We have noticed a significant increase in phishing and scamming emails being sent out over the past several months. These emails are worded in such a way to convince you that they are completely legitimate. Please heighten awareness and take extra care when viewing emails that don’t look quite right; users give up more than just a username and password when they click on and enter data to these phishing emails.

Tips for protecting yourself while handling emails

Be very skeptical of online requests for personal information. Legitimate organizations will not ask for this type of information via email. An email asking for any personal information such as your email address, password, bank account info, or birth date is very likely a scam. Never respond to an email with your personal data.

Check the sending email address or the replying link. If you hover your cursor over the URL a little bubble will appear showing you where it will lead you to. Sometimes, it is obvious the website address is not legitimate, but phishers and scammers are creating links that resemble legitimate addresses as well, so take extra caution.

Be on the alert for generic greetings. Phishing emails seldom use your real name. Email introductions such as … “Dear sir or madam” … “Dear Friend / User”… “Dear (your email address), signal that an email is not legitimate.

Be extra cautious for emails that threaten you to act now. It is common for Phishing emails to try and create a sense of urgency and require instant remediation. The more panic or concern the headline or subject line creates the less likely you will pay attention to the details and ultimately put your guard down.

Images within an email may contain a malicious payload to infect your system. Phishing and Spam emails may use fancy images to lure the receiver towards phony websites, which can have malicious software. This software downloads itself onto your system and may record your keystroke activity and send information secretly to the hacker. It is very important to make sure your system is up to date with an anti-virus product to better prevent this from happening.

The goal of these Phishing emails is to get you to click on a link and provide personal information. All or any data collected gets stored on the dark web and sold to the highest bidder.

Once you determine that an email is a scam please ignore or delete it. If you’re unsure about the contents, please pick up the phone and call the sender to confirm, if you reply to the email you may be corresponding with the attacker. If you have clicked on one of these emails and entered any information, please contact our support department as soon as possible.

Windows Hello is a perfect solution for those users who don’t like entering the password every time they log in. Windows Hello uses a biometric-based approach which allows the users to enjoy more exclusive rights to log in than a password could ever provide. You can log in effortlessly using your physical features such as fingerprint, iris scan, or facial recognition would let you log in instantly.

This doesn’t only stop here but there’s much more to the story of Windows Hello. It lets users unlock their Windows PC with several devices that can be coupled with PC. Devices like phone, smartwatch, digital wristband, and other companion devices have already verified your identity and would let you sign in to your account instantly.

Moreover, users can also log in to a wide range of applications they are using Windows Hello. Applications that work in collaboration with Windows Hello include Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive and more. Although, Windows Hello is only compatible with limited applications and specialized hardware only. Windows Hello requires a Windows Hello supported device, a fingerprint reader, an illuminated IR sensor, other biometric sensors, and capable devices.

This sign-in mechanism is comparatively more user-friendly, reliable, and secure. As a user won’t have to remember his or her password. When a password doesn’t exist, there’ll be no chance of it to get stolen, breached, or forgotten. It’s before long when biometric-based log in would be prevalent and people would start to prefer the new ways over passwords. What would be the future of password with such advancements happening in the world of technology?

With several apps taking over and new apps being launched every day, users need to create a unique complex password for each application they avail. A great number of these users think of it as a nuisance and prefer to use a single password to log in to different platforms, exposing their online identities to the security risks – cyber criminals. Another group of users prefers to use simple passwords that usually ends with digits 1234, a universally known password style. Such passwords are way easier to break and provide the basis for major cybercrime scenarios such as data theft.

In the wake of what Windows Hello offers and other alternate ways of logging in, it’s quite evident that soon passwords would go extinct. But despite the advent of many new ways to log in, the way passwords are used is still in the process of evolving. The debate of whether to adopt new ways or stick to the traditional password use to log in based upon the need to make the user’s credentials secure. Hopefully, this debate would yield the latest solutions to make credentials super secure.

The trends evolve with necessity and user behavior. Are we progressing towards the point where we would say farewell to the passwords? It is yet to be seen what the future holds.

Of all the scam methodologies, phishing is the most sophisticated and specific one. Innocent-looking emails in your inbox posing as some attractive deal, business offer, or from your known authoritative can cost you much more than you can ever imagine – data loss, system failure, reputational and financial loss.

Several companies and common people have been fallen prey to phishing. 1 out of every 99 emails received is most probably a phishing attempt. Many incidents have been reported about companies who suffered reputational damage and propriety loss in the face of phishing attacks. Sometimes the damages were so irreparable to collapse the companies entirely.

What is phishing?

Phishing is a sophisticated approach used by scammers to manipulate the victim’s data to their interests. It is often carried out by sending the disguised emails. The email is portrayed as sent from someone victim knows such as a colleague, a request from a known organization, and so on. The victim is made to believe that the email has been sent from an authentic entity. So, the next thing the recipient would do is open the email. Such emails usually contain a link or some attachment. Upon clicking the link or downloading the attachment can be malicious enough to hijack, steal your data or disrupt your IT Infrastructure.

How phishing is executed?

Phishing is often done carefully as a campaign to get hands-on the victim’s valuable data. Phishing can be executed in different forms and each form is slightly different from the rest of all, though with a similar aim. The phishers are highly adept at what they do. If you are a non-business entity, you might be targeted with a link or attachment provided in email promising an attractive offer. Often, people from almost all walks get phished by a link to a free pornography site.

Phishers often twist the email addresses of known organizations by forging these email addresses into new resembling ones. The resemblance with the actual email address easily tricks the recipient into believing the email is not harmful. If one looks for spelling and the tone of the email, one will be able to recognize the fake email from an authentic one.

Who is most susceptible to phishing?

Everyone is susceptible to phishing attacks regardless of their identity, social status, their position, or designation within the company. It can be targeted towards employee/s, director/s, or VPs. It depends on the type of phishing adopted to target the victim.

Spearfishing is, however, the most specific of all phishing methods. The attacker knows the details about the target and would design the email befitting the victim’s identity. Whaling is the type of phishing that targets the entities holding higher ranks within a company or organization – such as a CEO. Clone phishing is the hardest one to detect because the victim receives the similar-looking email that he has already received. This encourages the victim to open the email and become a tool to execute the phisher’s plan.

How to prevent phishing?

Implementing endpoint security, updated software, and trusted antivirus coupled with the rest of the practices included in the network security regime can prevent the entry of malware into your system. Besides this, employee training and awareness about the phishing attack and prevention strategies can save the companies from a lot of trouble. Investing in employee training is a crucial part of prevention strategy as the weakest link in the security chain is human.

Parenting has become incredibly tough in this digital age. In an environment hijacked with devices filled with several apps have exposed a world to the children that they shouldn’t know about yet. 21st-century kids are also tech-savvy and know their way around smartphones better than their parents. In such a chaotic environment, it’s certain for parents to stress about ‘how to keep their children safe’ from inappropriate content or several other kinds of malware.

Several parental control apps have to come to play their role in this regard. Parents can install these software applications on Android smartphones or iPhones to ensure their kids’ safety from inappropriate content and cybercriminals. These apps are mostly free of charge except for some.

FamiSafe App

This application lets you monitor your kid’s device remotely. It is necessary to download the apps on both devices. You’ll be able to do these things with this app:

• Set screen limit on your child’s smartphone
• Lock and unlock the device from your phone
• Both yours and your kid’s smartphone will get the notification upon exceeding the set screen limit
• The kid/s won’t be able to continue their activity on the smartphone until you permit them to do so
• You will be able to block anyone specific app on your kid’s smartphone

FamiSafe works best on Android and iOS devices. It’s easy to understand and use. With so many useful features ensuring your kids’ safety in so many ways, paying a few dollars every month in return is a nothing but win-win.

Qustodio

Qustodio application has software that supports Android, iOS, Mac, and Amazon Fire Tablets. You can download it on multiple devices to lock specific applications in Android and iOS devices. Although, this application works for only a few applications on iOS while it works for a wide range of applications on Android.

Qustodio’s notable features include:

• Call and text monitoring on Android
• Set time limits for individual devices and individual apps
• Powerful web filtering on iOS
• Limited location tracking on both iOS and Android
• Block indecent content from your kids’ devices
• Control gaming and many other apps
• Monitor your kids’ activity on several social media platforms
• Real-time location updates

Qustodio offers two plans – free and premium, although the free plan comes with limited options.

Norton Family Premier

Norton Family Premier is loaded with several powerful features that a parent could ever want. This app includes features that work best on both Android and iOS:

• Location-tracking
• Time-scheduling
• Web-filtering
• Web-monitoring

Although text-message monitoring and app management are not supported on iOS.

SocialShield

SocialShield is the best free parental control software for all those parents who want to monitor their kids’ internet activity. The most useful feature of this application is a security suite that can be downloaded for Windows. This security suite lets you monitor your kid’s activity on social media. You can also get real-time updates remotely with this app.

Parental control apps have eased parents’ life to a greater extent. These apps are a great help to conduct effective parenting in this digital age.