Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Protecting Your Data
By Christine Scruggs
We help you limit risk in your financial life – cyber security and awareness is a piece of that. Your personal data in the wrong hands can be used to delay the financial future that you’ve worked so hard for.
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. We want to help you find the right balance between the convenience and benefits of technology and the risk of becoming a victim. Our goal is to reduce that risk… to make you less of a target.
When we hear stories or read articles about scams, we tend to think “that would never happen to me” or “I would never fall for that.” We shake our heads and wonder how other people can be so gullible.
Yet, some of the largest organizations led by the best and brightest talent in the world have been vulnerable - companies like Yahoo, Linkedin, Facebook, Marriott, Adobe, Equifax and others. And, scammers target people of all demographics, including age groups typically considered “tech saavy.”
Gen Z
- SAT preparation classes: Using information from compromised sites and offering a “free” class if you buy the book
- College scholarships: Requesting an application fee before releasing money from a scholarship award
Millennials
- Job offers: Posting false jobs, “hiring” a candidate, then asking for a bank account for direct deposit of paychecks
- Apartment hunting: Creating a fake apartment listing to try to get data
Gen X
- Debt relief: Offering to consolidate debt at a great interest rate for a nominal price
- Military: Calling military families and saying that a service member needs money
Boomers
- Social Security: Offering to increase your benefit or providing free services to protect your benefit from fraud
- Phone: Claiming to be relatives that need money or threatening to arrest you because you missed jury duty
And, what might seem like innocent fun online can be used to mine data about you. Questionnaires, quizzes and games on social media, apps and video games are common tactics used by scammers to collect your personal information. Kids and young adults can be especially vulnerable to these types of attacks because they are often disguised as fun games or innocent posts. Red flag = Month and Date games. That information is very useful data to collect when trying to steal someone's identity. Ex: “What’s your elf name?” Determined by birth month and day, these posts encourage people to share/comment their name which scammers can use to determine their birth date.
The good news is that you're probably already taking some steps to protect yourself. Register now for our upcoming Lunch & Learn Protecting Your Data: Aware and Prepared. We’ll share steps to increase your resiliency against these types of attacks. After all, you can't protect yourself if you don’t know what to look for.
Our hope is that you’re more aware of the types of threats and attacks that are out there and that you pick up a few tips that may help you better protect yourself and your loved ones.
Register Here
Protecting Your Data: Aware and Prepared
Live Cybersecurity Webinar 11 am CST October 27
