lot of our sensitive information, so that’s why it’s key to not only safeguard your accounts but the devices that house them.
The best way to lock your device against anyone but yourself is to set up face or fingerprint ID. This makes it virtually impossible for a criminal to open your device. Also, passcode- or password-protect all your devices. It may seem like an inconvenience now, but your fingers will soon be able to glide across the keyboard or number pad fluently in just a few days, adding maybe an extra second to opening your device.
Another way to safeguard your device and the important information within it is to disable your favorite internet browser from auto-filling your passwords and credit card information. In the hands of a criminal, these details could lead to significant losses. A password manager here comes in handy for quick and secure password and username inputting.
Credit experts recommend checking your credit at least once yearly, but there’s no harm in checking your credit score more often. It’s only hard inquiries (or credit checks initiated by lenders) that may lower your credit score. Consider making it a habit to check your credit once every quarter. The first signs of identity theft often appear in a drastically lower credit score, which means that someone may be opening lines of credit in your name.
Also, if you’re not planning to apply for a new credit card or a loan anytime soon, why not lock your credit so no one can access it? A credit freeze makes it so that no one (yourself included) can touch it, thus keeping it out of the hands of thieves.
Picking up the pieces after a thief steals your identity is expensive, tedious, and time-consuming. Identity remediation includes reaching out to all three credit bureaus, filing reports, and spending hours tracking down your PII that’s now strewn across the internet.
Identity protection services can guard your identity so you hopefully avoid this entire scenario altogether. McAfee identity monitoring tracks the dark web for you and alerts you, on average, ten months sooner that something is amiss when compared to similar services. And if something does happen to your identity, McAfee identity restoration services offers $1 million in identity restoration and lends its support to help you get your identity and credit back in order.
The best complement to your newfound excellent cyber habits is a toolbelt of excellent services to patch any holes in your defense. McAfee+ includes all the services you need to boost your peace of mind about your online identity and privacy. You can surf public Wi-Fi safely with its secure VPN, protect your device with antivirus software, freeze your credit with security freeze, keep tabs on your identity, and more!
The post 10 Easy Things You Can Do Today to Improve Your Cybersecurity appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Three seconds of audio is all it takes.
Cybercriminals have taken up newly forged artificial intelligence (AI) voice cloning tools and created a new breed of scam. With a small sample of audio, they can clone the voice of nearly anyone and send bogus messages by voicemail or voice messaging texts.
The aim, most often, is to trick people out of hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.
Our recent global study found that out of 7,000 people surveyed, one in four said that they had experienced an AI voice cloning scam or knew someone who had. Further, our research team at McAfee Labs discovered just how easily cybercriminals can pull off these scams.
With a small sample of a person’s voice and a script cooked up by a cybercriminal, these voice clone messages sound convincing, 70% of people in our worldwide survey said they weren’t confident they could tell the difference between a cloned voice and the real thing.
Cybercriminals create the kind of messages you might expect. Ones full of urgency and distress. They will use the cloning tool to impersonate a victim’s friend or family member with a voice message that says they’ve been in a car accident, or maybe that they’ve been robbed or injured. Either way, the bogus message often says they need money right away.
In all, the approach has proven quite effective so far. One in ten of people surveyed in our study said they received a message from an AI voice clone, and 77% of those victims said they lost money as a result.
Of the people who reported losing money, 36% said they lost between $500 and $3,000, while 7% got taken for sums anywhere between $5,000 and $15,000.
Of course, a clone needs an original. Cybercriminals have no difficulty sourcing original voice files to create their clones. Our study found that 53% of adults said they share their voice data online or in recorded notes at least once a week, and 49% do so up to ten times a week. All this activity generates voice recordings that could be subject to hacking, theft, or sharing (whether accidental or maliciously intentional).
Consider that people post videos of themselves on YouTube, share reels on social media, and perhaps even participate in podcasts. Even by accessing relatively public sources, cybercriminals can stockpile their arsenals with powerful source material.
Nearly half (45%) of our survey respondents said they would reply to a voicemail or voice message purporting to be from a friend or loved one in need of money, particularly if they thought the request had come from their partner or spouse (40%), mother (24%), or child (20%).
Further, they reported they’d likely respond to one of these messages if the message sender said:
These messages are the latest examples of targeted “spear phishing” attacks, which target specific people with specific information that seems just credible enough to act on it. Cybercriminals will often source this information from public social media profiles and other places online where people post about themselves, their families, their travels, and so on—and then attempt to cash in.
Payment methods vary, yet cybercriminals often ask for forms that are difficult to trace or recover, such as gift cards, wire transfers, reloadable debit cards, and even cryptocurrency. As always, requests for these kinds of payments raise a major red flag. It could very well be a scam.
In conjunction with this survey, researchers at McAfee Labs spent two weeks investigating the accessibility, ease of use, and efficacy of AI voice cloning tools. Readily, they found more than a dozen freely available on the internet.
These tools required only a basic level of experience and expertise to use. In one instance, just three seconds of audio was enough to produce a clone with an 85% voice match to the original (based on the benchmarking and assessment of McAfee security researchers). Further effort can increase the accuracy yet more. By training the data models, McAfee researchers achieved a 95% voice match based on just a small number of audio files.
McAfee’s researchers also discovered that that they could easily replicate accents from around the world, whether they were from the US, UK, India, or Australia. However, more distinctive voices were more challenging to copy, such as people who speak with an unusual pace, rhythm, or style. (Think of actor Christopher Walken.) Such voices require more effort to clone accurately and people with them are less likely to get cloned, at least with where the AI technology stands currently and putting comedic impersonations aside.
The research team stated that this is yet one more way that AI has lowered the barrier to entry for cybercriminals. Whether that’s using it to create malware, write deceptive messages in romance scams, or now with spear phishing attacks with voice cloning technology, it has never been easier to commit sophisticated looking, and sounding, cybercrime.
Likewise, the study also found that the rise of deepfakes and other disinformation created with AI tools has made people more skeptical of what they see online. Now, 32% of adults said their trust in social media is less than it’s ever been before.
A lot can come from a three-second audio clip.
With the advent of AI-driven voice cloning tools, cybercriminals have created a new form of scam. With arguably stunning accuracy, these tools can let cybercriminals nearly anyone. All they need is a short audio clip to kick off the cloning process.
Yet like all scams, you have ways you can protect yourself. A sharp sense of what seems right and wrong, along with a few straightforward security steps can help you and your loved ones from falling for these AI voice clone scams.
For a closer look at the survey data, along with a nation-by-nation breakdown, download a copy of our report here.
The survey was conducted between January 27th and February 1st, 2023 by Market Research Company MSI-ACI, with people aged 18 years and older invited to complete an online questionnaire. In total 7,000 people completed the survey from nine countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, India, Japan, Brazil, and Mexico.
The post Artificial Imposters—Cybercriminals Turn to AI Voice Cloning for a New Breed of Scam appeared first on McAfee Blog.
We’ve all been spending more of our time online since the crisis hit. Whether it’s ordering food for delivery, livestreaming concerts, holding virtual parties, or engaging in a little retail therapy, the digital interactions of many Americans are on the rise. This means we’re also sharing more of our personal and financial information online, with each other and the organizations we interact with. Unfortunately, as ever, there are bad guys around every digital corner looking for a piece of the action.
The bottom line is that personally identifiable information (PII) is the currency of internet crime. And cyber-criminals will do whatever they can to get their hands on it. When they commit identity theft with this data, it can be a messy business, potentially taking months for banks and businesses to investigate before you get your money and credit rating back. At a time of extreme financial hardship, this is the last thing anyone needs.
It therefore pays to be careful about how you use your data and how you protect it. Even more: it’s time to get proactive and monitor it—to try and spot early on if it has been stolen. Here’s what you need to know to protect your identity data.
How identity theft works
First, some data on the scope of the problem. In the second quarter of 2020 alone 349,641 identity theft reports were filed with the FTC. To put that in perspective, it’s over half of the number for the whole of 2019 (650,572), when consumers reported losing more than $1.9 billion to fraud. What’s driving this huge industry? A cybercrime economy estimated to be worth as much as $1.5 trillion annually.
Specialized online marketplaces and private forums provide a user-friendly way for cyber-criminals and fraudsters to easily buy and sell stolen identity data. Many are on the so-called dark web, which is hidden from search engines and requires a specialized anonymizing browser like Tor to access. However, plenty of this criminal activity also happens in plain sight, on social media sites and messaging platforms. This underground industry is an unstoppable force: as avenues are closed down by law enforcement or criminal in-fighting, other ones appear.
At-risk personal data could be anything from email and account log-ins to medical info, SSNs, card and bank details, insurance details and much more. It all has a value on the cybercrime underground and the price fraudsters are prepared to pay will depend on supply and demand, just like in the ‘real’ world.
There are various ways for attackers to get your data. The main ones are:
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The COVID-19 challenge
As if this weren’t enough, consumers are especially exposed to risk during the current pandemic. Hackers are using the COVID-19 threat as a lure to infect your PC or steal identity data via the phishing tactics described above. They often impersonate trustworthy institutions/officials and emails may claim to include new information on outbreaks, or vaccines. Clicking through or divulging your personal info will land you in trouble. Other fraud attempts will try to sell counterfeit or non-existent medical or other products to help combat infection, harvesting your card details in the process. In March, Interpol seized 34,000 counterfeit COVID goods like surgical masks and $14m worth of potentially dangerous pharmaceuticals.
Phone-based attacks are also on the rise, especially those impersonating government officials. The aim here is to steal your identity data and apply for government emergency stimulus funds in your name. Of the 349,641 identity theft reports filed with the FTC in Q2 2020, 77,684 were specific to government documents or benefits fraud.
What do cybercriminals do with my identity data?
Once your PII is stolen, it’s typically sold on the dark web to those who use it for malicious purposes. It could be used to:
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How do I protect my identity online?
The good news among all this bad is that if you remain skeptical about what you see online, are cautious about what you share, and follow some other simple rules, you’ll stand a greater chance of keeping your PII under lock and key. Best practices include:
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How Trend Micro can help
Trend Micro offers solutions that can help to protect your digital identity.
Trend Micro ID Security is the best way to get proactive about data protection. It works 24/7 to monitor dark web sites for your PII and will sound the alarm immediately if it finds any sign your accounts or personal data have been stolen. It features
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Trend Micro Password Manager enables you to manage all your website and app log-ins from one secure location. Because Password Manager remembers and recalls your credentials on-demand, you can create long, strong and unique passwords for each account. As you’re not sharing easy-to-remember passwords across multiple accounts, you’ll be protected from popular credential stuffing and similar attacks.
Finally, Trend Micro WiFi Protection will protect you if you’re out and about connecting to WiFi hotspots. It automatically detects when a WiFi connection isn’t secure and enables a VPN—making your connection safer and helping keep your identity data private.
In short, it’s time to take an active part in protecting your personal identity data—as if your digital life depended on it. In large part, it does.
The post Identity Fraud: How to Protect Your Identity Data, Accounts and Money During the Coronavirus Crisis appeared first on .
We’re all getting a little more worldly wise to the dangers that lurk around every corner of our digital lives. We know that the flipside of being able to shop, chat, bank and share online at the push of a button is the risk of data theft, ransomware and identity fraud. That’s why we protect our families’ PCs and mobile devices with security solutions from proven providers like Trend Micro, and take extra care each time we fire up the internet.
But what about the firms that we entrust to handle our data securely?
Unfortunately, many of these organizations still aren’t doing enough to protect our personal and financial information. It could be data we enter online to pay for an item or open an account. Or it could be payment card details that we’ve used at a local outlet which are subsequently stored online. These companies are big targets for the bad guys, who only have to get lucky once to crack open an Aladdin’s Cave of lucrative customer data.
What does this mean? That data breaches are the new normal. Last year in the US there were a reported 1,473 of these incidents, exposing nearly 165 million customer records. The latest affected customers of convenience store and gas station chain Wawa — and it could be one of the biggest ever, affecting 30 million cards.
Let’s take a look at what happened, and what consumers can do to steal a march on the bad guys.
What happened this time?
Wawa first notified its customers of a payment card breach in December 2019. But although the firm discovered malware on its payment processing servers that month, it had actually been sitting there since March, potentially siphoning card data silently from every single Wawa location. That’s more than 850 stores, across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, and Washington DC.
The company itself has so far declined to put a number on how many customers have been affected. However, while cardholders were still wondering whether they’ve been impacted or not, something else happened. At the end of January, a hacker began to upload the stolen cards to a notorious dark web marketplace, known as Joker’s Stash.
They are claiming to have 30 million stolen cards in total, which if accurate could make this one of the biggest card breaches of its kind, placing it alongside other incidents at Home Depot (2014) and Target (2013).
How does it affect me?
Once the data goes on sale on a dark web market like this, it is usually bought by scammers, who use it in follow-on identity fraud attacks. In this case, the stolen data includes debit and credit card numbers, expiration dates and cardholder names, but not PINs or CVV records. That means they can’t be used at ATMs and fraudsters will find it hard to use the cards online, as most merchants require the CVV number.
However, if the cards are of the old magstripe type, they could be cloned for use in face-to-face transactions.
Although Wawa said it has informed the relevant card issuers and brands, the cardholders themselves must monitor their cards for unusual transactions and then report to their issuer “in a timely manner” if they want to be reimbursed for any fraudulent usage. This can be a distressing, time-consuming process.
What should I do next?
This is by no means the first and it won’t be the last breach of this kind. In the past, data stolen from customers of Hilton Hotels, supermarket chain Hy-Vee, retailer Bebe Stores, and restaurant chains including Krystal, Moe’s and Schlotzsky’s has turned up for sale on Joker’s Stash. It can be dispiriting for consumers to see their personal data time and again compromised in this way by cyber-criminals.
Too often in the aftermath of such incidents, the customers themselves are left in the dark. There is no information on whether they’ve definitively had their personal or card data stolen, just an ominous sense that something bad may be about to happen. If the company itself doesn’t even know how many cards have been affected, how can you act decisively?
Credit monitoring is often provided by breached firms, but this is a less-than-perfect solution. For one thing, such services only alert the user if a new line of credit is being opened in their name — not if a stolen card is being used. And second, they only raise the alarm after the incident, by which time the fraudsters may already have made a serious dent in your finances.
Monitoring your bank account for fraudulent transactions is arguably more useful in cases like the Wawa breach, but it’s still too reactive. Here’s a handy 2-step plan which could provide better results:
Step 1: Dark web monitoring works
To get more proactive, consumers need Dark Web monitoring. These tools typically scour dark web sites like Joker’s Stash to look for your personal information. The beauty of this approach is that it can raise the alarm after a breach has occurred, when the data is posted to the Dark Web, but before a fraudster has had time to monetize your stolen details. With this information, you can proactively request that your lender block a particular card and issue a new one.
This approach works for all personal data you may want to keep protected, including email addresses, driver’s license, passport numbers and passwords.
Step 2: Password protection
Once you’ve determined that your data has been part of a breach and is being sold on the dark web, one of the most important things you can do is to change your passwords to any stolen accounts, in order to minimize the potential damage that fraudsters can do.
This is where password manager tools can come in very handy. They allow users to store and recall long, strong and unique credentials for each of the websites and apps they use. This means that if one password is compromised, as in a breach scenario, your other accounts will remain secure. It also makes passwords harder for hackers to guess, which they may try to do with automated tools if they already have your email address.
Following a breach, it also makes sense to look out for follow-on phishing attacks which may try to trick you into handing over more information to the fraudsters. Here are a few tips:
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How Trend Micro can help
Fortunately, Trend Micro has several products that can help you, as a potential or actual victim of a data breach, to proactively mitigate the fallout from a serious security incident, or to foil the fraudsters:
Trend Micro ID Security: checks if your personal information has been uploaded to Dark Web sites by hackers. This highly secure service, available in apps for Android and iOS mobile devices, uses data hashing and an encrypted connected to keep your details safe, alerting when it has found a match on the Dark Web so you can take action. Use it to protect your emails, credit card numbers, passwords, bank accounts, passport details and more.
Trend Micro Password Manager: provides a secure place to store, manage and update your passwords. It remembers your log-ins, so you can create secure and unique credentials for each website/app you need to sign-in to. This means if one site is breached, hackers will not be able to use that password to open your other accounts. Password Manager is available for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android, synchronizing your passwords across all four platforms.
Trend Micro Fraud Buster: is a free online service you can use to check suspicious emails It uses advanced machine learning technology to identify scam emails that don’t contain malicious URLs or attachments but still pose a risk to the user, because the email (which may be extortionist) reflects the fact that the fraudster probably got your email address from the Dark Web in the first place. Users can then decide to report the scam, get more details, or proceed as before.
Fraud Buster is also now integrated into Trend Micro Security for Windows, protecting Gmail and Outlook webmail in Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox. It’s also integrated in Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac, where it does the same for Gmail webmail in Safari, Chrome and Firefox on the Mac.
In the end, only you can guard your identity credentials with vigilance.
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