According to the US Department of Homeland Security, ‘Our Shared Responsibility’ - the theme for NCSAM 2009 - means that “all computer users, not just industry and government, have a responsibility to practise good ‘cyber hygiene’ and to protect themselves and their families at home, at work and at school.”
E-mail Scams on the Rise
A recent report by the security consultancy, Intrepidus Group, found that e-mail spam is increasing and made up 87% of all e-mails sent in August. The report also found that within an hour of a phishing e-mail being sent out by scammers, 60% of people click on them. Intrepidus Group warn that seeing as scammers are able to reap results within such small time frames, it doesn’t give online security experts time to deal with the problem.
Phishing Attacks
By sending phishing e-mails, scammers have the precise aim of getting people to give out personal information such as bank details and social security numbers. The scammers pretend to be from a legitimate company or bank in an attempt to trick customers into disclosing their personal information.
If customers do disclose personal information, it is actually entered onto bogus websites operated by the fraudsters. The phishing e-mails normally state that it is necessary for customers to ‘update’ or ‘verify’ their customer account information, by clicking on a link that takes them to a genuine-looking bogus website.
Users are advised not to click on a link in an e-mail unless they are absolutely sure that it is genuine. If the e-mail says it’s from a company the users deals with, it is far safer to type in the company’s url directly into the address bar instead of clicking on the link. This can help to avoid internet users being tricked into visiting bogus websites that appear to be genuine on first appearances.
Cyber Security Awareness Month Aims to Educate
Run by the US Department of Homeland Security, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (MS-ISAC), the NCSAM aims to educate more people on how they can protect themselves from cyber crimes online. The awareness month coincides with resolution 285, which was passed by the Senate this week, supporting a goal to ensure US citizens are increasingly aware of how to be secure on the Internet. The NCSAM last year reached more than 29million Americans via the media, school lesson plans and various partnerships with companies and associations.
Advice to Keep Safe Online
In particular, the Department of Homeland Security is urging every computer user to take the following steps:
- Ensure anti-virus software and firewalls are installed, correctly configured and up-to-date. As new cyber threats are identified every day, keeping software up-to-date is crucial. Computers should be programmed to automatically update, ensuring that the latest security is in place at all times.
- Update the computer’s operating system and other critical program software. Again, automatic software updating should be switched on.
- Back-up key files by copying them onto a removable disc or similar and store them in a safe place.
What are the Current Online Cyber Threats?
In general, online scams are becoming more targeted. Scams including the Nigerian 419 email and the lottery scam are still popular and gain a steady flow of victims. Social networking websites are becoming an increasingly preferred source of information-gathering about people because users are already divulging a lot of personal information relatively freely. It is therefore fairly easy for scammers to glean enough information about a person to construct an e-mail that appears to be legitimate. Recently, Facebook revealed an increase in what it calls Facebook 419 scams, where cyber-criminals log-in to a user’s account, posing as that person to ask everyone who is a friend for money.
Security experts also warn that mobile phones with an multiplying number of mobile Internet functions and applications could be the next targets for cyber scams.
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