Did you know that the origin of the phrase having a “skeleton in the closet” originated in Medieval England during King Henry VIII reign when being Catholic could end up with your losing your head on the chopping block? People would hide Catholic priests in their “closets”, or, bathroom or lavatory, since the English call their bathrooms “closets”. Then, in the 19th Century, doctors in England hid corpses in their “closets” (body snatching was a popular crime)to use in teaching their students about anatomy.TOO funny to pass up – this comes courtesy of The Saturday Evening Post by way of a reader in Wisconsin:Two boys are in the hospital lying on gurneys next to each other. ” What are you in for?”, asks one. “To have my tonsils removed”, the second replied. “Oh, that’s an easy operation. I had it done when I was four, and when you wake up, the nurses give you all the Jello and ice cream you want.” The other boy is relieved, and says to the first, “Why are you here?” “A circumcision”, he replies. “Whoa”, says the other boy. ” I had that done when I was born, and I couldn’t walk for a year!”AND, courtesy of The Saturday Evening Post, from a reader in Union, NJ:A doctor, lawyer, a priest, and a little boy are on a small, private plane when suddenly the engine stopped. The pilot grabbed a parachute, told the others they had better jump, then bailed out. But, there were only three parachutes remaining. The physician grabbed one and said, ” I save lives. I must live.” The lawyer took the second parachute, and on exiting the plane said, ” Lawyers are the smartest people in the world. I deserve to live.” The priest looked at the little boy and said, ” My son, I have lived a long life, and yours is still ahead of you. Take the last parachute, and go in peace.” “Don’t worry Father”, , said the little boy replied. ” The smartest man in the world just took off with my backpack.”DID YOU KNOW, that the reason we use the word “mammoth” as a synonym for “huge”, is that Thomas Jefferson first compared something very large to a mammoth’s bones that had just been discovered.
What is it about mobility that brings out the ad hoc in IT? According to the 2014 Global State of Information Security Survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers and CIO magazine, only 42% of companies have a mobile security strategy. Good for the 42 percent. But what about the 58%, a clear majority, that don’t have a mobile security strategy?
It’s a sure bet that most of those companies have employees who use mobile devices. But security for those devices and the applications and data on them is not part of any strategy. Shocking.
We have several vendors, AT&T, Verizon, and 4 others that can review your security systems. Call 877 208 0021 or text 973 714 6192. We can protect your privacy
CYBER THIEVES ARE STALKINGYOU… WHAT YOU CAN DO TO PROTECTYOURSELF
An article in the Wall Street Journal this past Friday announced that TurboTax wastemporarilysuspendingtransmissionofstatee-filedtaxreturnsinresponsetoasurgeincomplaintsfromconsumerswho logged into their TurboTax accounts only to find thieves had already claimed a refund intheir name. That news comes as the most recent of a long trend of cyber threats includingcyberattacks against Home Depot, JP Morgan Chase and Anthem, Inc. Fraudulent return filings stealing millionsof dollars of taxpayer refunds are on the rise. The IRS estimated that it paid $5.2 billion in fraudulentID- theft-relatedrefundsin2013andthey’reexpectingthatnumbertosignificantlyincreasein2014.
The TurboTax problem brings to light a key security issue – end users (individual people) aregetting hacked from their home computers. We speculate that thieves did not break into TurboTax andstealidentities, there was no breach of their security that they could detect.Instead, thieves arestealing your logon information directly from your home and office computers. How? Oftenthrough malware/spyware that loads onto your machine through virus-infected e-mails in your inbox orby visiting infected/compromised websites. Rootkits (a type of virus) is a collection of tools (programs)that may consist of spyware and other programs that secretly monitor your network traffic andrecordkeystrokes as you use your computer and send the information back to the hacker who gathersthis information and sometimes uses or sells it on the dark web to criminals. Another way cybercriminalsgain access to your information is through their ability to hack into your e-mail account. Mostpeople have easy to remember passwords that are also easy to crack which hackers use a tactic calledsocialengineering. A cyber thief cracks your e-mail password, logs in as you, can easily search through youre- mail and gather all sorts of financial information about you (how many of us get our monthly bankand quarterly investment information e-mailed to us instead of paper-mailed?). They then accessthose financial sites and use the “reset logon” or “reset password” features most sites permit, wait forthe “reset” e-mail to hit your e-mail account and change the logon information. Some of the moresecure siteshaveimplementedsecurityquestionsasanextralevelofsecuritywhichcanpreventhacking.
There’s definitely a trend for thieves to get into your computer and gather enough informationabout you to file a fake tax return. At Wiss we’ve had a handful of clients experience this. Our firm hasvery sophisticated, multi-level security in place to protect our clients’ data, but thieves had stolenenoughinformationfromclients’homecomputertofilloutafakereturnandgetsomesortofrefunddelivered to an account that was then closed. We became aware of it when we went to file the actual returnand the taxing authority rejected it because one had already been filed for that taxpayer’s socialsecurity information. Working with the taxing authority to register the theft, file the correct return andsecure the refund for the client is an arduous task that can take many months and requires a ton ofpaperwork and proof of identity by the taxingauthority.
So what can you do to protect yourself?Here are some basic things you cando:
1.Install and maintain a quality anti-virus software which will check for viruses on yourhome and/or office computer on a regular basis which also checks for viruses on incoming email.Just as important as installing anti-virus software is to update it regularly. As new versionsare released upgrades should be installed. Cyber thieves and hackers are fast and adaptable.New
viruses are discovered hourly so it’s very important to make sure your anti-virussoftwareupdates on an automatic schedule which should be set to an hourlybasis.
2.Firewalls either on your network and/or computer must be enabled, configured properly,and updated. Firewalls can keep the bad guys out and your datasafe.
3.Never open unknown or suspicious e-mail. Know your senders and know what you subscribeto. Social engineering and phishing tactics are used to infiltrate your computer, meaning theyenter your computer when you open the e-mail containing the virus. For example, an email froma frequent contact may appear to be from them but the email address behind the person’sname is from a cyber-thief. Viruses can do things like track keystrokes and send the informationback to the cyber thief who can then access any accounts you’ve visited on yourcomputer.
4.Obtain your software from reputable sources – downloading programs you’ve purchasedfrom shady sources or freeware sites are most likely infected. Be sure to keep your systemand programs up to date as security patches are released periodically. Internet browsershave security features in them such as popup blockers, smart screen filters, ActiveX filteringand security features that should be enabled and configuredproperly.
5.Hackers often leave infected USB drives unattended for you to pick up in the hopes thatyou plugit intoyourcomputerso theycangainaccess.Mostvirusscansoftwarewillscanmediaasit is introduced to your computer. As a best practice you should always scan all mediabeforeintroducing to your computer andnetwork.
6.Don’t keep sensitive financial passwords, logons and other information in your online mailor transmit this information electronically. I can’t tell you how many clients we see who storetheir social security number, logons with passwords for financial institutions and other data asa “contact or email from themselves” in their mailbox or keep scans of social security cardsstored in their online photo album or on their computer desktop or “C” drive. This is prime fodderfor cyber thieves who have applications to scan and pick up this information quickly andeasily.
7.Thieves are also highly-adept at figuring out passwords and utilize complex passwordcracking programs so you need to keep a step ahead of them by making your passwordimpenetrable:
a.The longer the password, the tougher it is to crack so try to use 10 or 12character passwords that mix letters and numbers. Best way to do a password: pick a sentenceor phrase you can easily remember and then use the first letters/numbers of eachword, alternating capitals and lowercase and adding a special character somewhere.For example, take the phrase: “Jack and Jill went up a hill” which can be typedas, J@cknJiL!w3nt^Ahi!! . That’s a tough password tocrack.
b.Be unpredictable – don’t use birthdays, your name, common words, SSN, etc. in anypartof thepassword.
c.Do not use the same password for multipleaccounts.
d.Do not text message, email passwords or store passwordselectronically.
e.Change your password regularly (make it a practice to change themquarterly)
f.Do not use sticky notes on your monitor or desk with logon information. Thisisextremely dangerous.
