Tuesday Tech Tip

 

 

May 1, 2011 - Facebook Scam - Southwest Airline Tickets

No, it's not Tuesday, but we wanted to get this out quickly as many people are falling for a Facebook promotion for free tickets from Southwest Airlines. This is a scam! This has been around since February and is making the rounds again. It can be difficult to tell legitimate group and fan pages on Facebook. The best way would be to start with the legitimate Web page, in this case www.southwest.com. If they have an actual page on Facebook or giveaway, it will probably be there. Most companies promote Facebook giveaways on their Website because they use those promotions to get more people to Facebook, not just attract those already on Facebook.

 

These scam sites draw you to a page that you click like and that can have several negative consequences. It may download a malware or virus to your PC causing your browser to redirect to fake sales sites or steal your personal information. It will also post a message and link to your Facebook page to draw your friends into the same scam.

 

Stay safe and remember to keep your anti-virus program up-to-date!

 

April 26th, 2011 - More Security Problems? What You Need to Know

 

It's only been a few weeks since Epsilon had client data stolen including Best Buy and Target customer info. This week there are 3 more security stories you should know about and lessons and tips from them.

 

First, is the story about a man in Buffalo, NY who left his home wireless router unprotected (no security encryption). He found himself face-to-face with the FBI raiding his home and accusing him of downloading child pornography. It turns out it was his neighbor using his unprotected router to download the illegal images. But it took the investigators three days and a lot of embarrassment before it was figured out. Lesson Learned: take the time to log into your wireless router and turn on the WPA-2 encryption. Check out our March 29th tip for more info.

 

The second story is for Playstation users (and the parents of Playstation users). The news is that the Playstation Network has been hacked and anyone with an account may have had personal information stolen including stored credit card numbers. For many users, this was something you set up when you first connected your Playstation to the Internet and you may have forgotten that you stored your credit card number in the machine. You need to need to keep an eye on those credit card statements and make sure no unusual purchases have appeared. You should do this at least once a week if not more often. Also, if you have a habit of reusing passwords and you have the same password on the Playstation Network as you do with other sites and email systems, you need to change them. The hackers may have obtained passwords and if they can figure out where else you do business online, they may try to hack into them. Don't forget, it's not just kids having fun anymore. Many hackers are professionals working for mafia groups in foreign countries. Hacking has become a very lucrative illegal business.

 

The last story going around is about the turning on the https (secure Web browsing) setting in Facebook. This feature has been available from Facebook for the past few months, but it's worth repeating. https is the Internet protocol that is secure and encrypts your data. Facebook default is unprotected (http). You can go to your Account Settings -> Account Security and enable https. Using sites with http only mean it's possible for a hacker to see the data being passed between you and the Website. In Facebook this means whatever you type or images and videos you upload. Using https is especially important with sites where you pass financial info like your credit card number. It's never a bad idea to add more security when you can.

 

Stay safe!

 

April 5th, 2011 - 3 Steps to Take if Epsilon Lost Your Data

 

You may have heard that Epsilon, an email marketing company, had some of their clients' customer data stolen. Epsilon handles email for many major companies like Target and Walgreens. So far they have reported that the information stolen was a list of customers and their email addresses. What this means to you is that if you signed up with any of these companies, your email address may have been stolen. (Company list below)

 

The good news is that they are reporting that no personal data like credit card numbers, were stolen. But now the attackers know if you are customer of these stores. So the threat that you need to watch out for is fake emails attempting to get more information from you. It's easy to ignore spam email from Chase bank if you have never had an account with Chase, but if some poses as Best Buy and you have interacted with Best Buy online in the past, you may fall victim to clicking on a malicious link or be tricked into giving away other personal information like your address, SSN, or account information.

 

Here are three steps to take to protect yourself:

1) Don't open emails from people or companies you don't know. If you think it's a legitimate email, go to the business directly through your Web browser to find out. For example, if a bank has an important message, you can log in directly to your account online and look in your mail box there to see the message. Plus, they will likely call you for anything very important.

2) Never reply to an email asking for personal information, especially credit card or banking information. It's safe to order through online sites that use proper secure checkout systems, but information sent via email is not secure. Unless you are buying something and checking out, legitimate companies will not ask for more than an email address for marketing.

3) Always have your anti-virus / anti-spam scanner running and up-to-date. If you accidently click on a malicious link, a good anti-virus program may save you by stopping a virus or trojan program.

 

Epsilon is not providing a complete list at this time, but here's a list of companies reporting a data loss so far*:

- AbeBooks

- Ameriprise Financial

- Barclays Bank of Delaware

- Best Buy

- Brookstone

- Capital One Financial

- Citigroup

- The College Board

- Disney Destinations

- Home Shopping Network

- JPMorgan Chase

- Kroger

- L.L. Bean

- Marriott Rewards

- McKinsey & Company

- New York & Company

- Ritz-Carlton Rewards

- Target

- TiVo

- U.S. Bank

- Walgreens

 

*Source: http://techland.time.com/2011/04/04/epsilon-breach-heres-which-companies-email-lists-have-been-exposed/

 

Archive

 

Tuesday Tech Tips - March 2011