Cyber Savvy

Answer: Cyberattacks are the nation’s fastest-growing crime causing personal and business devastation. With scams having names such as vishing and smishing attacks, it’s no wonder it’s confusing and challenging to keep up with these attacks. In his book, I, Willie Sutton, Where the Money Was, Willie Sutton (1901-1980), suggested that he stole at least $2 million dollars during his forty-year career, which included the depression era, robbing over 100 banks. His crimes included safecracking, bank robbery and an escape from Sing Sing prison in 1932.  Because technology and the ways predators manipulate change so quickly and are far more advanced today, it’s important to be educated and aware. 

What’s the No. 1 type of cyberattack?

Ransomware, and experts say it’s a growing concern. A type of malware that encrypts a victim’s files, ransomware allows the attacker to demand money to restore access to important documents or photos saved on your hard drive.

What’s the difference between phishing and spear phishing?

Phishing is the attempt to gain usernames, passwords, and credit card numbers by impersonating a trustworthy sender in an email or other digital communication. This might entail disguising their email to look like someone you know or including a link to a fake website to trick you into entering private information.

Spear phishing is tailored to one individual and may mention an upcoming trip or a child’s name or other unique information. 

How many different versions of phishing are there?

Unfortunately, there’s a growing list of phishing scams. But there are two popular ones to be aware of:

Vishing is a voice version of phishing. The caller pretends to be from law enforcement, the government or a bank and will try to gain access to Social Security numbers, account numbers or other personal information by asking the victim questions for “verification” purposes.

Smishing is an SMS (or text) version of phishing. You know those automated alerts from the credit card company or PayPal? It might be disguised in that way.

Elder fraud, according to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (known as IC3), has increased 14% in 2023 with financial losses rising 11%. This covers crimes targeting older Americans via monetary and cryptocurrency scams.  In our office we’re hearing more from adult children referencing their lonely parents who innocently engage in activity with these frauds. Many of the fraud schemes are not reported as individuals are often embarrassed. There’s no need to ever feel ashamed about being set up by these professional criminals. 

IC3 reported that the average elder fraud victim lost $33,915 with tech “help” scams being the most prevalent. The top scams originate with these so-called forms of data breaches 1) romance, 2) non-payment or non-delivery, 3)investment scams, and 4) tech support ploys. 

Next steps: How to protect yourself

Criminals are getting more sophisticated. But you can combat the risk by putting these protections in place:

* Be diligent about not sharing information. It might be fun to answer a silly quiz on Facebook, but criminals can use this to gain access to security question answers, like your first dog’s name or the street you grew up on.

* Use multifactor authentication, which requires two or more authentication factors to access devices, applications, or online accounts.

* Browse in “incognito” mode so local search history isn’t stored, and cookies are blocked.

* Use secure passwords that include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Make sure each password is at least 12 characters and doesn’t contain personally identifiable information. Pro tip: Use a password management app to help you create and organize them.

* Use a virtual private network (VPN) to create an encrypted connection between your devices and the internet that hides your online activity.

Regularly backup files to a local external server or a cloud server. At least you’d have access to all your files in case of an attack.

* Look for the “s” in “https.” It stands for secure, and it must be there when you’re entering your credit card or banking information to make a purchase. This alone does not mean a site is secure, but it certainly should be a red flag if it is not there.

* If you are unsure if a call you answer is a vishing scam, hang up and dial the company you believe is trying to reach you – for example, your bank – directly.

Be alert, and if in doubt ask for help. Stay focused and plan accordingly.