by Brian Thompson | Mar 19, 2020 | General, Identity Theft
I read a great article last week by Risk Based Security – a leader in vulnerability intelligence – about modern phishing attempts (please see here) and how Coronavirus Fear and Anxiety Drives Phishing Scams. “malicious attackers are targeting unsuspecting people on the web.”
This article said there was a “tendency to associate phishing with crude boilerplate emails, dubious attachments, and poor attention spans”. But, sophisticated “attackers were spoofing system update prompts or redirecting users to pages with all sorts of dubious code.”
But it gets worse. Cyber thieves and ID theft criminals didn’t are already taking advantage of fear and anxiety surrounding the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Risk-Based Security then released another article titled Coronavirus Isn’t the Only Virus Going Around (please see here) reporting that “malicious attackers will always find new ways to target individuals and organizations. This time, hackers are installing malware on computers and harvesting user credentials by preying on people’s curiosity and fear of the coronavirus (COVID-19).”
Phishing Example
One new phishing example is where “scammers pose as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) advising that there are new COVID-19 cases reported in the user’s city and requesting that they follow a link to learn more. From there, clicking the provided URL covertly redirects the user to a spoofed login page. If the user completes the process by providing their credentials, they are now compromised.”
The Major Cause
For years I have written and spoken on how IT and hacking are the sizzle that makes the news headlines. However, the vast majority of data breach events are the result of phishing emails and not high technology hacking tools.
According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2019 Internet Crime Report (please see here), phishing scams were the most common type of internet crime last year where 114,000 U.S. consumers lost more than $57.8 million in 2019 as the result of phishing.
Let’s not forget…
that cyber and ID theft criminals pretend to be trustworthy to trick people into handing over personal details or account information. Now COVID-19 related scams are showing up in multiple locations including the internet, your work email, and your personal email.
Based on the severity of our national emergency and because of Coronavirus Fear and Anxiety Drives Phishing Scams – we need to be diligent and aware of the numerous phishing emails and scams in the foreseeable future.
By Mark Pribish
Vice President and ID Theft Practice Leader
by Brian Thompson | Feb 3, 2020 | Breach, Identity Theft
John Iannarelli, former FBI Special Agent offers 4 SMB Cybersecurity tips. Is your business safe from the cybersecurity threat?
According to the Allianz Risk Barometer for 2020, cyber incidents ranked as the number one business risk in its ninth annual survey of risk experts.
Based on the above, I just interviewed former FBI Special Agent John Iannarelli (http://fbijohn.com/) in between his national television appearances on Fox News and Fox Business.
Mr. Iannarelli retired from the FBI after more than 20 years of service, during which time he was the FBI’s National Spokesperson, on the FBI Cyber Division executive staff, an FBI SWAT team member, and the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Phoenix Division, where he oversaw all Criminal, Cyber, and Counter Intelligence investigations throughout Arizona.
Since leaving the FBI, Mr. Iannarelli is an active contributor for national news outlets, keynote speaker, author, and security consultant.
I asked Mr. Iannarelli for simple advice on how to keep small businesses safer in 2020. Here are his 4 cybersecurity tips for small businesses and sole proprietors:
Ransomware
“Maintaining a strong firewall, keeping your security software up to date, and the patching of vulnerable software is critical”, said Iannarelli. He also said, “The restoration of your computer files from a backup is the fastest way to safely regain access to your data.” Mr. Iannarelli recommends “to not pay the ransom as there is no guarantee that you will be able to regain access to your files and that once you pay the cybercriminals they are likely to attack again.”
Hackers steal consumer data from devices connected to unsecured networks by positioning themselves between you and the connection point. This means that instead of talking directly with the hotspot, you end up sending your data to the hacker. Mr. Iannarelli recommends “use of VPN encryption to help prevent cybercriminals from hacking into your Wi–Fi connection and intercepting the data you send and receive.”
Vendor Due Diligence
According to the Ponemon Institute, third-party breaches remain a dominant security challenge for small and large businesses. Over 63% of data breaches are linked to a third party. He said, “Small businesses should establish information security and governance best practices including a data breach and incident response policy and plan.”. A plan will protect your business, help win new business, and elevate your due diligence profile.
State and Federal Notification Laws
Since the United States does not have a Federal Privacy law. Mr. Iannarelli stated“understanding current state privacy laws where your small business conducts business is critical to responding to a data breach event in a timely and effective manner.”
If you have been victimized by an online scam or any other cyber fraud, be sure to report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.IC3.gov or call your local FBI office.
By Mark Pribish
Vice President and ID Theft Practice Leader
by Brian Thompson | Dec 30, 2019 | Breach
Every consumer and small business owner needs to make a stronger cybersecurity commitment in 2020 to safeguard personal and business information.
To help with your cybersecurity commitment, we are highlighting three important topics:
- Identity theft terms,
- consumer need-to-knows,
- and small business best practices.
First, Consumer Affairs has an identity theft glossary that serves as a great reminder to the current threat environment including:
- Keylogger: A keylogger is a computer program that records a person’s keystrokes to obtain confidential data.
- Phishing: Phishing is a popular type of internet scam in which fraudsters send emails claiming to be from a reputable company to trick individuals into revealing personal information.
- Smishing: Similar to phishing, smishing (or SMS phishing) is when someone attempts to mine sensitive information under a fake identity through text messages.
- Vishing: Like phishing or smishing, vishing is when an identity thief attempts to gain sensitive information over the phone.
Second, consumers need-to-know how to protect themselves from becoming a victim of ID theft:
Third, small business needs to implement cybersecurity best practices to help mitigate their exposure from identity theft and data breach events:
- Annual employee education should be the No. 1 priority. Education is key, the threat level is rising and you don’t want it to sink your business because your employees are not educated.
- Your small business needs to create, test and update a written information security and governance policy annually, including penetration testing and a simulated data-breach event.
- Consider adding cyber liability insurance to help respond to evolving state and federal breach notification laws since most small businesses lack the financial and human resources to respond to a data breach.
Unfortunately, as we learn and get better, so do the criminals. It is our responsibility to stay educated and protect ourselves and employees. Ring in 2020 with a stronger cybersecurity commitment to help reduce your cybersecurity risks.
By Mark Pribish
Vice President and ID Theft Practice Leader
Learn more about breaches as small businesses here: 43% of Breaches Affect Small Businesses
by Brian Thompson | Nov 25, 2019 | General, Identity Theft
The latest research and identity theft trends indicate significant patterns. Patterns that can help consumers and businesses mitigate their risks against identity theft. One of these trends points to the unfortunate potential that senior identity theft is going to get significantly worse.
Research
Based on the first half of this year – where 11 of the largest 13 data breach events occurred at medical or healthcare organizations (please see here) affecting nearly 24 million healthcare-related records.
And we believe senior identity theft and fraud will get significantly worse in 2020.
When you think about lost or stolen Personally Identifiable Information (PII), most people think about:
- credit card information,
- bank account information,
- taxpayer identity theft and refund fraud,
- utility identity theft and fraud, and
- credential identity theft such as driver’s license or passport fraud.
Healthcare is a Target
According to Protenus, a healthcare compliance analytics company, (please see here) this healthcare industry data breach pattern includes 503 incidents affecting nearly 15.1 million patient records in 2018 and 477 data breaches affecting 5.6 million patient records in 2017.
Very few people think about medical identity theft in general and senior identity theft in particular. Click here to read about how ID Theft Increases Stress and Fatigue
However, when the collections firm American Medical Collections Agency (AMCA) – which services laboratories, hospitals, physician groups, billing services and medical providers throughout the United States – experienced a data breach including Labcorp affecting 7.7 million patients and Quest Diagnostics affecting 11.9 million patients, we have to wondered how safe and secure all American consumer billing records really are?
The Senior Population
Another interesting statistic comes from the 2019 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book where 39% of fraud complaints and 15.9% of identity theft complaints impacted seniors (60 years or older) in 2018 (please see here).
If you add the mature market (50 – 59 years of age), the “Identity Theft Reports by Age” from the FTC Consumer Sentinel Network shows a three year average of 36% of identity theft victims were 50 years and older.
There were “only” 14.4 million identity theft victims in 2018, a drop from the record-breaking 16.7 million victims in 2017. But it is estimated that out-of-pocket fraud costs for victims more than doubled in 2 Years to $1.7 billion.
The FTC report also showed that younger people reported losing money to fraud more often than older people. Older people lost nearly twice the amount to fraud than the more frequently reported younger reports.
Nearly 50 million health-related records have been reported stolen from over 1,000 data breaches over the last 30 months. The statistics are staggering and will likely have an enormous, negative effect on seniors over the next couple of years.
Written by Mark Pribish – ID Theft Protection Expert
Learn More:
To learn more about Identity Theft Monitoring click here for the 14 features of Identity Theft Protection Monitoring and the Most Important Feature!
by Brian Thompson | Nov 18, 2019 | Identity Theft
What is Dark Web Monitoring in the world of identity theft? How can Dark Web Monitoring help mitigate the risks of Identity theft and Fraud?
But wait, what are the Deep, Dark and Surface Web? 
The Surface Web is what you think of when you think of the internet. Any site you are accessing through search engines only makes up about .03% of the internet available. 99.97% of the internet is made up of un-indexed pages, or the Deep Web.
The Deep web is often confused with the Dark web but they are two very distinctive things. The deep web is the entire web that is not accessible by conventional search engines but the dark web is a certain website within the deep web that is linked to criminal activity and illegal market places.
For a more in-depth explanation check out this article: What’s the difference between Surface, Deep & Dark Web?? – Lets have some discussions!!..by Rajdeep Das
Dark Web Monitoring
Dark Web monitoring is an intelligent and proactive identity theft detection solution that searches for compromised information across the deep, dark and surface web, as well as underground forums and file-sharing sources.
What is the benefit?
By performing comprehensive reviews of websites frequented by hackers and cybercriminals, it is possible to detect your personal information being traded or sold before the criminal uses it.
When you enroll, you will have full control over what information you choose to be monitored. We then continuously (24/7) monitor the deep, dark and surface web to detect the trading and selling of the information you provided. If we find any of the information being monitored, you will receive a notification that your information has been found online. This alert allows you to take immediate action to prevent, or reduce losses, such as changing a password or closing an account.
| FEATURES |
BENEFIT |
| Dark Web Monitoring – Proactive monitoring if your identity or supplied credentials are stolen or compromised. Be alerted if your data is discovered being traded or sold on the dark, deep or surface web. |
- Alerts are sent to you when your information is detected as compromised on the dark, deep or surface web.
- This gives you a heads up so that you can work swiftly to respond, reducing or eliminating potential losses.
- If you receive a dark web monitoring alert, you can immediately act to change
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Check out the most important feature of an Identity Monitoring program here: Fully-Managed Recovery for Identity Theft
Here is a list of essential features of an Identity Monitoring Program: 14 features of Identity Theft Protection Monitoring and the Most Important Feature!
