Tag Archives: Tips

Panda Security

Tips to find online love safely

Leave a comment

Online dating fraud victims at record high

The rise of online dating has been phenomenal. In fact, a research paper published by the Association for Psychological Research found that online dating services are now the second most popular way for people to find love.

For those hoping to begin a romantic relationship this is great news – there’s a huge number of people available who are also looking for love.
For those hoping to begin a romantic relationship this is great news – there’s a huge number of people available who are also looking for love.

But just like every other online activity, you need to be smart.

So how can you protect yourself?

1. Don’t share too much information

Many people run into problems because they share too much information up front. Including your email address or personally identifiable information in your profile picture gives away details that cybercriminals can later exploit.

Instead, use the communications tools provided by the dating service to share information once you are sure your date is trustworthy.

2. Don’t download attachments

We all love to receive Valentines cards, and criminals will use this against us. Never download ecards from dubious websites because they may contain malware that will infect your computer, stealing personal data.

You can help protect yourself against dodgy ecards with robust antivirus software. Scan all your incoming email attachments to avoid becoming a victim.

Download a free trial of Panda Security now to ensure you are protected.

3. Don’t share bank details

Dating sites are a great way to meet people and find love across the world. But beware of anyone asking you to pay for them to visit you – they may be using a phishing scam to steal more than your heart.

Never give your bank details to anyone online, no matter how hard you have fallen for them. Some unscrupulous scammers will take that information and use it to empty your bank account.

Be sensible

It’s always hard to remain objective when you are falling in love, and that’s why criminals target dating sites. But to stay safe, you must follow these three simple rules, or risk becoming another statistic.

The good news is that by keeping personal information private, avoiding suspicious email attachments, and not sharing your bank details, you have everything in place for when you do find “the one”.

Good luck, and happy Valentine’s Day!

The post Tips to find online love safely appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.

Panda Security

The Ten Apps that Bog Down Performance on Android Smartphones

Leave a comment

The Android operating system is the undisputed king of smartphones. According to the latest data from Kantar Media, Android continues to enjoy a solid lead in market share. Companies and individual users alike are turning to Android as their principal OS for their devices.

Despite the success of this operating system, we have all complained about our smartphone at some point or other. Maybe the battery doesn’t last an entire day on a single charge, or it’s drained our mobile data usage too quickly, or it’s running low on storage space. Yes, we should all probably take a breather and stop complaining so much, but it’s also good to know that in most cases it’s not the phones themselves that are lagging, but rather the apps that are the main drivers of smartphone performance issues.

Snapchat, Spotify… even Clean Master

You can check for yourself which applications are most detrimental to the performance of your device. Accessing the Settings menu of your mobile, you can consult the consumption of each app in Power Saving Mode, look at the RAM that each application consumes in Memory or consult the amount of space they occupy from the option Internal Storage.

Be warned that there are some applications in particular that will hamper the productivity of your phone. These include social networks, such as Snapchat, the rising star among millennials, or the dating service Tinder. Spotify, the music streaming app par excellence; Line, a rival instant messaging service to WhatsApp; or Amazon Shopping, which conveniently lets you make purchases from the ecommerce behemoth, are other famous services that cause our phones to slow down.

Google Sheets, the spreadsheets application that many companies use to share and edit documents in a collaborative way, also figure among them. You’ll probably be surprised to hear that Clean Master, which is designed to clean out and optimize your phone, also consumes a lot of resources. Of course, other famous apps that we couldn’t live without also consume large amounts of battery or RAM, as is the case of Facebook, Instagram and Google Maps.

Some tricks to improve performance

There are some steps you can take to improve the speed of your Android phone. One is to uninstall the apps you do not use from the Application Storage menu. You can also delete the data that the application has downloaded or clear the cache to speed up the processes.

Another, somewhat more cumbersome, alternative is to enter the Android developer options from the Settings menu, About Phone and Software Information (you’ll have to press Build Number seven times) and disable animations.

On your business phone, make sure you are using applications in a way that does not needlessly consume resources and that you are protecting your device with the cybersecurity solution that best suits your business.

The post The Ten Apps that Bog Down Performance on Android Smartphones appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.

Panda Security

How to prevent phishing

Leave a comment

How to prevent phishing and keep thieves away from your money

Phishing – a hacking technique using fraudulent emails to trick people into handing over their bank account details – continues to be a major threat to personal security. Because these techniques are so successful, criminal continually refine them, making it harder than ever to avoid them.

Fortunately, there are a few steps you can take to better protect yourself – and they are all quite simple.

1. Don’t click links

Phishing emails are so effective because it is very hard to tell them apart from the real thing – they look just like the emails your bank sends. They are also intended to scare you, suggesting that your account has been compromised and you must act immediately to protect yourself.

No matter how concerned you may be, you should never click the links in an email. Even if you are 100% certain that the message comes from your bank.

Instead, you should type the bank’s address yourself into the browser window to make sure you are visiting the correct website. Once successfully logged in, you will be able to access electronic versions of the messages your bank has sent you – including any alerts. If the message is not repeated here, you can safely assume that the email was fraudulent.

You should also bear in mind that all banks typically send printed letters through the post when there is a serious problem with your account.

2. Get educated

All of the banks provide guidance on what a real email looks like – here’s an example from Lloyds Bank. Take a few minutes to acquaint yourself with the information provided and you’ll save yourself a lot of stress in future.

And just to re-emphasise the importance of never clicking links in an email, here’s what Lloyds has to say;

“We never link directly to our Internet Banking log on page, or a page that asks for security or personal details.”

3. Protect your PC

Computer security software, like Panda Gold Protection, include tools to identify and block phishing emails before you can be tricked by them. It is absolutely essential that every PC, Mac and Android smartphone you own is protected by some form of security software to stop phishing (and other cyberattack techniques) compromising your devices.

Once installed, don’t forget to carry out a regular scan (once a week is ideal) to check to see whether any malware or viruses have breached your defences. Malware can be just as damaging as a phishing email, monitoring what you do on your computer, and stealing passwords for instance. Running a regular scan will give you a chance to identify and delete these malicious apps before you are too badly compromised.

Don’t panic

Protecting against phishing emails is generally just a case of using your common sense. No matter how scary an email looks, take a second to check your online account yourself. Don’t forget that you can always visit your local branch, or the phone banking service to confirm that everything is ok.

Take the first step towards protecting yourself against phishing emails by downloading a free trial of Panda Security now.

The post How to prevent phishing appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.

Panda Security

The risks of using personal social media at work

Leave a comment

Many businesses are actively encouraging their employees to use social media at work, hoping that they will become “brand advocates”, talking about the company’s products and services. Employers also hope that their worker’s accounts will help to give the company a “human” face.

But as good as these intentions are, you should carefully consider whether you really want to use your social media accounts at work. Because there are a few potential issues to be aware of.

Increased risk of downloading malware

Social media is a brilliant tool for sharing links, videos and interesting information with your friends online. But not all those links go to good places – quite often those pages will have adware, malware or computer viruses lurking in the background, trying to download themselves onto your computer.

If malware does install itself on your work computer, it could cause serious damage to the rest of the network. The time and costs associated with fixing these issues could seriously hurt your company – and maybe even lose you your job, even if it was an accident.

Possible negative press

There are dozens of examples of situations where someone has made a joke online, but one of their followers has taken offence. The issue quickly escalates, as strangers offer criticisms – and sometimes even threats.

The fall-out from these incidents also affects that person’s employer – some people wrongly assume that the individual and their company are inextricably linked. So the company must act to regain control of the situation – including sacking the employee involved.

Wasting time

With so much interesting information available on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc, it is very easy to spend hours catching up on what people are sharing. But if you spend too long on non-work related tasks, you will run into problems getting your actual work done.

When the quality of your work starts to decline, you could be disciplined by your employer – and potentially sacked if things go too far.

Protecting yourself at work

Before you start using your personal social media accounts at work, you should have a conversation with your boss. You should ask how your employer expects you to behave:

  • What kind of malware and content-blocking tools will they deploy to prevent viruses being downloaded accidentally?
  • What protections are in place in the event of a social media disaster? Is there a plan to protect the business and the employees?
  • What constitutes fair use? How much is too much? Can you do whatever you like online, so long as your work is being done?

It is only by establishing these guidelines up front that you can hope to avoid accidentally breaking one of them, risking your job. By being smart, both you and your business avoid trouble and gain the benefits offered by social media.

The post The risks of using personal social media at work appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.

Panda Security

Five New Year’s Resolutions to Strengthen Your Company’s Security

Leave a comment

Now that we’ve taken stock of the year we’re leaving behind, it’s time to establish some resolutions for the year that lies ahead. As in any other field, there’s always something to do when it comes to cybersecurity. The latest report from Accenture, “The State of Cybersecurity and Digital Trust 2016” revealed that 69% of businesses have suffered an attempted or realized data theft over the course of last year. Malware and DDoS attacks figure among the biggest concerns of executives surveyed by the consultancy.

Business managers now have 12 months ahead of them in which to improve security strategies and avoid these much-feared risks. We’d like to propose a few guidelines to improve the protection of corporate systems in 2017.

1. Get On Board the HTTPS Train

The majority of websites visited with Firefox and Chrome in 2016 were already using the HTTPS communication protocol. HTTPS guarantees a secure connection by identifying devices and encrypting data. Every day, the number of websites and applications that use this method increases. But there are still a few stragglers. For this reason, Apple is requiring app developers to incorporate this protocol and Google will publicly mark websites that don’t use it. If you haven’t yet, now’s the time to make the move over to HTTPS for your website, and make sure that the applications and websites visited at your company are using it as well.

2. Be Proactive and Know the Risks

The threat of cyberattacks is no longer limited to big corporations. Nowadays any small or mid-sized company is fair game. Criminals are using new and increasingly sophisticated tools and strategies. Better safe than sorry, as the cliché goes. One of the first orders of business is to get a threat detection and prevention program, regularly conduct a system analysis in search of anomalies, and keep your IT team constantly up to date on the latest developments in the field.

3. Invest in Cybersecurity

The Accenture report points out that corporate budgets for cybersecurity are not enough, according to surveys conducted with employers. Investments in this area have to do with more than just security contractors. Worker training programs in IT security or the purchasing of specialized software also require funding.

4. Keep an Eye on Authentication

2016 was not Yahoo’s year. The company had to admit to the breach of 500 million users’ accounts. This attack, the most notorious one in recent months, has set off many alarms. Crucially, it raises the concern about password security in and out of corporate networks. It’s important to create complex passwords, use systems that require more than one login, and adopt multi-step authentication methods. The road to achieving this goes by way of building awareness in your workforce.

5. Come Up With a Contingency Plan

In case a threat makes it past your prevention measures, it’s always good to have a contingency plan in place. This should be a very thorough and well-designed plan that takes into account every possibility. Everything from DDoS attacks and ransomware to the disappearance of a company laptop. This document would establish response protocols to grapple with data breaches and other incidents, distribute damage control responsibilities to the team, and designate measures to be taken, among other things.

These are just a few possible suggestions. The list could go on and on, depending on each individual company’s weak points. A thorough revision of the security flaws that came to light in 2016 will be highly useful for making next year better, and, of course, protecting your IT infrastructure and never letting your guard down.

 

The post Five New Year’s Resolutions to Strengthen Your Company’s Security appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.

Panda Security

How to share your internet mobile connection safely

Leave a comment

Are you aware of the dangers of sharing your internet mobile connection?

Most smartphones have a built-in function that allows you to share the mobile internet connection with other people nearby. Acting very much like a traditional WiFi hotspot, mobile internet connection sharing turns your phone into a hub – authorised devices can then connect to your phone and share the data connection.

This “mobile hotspot” feature is particularly useful when your friends cannot get a reliable connection to their mobile network. Or when you need to get online with your laptop really quickly while “out and about”.

But just as you (should) secure your home network to prevent abuse and deter hackers, you need to take a few extra steps to keep yourself safe. If someone does manage to hack your mobile hotspot they may be able to steal the data stored on your phone – or run up a large phone bill simply by using up your data allowance.

Here are our top tips for boosting your security.

1. Use a ‘secure’ passphrase

When someone tries to connect to your mobile hotspot, they will be prompted to enter a password – which is exactly the same procedure as connecting to any other secure WiFi network. This password needs to be “complex” to prevent hackers from guessing it.

Android and iOS both generate long, complicated passwords by default, but it is worth checking your own settings to confirm. You must resist the urge to replace the password with something simple though – if you make it too easy for your friends to get connected, you also make it easier for hackers to jump online.

The Apple iPhone mobile hotspot requires a password at least eight characters long, but you should consider choosing something even longer that uses a combination of upper and lower case letters, mixed with numbers and punctuation marks (like ! Or ?) to deter dictionary attacks from “guessing” the password. The same password tip applies to smartphones running Android.

2. Disable by default

You can toggle the mobile hotspot function on and off – so it’s only available when you actually need it. You should always ensure the hotspot is toggled off when not in use to reduce the risk of unauthorised connections.

A few extra taps on the screen to enable the hotspot may be annoying – but nowhere near as frustrating as an unexpectedly high phone bill run up by people abusing your mobile data connection.

3. Keep an eye on your screen

Both Android and iOS provide helpful on-screen indicators to show when your mobile hotspot is switched on, and how many devices are currently connected. You should keep an eye on that indicator – it will help you spot when someone is connecting without your permission.

If you do detect an unauthorised connection, turn the hotspot off, and change the password immediately. This will help to prevent your connection being hijacked again.

Using these three tips, you can greatly reduce the risk of becoming another mobile fraud victim. For more help securing your mobile device, download a free trial of Panda Mobile Security.

The post How to share your internet mobile connection safely appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.

Panda Security

Five Takeaways from the Security Crisis of 2016

Leave a comment

This year we have witnessed Yahoo acknowledge the greatest data breach in history. In September, the Internet giant admitted to the theft of at least 500 million email addresses, passwords, usernames, dates of birth, phone numbers, and, in some cases, security questions with their corresponding responses. Shortly thereafter, in December, the company announced that up to 1 billion accounts may have been compromised in a different breach.

This wasn’t the only major security crisis of 2016. The personal data of Snapchat employees (names, Social Security numbers, salaries…) fell in the wrong hands because of a con known as “whaling”. Cyber criminals impersonated Evan Spiegel, the company’s CEO, in order to obtain the data in question.

The credentials of 117 million LinkedIn users, 68 million Dropbox users, and 1.5 million Verizon customers also fell into the hands of cybercriminals, some of which went up for sale on the dark web. There are a few lessons we can learn from this and other unsettling news items we’ve seen in 2016.

1- No Password is Safe

At this point, following the theft of such an enormous quantity of information, one can assume that any password that is a couple years old is compromised. There is no service that is significantly safer to use than others, and none that we should trust blindly. It follows that the most sensible thing to do is to change all passwords that have been in use for a period of time. Reusing passwords unnecessarily puts the user at risk.

2- Security Questions Are Part of the Problem

As soon as they learned about their data breach, Yahoo disabled security questions like “when is your mother’s birthday?” and “what color was your first car?”. It’s no longer only a matter of whether the answers can be found by digging into potential victims’ profiles on social networks, but also of the fact that many answers have been directly stolen. Unlike passwords, this kind of data does not change. Substituting it for false data would be tantamount to creating a second password. In other words, the risk of forgetting it is still there, which obviously defeats its purpose as a means of password recovery. The remedy becomes worse than the original problem.

3- Delete Registration Emails

Cybercriminals place increasingly more value on web users’ emails and passwords. This comes as no surprise, since emails can be the door to many other things. If your password is stolen from one service, and you use the same one for email, intruders will have access to whatever recovery email they need for any other service you have an account at. What’s more, they can look through old messages for registration emails to find out where you’ve been signed up before. This is easily avoided by deleting registration emails as soon as you receive them.

4- Bigger Fish to Fry?

If you’re running a company, however small, don’t make the mistake of thinking that data theft only affects the giants. In fact, it’s easier and more profitable for cybercriminals to target small business. Not only have attacks on small businesses been on the rise, but also their consequences are much more severe. The smaller the company, the greater the risk of a security crisis wiping it out.

5- Be Transparent and React Quickly

If the worst should happen, notifying your customers or users that their confidential information has been stolen should not be taken lightly. It’s important to let them know right away, with as much detail as possible and without downplaying the potential risks. Hiding or disguising the truth can only make things worse. For starters, those who have been affected will not be able to change their passwords as quickly as they should. Finally, your credibility is at stake. The damages done to it will grow the more time that passes between the breach and your announcement of it.

 

The post Five Takeaways from the Security Crisis of 2016 appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.

Panda Security

Did you know your eReader can be hacked?

Leave a comment

Could be your eReader a potential target for attack?

Most people think that hackers only target PCs and laptops. Some may also be aware that cybercriminals are now targeting smartphones too. But did you know that virtually any device – including your eReader – could be a potential target for attack?

Tablets as eReaders

With the exception of the Amazon Kindle, dedicated eReaders are now quite rare. Most people actually use cheap Android-powered tablets to read ebooks.

Obviously this is perfectly sensible – a reader that can be used to browse the web is really useful. But just like any other Android-powered tablet, there is a risk of security compromise.

These eReader tablets can install and run apps, just like Android smartphones – and this is there the problems arise. Malware infected apps are depressingly common; once installed they can steal personal information, access your passwords, allow criminals to commit identity theft and even use your tablet to attack other systems.

Malware is not just restricted to apps however. Determined hackers may disguise their apps as ebooks in the hope of tricking people into downloading them. Once loaded, these fake ebooks will install malware in the background, so you may not even know that there is something wrong.

The Internet of Things

Even if you never download apps to your eReader app, there is still a risk that cyber criminals could break in. WiFi connected devices are increasingly popular, allowing you to do all kinds of automated tasks. Remote light switches, connected thermostats, CCTV cameras and the like can all be joined to your home WiFi network to make your life easier through automation.

Known as the Internet of Things, these new technologies promise to change the way we live our lives at home. Unfortunately, every WiFi connected device also provides criminals with a range of potential targets to attack. Once in, they can then begin stealing data from the other devices attached to your network – including your eReader tablet.

Protecting your eReader

Because of these risks, you must protect your eReader in the same way you do your PC and smartphone. You should only ever download ebooks and apps from recognised, reputable stores like Amazon and Google Play for instance. This will help greatly reduce the risk of downloading an infected file.

You should also ensure that you have a suitable mobile security app installed on your eReader – like Panda Mobile Security. This will help prevent malicious apps from installing themselves, and alert you when there is a potential problem. You can then stop your information being stolen, or your device damaged.

If you suspect that your eReader has already been hacked, you should download Panama Mobile Security immediately. The longer an infection is left untreated, the greater the potential loss and damage caused.

For more help and advice on protecting your eReader, please get in touch.

The post Did you know your eReader can be hacked? appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.

Panda Security

How a Smart Toy Could Get Hacked

Leave a comment

Almost a decade has passed since the arrival of Furby, which made quite a splash on the children’s toys market. That was just the beginning. Now, Christmas serves as a time to usher in new companions that, of course, come with their respective apps and are able to have full conversations, as though they were alive. The Internet of Things has come to the toy store.

This new brand of entertainment carries along with it certain privacy risks for children. In fact, a recent study carried out by the Scandinavian consultancy Bouvet demonstrates how certain technologies included in modern toys connected to the Internet could present some danger.

According to the study, the Cayla doll and the robot i-Que, two American toys that are also available in a few European countries, are far from being the ideal entertainment for the kids.

For starters, they come with a voice recognition system enabling them to hold a conversation with their young owners. Built by the American company Nuance Communications, this system records the children’s speech at all times and sends it to the company, which stockpiles the audio data.

Apart from this unsettling surveillance of children, these toys pose another risk. According to the study, these products employ surreptitious advertising. Bouvet discovered that, over the course of conversations, the toys talk about other products, such as specific animation films.

As if that wasn’t enough, the investigators also discovered that the toys are able to be manipulated and that cybercriminals could hack them to cut into conversations with children or steal the conversations being recorded.

However, these aren’t the first incidents that have triggered alarms when it comes to smart toys. In fact, some companies have been adapting children’s entertainment to devices for over half a decade, not without certain risks. Just a year ago, the seventh installment of Star Wars came to toy stores with the BB-8, a friendly robot that you could control from a smartphone. Shortly after, it was revealed that this toy could be hacked and hijacked by a cyber assailant.

Last Christmas, even Barbie herself was accused of posing a danger to children. An interactive doll able to converse with humans and improve itself with automatic learning, the Hello Barbie continuously listened to what children were saying in an espionage fluke that parents and associations didn’t find very funny.

Santa Claus will have to double check the things he places under the tree this year. For starters, we should assume that to some degree all smart toys collect at least some data from our children. Before purchasing a toy connected to the Internet of Things, check consumer reports to see if there are any known vulnerabilities. And most of all, enjoy your holidays without worry.

The post How a Smart Toy Could Get Hacked appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.