Imagine the damage someone could do if they knew your Facebook password. Now imagine how much more harmful it could be if they had your banking information. Of course, you would never give over this information to a stranger, but what if they sent you an email pretending they were your bank. How would you know not to trust them then?
The lazy days of summer are drawing to a close. And it’s time to start thinking about back to school stuff.
Back in the day, shopping for back to school supplies meant buying and wrapping mountains of text books and sharpening lots of shiny number 2 pencils. Nowadays, back to school buying almost always involves a new tech supplies, from iPads to smartphones and laptops.
Here is a handy back-to-school cyber security do’s and don’ts checklist.
“Bzzz bzzz bzzz…”
“Gotta smack it to stop it”, the not-yet-awake thought floods Tim’s mind.
“Presentation at 10:00 today” Now this new, more urgent thought hits him like a runaway train
and he jumps out of bed.
Hastily, he throws on his clothes and grabs his coffee. He has to run through his notes and slides one last time before the big meeting in just a few hours.
Skirting to his laptop, he turns it on, and after a moment, he is greeted by the following message with the force of a ton of bricks:
“Hi! Your files have just been taken ransom with a really strong form of encryption. If you ever want to see your data again, please create a Bitcoin wallet and pay your unlock fee
of 1 BTC within 48 hrs. After you have paid, we will unlock the files with the correlating
key. Don’t attempt to unlock the files yourself, It’s impossible.” Read more…
Knowledge. Innovation. Connection.
These might seem like typical 21st century buzzwords – after all, they pretty much sum up where we are on the “You are Here” marker on that giant mall map of time. But far from just empty words that people say to sound trendy, these three traits capture the essence of what powers one of the most important and complex tools mankind has ever dreamed up – the Internet. In the same way that it’s super difficult to envision how it could possibly be that we have, on average over 24 feet of intestines wound up inside our bodies, and that if you fold a regular piece of paper 40 times, it would reach to the moon, it’s can be pretty hard for us to envision the scope of the interconnected cables, routers and frequencies used to bind all the world’s networks into one cohesive unit. But for better or for worse (mostly better), it’s massive and complicated, and it’s here to stay. Read more…
Just imagine the scene.
You’re diligently fulfilling your duties at work, not paying attention to much else when the following email lands in your inbox:
To:(insert your own name here)
Subject: Mid-2016 salary increases
Attach: 2016-SI.doc
The body of the email reads:
“Look what I got ahold of! By the way, for your eyes, ONLY.”
You rub your eyes and stare for a second. Did someone really just send you a list of employees who will be getting mid-year increases??
You’re thinking “I gotta read this!” and your fingers are getting ready to click that link but as you move your mouse closer to the attachment, a tiny voice inside you screams “Wait!” (bah, humbug.)
Is this attachment what is seems or is it possibly something really, really dangerous?
