Top-10 Craigslist Scams

 By Hector Cisneros

Image courtesy Pixabay

I’m old enough that I can still remember when classified ads were printed in newspapers. Then in 1995 a website called Craigslist was launched in San Francisco that provided free classified advertising.  Since that time, Craigslist has grown to cover the entire US plus seventy foreign countries.  It’s also begun charging for some of the classified ads that were once free.  During the past 26 years, Craigslist has had to deal with publicity over several highly publicized crimes that made the front pages of the same newspapers the portal was trying to supplant. To date Craigslist has been linked to everything from solicitation and rape to robbery and murder.  While the website is still the tenth most trafficked site in the US, before you post or respond to your next classified ad there, you need to understand how criminals can use the site to do you harm.  Below is my list of top-10 Craigslist scams and how to avoid being victimized.      

Thwarting Cyber Thieves (Reprinted from https://insuranceorangepark.blogspot.com)

Image Courtesy flickr

As a marketing company, we have been warning about the dangers of cybercriminals since 2012. We believe that cybercrime is not only a threat to the trustworthiness of Internet ecommerce structure, but it is also a direct threat to the very freedoms we hold so dear as Americans. We have written extensively about this subject. In fact, any search on cybercrime or Cybersecurity will bring forth a list of dozens of articles. Today's episode of Working the Web to Win comes to us from one of our favorite clients, Catherine Powell, the owner of A Plus All Florida Insurance of Orange Park. Her article delves right into the heart of cybercrime and how it can drastically, negatively affect your life.  So without further a due, read and share - Thwarting Cyber Thieves.

Bulletproofing Your Digital Domain (Reprinted from Small Business Group)

Courtesy of  Flickr

We often write about hack attacks, hackers, cyber criminals and cyber security. This episode called "Bulletproofing Your Digital Domain", is from one of our clients (Small Business Groups) who published this article on how to protect your digital assets and cyber security. We think you will enjoy it because it's factual and get straight to the point with regards to the risk that all business have when using digital assets like websites, video channels and social media pages. Small Business Groups blog offer a good selection of great articles covering Business management and account tips. If your looking for good advice on how to improve your business, their blog is a good place to start. You can also contact them for a FREE Consultation there as well. So enjoy their article and make sure you share it with your friends, I know I will.

The Latest on Cybercriminal Phishing Attacks with Fake Insurance Ads, Surveys & More

Courtesy of Pixabay

By Hector Cisneros

I have been writing about cybercrime for over seven years now, but this year I have seen a marked increase in targeted email phishing attacks based on my Baby-Boomer profile. Obviously, the boomers are coming of age, but I also attribute this increase to the recent massive cyber breaches at Yahoo, Equifax, Facebook, and other mega database holders. The massive Baby-Boomer population along with the above-mentioned massive breaches are all leading to a perfect cyber phishing storm because now cyber-criminals have everything they need to profile this population. In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will explore the uptick in email phishing, its causes, its targets and what preventive measures you can take to prevent this perfect storm from sinking your cyber life. So, batten down your cyber hatches and get ready to be schooled on the latest cyber-criminal phishing attack along with the best ways to protect your cyber world.

How to Implement an Internet Security Counter Attack

Courtest of Wikimedia Commons

By Hector Cisneros

For more than a decade, hackers and cybercriminals have been increasingly wreaking havoc on business, government and the general public. Cybercrime has increased by a 100-fold in the last decade. Now it’s time to counterattack! But how, you ask? By what means do we have to counter this ever-growing menace? The fact is, we always could stop most hack attacks in their tracks. It’s just that people and businesses and governments try to implement what I call the least effort most gain strategy. This does not work! What does work is to implement the tools available and to then continuously upgrading your capability to stop all threats. Plus, there are new security measures available to make it much harder to breach your defenses. By implementing new and time-tested measures to thwart cybercriminals dead in their tracks, you can safeguard your digital domain.

What are these new and tried and true security measures? How can a business, government, or individual protect themselves from the increasing threats of cybercrime? In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will explore new security measures that have just been released by Google and other companies to help counterattack the latest hacking threats being perpetrated by cyber criminals and rogue nations. We will also provide a detailed security plan that will stop most cyberattacks in their tracks. This will provide the reader with a list of potential threats and a means to further thwart hack attacks. So, get ready to print out this article and bolster your security as we delve into the latest in internet security methods to counterattack those who hack.

Does Ransomware Make you Want to Cry?

How Hacker Threats are Turning the Internet into a Financial Minefield

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

By Hector Cisneros

Every year since 2011, we have been writing about the tremendous threat that internet hacking poses. The number of hacks has continuously gone up every year since then. The financial cost has skyrocketed, and the number of lives this menace affects is mind boggling. In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will cover how this threat exploits your digital life, we will explore new ways to protect yourself, and we will provide a checklist of items that must be deployed to stop these hack attacks in their tracks.

It's a Black Hat Christmas - Are Hackers in Your Stocking?

Courtesy of WorkingtheWebtoWin.com

By Hector Cisneros

The holidays are here! It’s almost Christmas. Your shopping for your loved ones, scoping out all the deals when you get an email from your favorite store for an incredible deal. All you have to do is log in and claim your special to win Christmas. What could be easier? Or is it? Every year at this time cybercriminals ramp up and sharpen their social engineering hacker techniques to capture your usernames and passwords. They want to gain access to your digital devices and secure the claim to your financial data. This year, it's time to shop on a smarter level. In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will show you more than a dozen ways to protect your data and shopping experience to make this holiday special in a positive way. Don’t let the black hat hackers get in your Christmas stocking.

In Christmases of the past, we have written about how cyber thieves and hacking increases during the holidays. This is because so many shoppers are too busy hunting for a deal and not paying attention to their cyber security. First, we wrote about “The Byte Before Christmas” where we talked about the growing trend of cyber hacking during the holidays along with the bad behavior that goes with Black Friday shopping. Then we wrote an article called “The Grinch Goes Digital,” which covers 12 ways online scammers can steal from you this Christmas. Since then, we have written many other articles about the ever-escalating threat of hackers black hat trickery and how worldwide hacking is becoming a threat to our very way of life.

It's Midnight - Do You Know Where Your Data is?

Courtesy of  Pixabay

Data Protection in the 21^st Century

By Hector Cisneros

Ok, so it’s midnight, and hopefully, you're asleep, and all your data is safe and sound all over the internet, right? What, my data is all over the internet? How can I protect my data if it’s not in my control? Can I really back up data that’s out on the web? Is my security strong enough to stop hackers? Does my service provider have top notch security? Can I restore any lost or stolen data? If you’re asking these kinds of questions, you're wondering if living in the cloud is safe after all. So, why have a backup at all if the cloud isn’t safe? I have three words for you -  Data Breach, Ransomware, and ID Thief! Ok, so that's five words! But the fact remains, most internet users have more vulnerabilities today than ever before! So, if you want to find out how to better protect yourself and any company data that’s in the cloud, tune in and turn on to this week’s episode of Working the Web to Win where we will explore “How to Protect Your Data in the 21^st Century.”

The Cybercrime Clock is Ticking

By Ryan Gilway and Glenn Gray

Image by commons.wikipedia.org

Cybercrime has jumped off the big screen of Hollywood and onto the small screen of business computer users from coast to coast.  Unlike the Hollywood blockbusters, in most cases the hero doesn’t arrive in the nick of time to save the day.  Given the international nature of cybercrime, even the FBI is all but helpless to put a stop to this growing scourge, no matter how big the headlines produced by data breaches get.

The Crypto Crunch - Ransomware Run Amok

Courtesy of  commons.wikimedia.org

By Carl Weiss 

The Crypto Virus is unlike anything you have encountered in the past.  Sure, other forms of malware can disrupt your web browsing, slow your machine to a crawl or pop up an endless stream of annoying ads.  But this nasty bug has the ability to ratchet up your angst a number of ways.  That’s because not only can Crypto encrypt your hard drive and hold your machine for ransom, but it can also infect any other peripheral connected to it, including the cloud.  This is the same virus that so infected the servers of a local police department in Georgia that when the cops asked the FBI what to do, the feds told them to pay the ransom.  Before your wired world gets turned upside down and your computers are held hostage, you had better read on so you can beef up your immunity to the nastiest bug in Cyberspace.

Are You Prepared for the Onslaught of Cyber-Attacks?

By Carl Weiss

Click here to see real-time cyber-attacks - Courtesy of Norse

It's said the only sure things in life are death and taxes. While this pearl of wisdom has stood the test of time, in the not too distant future, there could be an addition to that list: Cyber-Attack. That's because cyber-attacks on businesses and individuals are up nearly 50% in the past year alone. Where cybercriminals used to almost exclusively target big businesses with deep pockets, now that ransomware has become so prolific, small businesses and even individuals are finding their online assets and machines being hijacked. And why not, since most individuals and small businesses offer little in the way of resistance.

Attack of the Botnets

By Robert Kaye and Hector Cisneros

Photo Credit: arlnow.com

Ever wonder how Google knows what’s on your website? Have you ever been infected by malware or a computer virus? Ever pondered how these spammers got your email address? I have one word for you: BOTs! The World Wide Web is crawling with them.  Spider bots to index your website, evil bots that can make you wish you never had a computer, bots that scrape the web for ID information, and bots that you can buy ― but unfortunately break search engine rules ― which then render your domain as an outcast in a sandbox kingdom that no one can find.

The Piracy of Privacy - The Looting of Privacy in America

Privacy Lost (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Hector Cisneros

In case you haven't noticed, personal privacy, for the most part, does not exist anymore. Most large retail businesses have full surveillance systems. The highways and roads are replete with traffic cameras. Satellites watch all of our streets; our government is recording and storing our emails, texts, and phone conversations; and criminals are having a hack-a-thon on our computers and smart devices for fun and ill-gotten gains. Heck, if you have a smart watch on, Google knows when you go to the bathroom! In the book, and then movie, “Minority Report.” by Philip K. Dick and the popular science fiction TV show, “Continuum,” created by Simon Barry both forecast a world where government and business combine to produce a society where many freedoms and privacy issues are expensed in the name of the greater good. Unfortunately, the greater good is defined by a union of few powerful government officials, politicians and rich corporate executives.

How Close is the US to Experiencing a Digital Pearl Harbor?

By Carl Weiss

Courtesy of Flickr

  

December 7, 1941:  “A date which will live in infamy.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

Who can ever forget President Roosevelt’s utterance of those fateful words that propelled the United States headlong into World War II?  The Japanese sneak attack that spurred our reluctant country into jo

ining the expanding European and Asian conflict 73 years ago is not forgotten.  However, what has been lost during the intervening decades is that the US had actually known, through a series of intercepted and decoded diplomatic communiqués, that a Japanese attack was imminent. Yet the administration did little to take defensive action.

Cyberstalking for Fun & Profit

Is There a Cyberstalker in Your Future?

Courtesy of Flickr

By Carl Weiss

Does the title of this week's article creep you out?  Good, because more and more intimate personal information is available online about each and every one of us than is "healthy."  Worse still, it's  all too easy to become a victim of cyberstalking.  That's because most of us disseminate far too much personal information on social nets, in chat rooms, and via photo and video sharing services.  It's also far too easy to get the vast majority of us to volunteer even more intimate details regarding our religious and political affiliations, income, sexual orientation, and health-related issues. Worst of all, there are companies and cybercriminals that profit from this glut of easily obtained information. The result? We're all putting our personal and financial futures at risk.  In this article we'll show you how easy it is to glean reams of information about nearly anyone — and most importantly — what you need to do to keep yourself from getting caught with your pants down.  And if that doesn't give you the e-heebie jebbies, I don't know what will.

The Scariest Stuff Online

By Carl Weiss

Courtesy of Flickr

Want to see something really scary? Well you don't have to prowl the streets on Halloween in order to see the kind of things that give you goose bumps. All you have to do is trawl the Internet's back-channels for an hour. Once there you will discover creepy crawlies galore, including a search engine designed for and by hackers, a black hat (not cat) convention in Las Vegas, and ghost sites that will creep you out. Below is our list of the top ten scariest sites on line.

Chinese Hack Attack!

English: Air Force Flag of the People's Republic of China (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Carl Weiss

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the Internet, a news story breaks about how foreign governments are now hacking us companies, even going after their employee's computers.  This time it wasn’t inspired by teenage pranksters on the prowl.  Nor was it the Russian mob trying to break into financial institutions once again.  No, this time the culprits were state-sponsored hackers who wore military uniforms and lived in military barracks.  What I’m talking about is the latest hack attack by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, which came to light to the nation at large on Monday, March 11, when Tom Donilon, President Obama’s national security adviser stated in a speech in New York City: 

“Increasingly, U.S. businesses are speaking out about their serious concerns about sophisticated, targeted theft of confidential business information and proprietary technologies through cyberintrusions emanating from China on an unprecedented scale. The international community cannot tolerate such activity from any country.” (Click here to read the slate.com blog.)

Cyber Security Shuffle

Courtesy of www.pbs.org

By Carl Weiss

If you’re like most people, you probably only react to cyber security matters when your computer is so infected with malware that it refuses to function. This is what IT professionals refer to as locking the barn door after the horse has bolted. In today's wired world, what you have to consider is that everything from your PC to your smartphone is subject to attack by hackers who are out to sell your personal information, steal your financial data and do much more than mischief. What many people don't realize is that this problem is so serious that even governments are having problems dealing with it.