Netflix phishing scam threat alert

Be vigilant when it comes to emails that you receive that are notifying you that your subscription will be cancelled, or your payment information needs confirmed or updated, or that your account needs verified – these are a few examples of common ploys to trick you into giving up personal information, credentials, or even credit card info.

Here is what the phishing email contains “Important: Cancellation of your Netflix subscription” as its subject line, the email stated that Netflix had failed to successfully process the recipient’s last membership payment. At that point, those responsible for creating the spam email made the following threat: “If you do not update your information within 72 hours we will limit what you can do with your account.” The email then directed the recipient to click on an embedded button called “My Account” so that they could continue to enjoy their Netflix membership.

 As always, when presented with emails like this, do not click on any of the links contained within the email. If you received such a message and you were concerned that it might be legit, instead of using their suspect links, just open a web browser and logon to your Netflix account that way – if payment info isn’t correct, you’ll be notified by the webpage.

If you are concerned with the risks that these phishing threats bring to your business and you’d like to do more to protect your business and employees, give RealTime a call.

 Full writeup by our email security partner Zix: https://zix.com/resources/blog/august-2020/fraudsters-abusing-legitimate-services-phish-netflix-users-credentials  

DEFEND YOURSELF WITH AN UNHACKABLE PASSWORD

One of the easiest ways to protect yourself from hackers is to use a strong password. Human nature tells us to use the same or similar passwords across different applications; and given a choice, most of use would use something very simple that we could easily remember.  

This, however, leaves you open to attacks. Hackers like to use "guessing" - a technique in which they repeatedly guess words or phrases using your children's names, sports teams, etc. There is also an automated program that hackers use called an Online Dictionary Attack. Here, the program attempts to log on using a different word from the text file on each try. These are only two ways that hackers attack your system but there are many, many more. The best method of defense is to learn to create a password that is safe and you can remember.

THINGS NOT TO USE IN YOUR PASSWORD

• Your Birthday
• Any part of your name
• Your mother's maiden name
• Names of your children or pets
• City where you were born
• Local sports teams
• Any part of your address

TIPS ON CREATING A SECURE PASSWORD

• Replace a letter with the same character every time you make a password. EXAMPLE: Use % instead of an A
• Use a minimum of 9 characters 
• Make sure to include upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols.

Attacks can be slowed down significantly through the use of strong passwords.