Tag Archives: Computer Hacker

1 In 2 Canadians Always Accept Browser Cookies

August 17, 2022 The Silo Leave a comment

Digital privacy expert explains why often accepting cookies poses cyber risks

According to new research commissioned by internet security company NordVPN, only 3.5% of Canadians never accept cookies. To make matters worse, a whopping 43% say they always accept cookies. While most HTTP cookies are safe, some can be used to track people without their consent. Even more, cookies can sometimes be spied upon or used to fake the identity of a user, to gain access to their account or use their identity to commit a crime.

“HTTP cookies are vital to the internet, but they are also a vulnerability to people’s privacy. As a necessary part of web browsing, cookies help web developers to provide more personal, convenient website visits. Because of cookies, websites remember you, your logins, shopping carts, and even more. But they can also be a treasure trove of private information for criminals to spy on,” says Daniel Markuson, a digital privacy expert at NordVPN.

What are cookies, and why are they a threat?

Also known as an HTTP cookie or browser cookie, a cookie is a piece of data that’s stored on your browser whenever you visit a website. When enabled, the website will remember your preferences and any small changes you made during your last visit.

Cookies are a normal and necessary part of the internet. Without them, you couldn’t log into a website or fill your online shopping cart. However, too many cookies can become a threat to both your security and privacy.

“People need to be aware that cookies follow you online. Even if you hide your IP address with a VPN, cookies can track what you do online and form a partial ID of who you are. Moreover, third parties can sell your cookies. Some sites earn revenue by serving third-party cookies. These aren’t functional – their purpose is to turn a profit from your data. Also, cookies are a vulnerability. With the wrong browser settings or when visiting the wrong website, cookies can introduce security vulnerabilities to your browsing experience,” says Daniel Markuson, a digital privacy expert.

68.5% of Canadians feel that their online data is used for targeted ads

Research shows that Canadians feel the consequences of collected cookies:

68.5% feel that their online data is used for targeted ads;
66% feel that it’s being sold to other companies.
Moreover, 57% and 53% respectively believe that their data is analyzed by websites for their internal use and that it’s used by social media platforms for people to find the most relevant information

“Canadians must be pretty aware of the constant pop-up requesting them to ‘Accept all cookies?’ while visiting online websites. It happens in order to comply with data privacy laws, which were designed to protect users’ personal information and force companies to state what kind of data is being collected and how it is being used,” says Daniel Markuson.

How to stop cookies from tracking you

There are plenty of tools and tips to make your online activity more private.

“First, navigate to your browser’s settings and choose to delete all the cookies stored in your browser. Most browsers also offer features to block unnecessary cookies automatically. Second, use incognito mode. While incognito mode does not equal privacy, this is exactly what it was made for — setting aside a single browsing session that won’t save cookies and your history.

On a related note concerning personal data- The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) tracked 33 million Canadians via their mobile devices to “monitor lockdowns” during to coronavirus pandemic. Privacy advocates said they were concerned about the data tracking.

Finally, use a VPN. One of a VPN’s core features is to hide your IP address, which is critical if you want your online searches to stay private. You can also look at installing various types of tracker blocker programs. That means that third-party cookies won’t be able to gather data about people’s browsing habits and create a detailed profile on you.

Methodology: The survey was commissioned by NordVPN and conducted by the external company Cint on October 4-12, 2021. The survey’s target group was residents of France, the USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, and Poland aged 18+ (nationally representative), and the sample was taken from national internet users. Quotas were placed on age, gender, and place of residence. 7800 people were surveyed in total, made up of 800 people from Spain and 1000 people from each of the remaining countries.

Travel

Wear USB Condoms- Hackers Are Poised To Attack Tourists This Travel Season

June 29, 2022 The Silo Leave a comment

As the 2022 school year comes to an end, the surge of summer travel plans begins. With an estimated 60% of Canadians and Americans planning at least one trip over the next 3 months, hackers have roughly 200,000,000 projected tourists to prey on.

Lookout’s Cyber Security Expert, Hank Schless, shares how these cyber-attacks usually capitalize on travelers who are often overwhelmed or distracted when in unfamiliar environments, like airports and cafes.

>> Public Wifi Connections

“Although many airports offer free Wi-Fi connectivity, you should make sure that you join the official airport network and not a similar network that is configured to trick travelers into giving up their usernames and passwords”

Attackers have been known to set up fake networks – with obvious but convincing names like ‘Starbucks_Guest_WiFi’.
Once you connect, they’ll gain access to sensitive information, including your login credentials, emails, and messages.
In order to protect yourself from wifi threats, alter your device’s settings so that it does not automatically connect to nearby networks, which the Lookout app does automatically.

>> Social Awareness & Juice Jacking

While on the go, travelers rely on power outlets and USB cords to keep their mobile device’s battery charged. Attackers can exploit USB chargers by loading malware onto them that infects your device the second you plug it in – Always be aware of your surroundings.

The “USB condom” works by physically disconnecting the data pins of a USB device and only allowing the power pins to make contact.

If someone approaches you and offers their USB charging cord, it is best to decline.

Always travel with your personal USB cords, and plug your charger directly into an electrical socket (vs USB port) if possible.
The easiest place for a scammer to steal or hack your phone is in crowded areas – so never leave your phone or device unattended and only let people you know “borrow” your devices.

>> SMS and Email Travel Updates

“It’s important to be on guard for travel-related email, text, and social media scams as well. Attackers may try to steal a traveler’s credentials through phishing campaigns that pretend to be an airline, credit card company, or TSA”

The Lookout App by Google is now available in Canada.

Here’s how it works: A scammer will send a message telling the recipient that their TSA PreCheck needs to be renewed, but the link in the renewal email leads to a fake site where hackers can accept payment and steal a victim’s personal information.

Although the TSA sends renewal reminder texts and emails, travelers should always go directly to the TSA website for information on their existing accounts.
For added protection, consumers can also download security – Security protection, like the Lookout app, will automatically monitor and identify scam URLs in email, text messages, and on the web and block you from threats that can do harm.

Sci-Tech

top brands impersonated most in phishing attacks

August 5, 2021 The Silo Leave a comment

Criminals continue to impersonate well-known brands to trick people into giving up their personal information.

According to the data presented by the Atlas VPN team, Crédit Agricole, a French financial group, was by far the most used brand in phishing attacks in H1 2021. The brand was linked with 17,755 unique phishing URLs, followed by social media giant Facebook with 17,338 and Microsoft with 12,777.

The figures are based on Phisher’s Favorite Top 25 H1 2021 report by Vade, which looks at the 25 most impersonated brands in phishing attacks from January 1, 2021, to June 30, 2021.

Multi-platform messaging service provider WhatsApp is the second social media brand to make the top ten list. It was taken advantage of in 8,727 phishing attacks. Meanwhile, French bank La Banque Postale occupies the fifth spot with 7,180 attacks.

Other brands in the top ten list include multinational telecoms company Orange (4,047), the world’s largest online retailer Amazon (3,501), multibillion-dollar media, entertainment, and communications company Comcast (3,116), digital payment service provider PayPal (2,601), and American national bank Chase (2,537).

Most phishing assaults were perpetrated in Brazil, followed by Russia and Indonesia.

Financial brands were criminals’ favorite

Generally, cybercriminals choose highly-trusted brands in their phishing campaigns. However, brands in certain industries were more favored than others.

Financial service brands were particularly popular in phishing attempts due to the rise in digital payments and growing reliance on online banking during the pandemic. They accounted for 36% of URL phishing attacks in H1 2021.

Cybercriminals spoofed well-known financial brands such as Crédit Agricole, La Banque Postale, PayPal, Chase, Wells Fargo, Square, HSBC, and Banque Populaire to lure out sensitive information from unsuspecting victims.

Social media companies were also heavily impacted. Social media brand impersonation accounted for over a quarter (26%) of all brand phishing attacks in the first half of this year. Apart from Facebook and WhatsApp, Instagram and LinkedIn were common choices for criminals.

Next up is the cloud sector. Cloud companies like Microsoft, Netflix, Adobe, and DocuSign were involved in 17% of URL phishing attacks. Meanwhile, 11% of phishing assaults targeted e-commerce and logistics companies, such as Amazon, DHL, Rakuten, Apple, and eBay.

The remaining 10% of brands spoofed in URL phishing attacks were internet and telecommunication companies, such as Orange, Comcast, Yahoo, SFR (9%), as well as government organizations (1%).

Tips to avoid phishing scams

Keep your browser up to date. Look out for browser updates. They are released regularly and may contain security patches for vulnerabilities that were discovered on the browser. Cybercriminals often launch attacks to exploit known security vulnerabilities. Therefore it is essential to install any browser updates as soon as they become available.
Inspect the website’s URL. Carefully inspect the website’s URL before taking any action. Criminals use visually similar characters such as lower case “L” and capital “I” to deceive people into thinking they are on a legitimate website.
Look for an SSL certificate. Make sure the portal address starts with HTTPS (not with HTTP) and has a green padlock symbol before the web address. This means that the website has an SSL certificate, and the connection is encrypted.
Beware of grammar mistakes. Scammers rarely hire professional writers to check their copy-cat website’s content for errors. If a website is riddled with spelling mistakes, there is a high chance it is not legitimate.
Check if the website has been flagged. You can use URL checkers to see if the website has already been flagged. You can find many tools for this purpose by searching “Check URL safety” in Google.
Use Tracker Blocker. Take advantage of the Atlas VPN Tracker Blocker tool, which stops third-party trackers and blocks malicious websites for a safer browsing experience.

Sci-Tech

World Agencies Are Eradicating Car Hacking

February 19, 2019 The Silo Leave a comment

With Cars becoming more like smartphones nowadays, we thought we’d take a look at the growing concern of Car hacking, a phenomenon that’s sending chill up motorists’ and manufacturers’ spines across the globe, more efficiently than any air-conditioning unit could ever do.

However, perhaps even more importantly, we’ll tell you what the world’s governing agencies are doing to help eradicate car hacking and what YOU can do to prevent your car from being hacked. For the Silo, Louis S. Dixon and our friends at Select Car Leasing UK.