Tips to avoid being scared to death by cyber criminals this spooky season

The spooky season is in full swing – the summer is over, and the temperatures have dropped. As the day gets shorter, the leafy streets and the smell of pumpkin spice latte are slowly telling everyone that the fall has arrived. However, the spooky season is not all about pumpkin patches and Halloween decorations. 

We may not be sure how helpful are the scary costumes when it comes to warding off evil spirits, but we may know a thing or two when it comes to spooking cyber criminals. Evil spirits don’t aim to drain your bank account, steal your identity, ruin your business, and destroy your life. 

Still, most online bad actors’ primary goal is to exploit cyber loopholes and swindle anyone who is unprotected or unwise enough to fall for their scams. Here are our five tips on spooking criminals away from you and your loved ones.

Freeze your credit

There have been so many data leaks over the years that your SSN and other sensitive information are very likely dangling around on the dark web.

When hackers steal credit card numbers, banks issue new ones with different numbers – but the government makes it extremely hard for people should they want to change SSNs.

You likely don’t get to buy a new car or a house or do transactions that require SSN often, so freezing your credit is arguably one of the best ways to spook the crooks. Keep it frozen and unfreeze it only when necessary.  

Don’t click on links in emails and text messages

There are a variety of scams that could reach you. All of them have one thing in common – they exploit a weakness. 

Users would accidentally (or on purpose) click on a suspicious link in a phishing email. Others might feel lonely enough to reply to a random person starting an online conversation and lose their lifetime savings in a pig butchering scam.

Whatever the weakness, try to hide it and show strength instead – that certainly is a way to shoo off the fraudsters. 

Antivirus software

Indeed, one of the best ways to scare off crooks is by having a proper defense system. Some antivirus software solutions are so good that they destroy any hacking attempts.

They hide your information when necessary; they help you stay untraced while browsing online; they prevent phishing emails from reaching you and block you from being able to visit suspicious websites.

The systems also run scans on your connected device and quarantine suspicious files.

Change your passwords frequently

Cybercriminals love to take advantage of old stolen password databases. You will be safe if you maintain good password hygiene and change passcodes every three months. Passwords that are twelve characters or more and contain numbers, letters, and special symbols are preferable. 

Fraudsters get less motivated if they deal with a long and strong password. Activating two-factor authentication also helps as it stops hackers from forcing their way into a bank account or a profile. 

Shop wisely

The spooky season also marks the beginning of the shopping season.

Apart from shopping only at recognizable online stores, an excellent way to spook bad actors is using credit cards instead of debit cards. Credit cards often have insurance, so you will likely get refunded even if you fall for a scam. 

However, if you’ve purchased stuff with your debit card and hackers somehow have managed to steal your card info, they could potentially drain your bank account, and the bank won’t be able to do much to restore the stolen funds. 

Make the spooky season even spookier for fraudsters by following the above tips. Keeping the bad actors away would give you more time to enjoy the fall festivities and prepare for the holidays.  

The post How do you spook cyber criminals? appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.

Casino and hotel giant Caesars Entertainment reports compromised driver’s license and social security numbers of loyalty program customers.

Caesars Entertainment, the company operating more than fifty properties, including some of Las Vegas’ most significant landmarks, such as Caesars Palace and Paris Las Vegas, has been hit by a cyber-attack that compromised the sensitive personal information of many loyalty program customers. The incident resulted from a social engineering attack on a third-party IT support vendor hired by the resort giant.

The stolen information includes full names, driver’s licenses, social security numbers, addresses, and other personal information that fraudsters could exploit. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Caesars Entertainment paid a big chunk of $30 million ransom to the hackers after they threatened to release the stolen information. There is no evidence that the stolen data has been used to commit crimes, and the number of affected individuals remains unknown.

Caesars Entertainment discovered the attack on September 7th, 2023, and is currently cooperating with authorities to establish the identity of the perpetrators. The resort giant also stated that they have started notifying individuals who might have been affected by the cyber security attack. The victims are being offered credit monitoring and identity theft protection services.

Those caught in the spider’s web

Caesars Entertainment and all its high-profile properties on the Las Vegas Strip are not the only ones affected by hackers. Sin City generated interest among cybercriminals as another entertainment giant reported a similar incident. Bad actors also crippled MGM.

The cybercriminals responsible for the incident are either from ALPHV, also often referred to as Black Cat, or an organization called Scattered Spider. The attack was noticed by MDM on September 10th after doors and elevators in MGM facilities became unusable, as well as slot machines and ATMs.

MGM was forced to shut down computer systems for days, causing inconvenience to both employees and customers. Currently, there is no information on how the attack happened and if it is related to the attack on Caesars Entertainment.

The FBI is investigating the incident, and CISA is working with MGM to understand the impact of the cyber security breach, as currently, it is unknown what the hackers managed to steal from the entertainment giant. MGM’s official website was not operational for days.

Hackers might go after other high-profile players in Las Vegas, including Hard Rock International and Vici Properties, the organizations behind other Las Vegas landmarks, such as The Mirage, Luxor, and Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. However, neither Vici Properties nor Hard Rock International reported any recent cyber incidents.

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Hackers compromise Vitalik Buretin’s X account stealing $800k+ worth of crypto.

Hackers managed to hijack Vitalik Buretin’s X (formerly known as Twitter) account and tweeted a link that directed his nearly five million followers to a malicious link.

The founder of Ethereum is one of the most followed people in the crypto world, but even X’s tight security could not stop the hackers who managed to run away with almost $1 million worth of digital funds.

The now-deleted tweet stated that Vitalik invites everyone to celebrate Proto-Danksharding’s coming to Ethereum. This feature supposedly aims to significantly reduce the cost of transactions in the ETH ecosystem. Instead of getting access to a free commemorative NFT called “Proto” Vitalik’s hacked account forwarded the victims to a malicious site, inviting the victims to connect their wallets to claim the “free” NFT. This was obviously a scam, as crypto funds worth hundreds of thousands of dollars were drained. 

One of the first people to notice the abnormality in Vitalik’s Twitter account was his father, who tweeted that people should disregard the post as Vitalik was working on restoring access to his hacked account. Many others followed after realizing that the link was malicious and ingenuine.

Read also: Cryptocurrency Scams: What to Know and How to Avoid Them

The hackers likely managed to access Buretin’s Twitter account by SIM swap or using an inside person at X. The investigation is ongoing. Luckily, the social media account was restored only a few hours after publishing the fraudulent tweet. Many are now asking Vitalik to reimburse the victims. Vitalik Buretin has not confirmed whether he plans to find a way somehow to take care of the victims of the scam. X has not published a comment either. The price of ETH briefly dipped after the cyber incident. 

Being a public figure does not mean not suffering cyberattacks

Even the most knowledgeable tech people in the world are in danger of hacking. Vitalik Buretin did not register any monetary losses from this cyber-attack, but his reputation certainly took a hit. The fact that he is one of the most influential figures in the crypto industry does not insure him from cyber-attacks. On the contrary, it makes him a more attractive target to eager cyber criminals.

Vitalik Buretin is not the only high-profile person temporarily losing control of a social media account. Hackers often target celebrities to push scams. Phishing messages can come from everywhere and on different platforms. Proper antivirus software installed on all connected devices prevents users from ending up on malicious websites, even if the links come from public figures.

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We analysed the results of our Europe-wide survey on cybersecurity, focusing on the safety of children on the Internet and how parents act in certain situations in order to prevent and address the various dangers that can arise for their children.

• Of the total number of respondents, 1511 people have children under the age of 18 and answered our cybersecurity-related questions.
• Almost 8 out of 10 Europeans are very or fairly concerned about what their children might be doing when they go online.
• Almost 2 out of 3 Europeans (64.26%) have some form of parental controls installed on the computer or mobile phone that their children use.

Is cybersecurity unfinished business for adults?

With the return to school, children and teenagers are once again immersed in the digital world, where education and entertainment are intertwined online. Although the Internet offers countless opportunities for learning and fun, it also presents dangers that can significantly affect youngsters. 

In this article, Panda Security wants to highlight the risks that children can face online and provide advice on how to protect them while navigating the Internet, based on the results of a survey of European parents.

Things have changed quite a lot: children used to come with a loaf of bread under their arm, but now it could be said that they come with an electronic device. Our little ones have grown up with the Internet, while those of us who are not so little have had to learn about it “by force”, as it has crept into our jobs, our homes and our children’s education.

Although it is true that in the face of this situation adults have largely adopted an “adapt or die” attitude, now may be a good time with the beginning of a new academic year to go over those pending subjects which will help them to further improve their online skills.

Are we aware of the dangers that children can encounter when surfing the Internet?

From inappropriate content, to sharing personal information or suffering cyberbullying. Our little ones are just that, little, and if there is one thing that characterises them, it is their innocence and genuine ignorance of the dangers they can encounter on the Internet.

For them, the Internet is their playground and somewhere where they feel safe, as they not only play on it at home, but they also use it at school as a learning tool.  

And it is at this point that we adults come into play. You could say that our children are a football team and we are the coaches, and as coaches we have the mission to guide and get the best out of our players on the pitch, i.e. on the Internet.

Nearly 8 out of 10 Europeans surveyed with children under the age of 18 admit to being very or somewhat concerned about what their children might be doing when they go online (78.69%), with 13.5% are not very or somewhat concerned, and 7.81% not very or not at all concerned. Italy is the country whose citizens are the most concerned (87.72%), followed by Spain (83.63%). In Germany there is a higher percentage of respondents who are neither very or slightly concerned (23.01%), or not very or not at all concerned (15.03%).

We would like to recommend this post with some cybersecurity tips.

Cyberbullying and measures on how to deal with it

As we mentioned before, our children’s playground is now the Internet, and as bullying goes digital, a new term has entered our online dictionary: cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying consists of harassing, intimidating or humiliating another person through social networks, messaging applications or online gaming platforms.

In fact, 11% of Europeans say that their children have been cyberbullied at some point. Germany is the country with the highest percentage of respondents indicating that their children have been cyberbullied (15.95%), followed by France (11.96%), while Italian citizens are the ones who mostly deny it being a problem (73.35%). In the case of Spain, respondents indicate to a greater extent than other countries that they do not know if their children have been cyberbullied, and therefore cannot say for sure (23.79%).

“Talking to the person involved, going to the school to talk to the teachers, addressing the issue with the parents of the person doing the bullying, or bringing the case to the attention of the authorities are some of the most common reactions of parents when they learn that their children have been cyberbullied”.

In terms of the actions taken by respondents to deal with such a situation, we found different reactions.

The reaction of 38% of respondents who have children who have been cyberbullied was to talk directly to the person involved (38.15%). This was followed by talking to the teachers at school (31.21%), finding out who was behind it and talking to their parents (30.06%), leaving their child to fend for themselves (24.86%), reporting it to the police (22.54%), and ignoring the issue and putting it down as a child or adolescent issue (3.47%). 

Breaking it down by country, the French (47.27%) and Italians (36.11%) indicate that when faced with cyberbullying they spoke directly to the person, while Germans preferred to speak with the parents (40.38%), and in the case of Spaniards, they let their child defend for themselves (36.67%) or reported it to the police (36.67%).

Apart from implementing the previously mentioned measures, something we must not forget about is to talk to the victim, let them know that they are not alone in this situation and provide them with the necessary solutions, such as going to psychological therapy. Cyberbullying can be very hard for our children to deal with emotionally and it is our duty to help them to move past it.

Parental control tools to face up to the dangers of the Internet

It is clear that the aforementioned measures that parents adopt once they are aware of the dangers on the Internet are good, but this security can be further strengthened if we use parental control tools such as those we provide at Panda Security.

We offer online security solutions specifically designed to protect children in the digital age. These tools include content filtering, parental controls and online activity monitoring, which can be useful in maintaining a safe online environment.

It is crucial for parents to use parental control tools and to be aware of their children’s online activities. With 9 out of 10 Europeans typically monitoring their children’s online use, what if that 9 became 10 out of 10? This may seem like a small increase, but it could help to significantly reduce the levels of cyberbullying.

In addition to this, ongoing education about the dangers of the Internet and how to surf safely is essential for children to make informed choices.

Encourage responsible use

Something that should also be considered is the responsible use of the Internet, not only in terms of treating other Internet users with respect, but also in terms of the time children spend online. 

There are various WHO studies about the recommended maximum amount of time that children should spend on the Internet, and it is important to know how to disconnect in order to connect with the outside world. 

Encouraging responsible use can be done by setting time limits and as adults setting an example by limiting the amount of time we spend on our own electronic devices.

By educating children about online safety, setting boundaries and using parental control tools, we can help them make the most of the opportunities offered by technology while keeping them safe from online dangers. Together, we can create a safer and more positive online environment to accompany children on their educational journey.

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Like most people, you probably read customer reviews before you buy something online. In fact, 95% of people say that reviews are helpful when making purchasing decisions.

Realizing this, some sellers (and even major brands) have begun writing fake reviews – either to make their own products look better or to discredit their competitors. In fact, one study found that 31% of reviews left on Amazon, Walmart and BestBuy were fake.

So how can you spot these fake reviews?

Use a review checking service

Websites like ReviewMeta and FakeSpot use advanced language analysis to assess whether reviews are real or fake. Simply paste the URL for a product and click ‘Analyze’. Both of these sites provide a score indicating how many ‘suspicious’ reviews have been written. You will also see a warning if the product has received a high proportion of fake reviews.

ReviewMeta and FakeSpot are optimized for use with Amazon, but they can also grade many other popular shopping sites. Unfortunately this does mean that not every site or product can be analyzed in this way.

Don’t just rely on stars

You’ll notice that many products have been rated 4.5 stars or higher. Sometimes this indicates a truly great product – other times it is evidence of fakery. Take time to read some of the reviews, particularly those of average or lower scores to try and get a balanced cross-section of what people are saying.

Use your common sense

Very short reviews (‘Great!!’, ‘Excellent product’, ‘Love this item’) aren’t very helpful. There is also a high chance that these reviews are fake, used to boost the star rating of the product.

Again, take some time to read other, longer reviews that provide more information about the product and the customer’s experience.

Read professional reviews

Customer reviews can sometimes be limited by the writer’s lack of experience. Say you want to buy a camera; the customer reviews are usually written by someone with very limited experience of cameras – in fact they may have only ever used that one device. A camera expert will have worked with many cameras however, allowing them to give a more detailed description and to compare between devices to help you make a smarter choice.

Because of this, expert reviews are particularly important when making high value purchases.

Check the reviewer

When considering reviews, take a moment to check out the reviewer themselves. Have they written many reviews? Have they written a lot of reviews in a very short period of time? Always be wary of accounts that have only ever written a single review. And reviewers who write lots of evaluations in a short period are very likely to be fake.

If you can’t trust the person writing the review, you can’t trust what they have written.

Just like when dealing with malware, your best protection against fake reviews is to keep your wits about you. These five tips will help you spot a fake review – and avoid falling victim to scammers.

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