There’s a new Gift Card scam going around that has already cost consumers lots of money, frustration, and headaches. Here’s how it works. You’ll get an email from a friend or relative asking you to go buy them a gift card. The email will say that your friend or relative has been busy or sick and unable to get to the store. Once you get the card for them, they’ll ask you to take a quick photo of the gift card code on the back and send it to them. Once you do this, they can cash out the gift card and you lose your money. It happens just that quickly. Can You Help Out a Friend? This scam has been working well for several reasons. Usually, the email comes from someone you know, maybe a sibling, parent, or aunt. Of course, you want to help them out, right? But one thing many consumers don’t realize is just how simple it is to hijack an email account. This is easy work for any hacker worth his salt. For some reason, people just believe that the email is legit and never take that extra step of calling their friend or relative and just asking them, “Hey, did you send me an email about buying you a gift card?” That’s all it would take to avoid being a victim here. Instead, most people will run down to Walmart or Target, buy the gift card, take the photo of the code on the back and think they’re doing a great favor for someone. After you send the pic of the code back to the hacker, they will move very quickly to cash out the gift card and you’ll lose all your money. Later, of course, you’ll learn that your friend did not make such a request and now you feel silly for not double checking. After all, we should we savvier than that as consumers, right? New Apps Make Scamming Much Easier Unfortunately, these types of scams have been working well for many years. Plus, new apps like Raise make it easy to turn unused gift card balances into money. Though victims do sometimes reach out to local police for help, this is actually not a crime. I know that most people are stunned by that news, but it’s true. Because you were a willing participant and you initiated the action with intent, no fraud was committed. So now you’re out the cost of the gift card and there’s really nothing you can do about it. Just In Time For the Holidays Authorities are warning consumers that this scam will be prolific all throughout the holidays. That’s why it’s so important to spread the word. Let your friends and family know that if they get a request like this from you or anyone, be sure to stop and call the person. Ask them if they really sent the email asking for a gift card. It only takes a couple of minutes to do this and it can save you $50 or $100 bucks. Other Scams to Watch Out for During the Holidays Hackers infamously took over the Rio Summer Olympics a few years back using social engineering to exploit the event. Though some were shocked, social engineering has been around awhile and is used every day to trick business owners. This scam costs Americans millions of dollars each year and hackers find new ways to make their tricks even more effective. Phishing Scams Used more frequently than any other, phishing scams have become so widespread that it’s difficult to get accurate results of the losses incurred. PhishMe is reporting that these scams are growing by at least 65% per year. Kaspersky Labs claims that during the first quarter of 2018, its anti-phishing system prevented more than 107 million attempts to connect users to malicious websites. A Barkly reports shows that 85% of companies have fallen victim to this scheme. How It Works Phishing scams work relatively easily. It’s not rocket science, as they say. You get a legitimate sounding email that seems to be from your bank or credit card company. These emails often use fear and urgency to make victims take action before double checking the legitimacy of the email. Below is an example. This scammer claims to be contacting you from Apple. If you check out the “From” address, you can quickly see that it’s not a legitimate Apple email account. Another big clue is that words are misspelled and the grammar is very poor. You can tell that this email was written by someone (probably from Eastern Europe) who has very bad English skills. NEVER click the link in a suspicious email like this one. Once you do, the cyber thieves can download malware or ransomware to your computer. They may also redirect you to a site where they steal your banking and credit card information. At the very least, they will steal your log-in information for your Apple account and then hijack it. Final Tips In order for consumers to avoid being a victim during the holidays, it’s important to watch out for these types of fraudulent activities. Never click a link in a suspicious email. Instead, open a new browser page and navigate to the website the way you ordinarily would. If there’s something wrong with your Apple account, a bank account or a credit card account, you’ll have a letter in your Inbox explaining what happened and what you need to do. By using a little common sense and double checking when something feels suspicious to you, we can all avoid being victims this holiday season.  

The September update of Office 365 includes some major additions and changes to tools such as Microsoft Teams, PowerPoint, and Excel, just to name a few. It is important to keep up with these developments, so here is a list of the major advancements of which you need to be aware. Microsoft Teams: Skype, Selective Do Not Disturb, Wiki App Many users have been looking forward to the day when Skype is integrated into Microsoft Teams, and that day has finally come. You can now use Microsoft Teams for cloud-based meetings that can have up to 250 participants, powerful messaging features, and some awesome calling features. One of the most practical additions to Microsoft Teams is to set up a selective Do Not Disturb status so that some people can still feel free to reach you (e.g., your supervisor or manager). It’s simple to setup: Click on your avatar, Settings, Privacy, and then select the individuals who you still want to receive notifications from. Another one of the new updates in Microsoft Teams is the Wiki app, which can be accessed through the left-hand navigation panel using the More Apps ellipsis. This app allows you to see the wiki pages you are a part of, keep track of your own private notes, and see the notes you’ve most recently been editing. PowerPoint: Embedded Fonts Have you ever prepared a presentation on one computer and had it looking just perfect, only to open it up on another computer and the fonts looked totally different? There is a way to keep this from happening: embedding the fonts in the PowerPoint deck when you save it. Go to Save As > Browse > and then go to the Tools drop-down box in the bottom corner of the dialog box. In the Tools drop-down, click on Save options. Toward the bottom of the box that pops up, you will see an option to “Embed fonts in the file.” Check that box, then click OK and save as you normally would. This option used to be only available on Windows devices, but the new update of Office 365 also makes it available on Office for Mac for Office Insiders. To access it on a Mac, go to the PowerPoint menu and click on Preferences, then Save. The Font Embedding option will be in the dialog box that appears. Excel: Flow Integration Microsoft Flow has been integrated with Excel, and is accessible via an Excel add-in. This will allow you to connect your data to services like Microsoft Teams, Twitter, SharePoint, Dynamics 365, Office 365, and more. You will be able to create and trigger on-demand flows for selected rows in spreadsheets that are hosted on OneDrive for Business or in SharePoint. With this integration that uses the ‘For a selected row trigger’ and the Flow launch panel, you can create and trigger on-demand flows for selected rows in any Excel table on spreadsheets hosted in SharePoint or OneDrive for Business. Access: Improved Visualization Tools Users have been requesting more visualization tools for their data contained in Access, and that is exactly what Microsoft has provided. Not only have charts been made easier and more intuitive to create, but additional chart types have also been added. For power users who developed their own Active-X solutions to the challenge of creating charts for forms and reports, their solutions will continue to work. Power BI: Export to PDF This is another update that came about as a result of user feedback: the ability to export Power BI reports in PDF format where they can be shared with others. This will only be available in the desktop version of Power BI for right now. Microsoft has also added an “Ask A Question” to the Power BI Desktop which will be globally available in the client. What this means is that you can use natural language queries to explore your data and allow report users to ask their own questions. SharePoint: More Granular Control for IT Admins In previous releases, if a group of users was not allowed to create Office 365 groups, they would be limited to creating Classic SharePoint sites. They could not create modern SharePoint sites. The new release has changed this: the IT administrator determines who can create classic SharePoint sites, who can create modern SharePoint sites, and who can create Office 365 groups. Security Microsoft Cloud App Security is a powerful tool that evaluates every app used in terms of industry-specific standards, compliance, and regulatory certifications. The goal of this is to make sure that your company can make informed decisions on the type of apps that are most appropriate for not only your needs, but your security. This new release also checks for GDPR compliance and can generate a C-level report on critical findings. Conclusion While this isn’t an exhaustive list of all the new features and changes available in the September update of Office 365, it does present the ones that are going to have the greatest impact. However, it’s always a good idea to be cognizant of new developments even if they don’t directly impact your daily work.

Facebook Was Breached Were You Or A Facebook Friend Affected? Facebook has confirmed that more than 50 million user accounts have been breached. They made the announcement today, Friday, September 28th.  However, their engineering team discovered the security breach back on Tuesday, September 25th, 2018. They tell us that the vulnerability has been fixed and the breach was reported to the appropriate authorities. How Did This Happen? Hackers stole users’ access tokens through Facebook’s “view as.” This is a feature that lets you view what your profile looks like to other Facebook users. The flaw in this feature allowed hackers to take over 50 million user accounts. If you’re like me, you may have received notices from some of your Facebook friends this week that someone took control of their accounts.  Perhaps they were affected by this breach. What Are Access Tokens? These are the digital keys that keep us logged in so we don’t need to re-enter our password every time we use Facebook. With this information, hackers can take over our account. Here’s how Facebook explains what happened: “Attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook’s code that impacted ‘View As,’ a feature that lets people see what their own profile looks like to someone else. This allowed them to steal Facebook access tokens which they could then use to take over people’s accounts.” What Now? Facebook reset the tokens of all those affected. They also logged off 40 million additional users as a precaution. If you are one of these people, you’ll need to log back in the next time you use Facebook. According to Facebook, their investigators are in the early stages of their investigation. They are temporarily turning off the “View As” feature while they conduct a thorough security review What Should You Do? If you have trouble logging back into Facebook, or you forgot your password, visit Facebook’s Help Center. If you’re like me, you take extra precautions when you hear about breaches like this.  If you want, you can visit the “Security and Login” section in Facebook settings. It lists the places where you’re logged into Facebook with a one-click option. If you choose, you can log out of them all.

Online security is something that should get everyone’s attention. Threats exist all around us: ransomware, viruses, spyware, social engineering attacks and more. There’s so much you need to know to keep your personal and business information safe.   But… where do you start? As trusted cybersecurity professionals, we want to help you get educated and stay informed. That’s why during National Cybersecurity Awareness Month our goal is to give you all the information you need to stay secure. How can we help? We’ll be sharing valuable and timely information on cybersecurity in blogs, in our newsletter, and on all of your favorite social media sites. What should you do? You can also give us a call for personalized solutions by subscribing to our exclusive mailing list. Being cybersecurity aware means that you understand what the threats are and take precautions to prevent them. Here are some important reminders: Never give out your password. Don’t share it over the phone either. You never know who’s listening. Don’t click on links that are sent to you via unsolicited emails or from someone you don’t know. Use complex passwords that are difficult to guess and use different ones for different programs and computer devices. Don’t reveal your personal, business or financial information in emails. Don’t respond to email solicitations. Keep software, browsers and operating systems up to date, so they stay free of vulnerabilities. Encrypt your files to ensure unauthorized people can’t access them. Be careful when using public Wi-Fi networks – don’t conduct sensitive activities like banking or shopping with credit cards on public Wi-Fi. Remember your physical surroundings and don’t leave your computer devices unattended in public or easy-to-access areas. Only use websites that begin with “https://” when visiting online shopping, banking or other sites where you will be entering your private information. Keep your online presence private. Don’t publish your email address online in social network sites. What else should you watch out for? Malicious Emails – These typically come in the form of a request from a trustworthy organization like a financial institution. The email may urge you to act quickly, saying that your account has been compromised or a request can’t be fulfilled. The purpose of the email is to get you to provide confidential information to rob you of your money or identity credentials. Take precautions and contact the company directly to see if the email is legitimate. When you search for the company, don’t use any information in the message. Perform your own search online. Ransomware – This is a type of malware that accesses your files and locks (encrypts) then demands payment to unlock them. It’s not suggested that you pay the ransom as this is not a guarantee that you’ll get your files back. Hopefully, you have a secure, offsite copy of all your files so you can recover your data. Viruses – These are harmful computer programs that can be transmitted from device to device. Viruses operate in different ways but they are all designed to create havoc, and some provide criminals access to data on infected devices. If your computer acts irregularly, report this to your supervisor right away. This could be caused by a virus. Spyware – Spyware downloads onto your devices without your permission when you visit an unsafe website or click on a malicious attachment. It can make your computer do things like open advertisements or even track your online movements. Botnets – These are networks of computers that get infected by malware. The criminals can remotely control these botnets to gain confidential or financial information or launch an attack on your network. Spam – This is like getting junk mail but by email. These are unsolicited and unwanted. Phishing – This is where a criminal sends an email that contains a malicious link to collect personal or financial data or to infect your computer with malware and viruses. Spear phishing is where the criminal uses attacks against specific targets to collect information to gain access to IT systems or a list of customers. Spam and phishing messages aren’t limited to email. They also appear on social media sites and in text messages. Think before you act and adopt the motto: “When in doubt, throw it out!” What to do if you become a victim of cybercrime? Report it to the appropriate people in your organization, including your network administrator. If you think your financial account was compromised, contact your financial institution immediately and close your account. Watch for any unauthorized charges in your bank or credit card accounts. Need more help? We’re here for you. These are just some of the protections and service we can offer: Vulnerability Scanning & Assessments Data Loss Prevention 24/7 Remote Monitoring & Mitigation For Cyber Threats A Managed Secure Firewall Multi-Factor Authentication A Security Operations Centers with Network and Endpoint Security Monitoring Log Correlation and Monitoring Endpoint Encryption Identification and Reconfiguration of Improperly Configured Security Solutions Secure Wireless Configurations Quarterly Vulnerability Remediation Efforts IT Security Planning and Milestones Strategic Planning for IT Security Incident Response Management Breach Notification Alerts Backup Solutions to ensure you’ll always have access to your data Security Awareness Training for your employees, so they don’t accidentally expose your organization to cybercrime We hope this helps. Remember, we’ll be posting timely cybersecurity information for you in our Blogs, newsletters and more.