Hurricane Technology Checklist

Image courtesy of Florida Division of Emergency Management

As Hurricane Helene travels toward the Florida Coast and into Alabama and Georgia, now is the time to take action and be prepared to protect your computers, printers, files and data.

1. ENSURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP

• Backup your files! It's good practice to frequently backup your data files. We recommend a hybrid-cloud image-based backup that can be used to restore data and applications even if your server is destroyed, and that can restore data from different points in time.

• Print a copy of your important/emergency contacts and take them with you if you do not have access to them from your phone or computer, you'll have them available to use via a landline.

• RealTime Clients: Everyone who is on our Business Continuity Service – Your servers are backed up and replicated offsite daily. If there is a problem, we correct that as part of the service. As the Hurricane approaches, RealTime will confirm your local servers are backed up and replicated to offsite data centers.

2. SECURE YOUR EQUIPMENT

• COMPUTERS

  • Shutdown the operating system.

  • If connected to a surge protector or UPS - unplug from the wall outlet (or unplug power cables from the surge protector or UPS if wall outlet isn't accessible).

  • Unplug Ethernet cable from the back of computer or docking station.

• PRINTERS

  • Power off the printer.

  • If connected to a surge protector - unplug as described above.

  • Unplug the Ethernet cable from the back of the printer.

  • Unplug the phone cable from the back of the printer (if a fax line is connected).

• SERVERS AND NETWORK EQUIPMENT

  • Perform a normal shutdown of the servers. RealTime clients: Please coordinate with RealTime service desk. 

  • Unplug all connections - Take photos to document how things were prior to the event. 

  • Firewalls, Switches, Access Points - unplug them from power. Unplug the firewall from the internet connection as well. Ideally, unplug all the network connections (surges can travel through the network cabling).

  • Battery backups - power these off and then unplug them.

  • Phone systems - Check with your vendor to see what steps you can take to protect it.
     

3. COVER POWERED OFF EQUIPMENT WITH PLASTIC

When a major storm is predicted, elevate your CPUs, printers, servers, and other network devices, as well as other electrical appliances like space heaters, off of the floor.  For high winds, move computers away from windows.  If there is a possibility of water leakage, cover computer equipment with plastic.

4. CONTINUING OPERATIONS AFTER THE STORM

•  If you are in the path, power and internet connectivity may be hard to come by for a few days. Generators can provide enough power to run your critical computer equipment – just be sure you are connecting up to something that can deal w/ the power fluctuations many generators have. Please ask RealTime before connecting things up to generators as they can damage sensitive equipment. Modern battery backups may have the capability to condition the power off of a generator – check with the manufacturer to confirm before trying this.

• 4G/5G USB modems or Mifi can get you connected in an emergency. Everything you do may not work, but basic web browsing.

• Forward your phones – If the office is expected to be out a few days, most phone service providers have a way for you to forward calls to your business to a cell phone or alternate number. Get the steps now, before you need them.

5. BE PREPARED

Knowing what steps to take ahead of time will help you be prepared in the worst-case scenario. RealTime is committed to ensuring our clients are prepared with the proper technology to meet their current/future needs as well as advising them about safeguarding their business from weather-related, cyber and other disasters. 

If you would like further information about RealTime managing Information Technology for your business, contact us at info@realtime-it.com.

Shopper data stolen from major brands in December 2023.

CUSTOMERS OF VANS, THE NORTH FACE,
AND OTHER BRANDS PERSONAL DATA POTENTIALLY STOLEN.

VF Corporation, parent company to popular brands including, Vans, The North Face, Timberland, Dickies, JanSport and more, reported that their IT systems were impacted on December 15, 2023 and that some personal data was stolen.

They reported that their computer systems were affected and that personal information was stolen, but they haven't provided any specific details. This is important because cybercriminals commonly use stolen data from these breaches to launch scams, so please be cautious, particularly if you have a loyalty account or have made direct orders through their websites (such as Vans, North Face, Altra, Dickies, etc.). Visit their corporate website for a full list of their brands: www.vfc.com .

Assume that anything you shared with
these brands could be in the hands
of the thieves.

If you stored a credit card, monitor your account closely for any suspicious activity and report it promptly. If you use the same password for any of your online accounts, especially email or social media, update those passwords. According to their SEC 8-K report, the attackers disrupted VF Corporation's operations by encrypting some computer systems and stealing data, including personal information. The company is working to restore the affected systems and find alternative solutions to minimize disruption for customers. VF-operated retail stores are open, but there may be some operational issues. While consumers can still place orders on most brand websites, fulfilling those orders is currently impacted.

SEC 8-K report here: https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/103379/000095012323011228/d659095d8k.htm

AI & ChatGPT Threats and the arrival of Fleeceware

What are the biggest threats to each of us right now?

GETTY IMAGE

Scammers are using AI and ChatGPT as a tool to create even cheekier scams than normal!

THE ARRIVAL OF FLEECEWARE

One of the more irreverent scams is called Fleeceware, a type of mobile application (or website) that comes with excessive subscription fees you may quickly forget you’re paying. The ones oriented around these AI apps have catchy names like Genie – AI Chatbot. It can also be a website that looks like a legitimate site or uses a similar name to a trusted site to give a false sense of legitimacy.

The goal of these apps or websites is to get your to complete a sign up for a weekly/monthly subscription for what you’ll quickly find out is pretty useless.

HOW WELL DOES THE SCAM WORK?

Sophos reports that the people who publish the Genie AI Chatbot app (still available in the Apple apps store btw) are raking in $1 Million a month in subscription fees for something better, and free if you go to the source, https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt 

IS THERE AN OFFICIAL OPEN AI IPHONE OR ANDROID APP FOR CHATGPT?

There is only one official app released as an iPhone app for ChatGPT and there is not one for Android, yet.

If you search the app store for ChatGPT, you’ll see dozens (maybe hundreds of apps) but only one is the official Open AI ChatGPT app. There isn’t an official app for Android yet, but there are more than a few pretenders available. 

The only official app OpenAI has published, download it here for the iPhone:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/openai-chatgpt/id6448311069

SHOULD I BE SUSPICIOUS OF EMAILS RELATED TO CHATGPT?

The scams wouldn’t be complete without using the headlines to send phishing emails. The current hearings in Congress are news, and news means new subject lines for phishing emails.

There are new domain names popping up related to ChatGPT, many of which are common misspellings of legitimate domain names. BE EXTRA SUSPICIOUS of any email or text messages you receive with subjects or links related to ChatGPT. If you intend to use ChatGPT, be sure to access the service through the official OpenAI site, https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt

 SHOULD I USE CHATGPT FOR BUSINESS?

For businesses, these tools bring the added risk of your employees inputting sensitive information into these tools. Your best protection is to have a policy around the use of these AI tools, similar to what you probably already have to social media usage.

If you have a legitimate business use for these AI tools, great – review their privacy policies and terms of use. You’ll have better privacy and control over your data usage is you pay for a subscription vs. using free ones.

Be sure to know how the service will use any data you give it before committing.

Protect the Elderly: 370,000 targeted in fraud attacks annually

FRAUD PERPETRATED AGAINST THE ELDERLY

Pictured: Todd Swartzman, RealTime Chief Information Security Officer

RealTime Chief Information Security Officer, Todd Swartzman, is taking a hot-button issue of fraud abuse against the elderly. In this article, Todd brings to life the scary truth about what is happening to our parents in their vulnerable stage of life. Todd shares personal examples as well as suggestions for prevention and many resources to help protect your parents and grandparents. Take time to read and share this post to save the most vulnerable population.

ATTENTION CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN:

This post is to help make you aware and help protect our elderly parents, friends, and relatives. The Internet Crime Complaint Center discusses many types of fraud that we should all be aware of so that we don’t fall for them. Unfortunately, those most at risk of falling victim to these types of fraud are also those least prepared to recognize them – the elderly.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

THE PROBLEM EXPLAINED WITH personal examples

Here are several personal examples to illustrate some real-life fraud attacks:

•  MY MOTHER GOT HER FIRST COMPUTER IN 2006 AT AGE 70…

  and quickly learned to email friends and family. That was about the extent of her technical prowess save printing emails for my dad to read. I’m sure many of you are nodding your heads along with me. As you might imagine, any “problem” with the computer resulted in calls to her sons asking for help.

  Fast forward a few years and a tech support scam was perpetrated against mom – this one fortunately just got her credit card number and it was quickly resolved. When asked why she didn’t call us about this message that popped up on her screen about a virus and to call this number to fix it, aka Tech Support Scam, she said that she didn’t want to bother us. I explained what the scam was and why she should never, ever give anyone access to her computer except for myself or my brother. It happened again about six months later, this time via a phone call purporting to be from her internet provider who noticed a virus and they had to fix it or they’d disconnect her from the internet. Another credit card compromise that ended up costing her about $500 that we managed to get back eventually.

•  A WIDOW AT MY CHURCH FELL FOR A SIMILAR SCAM VIA EMAIL…

  A $900.00 lesson was learned. To add insult to injury, the criminals emailed her an annual renewal for technical support services some months later that fortunately, she asked me about since she recognized this might be another scam.

 Read this one on ic3.gov website something just like this happened in our area just last week. It probably happened more than 1000 times just today.

 HOW WIDESPREAD ARE THESE SCAMS?

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

During research for this article, I was surprised the AARP reported that almost 370,000 incidents targeting just the elderly are reported to authorities annually in just the U.S. Like many cybercrime statistics, the problem is much worse than this as we only know what was reported to authorities. The two examples I mentioned above were not, and it’s safe to say most of these scams against the elderly don’t get reported. Outside the scope of this article is the fact that most fraud perpetrated against the elderly is done by people known to them.

The Alabama Bankers Association has an excellent article on elder abuse that talks about this and more.

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT AS CHILDREN OF ELDERLY PARENTS?

One shortcoming I see with the information available regarding the various scams and how to recognize them is a lack of specific guidance on how to prevent or at least limit the damage a successful scam can cause. By that I mean if the criminals trick mom, dad, or grandma into disclosing their banking information, how can we limit the amount of money the criminals can transfer out? Or maybe require a phone call before completing a transfer? Or how can you or another trusted individual be alerted that this sort of thing is happening?

I’m looking for speed bumps to slow the theft down so we can stop or minimize the damage. In the business realm, I’ve had customers who would have been victims were it not for electronic funds transfer rules that required added verification above a certain dollar amount.

Disclaimer: It is the individual account holder's responsibility to safeguard their assets and credentials. This guide is provided as general information that we hope will spur action on the part of the reader to learn more about this subject and help vulnerable family members and friends take appropriate action to protect themselves.

 WHAT STEPS CAN BE TAKEN TO LIMIT POTENTIAL DAMAGE?

To attempt to answer this question, I called a major bank and asked them why my business bank account limits wire transfers to $25,000 before additional verification takes place, while others can get scammed out of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in their personal accounts.

Their answer was “it depends”: The account holder must take action to ensure that their account limits and alerts are set up appropriately.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

I’m guessing most people don’t even know there are limits and what those limits are.

Each bank is going to use slightly different terms, and the settings might be found in various places (mobile app, online portal, talk to someone, or something else entirely depending on the bank), so I’ll just give you the basics. My best advice is for you to work with your bank to make sure you have things set up correctly and that you understand what the various settings do and how they protect you.

•  Set account transfer and electronic fund transfer limits that make sense for your situation. Note that limits apply to online banking transactions. In-person transfers are a different subject and may not have limited other than how much money you have.

• Disable the cash apps like Zelle (or whatever your bank offers) if you don’t use it.

• Consider having alerts on certain transactions go to a trusted family member – You can do with without giving that person access to your bank account. Your bank may or may not have this capability.

• Consider having account statements go to trusted family members – again, they don’t have to have account access to receive the statements. This would be useful in noting potential problems you can discuss together.

 These same items should be applied to your investment accounts and any other financial assets you might be concerned with. Please consult with your banker and/or financial advisor to help set your accounts to be protected from unauthorized activity.

 PREVENTION

Education on the potential threats, how to recognize them, and what actions to take is the key to preventing falling victim to these scams.

•  Internet Crime Complaint Center has lots of info on various scams and talks to protect yourself.

• Wells Fargo has a good overview of common scams.

• AARP has 5 prevention tips, plus many other resources on their site.

• How to prevent social engineering can be found here.

Photo by Anete Lusina

BLOCK SPAM CALLERS

Your mobile carrier probably has scam call-blocking apps available like T-Mobile’s Scam Shield, Verizon’s Call Filter, and AT&T Call Protect, just download them from the app store for your mobile device. Each takes a minute to set up. I just installed the Verizon Call Filter and there is a free and paid version – the free one looks like it’ll work just fine for me. I’ll know more as time goes by.

 OTHER GENERAL TIPS

• Never, ever let someone remotely connect to your computer that you do not already know from a prior relationship.

• Back up any important information on your computer to a safe place.

• Keep your computer and the installed applications up to date.

• Uninstall applications you no longer use.

• Install and maintain a reputable anti-virus/anti-malware program. Microsoft Defender, free with Windows, is very good, almost certainly better than almost any other free av you might install.

COMMON FACTORS OF SOCIAL ENGINEERING

 All of these various scams are social engineering.

Social Engineering is the art of manipulating, influencing, or deceiving to trick someone into making security mistakes or giving away sensitive information. The criminal’s goal is to get you to grant them access to something they want, be it your bank account, email account, your password, or your computer.

In the context of Elder Fraud, the most common techniques:

• tech support scams

• fake virus alerts

• phishing emails.

 LESSONS TO LEARN AND SHARE

If you are being asked to do something out of the ordinary with your money or your accounts, STOP, HANG UP with the person you are talking to. Call a trusted family member to make sure you’re safe and not being scammed.

Trust your instincts: if you feel like you’re being pressured, rushed, manipulated to feel guilty, scared, or fear missing out on something “big”, you are almost certainly being scammed. You need to immediately take steps to protect yourself.

THE FIRST STEP IS to hang up the phone and then reach out to someone you trust and explain the situation.

 HOW TO TELL IF SOMEONE IS TRYING TO SCAM YOU

Here are some specific areas where the scammers make their intentions clear once you realize it’s a scam.

Photo by Kampus Production

• Emotions

  The perpetrator may use emotional manipulations to make the victim feel pressure to act, often fear, or fear of consequences for inaction. Urgency is reinforced to try and get you to act before you think, or get advice from someone else. Being forced to hurry is a hallmark of a scam. STOP. Hang up and call someone you trust and explain the situation. Your bank can also help you navigate these situations.

• Money

  If the funds are being requested in the following fashion, STOP what you are doing and reach out to someone you trust – you are being scammed.

• Obtain gift cards or Apple iTunes Cards, or similar, then scratch off the back and send the caller the numbers.

• In-person Electronic Funds Transfer: Especially If the amount is under the amount triggering the 2nd verification by the bank (amounts just under $100,000 for example, since $100K is a common trigger to get a second person involved from the bank).

• Cash:

  • Asking you to withdraw cash and then send it to them via services like Western Union, Money Gram, etc.

  • Asking you to mail cash to them in such a way that postal inspection might not detect the cash.

  • Asking you to meet them somewhere like Walmart.

• In any of the above situations, the caller asks you to keep them on the phone while you do this – No legitimate transaction will ask you to do this. Ever. This is a scam. Give them nothing and hang up and don’t answer their calls as they will call, again, and again, and again.

• If you find yourself emotionally invested in the transaction, argue with the bank that you must transfer this money because “it’s your money and you can do what you want.” Or threaten to take your business elsewhere if they won’t do the transfer… you were probably coached on how to handle some questions by the banker doing the wire transfer. This is another hallmark of a scam. FYI, international transfers have a 45-minute waiting period which you can rescind the transfer (if the caller tries to keep you distracted after the transfer.. another red flag you really ought to pay attention to.) After those 45 minutes expire, it gets harder or impossible to get the funds back depending on how long and where it went.

• Crypto Currency: The FBI is noticing an increase in scammers asking their victims to pay in crypto currency since it’s almost impossible to get back after it’s stolen. If the caller wants you to pay via crypto currency, hang up. Yes, they’ll help you do this and have all sorts of good reasons why you should pay them via crypto currency… it doesn’t matter, it’s a scam.

• Too good to be true. That winning lottery ticket, that you didn’t buy. The “accidental” check sent to you, or mistaken deposit that they want you to send back, or “they’ll lose their job!” Only you can save them! Scam.

• If you didn’t ask for it, don’t engage (open the email, click the link, answer the phone/text) with it. These communications from people you don’t know are almost always trying to sell or steal something from you. It’s very easy to just ignore it.

• No legitimate company will ever call you to tell you that you have a computer problem. Microsoft isn’t going to call you that they discovered a problem with your computer or account.

• Your bank will never, ever, not even once, call or email you asking you to confirm your account information or password – they already know it.

• If someone from your bank, investment firm, mobile phone company (or hundreds of other services/warranties, etc) calls you telling you that you owe money, or they want to process a refund, or you need to cancel something you don’t recall purchasing… Just hang up, it’s a scam. If you think it could be legitimate, still hang up. Then call that company directly using a number previously known to you (look on an old invoice for the customer service number) and you can address the issue with them and see if it might be legitimate. Your bank can also help you navigate these events as they’ve seen it all.

• Social Security, the IRS, or any other government agency will not call you unless you previously initiated contact with them. They also won’t try and get you to pay them with a gift card.

• Don’t trust caller ID or the phone number displayed for the caller. Callers routinely hide their real phone numbers, so if you don’t recognize a number, just don’t answer.

• To become more aware of the other types of scams perpetrated against the elderly, this article talks about some common ones https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2019/PSA190919 In our area, S.E. Alabama and Florida panhandle, the FBI has seen increasing Romance scams with single elderly people being the bulk of the victims. Be sure you know what your parents are up to!

Photo by RODNAE Productions

 REPORT IT!

 Should the worst happen, and the criminals do trick you or someone you know into divulging account info and subsequently completing unauthorized transfers what do you do?

Report it. Speed is of the essence. Report the fraud online to www.ic3.gov and report it to your bank ASAP along with resetting all of your account information. IC3.gov is designed to field and respond to these sorts of incidents. You should report the theft to local law enforcement but after the other steps. Should you contact the FBI? It won’t hurt, but capabilities vary widely in the field offices so I wouldn’t call this my first stop. Some states have state-level elder abuse-type organizations.

 If you or someone you know has let the bad guys/girls remotely connect to their computer, disconnect that computer from the internet and contact competent help. Assume that the computer is compromised and that all activity can be monitored by the bad guys until proven otherwise.

These same scams can happen to anyone, so this is good information to share with the entire family.

5 Steps To Prevent Cybercrime

You may believe that cybercrime only happens to large corporations or big businesses. However, Scott Augenbaum, retired FBI special supervisory agent, found that there are four commonalities of instances with victims. To help keep yourself off the victim list, here are five simple steps to help prevent cybercrime in your personal life and your business.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/smiling-formal-male-with-laptop-chatting-via-phone-3760263/

5 STEPS TO PREVENT CYBERCRIME

1. STOP USING THE SAME PASSWORD FOR EVERYTHING

   If you do nothing else, stop using the same password for everything, or for more than one thing. Using the same password for different accounts just hands over your password to the bad guys. Fact: Compromised credentials are used in more than 40% of data breaches. Almost all of those credentials came from other hacks where the criminals pulled down huge lists of usernames, usually email addresses, and passwords. If you use the same password for LinkedIn and your business email, and Mr. and Mrs. Criminal got a copy of the LinkedIn user database (and this has happened multiple times)… now they have access to your email. Yes, it’s that simple. Read this article from LastPass for more details on the risks: https://blog.lastpass.com/2021/09/breaking-the-cycle-of-password-reuse/

2. ENABLE MULTI-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION (MFA) ON AS MANY ACCOUNTS AS POSSIBLE

   Enable MFA on as many accounts as possible, especially your business email account. According to Microsoft, 99.9% of BEC, Business Email Compromise instances would have been prevented if MFA was in use. The majority of cases we have been involved with didn’t have MFA enabled. It’s such a simple precaution and acts as a safety net for your passwords that do leak out.

3. LEARN TO RECOGNIZE PHISHING AND SOCIAL ENGINEERING SCAMS

   Educating yourself and your business on these most common threats will really decrease the risk of falling victim to a phishing email. All data breach events were the result of one of two things: (A) Someone did something they should not have done, such as clicking that link in the phishing email, or using the same password multiple places, or (B) Someone didn’t do something they should have, such as updating software to close a vulnerability.

4. USE A PASSWORD MANAGER

   Supporting bullet point #1, use a password manager to handle all of your good, secure, unique passwords.

5. GET CYBER INSURANCE FOR YOUR BUSINESS

   Get an appropriate Cyber Insurance policy for your business. Every business should have coverage because you never know what can happen.

WILL THESE TIPS WORK?

I will guarantee you this: If you take this advice and diligently follow these 5 strategies, you will greatly reduce your risks of falling victim to all manner of cybercrime in your business or personal lives.

IS THIS ALL I NEED TO DO TO PROTECT MYSELF OR MY BUSINESS?

No. But without these foundational security strategies in place, spending all manner of money on fancy cyber tools, BCP/DR services, Intrusion Detection Systems and all the fancy buzzwords in the cyber security space, won’t yield the results you expect.

 LEADING CAUSE OF CYBERCRIME

Every single breach that RealTime has been consulted on was the result of failings in these subjects. The highest leading cause of cybercrime was successful phishing attempts which provide criminals access to their business data and communications. The second leading cause was poor password hygiene, usually in the form of using the same passwords everywhere.

 What are four things victims of cybercrime have in common? Read now!