Life Happens 365 - Are You Managing the Risk?

  By Diane Tait Image courtesy Pixabay Face it, when it comes to identity theft, the bad guys are winning.   In 2018, consumers in the US were fleeced out of close to $17 billion by identity thieves. Even worse is the fact that the majority of these thefts has shifted from credit card counterfeiting to checking and savings account takeovers.   Another favorite target of identity thieves is to open fraudulent credit card accounts and/or to take out loans in the names of their victims.   Once a victim has been fleeced, the onus is on them to prove that the losses that occurred are indeed fraudulent.   This too costs time and money, which in essence adds insult to injury.   While all this is going on, the thieves are free to use and sell your financial data online.   Since many of the thieves are located offshore, the odds of the perpetrators being caught, much less prosecuted, is slim at best.   Even children’s identities have been stolen and used...

By Diane Tait Image courtesy Pixabay  You may have noticed that gas prices have recently shot up.   What you may not be aware is that part of the cause was related to a hack attack on one of the nation’s key fuel pipelines.   Two weeks ago, Colonial Pipeline Company was forced to shut down 5,500 miles of gas pipeline for several days when a control system was compromised by a cyberattack.   The company was ultimately forced to pay a $5 million ransom to regain control of their pipeline.   What’s even worse is that this kind of corporate disruption is hardly unique.   Attacks against the global financial sector have more than doubled in the past year alone.   If you’re looking to avoid having your world turned upside down by hackers, here are the top-10 things you can do to hack-proof your home.

  By Diane Tait Image courtesy Pixabay If your business uses Microsoft Exchange, you may have a problem. That’s because in February 2021, a Chinese hacking group called Hafnium exploited flaws in Exchange to gain access to email accounts.   This allowed the state-sponsored hackers to install malware that could ultimately let them take control of affected systems.   The estimated number of compromised accounts is more than 100,000. So flagrant was this attack that the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Agency, issued a warning along with appropriate steps to take to mitigate the attack.   The Hafnium exploit can allow hackers to steal data, encrypt existing data, delete data or even hold data for ransom.  

  By Diane Tait You see and hear about them on the news every week. Cybersecurity breaches are no longer the stuff of science fiction.   When they occur to Fortune 500 companies and millions of consumer records are compromised, they make the headlines.   What isn’t publicized is the fact that thousands of smaller businesses are hacked every day and the numbers are growing.   So too are the damages caused by hackers.   No matter how prepared the average business is, once hackers set their sites on gaining access it’s only a matter of time before data is compromised, malware is planted, and/or a server is locked down by a DDOS attack or ransomware.   What’s worse is the fact that the ransom demanded by hackers has skyrocketed from an average of $10,000 per incident in 2019 to more than $200,000 in 2020.   Once your system has been infected, it could be days, weeks, or months before your business is back in business.  

By Diane Tait Image courtesy flickr If you’re like me, you probably never go anywhere without your smartphone.   You probably also have a plethora of web-enabled devices around your home and office.   If you drive a late model automobile you realize that everything from your vehicle’s GPS to the satellite radio you love to listen to as you motor down the interstate are all tracking your location and your preferences with every mile that passes by.   While most modern Americans would be lost without many of the modern technological conveniences that we feel we can no longer do without, I’m here to tell you that all those electronic bells and whistles don’t come without a certain amount of baggage.   Today’s smart devices track our movements, listen to what we say and records all our interactions with our friends, family and coworkers.   With the loss of privacy come several perils to not only our freedom, but our financial security as well.  

By Diane Tait Image courtesy of picpedia Security is like the weather.   Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it.   Well, almost nobody.   That’s because savvy consumers and business owners know that bolstering the security of homes, businesses and vehicles not only makes burglars think twice, it can also reduce the cost of insurance.   Since insurance premiums are calculated on risk, reducing the risk can also reduce your premiums.   Let me explain.