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Many organizations — including quite a few Fortune 500 firms — have exposed web links that allow anyone to initiate a Zoom video conference meeting as a valid employee. These company-specific Zoom links, which include a permanent user ID number and an embedded passcode, can work indefinitely and expose an organization’s employees, customers or partners to phishing and other social engineering attacks.
Image: @Pressmaster on Shutterstock.
At issue is the Zoom Personal Meeting ID (PMI), which is a permanent identification number linked to your Zoom account and serves as your personal meeting room available around the clock. The PMI portion forms part of each new meeting URL created by that account, such as:
zoom.us/j/5551112222
Zoom has an option to include an encrypted passcode within a meeting invite link, which simplifies the process for attendees by eliminating the need to manually enter the passcode. Following the previous example, such a link might look something like this:
zoom.us/j/5551112222/pwd=jdjsklskldklsdksdklsdkll
Using your PMI to set up new meetings is convenient, but of course convenience often comes at the expense of security. Because the PMI remains the same for all meetings, anyone with your PMI link can join any ongoing meeting unless you have locked the meeting or activated Zoom’s Waiting Room feature.
Including an encrypted passcode in the Zoom link definitely makes it easier for attendees to join, but it might open your meetings to unwanted intruders if not handled responsibly. Particularly if that Zoom link is somehow indexed by Google or some other search engine, which happens to be the case for thousands of organizations.
Armed with one of these links, an attacker can create meetings and invite others using the identity of the authorized employee. And many companies using Zoom have made it easy to find recently created meeting links that include encrypted passcodes, because they have dedicated subdomains at Zoom.us.
Using the same method, KrebsOnSecurity also found working Zoom meeting links for The National Football League (NFL), LinkedIn, Oracle, Humana, Disney, Warner Bros, and Uber. And that was from just a few minutes of searching. And to illustrate the persistence of some of these Zoom links, Archive.org says several of the links were first created as far back as 2020 and 2021.
KrebsOnSecurity received a tip about the Zoom exposures from Charan Akiri, a researcher and security engineer at Reddit. In April 2023, this site featured research by Akiri showing that many public Salesforce websites were leaking private data, including banks and healthcare organizations (Akiri said Salesforce also had these open Zoom meeting links before he notified them).
The Zoom links that exposed working meeting rooms all had enabled the highlighted option.
Akiri said the misuse of PMI links, particularly those with passcodes embedded, can give unauthorized individuals access to meetings.
“These one-click links, which are not subject to expiration or password requirement, can be exploited by attackers for impersonation,” Akiri said. “Attackers exploiting these vulnerabilities can impersonate companies, initiating meetings unknowingly to users. They can contact other employees or customers while posing as the company, gaining unauthorized access to confidential information, potentially for financial gain, recruitment, or fraudulent advertising campaigns.”
Akiri said he built a simple program to crawl the web for working Zoom meeting links from different organizations, and so far it has identified thousands of organizations with these perfectly functional zombie Zoom links.
According to Akiri, here are several tips for using Zoom links more safely:
Don’t Use Personal Meeting ID for Public Meetings: Your Personal Meeting ID (PMI) is the default meeting that launches when you start an ad hoc meeting. Your PMI doesn’t change unless you change it yourself, which makes it very useful if people need a way to reach you. But for public meetings, you should always schedule new meetings with randomly generated meeting IDs. That way, only invited attendees will know how to join your meeting. You can also turn off your PMI when starting an instant meeting in your profile settings.
Require a Passcode to Join: You can take meeting security even further by requiring a passcode to join your meetings. This feature can be applied to both your Personal Meeting ID, so only those with the passcode will be able to reach you, and to newly scheduled meetings. To learn all the ways to add a passcode for your meetings, see this support article.
Only Allow Registered or Domain Verified Users: Zoom can also give you peace of mind by letting you know exactly who will be attending your meeting. When scheduling a meeting, you can require attendees to register with their email, name, and custom questions. You can even customize your registration page with a banner and logo. By default, Zoom also restricts participants to those who are logged into Zoom, and you can even restrict it to Zoom users whose email address uses a certain domain.
Further reading: How to Keep Uninvited Guests Out of Your Zoom Meeting
Update 12:33 p.m.: The list of affected organizations was updated, because several companies listed apparently only exposed links that let anyone connect to existing, always-on meeting rooms — not initiate and completely control a Zoom meeting. The real danger with the zombie links described above is that anyone can find and use them to create new meetings and invite others.
I wish I'd read this blog post years ago.
I don't have any expertise whatsoever to be guiding others through this process so please don't look at this as a "how to". But what I do have is an audience, and I've found that each time I've opened up about the more personal aspects of my life and where I've struggled (such as my post a few years ago on dealing with stress), I've had a huge amount of feedback from people that have been helped by it.
Just read this. Hugely helpful to me going through the never ending stress of divorce. It had given me hope and focus. Thank you 🙏
— Ruth Cornish (@RuthACornish) March 16, 2022
Perhaps my willingness to talk openly about it has led to others coming to terms with their own similar circumstances, and that's my hope in writing this. Not to guide you through divorce, but to help you understand it.
Here's what I've learned.
This title is deliberately blunt, and I chose to run with it because it's one of the most important things I've learned throughout this process. Let me explain:
Nobody goes into a marriage expecting it to fail. You're marrying for life and when the day comes that you realise it's not going to happen, you feel like a failure. You also feel stigmatised; "I've not been able to deliver on the promise of my marriage, what will people think of me? What will my family think? My kids?" Now, I'm not religious in any way whatsoever but I'm conscious of the social expectation of marriage. I found it extremely difficult early on to talk to people about it outside my closest circle of friends, partly because I had difficulty simply finding the words to explain it and partly because to be honest, I was worried about being judged for having a failed marriage.
It took time to realise that people don't care or more specifically, they don't care about stigmatisation or judgement or most of the other emotional baggage you get caught up with. Friends care about you, of course, but the fact you've decided to dissolve a marriage really isn't their concern. Your wellbeing is their concern. Your happiness. Your children's happiness. The person caring most about the mechanics of divorce and leading separate lives was me, and that's something I had complete control over.
The exception to "nobody cares", in my experience, is family and others in your inner circle who hold onto that same stigma that dogged me early on. There may be traditional reasons for this, cultural reasons, religious reasons or just the simple sadness for a relationship that is no more. Family in particular can be complex, especially when there may be existing resentment, jealousy or as we've all experienced at one time or another, individuals who just revel in drama. They can be your greatest supporters or, if they prefer, antagonists. But that's their own emotional struggle to deal with, not yours, and a truly supportive inner circle will prioritise your wellbeing.
Where it really started to normalise for me was over the course of time as I learned how many other people had, themselves, gone through divorce. Sometimes it was much simpler happening earlier in life and without kids, but often it was much, much more complex, especially where there was financial distress or older children. Once I came to terms with the fact that the concept of a marriage falling apart is not the thing I should be worried about and I should instead focus on the logistics of the various practical challenges that presents, I became a lot more comfortable with the situation and frankly, a lot happier.
Someone I spoke with recently was married to an abusive drunk. They knew the relationship was over when they found themselves thinking how easy it would be to push their inebriated spouse down the stairs.
A friend confided in me about how their partner had physically assaulted them since the birth of their child. The kid was about to enter adulthood.
Another friend explained recently how it wasn't until their wedding night they acknowledged they were gay.
Not all stories are as dramatic; one friend is happily married with two children of their own and two their partner had in a previous marriage. Another divorced young and now lives happily with their new partner, the child they had together, their partner's ex and the child they'd had previously.
I've deliberately used gender-neutral pronouns here; it surprised me how often personal stories didn't align to the stereotypical norms of male and female behaviours. Especially in cases where there has been mental illness, alcohol dependency or drug addiction, you realise just how unique everyone's own journey is and how even though your own may feel exceptional, it's probably not.
I mention this here because as my life started to settle down, that headline kept coming back up - "everyone has their own story". As time went by and I met new people and heard new stories, it would come up over and over again in my mind. It helped me normalise my own circumstances and overcome the stigma I'd felt so much in the early days.
It's tricky when there's mutual friends, common contacts in social circles, other parents at school and all sorts of scenarios where you're going to be spending time with the same people your ex is. Whose side do they take? Who are they sympathetic to? Angry towards?
There's a temptation to inject your own views into discussions with these people but frankly, the chances of doing that in a balanced fashion in the midst of the most emotional period of your life are zilch. I know when I think back to conversations with friends who've gone through similar trauma in their own lives, I'm acutely aware that as much as I want to be there to support them, I'm only hearing half the story. One friend in particular I've spent a lot of time with is convinced their ex is actively turning their kids against them and they may very well be right, but I only hear one side of the story. Another was concerned their child had been abused whilst in their ex's care and again, I've only heard one story. But to my earlier headline, I don't care because I'm not listening to their stories so that I can play judge, I'm listening to help them get it off their chest and deal with their emotions.
What I found over the course of years was that when it comes to mutual friends, it was preferable to simply not discuss the ex. It might come up organically (which parent will the kids be with when a friend wants a play date, for example), but that's a discussion that can be had in a pure mechanical fashion without emotion. It's harder when more pointed questions are asked - "How's it going with the divorce?" - and candid, honest responses aren't always compatible with the goal of remaining neutral. Interestingly, I found that people judged bitterness towards the other party quite harshly, especially where they viewed behaviour as derogatory. "Why can't they just get over it and move on", I'd keep hearing. It feels almost trite to put it this way, but people respond well to positivity and just getting on with life, but judge negativity and bitterness quite harshly.
Giving people time and space to observe without feeling like someone is trying to influence their views is invaluable and, in my experience, led to much more support.
During the good days of my marriage, I knew my wife wanted the best for me as I did for her. After all, that's the bedrock of a relationship: that you're there to support each other and wish for nothing other than their happiness. Divorce changes that and in many cases, inverts that bedrock yet somehow your brain is still wired to want the best for them and in turn, to expect that they want the best for you.
During the divorce process, there was constant strategising about how to move matters forward and drive the formal things to a conclusion and time and time again, I'd talk to my lawyer and say "she's telling me she'd like [blah]". In this context, [blah] was normally something that had the optics of good intentions, often motherhood statements such as "desirous of an amicable outcome" or words like "fair", "kind" and "considerate". Who wouldn't want these things?! These things are all great! At one stage I relayed this messaging to him after which he paused, and then asked a very simple question:
What do her actions tell you?
Uh... something different. Opposite.
It was the "be kind" of misdirection where someone says words you naturally support (of course we all should be kind!) yet demonstrate actions to the contrary. Do you judge them on the words? Or the actions? Of course it should be the latter, but that realisation only comes once you recognise that the two don't always align.
The problem is the aforementioned brain wiring where you're conditioned to expect the other party to want the best for you and to take them at their word. It's hard to let go of the fact that your wellbeing is no longer their first priority and frankly, the inverse is also true. But that doesn't change the intention being represented so we need to move beyond judging on words and start judging on behaviour. I later heard this same sentiment expressed in a more eloquent way:
Characterise people by their actions and you will never be fooled by their words
This was another epiphany for me, and it fundamentally changed the way I viewed the situation. If I'm honest, it gave me a lot more clarity of mind; it forced me to let go of many of the emotions surrounding the divorce and instead just focus on the facts. The motherhood statements and platitudes no longer mattered, all that mattered was actions.
I read a lot to try and help me understand what was going on, particularly in the earlier days of separation. One piece I read really resonated as it helped explain how two people who were once so close can now be on totally different wavelengths and have different versions of the same events. The piece I read was about the Rashomon Effect:
The effect is named after Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon, in which a murder is described in four contradictory ways by four witnesses. The term addresses the motives, mechanism, and occurrences of the reporting on the circumstance and addresses contested interpretations of events, the existence of disagreements regarding the evidence of events, and subjectivity versus objectivity in human perception, memory, and reporting.
Same event, different perceptions of what happened. The Rashomon Effect doesn't help explain what actually happened, rather it describes how people in a highly emotional, life-changing time of their lives can have fundamentally different views of the same circumstances. This might sound kind of clinical and detached, but it helped explain behaviour that I simply couldn't rationalise before. Recognising that people can have different perceptions of the same events that led to the separation helped me deal with the grief. But probably about a year after separating, I had an epiphany that really helped me move forward: the root cause didn't matter anyway.
It's only natural to seek out answers and, indeed, to apportion blame. I've done it, others in similar situations I've spoken to have done it and should you ever find yourself in the same place as me, you'll do it too. It's not always just blame with the other party either and I suspect there's rarely a divorce where all the fault lies purely on one side.
I found all the reasons in the world to explain why this had happened. Recent incidents, things related to money, to work, to kids and even signs that I should have picked up on right from day one of the relationship. I'm sure she did the same. But ultimately, it's inconsequential and my pinning the blame on particular things was making no difference whatsoever.
Legally, it doesn't matter either. In Australia (and in many other parts of the world), we've had the concept of No Fault Divorce since 1975. The court doesn't care who did this or who didn't do that, all they care about is that there's an irretrievable breakdown of the relationship and that either one or both of you wants the marriage annulled. That is all.
In playing back all the events over all the years, I was just reliving bad memories. It was making me angry, regretful, emotional. I wasn't longing for reconciliation and as I moved forward in my own life, I wasn't even wishing things were back where they were years ago. I was seeking answers where I wasn't going to find them, and they wouldn't change a thing today even if I did.
Stop dwelling on it and move on. I can't say I always do that, but the more I've just put my head down, looked to the future and powered forward, the better things got.
Telling the kids was the worst. In the hours beforehand, I was a mess. Inconsolable. I felt that stigma I mentioned earlier coming over me in waves as we prepared to tell our children we were breaking up the family.
Their mother was the one who told them as we all sat down together. It was pretty short and to the point, effectively boiling down to us having mutually decided to lead separate lives. The bomb was dropped, then she finished by prompting the kids for any questions they'd like to ask us. They paused, then our 9-year old son spoke up:
Can we have pizza for dinner tonight?
I smile thinking about that even now 🙂 It was a relief valve at an enormously stressful time not just because it was kinda funny given the gravitas of the news they'd just heard, but because it demonstrated that just as with the observations above about friends not caring, the kids didn't care either. They cared about being loved, supported, having their parents' attention and really, just fundamental Maslow's hierarchy of needs sort of stuff. They didn't understand the social concept of marriage, they weren't aware of the stigma I felt and frankly, if it didn't have any actual impact on their lives in any meaningful sort of way, they didn't care.
In later reading I'd learn that as far as divorces and kids go, this is the ideal time to do it. Were they to be much older (our daughter was 6 at the time), things would be harder as they became more independently minded and more aware of the social issues surrounding a marriage breakdown. But at this age and in an environment that was still civil at the time, both the news on that day and everything else I've observed in the years since has been entirely unnoteworthy.
But I also don't want to trivialise the situation with kids as I've seen things work very differently for other people, especially when teenagers are involved. I can only relay my own experiences here and acknowledge that I've been extraordinarily fortunate. Part of that good fortune has been luck due to the timing of our separation, their age and their personalities, and part of it has been good management on our behalf as parents.
What I've found most difficult to navigate is loyalty binds:
A loyalty bind in divorce is where the child does not feel allowed to love both parents. He has to side with one or the other about any number of issues, big and small. His anger, sadness, and anxiety increases as he feels pushed to choose and either choice results in the loss, or fear of loss, of the other parent. He can’t win.
When you've got two people who've decided to wind up a relationship, there's going to be flashpoints. Disagreements. Possibly legal battles. You're both angry, both convinced you're right and sometimes, certain that the other party is the devil. Now, imagine amidst the heights of that frustration a parent gives the kids some pretty unfiltered opinions about the other party - how do the kids react? Angry towards the parent being spoken harshly of due to the things they've allegedly done? Or defensive of that parent as they watch the other one unleashing on them? He can't win!
I've found this to be an extremely delicate area to navigate for two reasons:
Firstly, I've had to make sure that no matter how I've felt about the situation, I avoid negativity towards the ex in front of the kids to the fullest extent possible. Sometimes that's easy insofar as there are many discussions that simply don't need to be had with the kids (it's much better to vent to close friends and family), but other times it can be extremely difficult if it's a topic that directly impacts them (e.g., their movements over school holidays). But that burden is on us - the adults - and it's one the kids shouldn't have to bear.
Secondly, there's dealing with times where the other parent puts the kids in the very position you're trying so hard to avoid. Particularly when derogatory messaging comes home in ways that could only have come from the other party, you're left feeling defensive and wanting to set them straight with your version of the record, but now you're back at the loyalty bind problem. It's not always explicitly derogatory behaviour that creates that loyalty bind either, it can be something as minor as being emotional when the kids mention the other party or particular activities they've been involved in; "every time I talk about [thing], it makes [mum|dad] upset".
In dealing with the latter situation, I sought support from a family counsellor who gave me an example from another client that epitomises everything that is wrong with creating loyalty binds. A lady had attended with her 6-year old daughter and during the session, received a call from her lawyer related to matrimonial matters. After hanging up, she burst into tears and in an attempt to calm her, the daughter put her arms around the mother and said, "that's ok mum, I hate dad too". That story is just heartbreaking and even though it may not have been the mother's intention, her reaction drove a wedge between a child and their parent. That's a hard one but again, we're the adults, it's our responsibility to manage our emotions around these situations.
I keep coming back to what is ultimately a very simple premise: putting the kids in a situation where it creates a loyalty bind is a selfish act that prioritises your emotions over the kids' wellbeing. Whether it's deliberate or accidental, it must be avoided to the fullest extent possible.
I originally started seeing a psychologist to help me deal with stress and sustain my performance when I felt everything was getting too much for me. It quickly became clear that the bulk of my stress wasn't due to my workload, it was due to my relationship. This is where psychologists can make a big difference - cutting through the emotion and getting to the core of what's eating you.
So, I started seeing Clive. He wasn't the first psych I'd seen, but he was the first one that really resonated with me, so I made appointments to see him every couple of weeks. We'd spend an hour each time going through recent events, how they made me feel and how I'd deal with them moving forward. He made an enormously positive difference not just in terms of understanding my own emotions, but reframing situations to reduce the unnecessary stress I was feeling.
Here's a perfect example: I'd often worry about things that were really of very little consequence but would bug the hell out of me. They'd come through an email, via the kids or in a lawyer's letter. On one occasion, I unloaded the whole lot onto Clive after which he sat thoughtfully, then suggested the following:
Think of her as a drunk person in a pub throwing punches at you. It's demanding your attention, but nothing is connecting and eventually she'll tire out or sober up.
I loved that and ever since that session, I've become much more adept at separating the things that actually require my emotional input from the drunk punches.
The other exceptionally helpful guidance he gave came during a protracted legal stoush that felt like it had no end in sight:
Me: "This feels like it will never end"
Clive: "Do you know what to do next?"
Me: "Yes, I'm going to do [legal thing] then [other legal thing] then if that doesn't work, [alternating legal thing]."
Clive: "Then just follow the process."
Follow the process. Time and time again, I'd sit on the couch, pour out my heart and we'd come back again to simply following the process. Divorce paperwork - follow the process. Parenting orders - follow the process. Financial settlement - follow the process. At their essence, they were merely business deals and negotiations, they just happened to be wrapped up in multiple layers of emotions.
In a later session, there was one addition to this guidance; follow the process and sustain performance. You can't let the process sap you of energy such that you're unable to perform. You can't let it mentally or emotionally drain you, distract you from life's essentials or keep you from reaching the goal. This was the high-performance coaching I was seeking out in the first place, and it was more relevant at this juncture than ever before.
That's not to say that following the process is simple, it certainly wasn't for me, and those layers of emotions would regularly impede progress. Clive would often break it down into psychological behaviours he'd plot out on the whiteboard:
I'd rarely take notes, but I'd take photos. I'd go back through them later on in an attempt to make sense of it all. Professional help made an enormously positive difference; it helped me process everything going on in my life, understand it more objectively and ultimately, lead a happier life. Speaking of which...
Every person I spoke to who'd been through divorce and "emerged on the other side" told me the same thing - it gets better. Clive told me that from day 1, pointing out that there's a very predictable cycle we all go through:
This maps pretty closely to your classic Kübler-Ross 5 stages of grief and we recognised that I was somewhere around the righthand side of the whiteboard. It's not always movement in the one direction, indeed I was oscillating back and forth around "understanding of new normal", sometimes a couple of steps backwards towards "anger", but increasingly towards "engaging and embracing new normal". And my new normal was starting to look pretty damn good:
Let’s face it. Everyone who’s as slick as Troy and done as much for the sec community deserves a girl that fine!😂 #yesG
— .b (@dot_b) June 4, 2021
I love this comment, not because I alone somehow deserve romantic happiness, but because we all do. To inject further optimism into the end of this post, upon reflection, every single story I relayed above about friends who have gone through their own divorce struggles has resulted in new partners, new lives and new happiness. Every. Single. One. Charlotte and I got engaged on New Year's Day two years ago and married in September. Life has never been better 😊
Sometimes, life feels like a fairytale. This is now my favourite photo ever ❤️ pic.twitter.com/lspKwVVSly
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) December 9, 2022
One final note on this, a quote from Lao Tzu:
If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.
There are still "drunk punches" and occasional anxious moments, but they're increasingly fleeting and I'm at peace. I hope this post has been helpful and if you recognise yourself in this, that you reach this stage of the process quickly and peacefully.
For many Aussies, identity theft was always something that happened to other people. People on TV, usually. But the recent spate of data breaches at Optus, Medibank and Energy Australia has made many of us pay far more attention than ever to one of the fastest growing crimes in our country.
According to the Department of Home Affairs, 1 in 4 Aussies will be the victim of identity theft over the course of their lives with an annual economic impact of more than $2 billion. And with the financial fallout from the recent data breaches only just starting to be counted, these statistics will no doubt increase dramatically next year.
Identity theft is when a cybercriminal gains access to your personal information to steal money or gain other benefits. Armed with your personal info, they can apply for real identity documents in your name but with another person’s photograph. This enables them to then apply for loans or benefits in your name, sign up for memberships or even apply for credit cards.
And it goes without saying that the financial and emotional fallout from identity theft can be huge. Since the Optus and Medibank hacking stories broke just a few months ago, there has been multiple stories of Aussie families who have had their identities stolen and who are in a world of pain. This Melbourne family who have had over $40,000 stolen from ATM withdrawals alone is just one example.
Your personal information is any piece of information or data that can confirm who you are or how to find you. It may be a single piece of information, or several pieces used together. It’s often referred to as personally identifiable information (PII). So, it includes your name, parents’ name, address, date of birth, phone numbers, email address, usernames/passwords or passphrases, bank account details, school or university attended, location check-ins even RSVPS for events.
Every time you register with a new shopping site or social media platform, you will be asked to share some personally identifiable information. However, what you share may be stolen or even misused – just think about the recent list of Australian companies who had their customers’ private information stolen by hackers. So that’s why you need to ensure you are only sharing your information with trusted online sites and take every possible step to protect your personal information online.
While there are no guarantees in life, there are steps you can take to ensure your online identity is as safe as possible. Here are my top 5 tips:
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) or 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) is a no-brainer because it makes a hacker’s life a lot harder. In short, it requires the user to provide two or more verification factors to gain access to an account or app. This might be a text, email or even a code generated by an authentication app. So, even if a hacker has your password and username, they still need that final piece of information before they can get their hands on your account!
Now this may take a bit of work to set up but using a unique and complex password on every account is one of the best things you can do to protect your online identity. And here’s the rationale – if you use the same password on all your accounts and your login details are stolen then hackers have access to all the accounts that are accessed with that password. Yikes!!! So, a unique password for each account is a great measure. I love using a password manager to make this process a little easier. Not only do they generate complex passwords, but they remember them too! All you need to do is remember your Master Password which needs to be extremely complex!!!
Updates are most commonly about addressing security weaknesses. And yes, I know they can be a pain but if you ignore them, you are essentially making it easier for hackers to find their way into your life via weak spots. And don’t forget to ensure your security software remains updated too!
I always recommend keeping a backup of all your important info in case something goes wrong. This should include all your photos, key documents and all your personally identifiable information. A hard drive works well but saving to the cloud is also a good option. I once dropped a hard drive and lost treasured family photos, so the cloud is my personal preference.
We all know knowledge is power so investing in top notch security and identity monitoring software will help keep you ahead of threats. McAfee+, McAfee’s new all in one privacy, identity and device protection solution is a fantastic way for Aussies to protect themselves online. It features identity monitoring and a password manager but also an unlimited VPN, a file shredder, protection score and parental controls. And the Rolls Royce version called McAfee+ Advanced, also offers subscribers additional identity protections including access to licensed restoration experts who can help you repair your identity and credit, in case you’re affected by a data breach. It also gives subscribers access to lost wallet protection which help you cancel and replace your ID, credit cards if they are lost or stolen.
Public, unsecured Wi-Fi can make life so much easier when you’re out and about but it’s also a tried and tested way for scammers to access your personal information. Unsecured Wi-Fi is free Wi-Fi that is available in public places such as libraries, cafes, or shopping centres. So, instead of using Wi-Fi, just use the data in your phone plan. Or alternatively invest in a Virtual Private Network (VPN) that cleverly encrypts everything you share on your device.
About 2 months ago, I embarked on a project to clean up my online life. I’m working through the list of sites I have accounts with and am closing those I no longer use, I’m also doing a huge password audit to ensure they are all unique to each site and are super complex, thanks to my password manager. Now, I’m not quite done yet, but things are in better shape than they were. Why not consider doing the same? With the holiday season fast approaching, why not dedicate a little of your poolside time to practicing a little cyber hygiene.
Till next time, keep those identities safe!
Alex
The post The Best Way To Protect Your Online Identity appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Do yourself a favor: Open a new browser tab and head to your search engine of choice. Type in your full name and home address. Then, see what pops up.
Are the results sparking an ember of unease in the back of your brain? Whether you’re a private person online or you’re comfortable sharing your daily life updates on social media, there are likely to be several personal details about you on sites that shouldn’t have that information. Some of these sites may be data brokerage websites.
Data brokerage sites are legal and are mostly used by annoying advertisers, though cybercriminals may also use them maliciously. The average person has their information for sale on 31 data brokerage sites, and 95% of people have their personal information on sale without their permission.
So how do you scrub the internet of your personal details to keep your identity secure? McAfee Personal Data Cleanup is a service that prevents your personal information from being collected and sold online. Here’s why you should consider taking a few easy steps now to give you peace of mind about the security of your personally identifiable information (PII).
Attack surface is a term usually applied to corporate security, but it’s a great visualization for everyday people going about their personal online errands and entertainment. An attack surface is the number of possible entry points a cybercriminal could weasel their way through to get at your valuable and private information. Entry points include your social media profiles, your online shopping accounts, and data brokerage sites. The fewer entry points you have, the harder it is for cybercriminals to find and exploit them.
While Social Security Numbers (SSNs) are generally revered as the piece of PII to guard most closely, a cybercriminal can still damage your identity with just your name and an address, email address, or phone number. For example, they can request new passwords or multifactor authentication one-time passcodes to break their way into online banking or shopping accounts. Security breaches are happening to huge companies all over the world. All it takes is for your SSN to be leaked in one of them, for a cybercriminal to piece together your digital clone and use it to harm your identity or credit.
Personal Data Cleanup minimizes your attack surface by removing as much PII as possible that’s floating around the internet, just waiting for someone to buy it.
When you’re aware of how many unauthorized vendors are selling your PII, it could be the wakeup call you need start adopting more cautious online habits. For instance, oversharing on social media leaks a lot of valuable details that a savvy criminal can then use to take educated guesses at your passwords or craft a social engineering plot catered just to you.
The present is as good a time as any to start protecting your identity for the future; however, getting started is often the most difficult step. It can seem overwhelming to reach out to every data brokerage site individually and request they remove your info. Personal Data Cleanup can be your partner not only in beginning the cleanup process but in monitoring your data security to keep your online presence as minimal as possible. The service scans the internet’s riskiest sites and then, before deleting your information from these sites, runs it by you to confirm. Then, it will continually monitor those same sites, as your information will likely reappear every two to four months.
Do not underestimate the tenacity of a cybercriminal. Even for people who have the attitude that their PII is bound to be somewhere online and that it’s no big deal, McAfee Personal Data Cleanup manages three key steps in the data removal process: scanning, removing, and monitoring. So, even if you’re not convinced that data brokerage sites are a threat, the process is too easy to put off any longer!
For those who are concerned about their online privacy, full-service Personal Data Cleanup is included in McAfee+ Ultimate, which is the complete package to let you live your online life in private. McAfee+ Ultimate also includes identity monitoring and identity theft resolution services, unlimited VPN, credit lock, and much more.
In 2021, more than 1.4 million identity theft complaints were filed to the Federal Trade Commission.1 Identity theft can occur to anyone, so take steps today, starting with data brokerage sites, to live a more secure and more private digital life.
1Federal Trade Commission, “New Data Shows FTC Received 2.8 Million Fraud Reports from Consumers in 2021”
The post McAfee Personal Data Cleanup: Your Partner in Living a More Private Online Life appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Data brokers are companies that collect your information from a variety of sources to sell or license it out to other businesses. Before they can pass your data along, brokers analyze it to put you into specific consumer profiles. Consumer profiles help businesses suggest products you might like and create targeted marketing campaigns based on your interests.
Companies who buy data from brokers use it for things like marketing or risk mitigation. For example, if you’re a guitarist, a guitar manufacturer might try to reach you with an ad for their instruments. If you’re in the market for car insurance, insurance providers might use your personal information to do a background check so they can assess the risk that you’ll be in a car accident.
While businesses don’t typically use your information maliciously, there are risks involved with having your personal data spread online. There might be certain details you don’t want to share with the world, like health or criminal records or financial issues.
Having your data featured online can also expose it to cybercriminals who might use it for identity theft. Sometimes, hackers can even breach information that’s stored in an information broker’s database. When a criminal has your data, they might be able to access your financial accounts, use your credit to secure a loan, or even use your insurance to receive medical care.
This article shows you how to remove your information from data broker sites and protect your data privacy online.
There are various ways for a data broker to access your personal information. Some of these information sources are offline. For example, a broker can peruse public records to view your voter registration information.
Other information sources that brokers use are online. For instance, a broker might track your buying history to see which products you’re likely interested in.
Below are some of the top sources data brokers use to collect consumer information.
Data brokering is a worldwide industry that brings in around $200 billion annually. An estimated 4,000 data broker companies exist. The largest data broker companies include organizations like Acxiom, Experian, and Epsilon.
Most data broker sites will give you the ability to have your personal information removed from their database — but don’t expect it to be easy.
You might have to follow a multi-step process to opt out of a broker site. Even after your information is removed, you may have to repeat the process periodically.
Different regions have different laws when it comes to protecting consumer data. The European Union has the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which gives consumers the right to request that a company deletes any personal information they have stored.
In the United States, states have to create their own laws to safeguard consumer privacy. States like Colorado and California have enacted laws that allow consumers to have their personal information removed from data broker sites.
The next few sections go over steps you can follow to get your information removed from various data broker sites. Many broker sites allow you to opt out of their data collection and advertising programs.
Opting out can prevent brokers from collecting and sharing your information and help you avoid intrusive ads for things like pre-approved credit cards.
The first thing you’ll have to do is visit each data broker’s site that has your information. Some of the biggest data broker sites that might have your information include:
While these are some of the largest data broker sites around, this list is by no means exhaustive. There’s a large number of data-sharing sites out there. For example, people-search sites like PeekYou, Spokeo, and Whitepages, let average consumers search through databases of personal information.
It may seem counterintuitive to sign up for an account with a broker when all you want is to delete your information from their site, but most data brokers require you to register with them to opt out of data collection.
You’ll likely have to create an account with every data broker you want to opt out of. Unfortunately, this will require you to give the brokers some personal information, like your name, email address, and possibly a picture of your driver’s license. Cross out your license number if you have to send a photo of your ID.
After creating an account with a broker, you’ll likely have to visit their portal to find out whether they have your personal information listed. Checking to see what every data broker has listed about you can be a time-consuming process.
Services like DeleteMe and Kanary will delete your information from data brokers. However, most of these sites charge a fee, and they only delete your information from a select number of sites. For example, DeleteMe removes your information from 36 different data broker sites.
You should also be aware that some data broker sites don’t allow third parties to request for information to be deleted on behalf of consumers.
You’ll have to make a separate removal request for every data broker site you want to opt out of. Some data brokers make the process more difficult than others. Remember that data companies are always collecting records, so you may need to repeat the process of removing your information from data broker sites annually.
Here’s how to opt out of some of the largest data brokering companies we mentioned earlier:
The data broker industry is enormous. A data brokerage can collect a wealth of information about you from a huge number of sources, and provide that information to businesses that use it to do things like design targeted marketing campaigns for their ideal consumers.
Brokers can share sensitive information that you want to keep private, like medical data. Having your personal information floating around the internet makes it easier for cybercriminals to use it for personal gain.
By opting out of information-sharing programs, you can protect your online privacy, reduce the number of intrusive advertisements and emails you receive, and make it less likely that identity thieves will target you.
One of the best ways to protect yourself online is to use quality security software. When you sign up for McAfee’s Total Protection services, you’ll get features like award-winning antivirus software, 24/7 account monitoring, a secure virtual private network (VPN), and up to $1 million in identity theft coverage and restoration.
When it comes to protecting your privacy online, McAfee has your back.
The post How to Remove Personal Information From Data Broker Sites appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Here’s one way you can help reduce your chances of identity theft: remove your personal information from the internet.
And chances are, you have more personal information posted online than you think.
According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), consumers registered 1.4 million identity theft complaints in 2021, all part of a year where consumers reported losing $5.8 billion to fraud overall—a 70% increase over the year prior.
What fuels all this theft and fraud? Access to personal information.
Scammers and thieves can get a hold of personal information in several ways, such as through phishing attacks that lure you into handing it over, malware that steals it from your devices, by purchasing your information on dark web marketplaces, or as a result of information leaked in data breaches, just to name a few.
However, scammers and thieves have other resources to help them commit theft and fraud—data broker sites, places where personal information is posted online for practically anyone to see. Which makes removing your info from them so important, from both an identity and privacy standpoint.
Think of data broker sites as huge repositories of personal information. Search your name and address online and you’ll see. You’ll likely find dozens of sites that turn up information about you, some of which offer a few pieces for free and others that offer far more information for a price.
Data brokers collect and then aggregate personal information from several sources, including:
Data brokers also buy personal information from other data brokers. As a result, some data brokers have thousands of pieces of data for billions of individuals worldwide.
What could that look like? A broker may know how much you paid for your home, your education level, where you’ve lived over the years and who your lived with, your driving record, and possibly your political leanings. A broker may also know your favorite flavor of ice cream and your preferred over-the-counter allergy medicine thanks to information from loyalty cards. Further, they may also have health-related information from fitness apps. The amount of personal information can run that broadly, and that deeply.
With information at this potential level of detail, it’s no wonder that data brokers rake in an estimated at $200 billion U.S. dollars worldwide every year.
On the legitimate side, it’s used by advertisers to create targeted ad campaigns. With information sold by data brokers, they can generate lists based on highly specific criteria, such as shopping histories, personal interests, and even political leanings as mentioned above. Likely without you being aware of it—and likely with no way to contest that information if it’s incorrect.
Other legitimate uses include using these sites for background checks. Law enforcement, reporters, and employers will use data brokers as a starting point for research because the leg work has largely been done for them. Namely, data brokers have aggregated a person’s information already, which is an otherwise time-consuming process.
If this seems a little shady, it’s still legal. As of now, the U.S. has no federal laws that regulate data brokers or require data them to remove personal information if requested. A few states, such as Nevada, Vermont, and California, have legislation in place aimed at protecting consumers. Meanwhile, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union has stricter rules about what information can be collected and what can be done with it. Still, the data broker economy thrives.
On the darker side, scammers and thieves use personal information for identity theft and fraud. With enough personal information gathered from enough sources, they can create a high-fidelity profile of their victims. One that gives them enough information to open new accounts in their name.
So, from the standpoint of both privacy and identity, cleaning up your personal information online makes a great deal of sense.
Let’s review some ways you can remove your personal information from data brokers and other sources on the internet.
The process starts with finding the sites that have your information. From there, you can request to have it removed. Yet as mentioned above, there are dozens and dozens of these sites. Knowing where to start is a challenge in of itself, as is manually making the requests once you have identified the sites that post and sell information about you.
Our Personal Data Cleanup can do the work for you. Personal Data Cleanup scans some of the riskiest data broker sites and shows you which ones are selling your personal info. It also provides guidance on how you can remove your data from those sites and can even manage the removal for you depending on your plan. It also monitors those sites, so if your info gets posted again, you can request its removal again.
As of September 2022, Google accounts for just over 92% of search engine market share worldwide. Aside from being a search engine, Google offers a myriad of other services and applications, such as Gmail and Google Maps. While Google offers plenty of tools for productivity, travel, work, and play for free, they still come at a cost—the gathering and analysis of your personal information.
You can limit the data Google associates with you by removing your name from Google search results with a removal request. This will disable anyone online from getting any results if they search your name. (Note that this will not remove your information from the original sites and sources where it’s posted.) Moreover, Google collects all your browsing data continuously. You have the option to turn on “Auto Delete” in your privacy settings to ensure that the data is deleted regularly and help limit the amount of time your sensitive data stays vulnerable.
You can also occasionally delete your cookies or use your browser in incognito mode to prevent websites from being tracked back to you. Go to your Google Chrome settings to clear your browser and cookie history.
As discussed above, data brokers can collect information from public social media profiles. You can minimize your presence on social media to the bare minimum. Make a list of the ones you use or have used in the past. If there are old accounts that you no longer use or websites that have gone by the wayside like Myspace or Tumblr, you may want to deactivate them or consider deleting them entirely.
For social media platforms that you still may use regularly, like Facebook and Instagram, consider adjusting your privacy settings to ensure that your personal information on these social media platforms is the bare minimum. For example, on Facebook you can lock your profile, while on Instagram you can stay private.
If you’ve ever published articles, written blogs, or created any content online, it might be a good time to consider taking it down if it is no longer serving a purpose. Depending on what you’ve posted, you may have shared personal details about your life. Additionally, you might be mentioned by other people in various social media posts, articles, or blogs. It is worth reaching out to these people to request them to take down posts with sensitive information.
Social media and online articles that host your personal information are often used when businesses or hackers are doing “internet scrapes” to find better ways to use your targeted information. Asking your friends or third-party sites to remove that information can help protect your privacy.
Another way you can tidy up your digital footprint online involves deleting all the unnecessary phone apps that you no longer need or use. Even when apps are not open or in use, they may be able to track personal information such as your real-time location and even your payment details if you have a paid subscription to the app.
Some apps even sell this data as it can be extremely advantageous to other companies, which they use to target certain consumer segments and profiles for advertising. Try to share as little information with apps as possible if you’re looking to minimize your online footprint, and provide them access to your photos, contacts, and location only on as-needed basis and only when the app is in use. Your phone’s app and location services settings will give you the tools to do it.
In addition to the steps above, comprehensive online protection software can keep you more private and minimize your risk of cybercrime. It can include:
So while it may seem like all this rampant collecting and selling of personal information is out of your hands, there’s plenty you can do to take control. With the steps outlined above and strong online protection software at your back, you can keep your personal information more private and secure.
The post 5 Steps to Removing Your Personal Information From the Internet appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Private tech companies gather tremendous amounts of user data. These companies can afford to let you use social media platforms free of charge because it’s paid for by your data, attention, and time.
Big tech derives most of its profits by selling your attention to advertisers — a well-known business model. Various documentaries (like Netflix’s “The Social Dilemma”) have attempted to get to the bottom of the complex algorithms that big tech companies employ to mine and analyze user data for the benefit of third-party advertisers.
This article will help you better understand what information is being collected by tech companies, how it’s being used, and how you can protect your privacy online.
Tech companies benefit from personal information by being able to provide personalized ads. When you click “yes” at the end of a terms and conditions agreement found on some web pages, you may be allowing the companies to collect the following data:
For someone unfamiliar with privacy issues, it is important to understand the extent of big tech’s tracking and data collection. Once these companies collect data, all this information can be supplied to third-party businesses or used to improve user experience.
The problem with this is that big tech has blurred the line between collecting customer data and violating user privacy in some cases. While tracking what content you interact with can be justified under the garb of personalizing the content you see, big tech platforms have been known to go too far. Prominent social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn have faced past legal trouble for accessing personal user data like private messages and saved photos.
The information you provide helps build an accurate character profile and turns it into knowledge that gives actionable insights to businesses. Private data usage can be classified into three cases: selling it to data brokers, using it to improve marketing, or enhancing customer experience.
Along with big data, another industry has seen rapid growth: data brokers. Data brokers buy, analyze, and package your data. Companies that collect large amounts of data on their users stand to profit from this service. Selling data to brokers is an important revenue stream for big tech companies.
Advertisers and businesses benefit from increased information on their consumers, creating a high demand for your information. The problem here is that companies like Facebook and Alphabet (Google’s parent company) have been known to mine massive amounts of user data for the sake of their advertisers.
Marketing can be highly personalized thanks to the availability of large amounts of consumer data. Tracking your response to marketing campaigns can help businesses alter or improve certain aspects of their campaign to drive better results.
The problem is that most AI-based algorithms are incapable of assessing when they should stop collecting or using your information. After a point, users run the risk of being constantly subjected to intrusive ads and other unconsented marketing campaigns that pop up frequently.
Analyzing consumer behavior through reviews, feedback, and recommendations can help improve customer experience. Businesses have access to various facets of data that can be analyzed to show them how to meet consumer demands. This could help improve any part of a consumer’s interaction with the company, from designing special offers and discounts to improving customer relationships.
For most social media platforms, the goal is to curate a personalized feed that appeals to the users and allows them to spend more time on the app. When left unmonitored, the powerful algorithms behind these social media platforms can repeatedly subject you to the same kind of content from different creators.
Here are the big tech companies that collect and mine the most user data.
Users need a comprehensive data privacy solution to tackle the rampant, large-scale data mining carried out by big tech platforms. While targeted advertisements and easily found items are beneficial, many of these companies collect and mine user data through several channels simultaneously, exploiting them in many different ways.
It’s important to make sure your personal information is protected. Protection solutions like McAfee’s Personal Data Cleanup feature can help. With this feature, our teams scour the web for traces of your personal information and assist in getting it removed to enhance your online privacy.
McAfee’s Total Protection provides antivirus software for all of your digital devices and a secure VPN connection to avoid exposure to malicious third parties while browsing the internet. Our identity monitoring and personal data removal solutions further remove gaps in your devices’ security systems.
With our airtight data protection and custom guidance (complete with a protection score for each platform and tips to keep you safer), you can be sure that your internet identity is protected.
The post What Personal Data Do Companies Track? appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Our personal and professional lives are becoming increasingly intertwined with the online world. Regular internet usage has made us all prone to cyber-security risks. You leave a digital footprint every time you use the internet, which is a trace of all your online activities.
When you create new accounts or subscribe to different websites, you give them explicit (or implicit, through their family of apps or subsidiary websites) access to your personal and credit card information. In other cases, websites might track basic information without your knowledge, such as your location and search history.
There is an industry of data brokers specifically dedicated to keeping track of user data, packaging it, and supplying it to tech companies who use it to run targeted ads and enhance on-platform user experience. Given the widespread use of the internet and exponential improvements in technology, data has become a valuable commodity — creating a need for the sale and purchase of user data.
This article discusses how data brokers sell your personal information and how you can minimize risk.
Data brokers are companies that aggregate user information from various sources on the internet. They collect, collate, package, and sometimes even analyze this data to create a holistic and coherent version of you online. This data is then supplied to tech companies to fuel their third-party advertising-centered business models.
Companies interested in buying data include but are not limited to:
These companies and social media platforms use your data to better understand target demographics and the content with which they interact. While the practice isn’t unethical in and of itself (personalizing user experiences and creating more convenient UIs are usually cited as the primary reasons for it), it does make your data vulnerable to malicious attacks targeted toward big-tech servers.
Most of your online activities are related. Devices like your phone, laptop, tablets, and even fitness watches are linked to each other. Moreover, you might use one email ID for various accounts and subscriptions. This online interconnectedness makes it easier for data brokers to create a cohesive user profile.
Mobile phone apps are the most common way for data brokerage firms to collect your data. You might have countless apps for various purposes, such as financial transactions, health and fitness, or social media.
A number of these apps usually fall under the umbrella of the same or subsidiary family of apps, all of which work toward collecting and supplying data to big tech platforms. Programs like Google’s AdSense make it easier for developers to monetize their apps in exchange for the user information they collect.
Data brokers also collect data points like your home address, full name, Social Security number, phone number, and date of birth. They have automated scraping tools to quickly collect relevant information from public profiles.[Text Wrapping Break]
Lastly, data brokers can gather data from other third parties that track your cookies or even place trackers or cookies on your browsers. Cookies are small data files that track your online activities when visiting different websites. They track your IP address and browsing history, which third parties can exploit. Cookies are also the reason you see personalized ads and products.
Data brokers collate your private information into one package and sell it to “people search” websites like Spokeo or TruePeopleSearch. You or a tech business can use these websites to search for people and get extensive consumer data. People search sites also contain public records like voter registration information, marriage records, and birth certificates. This data is used for consumer research and large-scale data analysis.
Next, marketing and sales firms are some of data brokers’ biggest clients. These companies purchase massive data sets from data brokers to research your data profile. They have advanced algorithms to segregate users into various consumer groups and target you specifically. Their predictive algorithms can suggest personalized ads and products to generate higher lead generation and conversation percentages for their clients.
We tend to accept the terms and conditions that various apps ask us to accept without thinking twice or reading the fine print. You probably cannot proceed without letting the app track certain data or giving your personal information. To a certain extent, we trade some of our privacy for convenience. This becomes public information, and apps and data brokers collect, track, and use our data however they please while still complying with the law.
There is no comprehensive privacy law in the U.S. on a federal level. This allows data brokers to collect personal information and condense it into marketing insights. While not all methods of gathering private data are legal, it is difficult to track the activities of data brokers online (especially on the dark web). As technology advances, there are also easier ways to harvest and exploit data.
Vermont and California have already enacted laws to regulate the data brokerage industry. In 2018, Vermont passed the country’s first data broker legislation. This requires data brokers to register annually with the Secretary of State and provide information about their data collection activities, opt-out policies, purchaser credentialing practices, and data breaches.
California has passed similar laws to make data brokering a more transparent industry. For risk mitigation of data brokerage, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has published reports and provided recommendations to Congress to reduce the engagement of data broker firms. Giving individuals the right to opt-out of the sale of their personal data is a step toward a more rigorous law regarding data privacy.
Some data brokers let you remove your information from their websites. There are also extensive guides available online that list the method by which you can opt-out of some of the biggest data brokering firms. For example, a guide by Griffin Boyce, the systems administrator at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, provides detailed information on how to opt-out of a long list of data broker companies.
Acxiom, LLC is one of the largest data brokering firms and has collected data for approximately 68% of people who have an online presence. You can opt-out of their data collection either through their website or by calling them directly.
Epsilon Data Management is another big player in the data broker industry that operates as a marketing service and marketing analytics company. You can opt-out of their website through various methods such as by email, phone, and mail. Credit rating agencies like Experian and Equifax are also notorious for collecting your data. Similarly, you can opt-out through their websites or by calling them.
McAfee is a pioneer in providing online and offline data protection to its customers. We offer numerous cybersecurity services for keeping your information private and secure.
With regard to data brokers, we enable users to do a personal data clean-up. Cleaning up your personal data online may be a difficult task, as it requires you to reach out to multiple data brokers and opt out. Instead, sign up for McAfee’s Personal Data Cleanup feature to do a convenient and thorough personal data clean-up. We will search for traces of your personal data and assist in getting it removed.
The post How Data Brokers Sell Your Identity appeared first on McAfee Blog.
How many times have you heard the old adage about how nothing in life is free:
If you're not paying for the product, you are the product
Facebook. LinkedIn. TikTok. But this isn't an internet age thing, the origins go back way further, originally being used to describe TV viewers being served ads. Sure, TV was "free" in that you don't pay to watch it (screwy UK TV licenses aside), but running a television network ain't cheap so it was (and still is) supported by advertisers paying to put their message in front of viewers. A portion of those viewers then go out and buy the goods and services they've been pitched hence becoming the "product" of TV.
But what I dislike - no, vehemently hate - is when the term is used disingenuously to imply that nobody ever does anything for free and that there is a commercial motive to every action. To bring it closer to home for my audience, there is a suggestion that those of us who create software and services must somehow be in it for the money. Our time has a value. We pay for hardware and software to build things. We pay for hosting services. If not to make money, then why would we do it?
There are many, many non-financial motives and I'm going to talk about just a few of my own. In my very first ever blog post almost 13 years ago now, I posited that it was useful to one's career to have an online identity. My blog would give me an opportunity to demonstrate over a period of time where my interests lie and one day, that may become a very useful thing. Nobody that read that first post became a "product", quite the contrary if the feedback is correct.
The first really serious commitment I made to blogging was the following year when I began the OWASP Top 10 for ASP.NET series. That was ten blog posts of many thousands of words each that took a year and a half to complete. I had the idea whilst literally standing in the shower one day thinking about the things that bugged me at work: "I'm so sick of sending developers who write code for us basic guidance on simple security things". I wanted to solve that problem, and as I started writing the series, it turned out to be useful for a whole range of people which was awesome! Did that make them the product? No, of course not, it just made them a consumer of free content.
I can't remember exactly when I put ads on my blog. I think it was around the end of 2012, and they were terrible! I made next to no money out of them and I got rid of them altogether in 2016 in favour of the sponsorship line of text you still see at the top of the page today. Did either of these make viewers "the product" in a way that they weren't when reading the same content prior to their introduction? By any reasonable measure, no, not unless you stretch reality far enough to claim that the ads consumed some of their bandwidth or device power or in some other way was detrimental such that they pivoted from being a free consumer to a monetised reader. Then that argument dies when ads rolled to sponsorship. Perhaps it could be claimed that people became the product because the very nature of sponsorship is to get a message out there which may one day convert visitors (or their employers) to customers and that's very true, but that doesn't magically pivot them from being a free consumer of content to a "product" at the moment sponsorship arrived, that's a nonsense argument.
How about ASafaWeb in 2011? Totally free and designed to solve the common problem of ASP.NET website misconfiguration. I never made a cent from that. Never planned to, never did. So why do it? Because it was fun 🙂 Seriously, I really enjoyed building that service and seeing people get value from it was enormously fulfilling. Of course nobody was the product in that case, they just consumed something for free that I enjoyed building.
Which brings me to Have I Been Pwned (HIBP), the project that's actually turned out to be super useful and is the most frequent source of the "if you're not paying for the product" bullshit argument. There were 2 very simple reasons I built that and I've given this same answer in probably a hundred interviews since 2013:
That's it. Those 2 reasons. No visions of grandeur, no expectation of a return on my time, just itches I wanted to scratch. Months later, I posed this question:
A number of people have asked for a donate button on @haveibeenpwned. What do you think? Worth donating to? Or does it come across as cheap?
— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) March 7, 2014
Which is exactly what it looks like on face value: people appreciating the service and wanting to support what I was doing. It didn't make anyone "the product". Nor did the first commercial use of HIBP the following year make anyone a product, it didn't change their experience one little bit. The partnership with 1Password several years later is the same again; arguably, it made HIBP more useful for the masses or non-techies that had never given any consideration to a password manager.
What about Why No HTTPS? Definitely not a product either as the service itself or the people that use it. Or HTTPS is Easy? Nope, and Cloudflare certainly didn't pay me a cent for it either, they had no idea I was building it, I just got up and felt like it one day. Password Purgatory? I just want to mess with spammers, and I'm happy to spend some of my time doing that 😊 (Unless... do they become the product if their responses are used for our amusement?!) And then what must be 100+ totally free user group talks, webinars, podcasts and other things I can't even remember that by their very design, were simply intended to get information to people for free.
What gets me a bit worked up about the "you're the product" sentiment is that it implies there's an ulterior motive for any good deed. I'm dependent on a heap of goodwill for every single project I build and none of that makes me feel like "the product". I use NWebsec for a bunch of my security headers. I use Cloudflare across almost every single project (they provide services to HIBP for free) and that certainly doesn't make me a product. The footer of this blog mentions the support Ghost Pro provides me - that's awesome, I love their work! But I don't feel like a "product".
Conversely, there are many things we pay for yet we remain "the product" of by the definition referred to in this post. YouTube Premium, for example, is worth every cent but do you think you cease being "the product" once you subscribe versus when you consume the service for free? Can you imagine Google, of all companies, going "yeah, nah, we don't need to collect any data from paying subscribers, that wouldn't be cool". Netflix. Disqus. And pretty much everything else. Paying doesn't make you not the product any more than not paying makes you the product, it's just a terrible term used way too loosely and frankly, often feels insulting.
Before jumping on the "you're the product" bandwagon, consider how it makes those who simply want to build cool stuff and put it out there for free feel. Or if you're that jaded and convinced that everything is done for personal fulfilment then fine, go and give me a donation. And now you're thinking "I bet he wrote this just to get donations" so instead, go and give Let's Encrypt a donation... but then that would kinda make free certs a commercial endeavour! See how stupid this whole argument is?
Congratulations! You reached 10,000 steps today!
It’s a great feeling when a wearable fitness device vibrates to let you know when you hit the day’s fitness goal. The digital fireworks display that lights up your watch’s screen is a signal that you should keep on moving to challenge yourself more … or spend the rest of the day on the couch guilt-free.
While fitness wearable devices, trackers, and apps are excellent motivators for you, cybercriminals love them for their vulnerabilities and privacy loopholes. This doesn’t mean you have to chuck your expensive watch in the bin or delete your fitness apps from your smartphone. Awareness and smart habits go a long way in deterring cybercriminals. Keep reading to learn more about wearable technology vulnerabilities and how you can sidestep each.
Many fitness tracker apps and wearables are equipped with GPS. At the end of a run or long walk, you can view your exact route, sometimes with detailed maps that show street and town names. This tracking feature was potentially dangerous back in 2018 when a fitness app released a heat map of all its users’ running routes for the year, which clearly outlined secret military bases.1
Even if you’re stationed in a suburb and not hostile territory, you may consider the risks of sharing your location data. A determined criminal who has time to spare can guess your address and see the times of days when you’re commonly out at the gym or on a run.
When you purchase a wearable fitness device, you often have to pair it with an accompanying smartphone app to see your daily stats and tailor your fitness goals. Think about all the personally identifiable information (PII) that app now houses: your full name, password, address, height, weight, location, medical concerns, daily activity patterns, etc. In the hands of a cybercriminal, this information can bring a nefarious actor one step closer to impersonating you. Plus, if your health data makes it onto the dark web or is sold to health companies, it may result in serious privacy concerns.
Luckily, there are ways to get peace of mind about the security of your identity. Identity protection services, such as McAfee Identity Monitoring Service, provide expert identity theft support and up to $1 million in identity theft coverage.
Wearable devices complement any athleisure outfit and are a fun way to inspire athletic competition between a group of friends. Here are a few ways you can patch some of their security shortcomings:
When you first purchase any new device, fitness trackers included, your first step should always be to reset the factory password. Cybercriminals know that many people often skip this step, making it easy for them to walk right into new accounts. If you have a hard time remembering your passwords, consider entrusting them to a password manager to remember them for you. McAfee True Key makes it so that you only have to remember one master password to unlock the rest, and it’s protected by one of the strongest encryption algorithms available.
This is a tip you should consider for all your social media accounts. When you post about your life online, you actually divulge a lot of personal details that are helpful to cybercriminals. In the case of fitness trackers and apps, sharing the times of day when you go to the gym, are at the local track, or are on a bike path may give a criminal an idea of windows during the day when your home is empty. It’s unsettling to think that strangers can track your whereabouts, so it’s best to keep those details exclusive to people you personally know and trust.
In the case of fitness trackers and apps, a savvy cybercriminal may be able take an educated guess at your address, with which they can do a myriad of nefarious activities. Some running and fitness apps may be able to still create maps of your running routes but erase street names and other landmarks to make it more private. But when in doubt, turn off geolocation.
Fitness trackers are a fun way to stir up some friendly competition, keep connected with your fit friends, and motivate yourself to exercise and maintain healthy habits. While you’re shopping for a new device or when evaluating your current tracker, keep these tips in mind to enjoy this technology to its fullest.
The post Why You Should Care About Fitness Tracker Security appeared first on McAfee Blog.
The internet’s greatest feat? Fundamentally shifting how we live. Once a revelation, it quickly set our long-standing beliefs about how we work, play, and connect into a whole new context.
Today, the shifts come fast. Video meetings once felt alien. Now, they’re part of our routine. We’ve gone from setting doctor’s appointments online to actually seeing the doctor online—and from family visits to seeing everyone in seconds on a screen.
At McAfee, we’ve seen our share of shifts as well. Looking back across our thirty-plus years, we were among the first to deliver antivirus technology. First to create a biometric password manager. First to give people an intuitive Protection Score, and so much more. And we’re not stopping. We’re protecting people and their ever-changing lives. That means covering all your life online, from security to privacy to identity, in a way that adds to your confidence and enjoyment too.
Confidence and enjoyment. Those two words mark our next shift in online protection. We’re bringing those feelings to life across the McAfee experience. And it’ll redefine the way you stay safe online.
Safety has an unmistakable feeling. As we bring that feeling to online protection, you’ll see a remarkable evolution. It will look and act in bold new ways, guide you, reassure you, and most importantly, keep you safe. In all, it’s a new breed of online protection that’s helpful, even thoughtful, in the ways it looks out for you.
And this evolution is already underway. You’ll find that feeling in everyday moments as we make them simpler, freer, and safer—such as paying your bills at a coffee shop, managing your family’s healthcare from your laptop, and booking flights to catch up with old friends. Across them all, our protection will have your back, and even offer guidance when needed, all while you do you—wherever your day takes you and no matter what “online” looks like next.
There’s simply so much to see out there. And with us by your side, you’ll feel safe and stay that way. Life online will continue to surprise us. In the best of ways. And people have a right to enjoy every moment of it, confident that they’re safe and secure, in ways they can point to and feel.
That’s our next big shift. Giving you the unmistakable feeling of safety. You deserve it. More than that, it’s your right. And we’re proud to bring it to you.
The post The Feeling of Safety appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Take a roll call of all your devices that connect to the internet. These include the obvious ones – laptops, tablets, and your smartphone. But they also include the ones you may not immediately think about, such as routers, smart TVs and thermostats, virtual assistant technology, and connected fitness watches and equipment.
Each of these devices is known as an endpoint to you. To a cybercriminal, they’re an entry point into your online information. It’s important to secure every endpoint so that you can confidently go about your day-to-day without worrying about your security. Here’s the definitive device security checklist to get you on your way confidently and safely.
Laptops and desktops are prime entryways into your online life. Think of all the payment information, passwords, and maybe even tax documents you store on it. The best way to protect the contents of your laptops and desktops is to password-protect your computer with strong passwords or passphrases. Here are a few password and passphrase best practices:
Especially if you work at common spaces like coffee shops, the library, or even your kitchen table, get in the habit of putting your computer to sleep when you step away. Commit the sleep command shortcut to memory to make it less of a hassle. For example, on Mac computers, the keyboard command is command + option + eject, and for Windows, it’s alt + F4.
Speaking of common spaces, whenever you log in from a public Wi-Fi network, always log in with a virtual private network (VPN). A VPN scrambles your data, making it indecipherable to any malicious characters who may be lurking on public networks.
Multifactor authentication is another way to protect your valuable devices and accounts. This means that anyone trying to log in on your device needs to provide at least two forms of identification. Forms of ID could include a text message with a one-time code or a fingerprint or face scan in addition to a correct password.
These two devices are grouped because the security features on them are similar. Just like with computers, put your device to sleep every time you walk away from it. It’s much easier and may already be in your routine to hit the sleep button when you put down your cellphone or tablet.
Always put a passcode on your smartphones and tablets. Choose a collection of numbers that do not have an obvious connection to you, such as important birthdays or parts of your phone number. Even if they’re a random assortment, you’ll get the hang of them quickly. Or to make sure only you can enter your phone, set up a facial or fingerprint ID scan. People have several passwords and account combinations they have to remember. To take the guesswork and trial and error of logging in, consider trusting your passwords to a password manager that can remember them for you!
A great mobile phone and tablet habit you should adopt is backing up your files regularly to the cloud. In the event that you lose your device or if someone steals it, at least it’s valuable — and in some cases, priceless — content is safe. You may be able to remotely “brick” your device to keep a stranger from breaking into your accounts. Bricking a device means remotely wiping a connected device and rendering it unusable.
Your router is the gateway to all the connected devices in your home; thus, it’s key to beef up its security. The best way to do so is to make sure that you customize the router name and password to make it different from the factory settings. Always password-protect your home router! Employing password best practices you use for your online accounts and your devices will prevent strangers from hopping onto your network. Another way to keep your Wi-Fi network out of the hands of strangers is to toggle on the setting to not appear to non-users. While it’s fun seeing the quirky names your neighbors choose for their home networks, it’s best to keep yours completely private.
There have been some unsettling reports about cybercriminals commandeering smart home devices and virtual assistant technology. For example, a cybercriminal hacked a homeowner’s virtual assistant and blasted music through the home’s speakers, and turn the heat up to 90 degrees. The key to securing the connected devices that are responsible for your heating and cooling, shopping lists, and even your home security system is to ensure it is connected to a secure router and protected by a strong password.
Also, keep an eye on software updates, which include security upgrades. If you don’t think you have time to manually update software, set up your devices to automatically update. This will give you peace of mind knowing that you have the latest security patches and bug fixes as soon as they are available.
IoT fitness watches and machines are fun additions to your workout routines. In the case of Peloton bikes, they track your heartbeat and location and offer a huge library of classes. However, cybercriminals may be able to track your workouts if they break their way into your fitness devices. The best way to keep your workouts private is to turn off geolocation and make sure you are up to date with all software releases and protect your accounts with strong passwords.
If you’re looking for a tool to put your mind at ease, consider McAfee Total Protection. It includes antivirus and safe browsing software plus a secure VPN. You can be confident that your personal information is safe, thus allowing you to enjoy the full potential of all your devices.
The post How to Secure All Your Everyday Connected Devices appeared first on McAfee Blog.
T-Mobile, the popular US mobile phone service provider, recently confirmed a data breach affecting 7.8 million current customers and 40 million records from past or prospective customers. The stolen data included customer names, dates of birth, social security numbers, and driver’s license information. Fortunately, subscriber credit card information and other financial details were not affected in the breach.
Even though financial data was spared in the breach, the types of information stolen, along with the vast volume of affected subscribers mean that all T-Mobile subscribers should take immediate action to secure their identities and accounts online.
This is the immediate step all affected subscribers should take.
As part of T-Mobile’s response, they are offering an identity protection service exclusively to all affected customers, free for two years. This identity protection service gives customers the ability to monitor personal info, including your SSN, bank account numbers, debit cards, email addresses, phone numbers, and more. If info is found on the dark web, customers will receive guidance to help secure online accounts. Should identity theft occur, the identity protection service includes fraud resolution support and identity theft insurance for peace of mind. The free 24 months of identity protection will be delivered directly by T-Mobile. The company is also encouraging customers to sign up for their Account Takeover Protection service.
One lesser-known type of data stolen in the breach was International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers, which allow individual devices to be identified on a mobile network. Access to IMEI numbers could enable SIM-swap attacks which make account takeovers possible. With an account takeover, two-factor authentication through text message becomes vulnerable, allowing hackers potential access to bank accounts, among others. App-based multi-factor authentication, using a solution like Google’s Authenticator, allows you to authenticate your identity from other devices, instead of having authentication tied to your mobile phone number.
T-Mobile will be contacting impacted customers directly. However, cybercriminals and scammers may also take advantage of this data breach to scam people using email. They will often pose as major corporations or other trustworthy entities to trick you into willingly providing information like website login credentials or, even worse, your credit card number. We’ve provided additional information here to help you to recognize legitimate emails.
In its simplest form, your digital identity is made up of a whole host of things that can be traced back to you and who you are. This includes email accounts, cell phone numbers, bank accounts, your tax ID, and more. Read our additional tips to protect your digital identity.
For regular updates and official news from T-Mobile, visit their Newsroom blog here.
The post T-Mobile’s data breach exposes the personal data of 40 million appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Mobile phones have gone through an incredible transformation since their inception in the 1970s. Now, the sheer number of applications is dizzying, as are their privacy policies; however, smartphone apps can bring hours of fun and belly laughs, and occasionally, a viral app captures the world’s attention. Don’t let potential risks to your personal information safety ruin all smartphone apps for you. All you need to share and play safely is a few tips to help you identify which apps are OK to use and how to navigate them intelligently.
Check out these four viral apps that may be putting your personal information at risk, plus a few tips that’ll help you enjoy smartphone apps safely.
Voilà AI Artist is a trending app that reimagines your face as a cartoon, caricature, or model of fine Renaissance art. Users can snap a selfie with the app or allow the app to access their photo library. According to WIRED, the app says it deletes users’ photos from its database in 24 to 48 hours, though it’s difficult to confirm that they aren’t stored.
Approach any app that could potentially use and store your likeness with caution. Deepfake technology is becoming more sophisticated and common by the day. Deepfakes are fabricated videos, images, or sound clips of every day or famous people based on real videos and images. Fake media impacts the victims whose likenesses are used because often the media is demeaning or incendiary. Voilà AI Artist hasn’t been suspected of any wrongdoing, but it’s best to be aware of how your face could be used to endorse something you don’t agree with.
Another face-altering app that could pose a risk to users’ privacy is FaceApp. Similar to Voilà AI Artist, it’s unclear what the app does with your likeness once you allow it to take your picture. FaceApp’s terms of use agreement outline that the selfies uploaded to the app belong to the app. From there, the app is free “to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display your User Content.” This line of fine print should make users pause. Again, users’ faces could be used in ways they wouldn’t normally agree to.
While the Pokémon Go craze of 2016 has greatly subsided, the next viral app that sweeps the world could replicate the security vulnerabilities the premise presents. Pokémon Go uses augmented reality, which is the kind of technology that makes it look like a Pokémon is strolling across your living room. The app can access your camera, as well as your contacts, pictures, chats, and location. It’s a blast exploring your neighborhood looking for animated critters and seeing nearby strangers’ profiles pop up on your map; however, be wary of sharing location data and images of the inside of your home with people you don’t know in real life.
TikTok may pose a risk to users’ data privacy. TikTok is under suspicion for using data mining tactics. Data mining is a practice where corporations harvest personal details from user-profiles and share them with advertising, marketing, and analytics companies. According to Business Insider, TikTok collects more than 50 kinds of data from users as young as 13 years old, including age, gender, location, and online habits. These facts are often used to create targeted ads that sometimes border on an invasion of privacy.
Check out these tips to make sure you’re prepared to use apps safely or help you decide to skip trends entirely.
The post 4 Viral Apps Risking Your Personal & Smartphone Security appeared first on McAfee Blog.
I’m about to tell you an extraordinary fact about cybercrime. Some of the most significant data breaches in internet history weren’t after bank account numbers, cryptocurrency, or even credit card numbers. They were, in fact, after YOU. That’s right, the most valuable data on the internet is the data that comprises your identity. Let’s take a look at what that data is, how it gets leveraged by cybercriminals, and how you can get the online identity monitoring you deserve.
1 billion is a big number. In the case of a recent CVS database leak, that’s how many user records were accidentally released online, including details like email addresses and even searches about Covid vaccines. This is just one of the dozens of breaches that have occurred recently and will continue to happen as personally, identifiable information becomes more valuable to cybercriminals. Just as remarkable as the huge volume of user data being exposed online is the speed with which compromised data is used by hackers online. Cybersecurity researchers recently discovered that cybercriminals access leaked or stolen credentials within 12 hours to exploit them as soon as possible. These circumstances beg the question, why has your personally identifiable information has become so valuable lately?
While the value of some information, like a credit card number, is obvious, you may think your name and date of birth aren’t that big of a deal. After all, it wasn’t so long ago that you could find all that information in a phone book. In fact, personally identifiable information (PII), also known as data used to identify a specific individual, is what many data breaches are after.
Armed with just a mailing address, a phone number, and a date of birth, a cybercriminal can begin constructing a fake identity to take out loans and disguise many kinds of criminal activities. With a social security number and a few personal details from a social media account, they could take over a bank account. When it comes to your PII, any information is as good as gold to cybercriminals.
If our PII were treated like actual gold and held in a safe location like Fort Knox, I wouldn’t be writing this post. But in fact, it’s the currency we use to obtain many services in our connected lives. Social media sites are massive repositories of PII, and their access to our most personal details and the ability to sell it to marketers is the reason the service remains free. Free email services are the same. Now consider all the other accounts we may have created to, say, try out a streaming service for free, or even old accounts we no longer use. From that perspective, you can see how much of your data is being used by companies, may not be very well protected, and is a tempting target for cybercriminals. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to keep your identity safer online.
When it comes to protecting your PII, knowledge is power. Let’s start by identifying if you’ve been the target of a data breach. Here are a few tell-tale signs:
Okay, now that you know the signs of a data breach, let’s look at how you can take action to protect yourself. The best way to avoid being the victim of identity theft is by limiting the amount of PII you provide. There are some easy ways to do this.
Only a few types of organizations legitimately need your social security number. These include employers or when contracting with a business, group health insurance, financial and real estate transactions, applying for credit cards, car loans, and so forth.
Quizzes, social media games, and other kinds of interactive clickbait are often grifting pieces of your PII in a seemingly playful way. While you’re not giving up your SSN, you may be giving up things like your birthday, your pet’s name, your first car … things that people often use to compose their passwords or use as answers to common security questions on banking and financial sites.
A phishing email poses as a real email from known or trusted brands and financial institutions. These emails attempt to trick you into sharing important information like your logins, account numbers, credit card numbers, and so on under the guise of providing customer service. Here are some more ways to spot a phishing email.
Clearly, we’re in a new era when it comes to securing our identities online. In response, McAfee has created a new kind of identity monitoring.
We knew from the outset Identity monitoring had to be proactive, holistic, and accessible. We also wanted it to follow the timeline for how cybercrime actually affects your identity. When it comes to PII, the breach is just the first step for cybercriminals. The 10 months following a breach is when cybercriminals will use your PII to commit fraudulent acts using your data.
To address this, your identity monitoring looks after more personally identifiable information than other leading competitors. It will also alert you of stolen personal info an average of 10 months ahead of other monitoring services. And it’s accessible anywhere via mobile app, browser, and the web.
In practice, McAfee’s identity monitoring protects all your online accounts by doing the following:
As we spend more of our lives online, we need an approach to security that reflects this new reality. Identity monitoring is part of it. VPN is part of it. Antivirus is part of it. They are all pieces of a puzzle that we solve with products like McAfee Total Protection. Our premier security service is comprehensive, affordable, and, with identity monitoring, an indispensable part of your life online.
The post Identity Protection Service: The Best Solution to a Growing Problem appeared first on McAfee Blog.
When gyms were forced to close last year, you likely looked for other ways to get some exercise and stay active during quarantine. From investing in a few pairs of dumbbells or perhaps downloading an app or two to help you track your workouts, you found alternatives to help you break a sweat. As an accessible, easy way to release endorphins, running quickly grew in popularity along with the platforms that help runners stay accountable. According to Runner’s World, there was a 34% uptick in outdoor miles logged by common fitness apps between March and September 2020 compared to the same stretch in 2019. But are these tools potentially endangering your privacy?
According to TechCrunch, running apps could potentially threaten your security if the data they collect ends up in the wrong hands. Let’s explore the functionalities of these apps and how they could pose a threat to your online safety.
Running apps are solid companions for advanced and amateur runners alike, allowing you to track the length of your run and set a pace for yourself. These apps learn a lot about you the more you use them by gathering health data like your height and weight and even your location. But similar to the threats that exist when you overshare on other online platforms, this data could pose a serious threat to your privacy. For example, location data could identify where you live or where you work – information that you definitely wouldn’t want in the hands of a stranger. If a cybercriminal is able to hack into your account, they could exploit this information to commit identity theft or craft a phishing email disguised as your employer.
Additionally, many of these apps lack basic security measures to prevent hackers from breaking into accounts or from health and fitness data from spilling out. For example, many popular running apps allow the most basic passwords like “qwerty” and “password.” Oftentimes, hackers automate their attacks by targeting accounts with easy-to-crack passwords like the ones mentioned. This allows them to exploit the most accounts with as little effort as possible. Furthermore, these apps do not have the option to set up two-factor authentication, which creates an additional barrier to prevent hackers from exploiting reused passwords.
No matter where you are in your fitness journey, it is essential to take the necessary precautions to minimize the risks of the platforms you use to hold yourself accountable – running apps included. If you are looking to hit your stride while keeping security and privacy top of mind, follow these tips:
Your password is your first line of defense, so it is important that you use one that is strong and unique to your other account credentials. If a hacker does manage to guess your password for one of your online accounts, it is likely they will check for repeat credentials across multiple sites. By using different passwords or passphrases, you can feel slightly more at ease knowing that the majority of your data is secure if one of your accounts becomes vulnerable.
You can also use a password manager to help you create strong passwords, remove the hassle of remembering numerous passwords, and log on to websites automatically.
Some running apps are configured to publicly share user data by default. After you download an app, spend some time researching how to change these settings so your data is not shared with strangers without your permission.
If your running app of choice does undergo any security updates, make sure that they are installed as soon as possible. Developers actively work to identify and address security issues. Frequently update your operating systems and apps so that they have the latest fixes and security protections. The easiest way to do this is to enable automatic software updates on your mobile device.
Next time you go for a run with your location services on, think again about what risks this poses to your virtual security and your physical safety. Enhance your security by only enabling the features that are necessary to optimize your fitness performance. This will help prevent hackers from using your location as a vehicle to invade your privacy.
Since the data collected on running apps involves sensitive health and location information, it is worth reviewing the privacy policies for all of the fitness platforms you regularly use to see how your data might be affected. To ensure that you can keep moving toward your fitness goals while protecting your online safety, stay educated on the tools you use to track your progress and implement the necessary security measure to do so with security in mind.
To stay updated on all things McAfee and on top of the latest consumer and mobile security threats, follow @McAfee_Home on Twitter, subscribe to our email, listen to our podcast Hackable?, and ‘Like’ us on Facebook.
The post How to Remain Secure While Using Running Apps appeared first on McAfee Blogs.
In the eyes of hackers, scammers, and thieves, your online privacy and identity look like a giant jigsaw puzzle. One that they don’t need every piece to solve. They only need a few bits to do their dirty work, which means protecting every piece you put out there—a sort of holistic view on your personal security. One that protects you, not just your devices.
Here’s what’s at stake: we create and share loads of personal information simply by going about our day online, where each bit of information makes up a piece of that giant jigsaw puzzle. Some pieces directly identify us, like our tax returns, bank account information, or driver’s licenses. Other pieces of information indirectly identify us, like the IP addresses assigned to our computers, tablets, and phones—or device ID numbers, location information, and browsing history. And bad actors only need a few key pieces to do you harm, such as committing identity crime in your name or selling your personal information on sketchy websites or the dark web.
While people show great concern about their personal information, who has it and what’s done with it, our research shows that 70% of people feel like they have little or no control over the data that’s collected about them. However, you have plenty of ways that you can indeed take control—ways that can prevent, detect, and correct attacks on your privacy and identity. That’s where holistic protection comes in.
You can think of holistic protection as layers of shields that protect you and the devices you use. It gives you three layers in all—a Prevention Layer, Detection Layer, and a Correction Layer.
A holistic and comprehensive security solution like McAfee+ combines those three layers in a way that protects your personal information and keep your identity private, showing you how it does it along the way, so you can see exactly how safe you are. Let’s take a quick look of some of the protections you’ll find in each layer …
In the Prevention Layer, you’ll see:
In the Detection Layer, you have …
In the Correction Layer, several other protections have your back …
These are just a few examples of the protections in each layer. And you’ll find our most comprehensive holistic protection in McAfee+ Ultimate, covering your privacy, identity, and devices.
While your online privacy and identity may look a jigsaw puzzle, protecting it shouldn’t be as complicated. With a holistic security solution for your personal protection, you can minimize your exposure with layers of security that do much of the work for you.
Antivirus on your PC is not enough. It has not been enough for many decades now. And this becomes more evident as we continue to spend more time online, with the average person spending 6 hours and 54 minutes online each day, leaving clouds of personal information in their wake.
While standalone apps like a password manager, a VPN app, and an identity solution from different vendors can be piecemealed together with your device security, these are difficult to keep track of and burdensome to maintain.
We have combined the important tools you need into a seamless and comprehensive experience because good security software is something that you use daily to feel safer online. This is why we are working on your behalf to redefine security, so you can enjoy your connected life with confidence.
The post True Security Requires a Holistic Approach appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Meet ShinyHunters, a hacker who recently leaked 10 new databases this past month from companies including:
• Pixlr.com
• Bonobos.com
• Wognai.com
• Tesspring.com
• Tunedglobal.com
• Buyucoin.com
• Wappalyzer.com
• Chqbook.com
• Rooter.io
• MeetMindful.com
But this isn’t the first time they’ve made headlines. It all started in May of 2020 when ShinyHunters attempted to sell several stolen databases on the Dark Web. They also leaked several other databases between April and July. In October, they proceeded to leak the database of the meal kit delivery company, HomeChef. Not one to be easily satisfied, ShinyHunters continued their antics by exposing sixteen other databases in November, where personal user records and information were publicly shared. Prominent companies who fell victim to this wave of data breaches include gaming site Animal Jam, online marketplace Minted, and coupon company ShopBack, among others.
Personal data released ranges from contact information and addresses, dates of birth, passwords, and financial information. Not including the latest data breach, a total of 129,406,564 user records were exposed. Given the alarming size of the exposure, this gives way to rising concerns for when ShinyHunters will strike again. What’s more, this group seeks notoriety from their misdeeds, hoping to claim credibility for the number of attacks they can execute—a troubling thought for everyday users like you and me.
You never know when or if a breach will occur, which is why we must take precautions to protect our data in the case of a security breach. In the past year alone, we have seen a record number of data breaches, posing unforeseen security concerns and bringing light to new priorities for data protection. That’s why we must learn from these occurrences by proactively protecting our private information in 2021 and beyond.
There’s no way of knowing whether your personal information will fall into the wrong hands or that it will be used maliciously, but ShinyHunters has indicated that they are on the lookout for opportunities to expose more databases, so we must take the necessary steps to protect our personal information before the damage is done.
Not knowing what data was stolen can make it significantly more difficult to pinpoint what threats you may become subject to. If you realize a company you buy from fell victim to a data breach, start investigating. Use this tool to see if the breach affects you.
Great passwords are usually the first line of defense against personal data exposures, so it’s important to update them as soon as they are compromised. Additionally, use different passwords or passphrases for each of your online accounts which helps protect the majority of your data if one of your accounts becomes vulnerable. One route you can take is to use a password manager that not only lets you create strong passwords but can let you manage them efficiently with added security and peace of mind.
On top of updating your credentials, you’ll want to secure your log-in process by enabling 2-Factor Authentication. So, if a hacker has access to your stolen passwords, they’ll still have to bypass an added security layer that is time sensitive. This makes it even more difficult for them to access your information.
Like regular phishing attempts, spear-phishing attempts will try to steal your information by posing as an authentic entity to target unsuspecting victims. However, spear phishing attempts can be harder to spot because the attempt is modified to target a specific individual, often in the form of a personalized email. If you receive an email, call, or text asking you to download software, app, or pay a certain amount of money, do not click or take any direct action from the message. Instead, go straight to the organization’s website. This will prevent you from downloading malicious content from phishing links or forking over money unnecessarily.
If you find that your credit card information has been exposed, keep an eye on your bank records and validate each transaction. In the above cases for a site like MeetMindful, where Facebook authentication tokens and user IDs were stolen, it’s always best to keep an eye on other social accounts for fraudulent activity.
For maximum financial protection, freeze your credit to prevent hackers from opening new accounts in your name. Placing a freeze on your credit is free for consumers and won’t affect your credit score. Simply contact the three major credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—to set up a freeze to secure your credit file until you decide to lift it.
To stay updated on all things McAfee and on top of the latest consumer and mobile security threats, follow @McAfee_Home on Twitter, listen to our podcast Hackable?, and ‘Like’ us on Facebook.
The post ShinyHunters Exposes Over 125 Million Online Credentials appeared first on McAfee Blogs.
Seems like the internet follows us wherever we go nowadays, whether it tags along via a smartphone, laptop, tablet, a wearable, or some combination of them all. Yet there’s something else that follows us around as well—our PII, a growing body of “personally identifiable information” that we create while banking, shopping, and simply browsing the internet. And no doubt about it, our PII is terrifically valuable.
What makes it so valuable? It’s no exaggeration to say that your PII is the key to your digital life, along with your financial and civic life as well. Aside from using it to create accounts and logins, it’s further tied to everything from your bank accounts and credit cards to your driver’s license and your tax refund.
Needless to say, your PII is something that needs protecting, so let’s take a look at several ways you can do just that.
What is PII? It’s information about you that others can use to identify you either directly or indirectly. Thus, that info could identify you on its own, or it could identify you when it’s linked to other identifiers, like the ones associated with the devices, apps, tools, and protocols you use.
A prime example of direct PII is your tax ID number because it’s unique and directly associated with your name. Further instances include your facial image to unlock your smartphone, your medical records, your finances, and your phone number because each of these can be easily linked back to you.
Then there are those indirect pieces of PII that act as helpers. While they may not identify you on their own, a few of them can when they’re added together. These helpers include things like internet protocol addresses, the unique device ID of your smartphone, or other identifiers such as radio frequency identification tags.
You can also find pieces of your PII in the accounts you use, like your Google to Apple IDs, which can be linked to your name, your email address, and the apps you have. You’ll also find it in the apps you use. For example, there’s PII in the app you use to map your walks and runs, because the combination of your smartphone’s unique device ID and GPS tracking can be used in conjunction with other information to identify who you are, not to mention where you typically like to do your 5k hill days. The same goes for messenger apps, which can collect how you interact with others, how often you use the app and your location information based on your IP address, GPS information, or both.
In all, there’s a cloud of PII that follows us around as we go about our day online. Some wisps of that cloud are more personally identifying than others. Yet gather enough of it and PII can create a high-resolution snapshot of you—who you are, what you’re doing when you’re doing it, and even where you’re doing it too—particularly if it gets into the wrong hands.
Remember Pig-Pen, the character straight from the old funny pages of Charles Schultz’s Charlie Brown? He’s hard to forget with that ever-present cloud of dust following him around. Charlie Brown once said, “He may be carrying the soil that trod upon by Solomon or Nebuchadnezzar or Genghis Khan!” It’s the same with us and our PII, except the cloud surrounding us, isn’t the dust of kings and conquerors, they’re motes of digital information that are of tremendously high value to crooks and bad actors—whether for purposes of identity theft or invasion of privacy.
With all PII we create and share on the internet, that calls for protecting it. Otherwise, our PII could fall into the hands of a hacker or identity thief and end up getting abused, in potentially painful and costly ways.
Here are several things you can do to help ensure that what’s private stays that way:
Square One is to protect your devices with comprehensive online protection software. This will defend you against the latest virus, malware, spyware, and ransomware attacks plus further protect your privacy and identity. In addition to this, it can also provide strong password protection by generating and automatically storing complex passwords to keep your credentials safer from hackers and crooks who may try to force their way into your accounts.
Further, security software can also include a firewall that blocks unwanted traffic from entering your home network, such as an attacker poking around for network vulnerabilities so that they can “break-in” to your computer and steal information.
Also known as a virtual private network, a VPN helps protect your vital PII and other data with bank-grade encryption. The VPN encrypts your internet connection to keep your online activity private on any network, even public networks. Using a public network without a VPN can increase your cybersecurity risk because others on the network can potentially spy on your browsing and activity.
If you’re new to the notion of using a VPN, check out this article on VPNs and how to choose one so that you can get the best protection and privacy possible.
In the U.S., the Social Security Number (SSN) is one of the most prized pieces of PII as it unlocks the door to employment, finances, and much more. First up, keep a close grip on it. Literally. Store your card in a secure location. Not your purse or wallet.
Certain businesses and medical practices may ask you for your SSN for billing purposes and the like. You don’t have to provide it (although some businesses could refuse service if you don’t), and you can always ask if they will accept some alternative form of information. However, there are a handful of instances where an SSN is a requirement. These include:
Be aware that hackers often get a hold of SSNs because the organization holding that information gets hacked or compromised itself. Minimizing how often you provide your SSN can offer an extra degree of protection.
Protecting your files with encryption is a core concept in data and information security, and thus it’s a powerful way to protect your PII. It involves transforming data or information into code that requires a digital key to access it in its original, unencrypted format. For example, McAfee Total Protection includes File Lock, which is our file encryption feature that lets you lock important files in secure digital vaults on your device.
Additionally, you can also delete sensitive files with an application such as McAfee Shredder, which securely deletes files so that thieves can’t access them. (Quick fact: deleting files in your trash doesn’t actually delete them in the truest sense. They’re still there until they’re “shredded” or otherwise overwritten such that they can’t be restored.)
Which Marvel Universe superhero are you? Does it really matter? After all, such quizzes and social media posts are often grifting pieces of your PII in a seemingly playful way. While you’re not giving up your SSN, you may be giving up things like your birthday, your pet’s name, your first car … things that people often use to compose their passwords or use as answers to common security questions on banking and financial sites. The one way to pass this kind of quiz is not to take it!
A far more direct form of separating you from your PII are phishing attacks. Posing as emails from known or trusted brands, financial institutions, or even a friend or family member a cybercrook’s phishing attack will attempt to trick you into sharing important information like your logins, account numbers, credit card numbers, and so on under the guise of providing customer service.
How do you spot such emails? Well, it’s getting a little tougher nowadays because scammers are getting more sophisticated and can make their phishing emails look nearly legitimate. However, there are several ways you can spot a phishing email and phony web pages as outlined here.
Comprehensive security offers another layer of prevention, in this case by offering browser protection like our own Web Advisor, which will alert you in the event you come across suspicious links and downloads that can steal your PII or otherwise expose you to attacks.
With social engineering attacks that deceive victims by posing as people the victim knows and the way we can sometimes overshare a little too much about our lives, you can see why a social media profile is a potential goldmine for cybercriminals.
Two things you can do to help protect your PII from being at risk via social media: one, think twice about what PII you might be sharing in that post or photo—like the location of your child’s school or the license plate on your car; two, set your profile to private so that only friends can see it. Review your privacy settings regularly to keep your profile information out of the public eye. And remember, nothing is 100% private on the internet. Never post anything you wouldn’t want to see shared.
The “S” stands for secure. Any time you are shopping, banking, or sharing any kind of PII, look for “https” at the start of the web address. Some browsers will also indicate HTTP by showing a small “lock” icon. Doing otherwise on plain HTTP sites exposes your PII for anyone who cares to monitor that site for unsecured connections.
By locking your devices, you protect yourself that much better from PII and data theft in the event your device is lost, stolen, or even left unattended for a short stretch. Use your password, PIN, facial recognition, thumbprint ID, what have you. Just lock your stuff. In the case of your smartphones, read up on how you can locate your phone or even wipe it remotely if you need to. Apple provides iOS users with a step-by-step guide for remotely wiping devices, and Google offers up a guide for Android users as well.
Theft of your PII can of course lead to credit cards and other accounts being opened falsely in your name. What’s more, it can sometimes be some time before you even become aware of it, until perhaps your credit score takes a hit or a bill collector comes calling. By checking your credit, you can address any issues that come up, as companies typically have a clear-cut process for contesting any fraud. You can get a free credit report in the U.S. via the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and likewise, other nations like the UK have similar free offerings as well.
Consider identity theft protection as well. A strong identity theft protection package pairs well with keeping track of your credit and offers cyber monitoring that scans the dark web to detect for misuse of your PII. With our identity protection service, we help relieve the burden of identity theft if the unfortunate happens to you with $1M coverage for lawyer fees, travel expenses, lost wages, and more.
The post Take It Personally: Ten Tips for Protecting Your Personally Identifiable Information (PII) appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Video conferencing has really taken off this year. With more people working and learning from home than ever before, video calling has rapidly become the mainstream method for remote communication, allowing users to stay connected. But very few may realize that they might be giving away their passwords on video calls through their body language. According to Tom’s Guide, call participants can guess a user’s passwords through the arm and shoulder movements they make while they type.
Let’s unpack how this threat works so you can continue to connect via video calls worry-free.
Keyboard snooping, or a keyboard interference threat, occurs when an attacker is present on a video call and observes the target’s body and physiological features to infer what they are typing. To pull off this attack, the hacker would need to record the meeting or video stream and feed it through a computer program. This program eliminates the visual background and measures the user’s arm and shoulder movements relative to their face. From there, the program analyzes the user’s actions to guess which keys they are hitting on the keyboard – including passwords and other sensitive information.
So, how accurate is this program, anyway? While this shows that the program was only correct 20% of the time when subjects were on their own devices in an uncontrolled environment, the program’s accuracy increased to 75% if their password was one of the one million most commonly used passwords. And suppose the program already knew their email address or name. In that case, it could decipher when the target was typing this information during the video call (and when their password would immediately follow) 90% of the time. The less complex the target makes their password, the easier it is for the program to guess what they’re typing.
Keystroke inference attacks can have potentially dangerous effects, since the text typed can often contain sensitive or private information even beyond passwords, like credit card numbers, authentication codes, and physical addresses. It’s also important to note that any video conferencing tool or videos obtained from public video sharing/streaming platforms are susceptible to this attack.
Therefore, to prevent your meeting attendees from snooping on what you’re typing, follow these tips for greater peace-of-mind:
Avoid giving keyboard snoopers the upper hand by making your password or passphrase as unique as the information it’s protecting. If a hacker does manage to guess your password for one of your online accounts, they will likely check for repeat credentials across multiple sites. By using different passwords or passphrases for your online accounts, you can remain calm and collected knowing that the majority of your data is secure if one of your accounts becomes vulnerable.
Two or multi-factor authentication provides an extra layer of security, as it requires multiple forms of verification like texting or emailing a secure code to verify your identity. Most popular online sites like Gmail, Dropbox, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. offer multi-factor authentication, and it takes just a few minutes to set it up. This reduces the risk of successful impersonation by criminals who may have uncovered your information by keyboard snooping.
Take your security to the next level with a password manager, like the one included in McAfee Total Protection. A password manager can help you create strong passwords, remove the hassle of remembering numerous passwords, and log you on to websites automatically.
To stay updated on all things McAfee and on top of the latest consumer and mobile security threats, follow @McAfee_Home on Twitter, listen to our podcast Hackable?, and ‘Like’ us on Facebook.
The post How to Prevent Keyboard Snooping Attacks on Video Calls appeared first on McAfee Blogs.
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