Be Aware of the Security Risks When Banking Online

By Scott Aurnou

A simple truth is that the vast majority of electronic hacking attacks are made in the pursuit of money. Electronic banking (aka ‘ebanking’) transactions are particularly attractive to hackers because they offer a fairly direct payoff and, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, CSO Online and security blogger Brian Krebs, among others, small and medium-sized businesses are a frequent target. Cybercriminals use banking ‘crimeware kits’ with names like ZeuS, SpyEye and Citadel to get a hold of your or your company’s log in credentials and passwords, gain immediate access to the funds in its (or your) bank accounts and will often start withdrawing them as soon they have the information. Of course, this begs the question: what can you do to protect yourself?

Keep your software as up to date as possible. The vast majority of malware attacks target flaws or ‘vulnerabilities’ found in older versions of the software on your computer. When software is updated, the flaws that have been discovered are fixed, but… those updates also tip off hackers regarding the existence of the flaws and can be used to attack those users who don’t update their software. For tips on keeping your software up-to-date, click here.
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Posted in Laptops & Desktops, Network Security, Smartphones & Tablets

Holiday Season Means Holiday Scams – Stay Safe While Shopping Online


Computer Security Tip of the Week

Scott Aurnou – Cybercrooks & scammers are often waiting to take advantage of you during the holiday season. Here are some tips to stay safe while shopping online.

Helpful websites referenced in this video include:
Secunia: http://secunia.com/
FileHippo: http://www.filehippo.com/
AppFresh for Mac: http://metaquark.de/appfresh/mac
Microsoft Security Essentials: http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/mse.aspx
Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac: http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx

If you enjoyed this video, you can see more on TheSecurityAdvocate YouTube channel (and subscribe if you like).

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Posted in Fraud & Scams, Laptops & Desktops, Security Tip of the Week

Use Strong Passwords to Protect Your Business from Hackers

By Scott Aurnou

Creating a strong password may seem like a chore, but sometimes it can literally be the only thing standing between a cybercriminal and your personal and financial information or access to your company’s network and intellectual property. Here are some tips for creating a strong password (that you can actually remember):

1) The most important factor in creating a secure password is length. A longer sequence of characters (letters, numbers and possibly punctuation marks) means more possible combinations to help thwart an attacker. The absolute minimum should be twelve characters, though the longer the better. If a password has eight characters, for example, modern password cracking software will break it in a matter of hours. A difference of four characters in a password may not seem like much, but there is a huge increase in the number of possible combinations it will yield (and hence attempts that the cracking software will have to make before it can break the password in question). Even if only letters and numbers are allowed, there are 14 million times as many combinations with a twelve character password vs. an eight character one. And if punctuation marks are included, the figure goes 81 million. Simply put, longer passwords are always better.
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Posted in Laptops & Desktops, Network Security, Smartphones & Tablets

Welcome

Welcome to The Security Advocate. The aim of this blog is to give you a better understanding of computer security and related issues in plain, non-technical language.

Cybercriminals and hackers can hurt you and your business in a variety of ways. We will identify these threats, explain how they work and take you through the steps needed to protect yourself and your company.

When there is technical jargon that relates to a topic being covered, we’ll tell you what it is and what it means in context.

Guest posts from individuals with varied backgrounds will also be featured. While the primary focus of this blog is business-oriented, other security-related topics (like securing your home computer and keeping your kids safe online) will be discussed, as well.

Starting soon, we will also have Security Tip of the Week videos, which will be short clips that cover a variety of security issues and how to deal with them.

This blog intends to be informative, interesting and maybe even funny on occasion. If you have any suggestions regarding what you see here (or would like to see), we’d love to hear them.

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Posted in Laptops & Desktops, Network Security, Smartphones & Tablets