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Walter has always wanted a dog, and now that his new job lets him work from home, it is the perfect time to find a furry friend.

He started searching online and found one woman who was moving to a new apartment that didn’t allow pets. She was hoping to re-home her pup as soon as possible so that he would not have to go to a shelter.

The ad did not include much information about the dog, but Walter didn’t think anything of it because the pictures were so cute. He reached out to the woman to express his interest in adopting the pet, and even offered her references. She never asked any questions of him, but did request that he pay a “holding fee” and cover the charges to ship the animal from her location. Walter asked if he could just go pick up the dog so that they could meet in person, but the owner refused claiming she was too busy with the move.

Did you spot the red flags?

• Rehoming ads that do not include information on the pet, their personality, or health information can be a cause for concern.
• A legitimate rehoming often involves the owner asking questions of the adopter or includes an adoption application.
• Limiting in-person contact by not allowing a meet[1]and-greet is often a bad sign that the animal does not exist.

What you should know about this scam

One common pet adoption scam requires the adopter to pay for the “shipping cost” of the animal. The adopter is sent to a fraudulent website to input their information. The money is taken from their card, but the animal never arrives.

Another way that scammers can easily steal money from potential adopters is by requiring a deposit to “reserve” the animal. Keep an eye out for suspicious forms of payment, as well, such as cash, wire transfer, or gift cards.

Many classified / advertising websites ban the sale of animals, however, sellers can often skirt these rules by using the term “rehoming.” The easiest way to avoid pet adoption scams and stop the use of online forums to buy and sell animals, is to adopt from a reputable animal rescue / organization or from your local animal shelter.

Georgia was planning to move to a new city for her job, and so she started the search for a rental. Every day she checked top housing websites, keeping her eye out for the perfect one. To her dismay, there wasn’t much that her budget could afford in the area, but she kept looking.

Until, she found it!

A cute one bedroom with a park view. The price was listed well below other rentals in the area, but the Agent would be able to show her the property within the week (for a small fee). The owner was out of the country on business and so they did not want a lot of people in and out of the house unless they were serious.

Before Georgia could respond to the Agent’s outreach with potential times to view the property, they replied that the week had already booked up with viewings. The Agent said the location wouldn’t last long with it’s low price, and recommended that Georgia skip the formalities and sign the lease, directly wiring the deposit to the owner, so that should could lock in the space.

Did you spot the red flags?

• The rental was much lower in price than that of the other properties in the area.
• Georgia was requested to pay for a viewing, which is not a typical practice of viewing rental properties.
• The Agent used high-pressure tactics to urge Georgia into placing a deposit quickly.

What you should know about this scam

Even legitimate housing websites can be host to fraudulent homes and rentals. Should you encounter such a scam, be sure to report it to the website or app where the post was listed.

Wiring money is essentially the same as sending cash. Once it’s sent, it’s gone. If you wouldn’t feel comfortable sending cash for something like a deposit, think twice before agreeing to wire money.

Scammers typically like to stay on-trend. And since summer is peak moving season for those considering a change in residence, use caution when looking into properties during these warmer months, or when searching around areas that have seen a lot of recent growth or an increase in population.

One of the biggest threats that can affect your company is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) eavesdropping. This occurs when someone uses a software program to record or listen in on your VoIP calls without your permission. This can be done for malicious reasons, such as stealing trade secrets or committing fraud. To protect your business from such attacks, here are five handy tips:

Change default usernames and passwords

The first thing you need to do is to change the default password and username of your VoIP system. Many businesses don’t bother to do this, but it’s an essential security measure. By changing the default login credentials, you make it harder for hackers to gain access to your system. You can do this by logging into the admin panel of your VoIP system and changing the password.

Keep your VoIP system updated

Hackers are always looking for vulnerabilities in software. As such, it’s important to keep your VoIP system up to-date with the latest security patches. Check with your handset vendor regularly for updates and install them as soon as possible.

Keep your session border controllers (SBCs) updated

By doing so, you’ll be updating your VoIP’s antivirus software, which means your systems are better protected from all known types of malware. This also helps to ensure that your calls aren’t being rerouted through malicious VoIP servers, which could be used to eavesdrop on conversations.

Use a VPN or SRTP

Phone calls made over the internet are transmitted in the form of data packets. If these packets are intercepted, anyone can listen in on your conversations. To prevent this from happening, you need to encrypt your VoIP calls.

You can do this by using a virtual private network, which encrypts all the data passing through your device. Alternatively, you can use Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol, a VoIP security protocol that encrypts voice calls.

Train your employees

Your employees need to be aware of the dangers of VoIP eavesdropping. Teach them not to give out confidential information over the phone and make sure they know how to spot signs that someone may be trying to listen in on their conversations.

VoIP eavesdropping is a serious threat, but these steps you can take to protect your conversations. If you want to know more about how to secure your business, feel free to contact us today.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

With so many different IT security terms and concepts that you need to learn when running a business, where should you start? Diving into cybersecurity can be challenging, but learning about the most commonly used terms in IT security is a good place to start. Understand these basic terms so you’ll be better prepared to protect your business against cyberthreats.

Malware

For a long time, the phrase “computer virus” was misused to refer to any type of attack that harmed computers and networks. The more appropriate term for these harmful programs and files is “malicious software,” or “malware.” Whereas a virus is a specific type of malware designed to replicate itself, any software created for the purpose of destroying or accessing networks and data with the intent to steal, corrupt, or encrypt these should be referred to as malware.

Ransomware

Don’t let all other cyberthreats ending in “-ware” confuse you; they are all just subcategories of malware. Currently, one of the most notorious of these is ransomware, which is malware that encrypts valuable data until a ransom is paid for the decryption key. In a ransomware attack, the victim organization may feel compelled to pay the ransom to regain access to their data.

Intrusion prevention system (IPS)

There are several ways to safeguard your network from malware, but an IPS is one of the nonnegotiables. An IPS sits behind your company’s firewall and monitors for suspicious and malicious activity that can be halted before it can exploit or take advantage of a known vulnerability.

Social engineering

Not all types of malware rely solely on fancy computer programming. Experts agree that the majority of attacks require some form of social engineering to succeed. Social engineering is the act of tricking people, rather than computers, into revealing sensitive or protected information. For some cybercriminals, it’s less tedious to convince a potential victim to give them the data they need than to create and deploy complicated software to obtain the same information.

Phishing

Phishing is a type of social engineering scheme that involves defrauding people using an app or a website that impersonates a trustworthy or often well-known business in an attempt to obtain confidential information. Just because you received an email that says it’s from the IRS doesn’t mean that it is. Don’t take such emails at face value — always verify the source, especially if the emails are requesting your sensitive data.

Antivirus

Antivirus software is often misunderstood as a way to comprehensively secure your computers and workstations. These applications are just one piece of the cybersecurity puzzle and can only scan the drives on which they are installed for signs of well-known malware variants.

Zero-day attacks

When a vulnerability is found within a piece of software, vendors will release an update to fix the gap in security. However, cyberattackers can release a piece of malware that exploits the security vulnerability before software developers can address it. This is known as a zero-day attack.

Patch

When software developers discover a security vulnerability in their programming, they usually release a small file to update and “patch” this gap. Patches are essential to keeping your network secure from the vultures lurking on the internet. By checking for and installing patches as soon as these become available, you keep your software protected from the latest malware.

Redundant data

When antivirus software, patches, and intrusion prevention fail to keep your information secure, there’s only one thing that will: quarantined off-site storage. Duplicating your data offline and storing it somewhere other than your business’s workspace ensures that even if your systems get infected with malware, you’re equipped with backups to keep your business running.

Our cybersecurity professionals are always available to impart more in-depth knowledge of the many different kinds of cyberthreats. Get in touch with us today and find out how we can help you with your IT security woes.