Welcome to day three of our Christmas CyberSecurity Tips – today our tips relate to Identity theft and Spyware:
Identity theft
Are you busy sharing all of your festive plans and holiday travel online? Think before you post those festive travel plans.
Even relatively simple details about your lifestyle can allow a cyber criminal to gather personal information about you and they they might attempt to trick you into giving out more.
Social media websites are a gold-mine of information for identity thieves. Learn how to stay safe on Facebook with our cheat sheet.
Christmas CyberSecurity Tip #5: Many of us are keen to share our location, plans etc. But if thieves know you’re on vacation, it means you’re not at home… remember to set up a light on a timer so criminals think someone is home! But apart from that, don’t share everything ‘Publicly’ – choose a smaller audience. Check who you’re sharing to with a Facebook Privacy Checkup.
Spyware
He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake …
It’s not Santa Claus we’re singing about, it’s the cybercriminals who lurk behind spyware. They secretly installed malware often installed after a file is downloaded or pop-up is clicked. The job of this software is to spy on you.
Spyware can monitor your keystrokes, read your files, access your applications and more – transmitting all this information back to the person that controls the spyware, wherever they are.
However, it’s not that difficult to spot tracking apps on your mobile phone.
Christmas CyberSecurity Tip #6: Be wary of error message, they often mean something is amiss. Run a scan, if that doesn’t satisfy you, call your IT guru and ask them to give your computer a once-over look.