How to Recognize Social Engineering Attacks & Avoid Getting Hacked

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Clever hackers are getting so devious that even IT folks fall for their ploys. Learn how to identify and avoid social engineering attacks.

Social engineers prey on human nature, attacking people’s vulnerabilities—fear, greed, naiveté, and kindness—to get what they want.

And what do they want? Your money, your credentials, your intellectual property, your contact list….

It’s easier to manipulate humans than it is to figure out how to hack your software. This makes social engineering attractive to crooks.

Tricksters may strike via phone, ...

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Why You Need Strong Passwords & How to Create Them

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Think creating strong passwords is a pain? It’s really not. And getting hacked is far more painful.

The call to create tough-to-crack passwords gets louder every year. And still, scores of people ignore it.

Case in point: Computerworld’s list of the worst, most common passwords for the last five years. Topping the chart in 2015 were:

  1. 123456
  2. password
  3. 12345678
  4. qwerty
  5. 12345
  6. 123456789
  7. football
  8. 1234
  9. 1234567
  10. baseball

Not terribly creative—and worse—easily hackable.

Weak passwords pose a huge security risk, enabling crooks to break into private accounts.

Things get worse when people use one ...

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Malware on Social Media: It’s Spreading. How to Protect Yourself.

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It’s easy to be relaxed and unguarded when roaming around Facebook. But with the rise of malware on social media, you better amp up the vigilance.

Email phishing and spear phishing attacks are a popular way for cyber scammers to spread malware. But social-media platforms pose significant threats, too.

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and the like are goldmines of juicy information for crooks.

Once they gather enough personal details from your profile and posts, they can target you with ...

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Why You Need to Switch to HTTPS Now

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Choosing to encrypt a website is becoming less and less of a choice for site owners. The switch to HTTPS is quickly becoming non-negotiable.

Thank the big players out there for making it highly desirable—if not mandatory—for HTTP sites to go HTTPS.

For example:

  • Google has clearly stated that HTTPS is an important ranking factor. No one wants to get lost in the search shuffle.
  • In 2017, WordPress—the open-source website-creation tool used by millions—will require hosts to make HTTPS available ...
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Sharing Too Much Information on Social Media? Beware the Dangers.

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Overexposing your personal life can be risky business.

We live in a share-happy world. What we eat for lunch, where we go on vacation, whom we hang out with, and how hungover we are—these are all things we freely post on social media.

But when does harmless chitchat become potentially dangerous TMI that can hurt our families, our finances, our homes, our jobs, and our reputations? When are we sharing too much information on social media?

It’s important to warn students, staff, ...

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YouTube Restricted Mode Replaces YouTube For Schools

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Schools have more—and less—control over the videos their students view.

The popular YouTube for Schools—which housed more than 400,000 educational videos from the likes of PBS, TED, and Khan Academy—is defunct. After a five-year run, Google announced its demise in July 2016.

Now, says Google, schools must use YouTube Restricted Mode to control the gazillions of videos their students can watch.

Why? What’s the difference between YouTube for Schools and YouTube Restricted Mode?

There’s been a huge change. YouTube for ...

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