According to the 2022 State of Ransomware Report issued recently by Sophos, it surveyed 5,600 IT professionals from 31 countries, including professionals in the health care sector. Those professionals in the health care sector shared that 66 percent of them had experienced a ransomware attack in 2021, which was an increase of 69 percent over
Privacy Tips
Privacy Tip #334 – Crypto Scams Continue to Top the List of Scams Reported to the FTC
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips, Virtual Currency
It is tempting to get into the world of cryptocurrency investments. News items of early investors banking millions of dollars fuel the temptation.
But it is an investment strategy that is fraught with fraud, so investors beware.
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), from the beginning of 2021 to the present day, more than…
Privacy Tip #333 – FTC Provides Resources to LGBTQ+ Community with “Celebrate Pride, Fight Fraud”
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
The Federal Trade Commission kicked off Pride Month yesterday, acknowledging that “some of the most egregious scams and abuses target the LGBTQ+ community.” The scams that those in the LGBTQ+ community experience include those focused on using shame through dating apps and geolocation-based apps.
To combat these frauds and abuses, the FTC is providing targeted…
Privacy Tip #332 – Chatbots Used to Steal Credentials
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
I am not a huge fan of using chatbots, as I never end up getting my questions fully answered. I get the efficiency of using a chatbot for simple questions, but my questions are usually not so easily resolved, so I end up completely frustrated with the process and trying to find a human being…
Privacy Tip #331 – ACLU Settles Facial Recognition Suit with Clearview AI
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit against Clearview AI, Inc. (Clearview AI) in March 2020, alleging that it violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by capturing and using billions of individuals’ faceprints without consent. The ACLU filed suit “on behalf of groups representing survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, undocumented…
Privacy Tip #330 – Data Privacy and Downloaded Apps: Here Are Those Dubbed “the Worst”
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
Readers of this blog know how I feel about apps and the data they collect, use and disclose when it comes to privacy. Although they are supposed to tell you in their privacy policy what data they are collecting, few people actually read the privacy policy to understand how their data are being collected, used…
Privacy Tip #329 – Download Apps for Single Use—Then Delete
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
I traveled this week by plane to a client to conduct a cybersecurity tabletop exercise—one of my favorite things to do (the tabletop, not the flying).
To be able to use the wi-fi, everyone instructed in the gate area was told over the loudspeaker that we had to download the airline app on our phones,…
Privacy Tip #328 – Ukraine Charity Scams
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
Unscrupulous criminals use crises to their advantage. Scammers are using the conflict in Ukraine to bilk money from people trying to help those impacted from the attacks. There are numerous accounts of scammers using old techniques to defraud people from funds and personal information.
We all want to help and what is unfolding in Ukraine…
Privacy Tip #327 – Scammers Spoof Cell Phone Numbers
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
Scammers use familiarity to get victims to fall for their scams. One way to do that is to spoof a cell phone number from the same area code to make the targeted person think that the person calling or texting them is someone they know. When the call is answered, it is a recording or…
Privacy Tip #326 -Gift Card Scams Still Rampant and Successful
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
In addition to teaching your kids about financial literacy, teach them (and yourself) to identify scams that are designed to steal from you.
One scam that has made a comeback and is surprisingly successful is spoofing through an email or text that asks you to either buy gift cards or pay for something with…