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  

IT Breaches for July 2020

CYBERSECURITY NEWS

Social Media, Healthcare and Higher Education struggle in cybersecurity

This month, healthcare data breaches keep climbing, Twitter apologizes for its breach and more. Read some of the incidents in the articles below:

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Industry: Social Media

Exploit: Accidental Data Sharing

Twitter sent a notification to business clients last week acknowledging a data breach that exposed the personal and billing information of some users. The breach occurred due to an issue that led to some users’ sensitive information being stored in the browser’s cache. Twitter explained that it recently became aware of this issue. Business users were warned that prior to May 20, 2020, if you viewed your billing information on ads.twitter or analytics.twitter your account’s billing information may be at risk.

Twitter did not release an estimate of the accounts affected, but it did specify that only business customers were at risk, and only a percentage of business customers had any details exposed. The leaked information potentially included email addresses, users’ contact numbers, and the last four digits of credit card numbers used for Ads accounts. Twitter business customers should monitor potentially affected payment accounts.

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Industry: Healthcare

Exploit: Internal Email Account Compromise

AMT Healthcare revealed this week that it had experienced a data breach affecting a large pool of customers in December 2019 that was discovered through suspicious activity on an employee email account. The California-based company recently completed an investigation into the incident and contacted those who were affected. Potentially compromised data includes patient names, Social Security numbers, medical record numbers, diagnosis information, health insurance policy information, medical history information, and driver’s license/state identification numbers.

Anyone that may be at risk of compromise was informed this week. Extremely sensitive data was compromised in this breach, and those affected should beware of the potential for fraud, identity theft, and spear phishing attempts that this stolen data creates. A filing of the account posted to the breach portal at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services noted that potentially affected patients are being offered free credit monitoring services. 

When clients choose to do sensitive business with a company, they’re also trusting that company to guard their information. This imperative is even stronger for companies that collect health information. Not only does a data breach cost healthcare organizations patient confidence, but it also costs a fortune in HIPPA-related fines. 

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Industry: Higher Education

Exploit: Ransomware

The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) confirmed this week that it paid cybercriminals $1.14 million to decrypt data following a ransomware attack. Although UCSF was able to detect the incident quickly, it was not fast enough to allow cybersecurity teams to quarantine the affected servers, and a significant portion of its medical school and research data was encrypted. The ransom was demanded to free essential COVID-19 research data that was captured in an intrusion on June 1. Reports indicate that UCSF was one of four academic institutions targeted in a single week by the Netwalker ransomware group.  

Ransomware is a growing menace to every organization, and it’s not just sensitive business or financial data that Dark Web criminals are after. Research data has become an increasingly hot commodity. Paying ransoms to cybercriminals to decrypt research data sets a dangerous precedent. Collecting large sums will embolden other groups that can take down big fish to score big paydays.  

Got Kids?

Three Summer Tech Activities for Kids

Here’s a list of some of our favorite activities to keep young minds active and learning in the computer science field! Just click on the images below and it will take you to different resources to help you keep your young ones engaged all summer.

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Free computer science weekly activities that release Mondays — some online, some offline, of varying levels of difficulty. Each activity features a woman in tech who pioneered innovative technology.

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Making paper circuit cards is the perfect union of science, technology, art, and design. For that reason, this activity fits perfectly into any STEAM or STEM curriculum at school, for library events, or just for fun at home. Let kids unleash their creativity as they experiment with paper circuit art and create a unique card that really lights up!

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These binary coding bracelets said “Kind” and “Superkid,” but you can choose any word you want to celebrate the amazingness of your kids. This activity would also make an amazing first-day-of-school activity to help children start the year on the right foot.

Dark Web Questions Answered!

What is the Dark Web?

You’ve heard of the dark web…but what exactly is it? Here are some FAQs courtesy of DARKWEB ID.

The Dark Web is a hidden universe contained within the “Deep Web”- a sub-layer of the Internet that is hidden from conventional search engines. Search engines like Google, BING and Yahoo only search .04% of the indexed or “surface” Internet. The other 99.96% of the Web consists of databases, private academic and government networks, and the Dark Web. The Dark Web is estimated at 550 times larger than the surface Web and growing. Because you can operate anonymously, the Dark Web holds a wealth of stolen data and illegal activity.

Free download

Download the free DARKWEB FAQ sheet now!

Download a free FAQ sheet that explains how to protect yourself, what it means if your organization’s credentials have been exposed and much more…

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Information courtesy of DarkWeb ID.

Free Digital Risk Protection activity Book

DIGITAL RISK PROTECTION ACTIVITY BOOK

This fun activity book teaches kids of all ages about Digital Risk Protection. In this book, three heroes work together to help people and businesses protect their information from being stolen by bad guys. Billy, Penny, and Danny work very hard to guard important Digital Data like passwords, files, banking documents, personal information, business secrets or anything else that is stored on a computer or in the cloud and keep it protected and safe!

DOWNLOAD NOW

This book is courtesy of www.idagent.com.