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Articles from Robert Siciliano | Selfgrowth.com
- Tips to being anonymous Online - by Submitted on Jun 18, 2015 from Robert SicilianoOne of mankind’s greatest inventions (besides the wheel) is the Internet. Unfortunately, with this marvelous invention comes the drawback of privacy—or shall we say, lack of. The Internet is a wonderful tool, but users must fight to remain as anonymous as possible, because ...
Views: 922 - Tips to destroy and shred - by Submitted on May 30, 2015 from Robert SicilianoYou can’t be too neurotic about shredding sensitive documents to smithereens. For example, some people make a career out of “dumpster diving,” digging through trash in search of bank account information, credit card preapprovals, medical bills, mortgage statements, etc., and ...
Views: 951 - Tips to Home Security Lighting - by Submitted on Dec 21, 2014 from Robert Siciliano“Don’t be afraid of the dark” is a reassurance that burglars never need; they need to hear, “Be afraid of the lights.” A house that’s often dark sends a flare to burglars that nobody’s home, or, at least, that nobody will see the burglar doing what he ...
Views: 979 - Tips to prepare for Power Outage - by Submitted on Dec 14, 2014 from Robert SicilianoDon’t wait to be in the dark to find out you’re in the dark. Are you equipped for a power outage? A power outage can even occur in perfect weather, thanks to a construction team “hitting a wire.” Batteries. Don’t have these scattered haphazardly in some drawer. ...
Views: 1023 - Tips to Stay Digitally Safe on Spring Break - by Submitted on Mar 29, 2015 from Robert SicilianoGive me a break! In the next month, students will get the week off for spring break—a much needed reward after months of hard work and, for some, gnarly winter weather. Spring break means free time, family vacations, trips with friends, and timeless memories. But, spring break can pose ...
Views: 1224 - Top 10 Preventative Security Measures for your Home - by Submitted on Nov 13, 2014 from Robert SicilianoHow safe do you really think your home is? Lock the doors. This no-brainer doesn’t just mean when you’re gone all evening. It means during the daytime when you’re home. There’s no reason for doors to be unlocked when you’re inside the house. Does your lock ...
Views: 998 - Top 10 Signs of a Malware Infection on Your Computer - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2018 from Robert SicilianoNot all viruses that find their way onto your computer dramatically crash your machine. Instead, there are viruses that can run in the background without you even realizing it. As they creep around, they make messes, steal, and much worse. Malware today spies on your every move. It sees the ...
Views: 725 - Top 10 Tips for Securing Your Mobile Devices and Sensitive Client Data - by Submitted on Jan 11, 2018 from Robert SicilianoDo you have employees who bring mobile phones to work and use those devices on the corporate network? Do they store company data on these “Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD)”?? Does your company have a policy in place for this? First, the moment a person brings in their personal phone ...
Views: 710 - Top 12 Scams Happening NOW - by Submitted on Jun 17, 2015 from Robert SicilianoScamerama is here to stay! Scams are as old as time, and evolve as inventions and technology evolve. Top scams, according to a report on FraudAvengers.com, are as follows: Scammer “accidentally” overpays you for an item you sold online; you cash the crook’s phony check and ...
Views: 880 - Top 12 Tips to Destroy Your Sensitive Data - by Submitted on May 18, 2017 from Robert SicilianoBelieve it or not, you just can’t shred too much. If you aren’t destroying your sensitive data, my best advice is for you to start now. There are people out there who make a living diving into dumpsters in search of credit card info, bank account number, mortgage statements, and ...
Views: 863 - Top 3 Social Engineering Scams - by Submitted on Jan 12, 2017 from Robert SicilianoThink about hackers breaking into accounts. If you think they need top-notch computer skills, you would be wrong. These days, instead of requiring skills behind a keyboard, hackers generally rely on strategy…specifically a strategy called social engineering. This means that hackers ...
Views: 843 - Town sees Big Spike in Burglaries - by Submitted on Apr 24, 2015 from Robert SicilianoWhy are so many burglaries hounding the town of Los Altos in California? There were 79 reported in 2013, but 118 for 2014. This past January and February there were 36. At that rate, by Christmas 2015, it’s unthinkable what the total number of burglaries will be. In a report on ...
Views: 900 - Trolls get Dose of Reality - by Submitted on Apr 28, 2015 from Robert SicilianoWell, you know that old saying: The viciousness of an online bully’s attack is inversely proportional to the size of his (you fill in the blank), I was thinking ego. Many online bullies are female, but in the case of former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling’s daughter, the trolls are ...
Views: 898 - Trolls: How to deal - by Submitted on Sep 22, 2015 from Robert SicilianoCartoonist Ben Garrison posted something “about the Fed” online, says an article at www.vice.com, and this created a firestorm, leading to his billing as the “most trolled cartoonist in the world.” You see, his other cartoons were altered in an offensive way, fooling ...
Views: 974 - Trusting too much brings Trouble - by Submitted on May 26, 2015 from Robert SicilianoThere will always be the person who lives on the Equator to whom you can sell an electric heater. As they say, there is a sucker born every minute. This is why cyber criminals will always have a field day, like the crook who posed as a tax man who got an elderly couple to send $100,000 to an ...
Views: 845 - Twitters ups its Security Game - by Submitted on Sep 29, 2015 from Robert SicilianoTwitter recently announced its new tool to help with management and monitoring of its users’ accounts: the Twitter data dashboard. An article on lifehacker.com details what this new tool will offer. For instance, you will not need to use your real name on Twitter—and I have to ...
Views: 1046 - Two Common Government Employee Impersonation Scams: What to Watch For - by Submitted on Aug 27, 2019 from Robert SicilianoOne of the biggest threats that taxpayers are facing these days is an aggressive scam where criminals call victims and pretend to be IRS agents. The goal? To steal money. All year but especially during tax filing season, the IRS will see a big surge in the number of scam calls, which tell ...
Views: 812 - UL to launch Cybersecurity Cert - by Submitted on Aug 20, 2015 from Robert SicilianoUL in this case stands for Underwriters Laboratories. An article on darkreading.com notes that a UL official, Maarten Bron, says that they are taking part in the U.S. government’s plan to promote security certification standards. The U.S. government is interested in developing a UL-type ...
Views: 963 - Understanding and Stopping Criminal Identity Theft - by Submitted on Feb 23, 2018 from Robert SicilianoThe definition of criminal identity theft is a crime where the criminal impersonates the victim in order to protect their innocence. This can lead to victims getting fines or even getting arrested and charged for crimes they did not commit. How Does This Happen? There are a number of ways ...
Views: 656 - Use a Password Manager Or You WILL Get Hacked - by Submitted on Mar 19, 2018 from Robert SicilianoDo you ever use the same password over and over again for different accounts? If so, you are not alone. However, this is quite dangerous. It’s best to use a different, unique password for each account, and to make it easier, you should use a password manager. According to surveys, ...
Views: 774 - Use an ePrivacy Filter to prevent Visual Hacking - by Submitted on Nov 12, 2014 from Robert SicilianoIn an average year I’ll tally 75,000 airline miles. In an average week while waiting for the plane to board or while in flight I’ll see multiple laptop screens flipped open with an over the shoulder view of emails being sent and received, PowerPoint presentations being tweaked, ...
Views: 979 - Using a knife for survival - by Submitted on Sep 24, 2015 from Robert SicilianoAn article at indefinitelywild.gizmodo.com informs on how to use a knife safely and efficiently for survival. Safety For outdoors, carry a fixed-blade knife, as this is less likely to break. The knife should always stay in its sheath. Otherwise, you could stumble and fall into it, slicing ...
Views: 854 - Very effective Social Engineering Scams - by Submitted on Mar 09, 2015 from Robert SicilianoIt’s amazing how ingenious cybercriminals are, but the victims also need to take some responsibility for falling for these ruses, especially when the victim is a business that has failed to train its employees in cybersecurity measures. Ransomware The stuff of science fiction is here: ...
Views: 1023 - Victim overcomes Identity Theft with Art - by Submitted on Mar 12, 2015 from Robert SicilianoDoes your wallet contain enough information about you for someone to steal your identity and commit crimes under your name? That’s what happened to Jessamyn Lovell when Erin Hart stole her wallet in 2011. Hart shoplifted, checked into hotels and rented cars in Lovell’s name. Of all the ...
Views: 832 - Viruses as Cyberweapons for sale - by Submitted on Jul 12, 2016 from Robert SicilianoIt’s all about code—the building blocks of the Internet. Software code is full of unintentional defects. Governments are paying heavy prices to skilled hackers who can unearth these vulnerabilities, says an article at nytimes.com. In fact, the FBI director, James B. Comey, ...
Views: 707 - Visual Hacking is High Tech Shoulder Surfing - by Submitted on Nov 26, 2014 from Robert SicilianoA visual hacker can infiltrate you—from the outside in. Quite literally, a person (ranging from a snoop to a cyber criminal) can peer over your shoulder while you’re using your computer or mobile (“shoulder surfing” or “visual hacking”), and collect your ...
Views: 1162 - Want Mobile Privacy? Read - by Submitted on Aug 27, 2015 from Robert SicilianoIf you don’t want your smartphone to know more about you than you do, here are top choices, as detailed on gizmodo.com: BlackPhone 2 The Blackphone 2 will black out the federal government from spying on you. Has a five inch handset with full HD screen (with Gorilla Glass 3 that ...
Views: 860 - Want to be a Cybercriminal? Try Facebook - by Submitted on May 03, 2019 from Robert SicilianoWhen you think of a cybercriminal, you probably picture someone in a black hoodie in a dark room on the dark web, but most cybercriminals are out there in plain sight, including on Facebook. Talos, a cybersecurity firm, found that people can easily join Facebook groups, and then participate ...
Views: 653 - WARNING: You or Your Members Could be Targets of List Scams - by Submitted on May 24, 2019 from Robert SicilianoThere are scammers out there targeting conference exhibitors and attendee. What are they looking for? Credit card numbers, money wires and personal information that they can use to steal identities. One of the ways that scammers get this information is by using invitation or list scams. ...
Views: 624 - Watch Out for Tax Scams! - by Submitted on Apr 02, 2015 from Robert SicilianoSpring is here (at least in some parts of the world in the northern hemisphere)! The bees are buzzing, the flowers are blooming, and the accountants are working late because for those in the U.S., it’s tax season! Scammers love tax season—there is a lot of money moving around as ...
Views: 975 - Weak Passwords Mean Data Breaches - by Submitted on Oct 15, 2015 from Robert SicilianoStudies across the board indicate that weak usernames and passwords are one of the top causes of data breaches, and I find that information to be unfortunate, because it is preventable. According to a recently concluded survey conducted by uSamp and sponsored by Siber Systems, creators of ...
Views: 807 - What age is it OK to leave Kids home alone? - by Submitted on Nov 03, 2016 from Robert SicilianoSooner or later, you’ll need to leave your child home—unsupervised, alone—for an extended period. And even though you may have smart devices to keep a constant check on your child, this doesn’t mean you can instantly teleport home in the event your smart security system ...
Views: 734 - What are Bug Bounties? - by Submitted on Nov 20, 2015 from Robert SicilianoA bug bounty refers to the reward a bad-guy hacker gets upon discovering a vulnerability, weakness or flaw in a company’s system. This is akin to giving a reward to a burglar for pointing out weaknesses in your home’s security. But whom better to ask than a burglar, right? Same ...
Views: 898 - What are Consumer Reports? - by Submitted on Oct 13, 2015 from Robert SicilianoYou’ve heard the term “consumer report.” Many times, I’m sure. But do you really know what one is? If you’re nodding your head, would you be able to explain it to a Martian? If not, then you probably do not have a solid understanding of what one is. But lenders, ...
Views: 846 - What happens when a Bank Account is hacked? - by Submitted on Feb 24, 2015 from Robert SicilianoWho’d ever think that 50 years ago, your money was safer in your bank account than it is today in this “modern” age: remote theft. If you bank with a large or small bank, your account may be at risk by hacking rings. However, most of the time, but not always, if your account ...
Views: 888 - What is a Cache? - by Submitted on Jun 15, 2015 from Robert SicilianoPerhaps someone has told you that you need to “clear your cache,” but what does this mean and why should you do it? A cache is a folder of recently visited webpages, which is stored on your computer’s hard drive, and maintained by your Internet browser. The purpose of a ...
Views: 999 - What is a Hacker? - by Submitted on Oct 01, 2015 from Robert SicilianoYou probably think you know what a “hacker” is, but the images portrayed in the media can be misleading. You may be thinking of a geeky-looking guy who causes peoples’ computers to get infected with viruses or cracks passwords to raid the accounts of big business. This is one ...
Views: 933 - What is a Password Manager? - by Submitted on Oct 07, 2015 from Robert SicilianoMany people, including myself, make mistakes with their passwords and use them on site after site. To remain safe, it’s important to use a unique, strong password on every site you visit. How do you do this the easy way? Use a password manager. According to a recently concluded survey ...
Views: 959 - What is a Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP)? - by Submitted on Apr 01, 2015 from Robert SicilianoWhether you’re an animal person or not, you have to admit that puppies are pretty darn cute. So cute that there are YouTube Channels, Facebook accounts, and Buzzfeed newsletters devoted to the subject. Unfortunately, there’s a not so cute PUP out in the world, and it wants access to ...
Views: 967 - What is a Remote Administration Tool (RAT)? - by Submitted on Feb 21, 2015 from Robert SicilianoEver felt like your computer was possessed? Or that you aren’t the only one using your tablet? I think I smell a rat. Literally, a RAT. A RAT or remote administration tool, is software that gives a person full control a tech device, remotely. The RAT gives the user access to your ...
Views: 1048 - What is a Rootkit? - by Submitted on Feb 07, 2015 from Robert SicilianoA rootkit is a kind of software that conceals malware from standard detection methods. A good analogy for a rootkit would be a burglar breaking into your house. The burglar is dressed all in black, so that his form blends into the darkness. He tiptoes around to hide his sounds so he’s more ...
Views: 986 - What is a Virus? - by Submitted on Apr 20, 2015 from Robert SicilianoHave you ever had the chicken pox? This common childhood illness has another name—the varicella zoster virus. Like all viruses, varicella replicates itself, spreading though the body, and eventually appearing as itchy red blisters all over the body. But the virus doesn’t stop there; ...
Views: 1061 - What is ATM Skimming? - by Submitted on Jan 25, 2015 from Robert SicilianoEver hear of a crime called skimming? It may not be as dramatic a crime as assault or Ponzi schemes, but it can cause significant problems to you as your savings account can be wiped out in a flash. Picture a scrawny nerd tampering with an automated teller machine (ATM)—the ...
Views: 1018 - What is Catphishing? - by Submitted on Mar 03, 2015 from Robert SicilianoWhat is catphishing? It certainly isn’t Garfield lazily sitting in a canoe holding a fishing rod. Catphishing is when a fraudster fabricates an identity and tricks someone via cyber communication into a phony emotional or romantic relationship—usually for financial gain to the ...
Views: 1044 - What is Malvertising? - by Submitted on Aug 19, 2016 from Robert SicilianoMalevolent advertising is called malvertising. The “ad” is placed on a website by cybercriminals who want control of your computer for financial gain. And the real scary thing about malvertising is that these trick-ads have appeared on trusted, popular websites like the Weather ...
Views: 796 - What is Pharming? - by Submitted on Dec 15, 2014 from Robert SicilianoI was surfing on YouTube the other day and found this hilarious video mash-up of Taylor Swift’s song “Shake It Off” and an 80s aerobics video. For a lot of kids today, mash-ups are all the rage—whether it’s combining two videos, two songs, or two ...
Views: 1398 - What is private Information and what is not? - by Submitted on Feb 22, 2015 from Robert SicilianoData Privacy Day was Wednesday, January 28, and these days the concept of “privacy” can be ambiguous, generic or confusing. What you might think of as private actually isn’t. The definition of personal identifying information, by the U.S. privacy law and information security, ...
Views: 958 - What is Sextortion? - by Submitted on Feb 14, 2017 from Robert SicilianoA Massachusetts man is on trial. His crime? Stalking. But, it’s probably not what you think. The 48-year-old was chatting and sharing photos with a 16-year-old girl, and these chats and photos were “sexual in nature.” The pair met on social media, and when the girl asked to ...
Views: 1381 - What is Shoulder Surfing? - by Submitted on May 15, 2015 from Robert SicilianoThe next time you’re in a public place and glued to your smartphone or tablet — whether it’s at the gym, a coffee house, the airport, or just a park bench— know that someone might be peering over your shoulder to see what you’re doing. The snooper could just be ...
Views: 981 - What is Spam? - by Submitted on May 01, 2015 from Robert SicilianoEveryone’s heard of spam as it pertains to emails. Spam isn’t necessarily a malicious message designed to trick you into revealing your credit card number or PayPal login information. But spam is an unsolicited message, sometimes referred to as junk mail. Spam can be ...
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