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With Summer, Comes Vacations and Travel Safety Tips...
If you have ever traveled and been one of the unfortunate people to have your luggage lost; imagine the feeling you get when you find out someone stole a lot more than your hawaiian shirts, board shorts and favorite sandals.
Travelers get scammed all of the time and you can never be to safe with your personal information. In today's age of cell phones, tablets and smart everything, get in the habit of password-protecting your devices ALL THE TIME! It only takes a second or two for a criminal to expose all of your information if your device is left unlocked and the criminal gains access to it.
Raise your hand if you're guilty of storing your "home" address in your phone or GPS to easily navigate to your house. This is great for you, as long as the device is in your possession. If it falls into the hands of a criminal, they can easily find your house and they know you aren't home to stop them from robbing you blind. (By the way, I am guilty of this!)
Another area of concern amongst many Americans is the use of public Wi-Fi spots. Nearly all restaurants and many retail locations offer free Wi-Fi as a way to draw more people into their establishments in hopes of converting them into paying customers.
In a recent study by Experian, 72% of Americans admit they are concerned about using a public Wi-Fi spot, yet 48% of Americans still connect to the unsecured networks, leaving all of their information vulnerable to the criminals.
Did you know you can erase the data on your phone or tablet remotely? iPads, iPhones and most Android phones and tablets allow you to erase the device remotely in case a theft occurs. In this instance, it is important to have a back-up copy of your data. When was the last time you backed up your device? If you are uncertain of when the last back up was, then you need to back everything up again.
Cyber-criminals love to prey on unsuspecting people and those who they deem an easy target. Do not allow yourself to be an easy target and take these quick, simple steps to help protect your identity.
Have safe travels out there!
Synthetic Identity Theft: Why You Should Be Concerned
In a recent study, researchers found that synthetic identity theft makes up about 85% of all identity theft and it has an annual cost of $2 billion.
Synthetic identity theft involves the use of a ficticious identity. There are multiple ways the fraudsters can create a fake identity, with the most common form using a real social security number, combined with other fake information.
The rise of this crime has been in the thousands recently, as compared to the hundreds not more than five years ago.
Here is an excerpt from a SecurityItelligence article:
"The exponential growth of synthetic identity theft — and particularly its impact on children’s identities — will have distressing consequences for young individuals in the future. A study performed by Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab found that children’s SSNs are 51 times more likely to be used in a synthetic fraud scheme than those of adults for the population studied. While CyLab clearly stated its findings could not be extrapolated to the general population, the threat to children is evident.
Synthetic identity thieves target children’s SSNs because they are inactive and will generally remain unchecked for up to 18 years. Children generally have no public information associated with their SSN, making them a prime target. Unless a victimized minor’s parents are tipped off by a bill collector, the child begins receiving credit card offers in the mail or the child is denied a driver’s license or college loan, the fraud may not be discovered."
Read the entire article here.
Threat Spotlight: Real-World Spear Phishing, Initiating the Attack and Email Spoofing
Countless individuals and organizations have unwittingly wired money, sent W2s, and emailed credentials to cyber criminals who were impersonating their boss, colleague, or a trusted customer. Spear phishing attacks can have devastating results for individuals, businesses, and brands, and unfortunately, they work because they are so simple and believable. A successful attack doesn’t require advanced hacking techniques, but rather gathering information about you that’s already posted online and spending five minutes to write a well-crafted email. The attackers can pick up information about their targets from a variety of sources: whether it’s posted on LinkedIn, Facebook, or on the company blog.
Spear phishing is something we’ve become very familiar with at Barracuda, as we have over a decade-long history of studying email-borne threats and the overall cyber threat landscape. Over the last year, we have spent a lot of time researching and analyzing highly-personalized spear phishing attacks.
Read the entire article here.
#TSGivesBack
Trinity Solutions is invested into the local communities in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio and we are taking an active role in working with employers and prominent community members to offer; educational seminars (on identity theft to warn people on the dangers of identity theft), community outreach and an all new Give Back program.
If your business would like to have Trinity Solutions come in for a 30-minute informational training session on "The Dangers of Identity Theft," please contact us.
During this seminar, participants will learn; what identity theft is, the different types of identity theft, the impact of a stolen identity, the types of protection available and the benefits of full restoration.
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