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Saying one word can make your bank accounts or other financial accounts at risk

So I’m looking at email and saw a Kim Komando newsletter with the title and article The one word you should never say to a telemarketer or scam caller and I found it interesting.

I believe I’ve talked about voice recognition software in the past when I ran across it with a service I once used, but I haven’t seen it much. This recognition software would ask you to record a phraise and when calling back, would ask if it was you that said it.

So if you read this article, the answer to the one word you shouldn’t say is answering the question of whether you can be heard. If you say “yes” that can lead to possible trouble, says the article.

Also, in the article, they talk about an app called True Caller which is available for Android and IOS. I don’t know anything about it, but I get tons of calls and they say not to answer your phone if you don’t recognize the number or it looks strange.

With the fact that these guys can spoof a company phone number, maybe its time just not to answer incoming calls at all, unless the call number is on your contacts. Then again, that can be spoofed too. I really don’t have a great solution to this ongoing problem.

Have any thoughts? Sound off in the commengts. The boards await you.

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More cars getting recalled

Have a car? Better read komando.com’s Car recall warning: Ford, Jeep, Toyota, Nissan, and BMW models affected for all of the details.

This affects numerous types of cars, from some of the big names in cars.

Better check this out if you are affected.

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Hackers want Google accounts. Give yours this security check now!

I spotted this while on a call, and I’ll let the block speak for itself. I read it and its Kim writing this one.

With your Google account credentials, a scammer can do a lot of damage. Protect yours in about 30 seconds with this simple step.

Source: Hackers want Google accounts. Give yours this security check now!

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Komando has a duck duck go update, better privacy controls are on the way

In this blog post from may we talked about the fact that Duck Duck Go may have had a misstep. It turns out, my thinking process was correct, as now, Komando staff is publishing an article that talks about what the search company is now doing.

As it turns out, they entered in to an agreement with the search company and are rolling out the same technology that blocks the other trackers to work against blocking Microsoft.

There’s other things including a link to the posting that is talked about. I forget the gentleman’s name, but iss there too.

The article is titled Sick of Google’s tracking? DuckDuckGo just added all these privacy features and maybe it’ll put people”s minds at ease.

I figured that it was an honest mistake, but we never know. Have you used the search engine and what did you think?

Thanks for listening, reading and commenting if you chose to comment. Your input is valuable!

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There is a new threat, its called a Gootkit Loader’ and it is dangerous

Hello everyone,

This week on the security box, program 107, we’re going to talk about Gootkit Loader’s and what they’re up to.. I’ve never heard of them until I saw the article Gootkit Loader’s Updated Tactics and Fileless Delivery of Cobalt Strike but it was interesting to read this article as I’ve seen coverage of fileless deliveries of malware before. This makes it hard for any technology we use whether it is MSE, Malware Bytes or any other program that might assist in removing the pest.

This is one of those we need to watch, and if you read the article on our list, you’re welcome to comment on it. The TSB list is also in our blogroll as I promised I’d do some time ago.

Read this article? What do you think?

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This is why I do not use the News to get my tech news

Back in late July, we covered the Twitter Breach. It was first reported on the Cyber Wire Daily program and then through Kim Komando’s site.

Just today, I saw this KNX article which was probably eated today talking about the breach and linking back to the company that was linked and mentioned in their respective articles and podcasts.

I’m not going to tell people where they should get their tech news as I find KNX very valuable in what they do, being a 24-hour news channel, but Tech I don’t think is a good value.

This could be a personal opinion, but when it comes to breaches, you be the judge. Search twitter breach and you’ll find articles and it will include this one. I’m making it known so that you can make your decision where you get news.

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The Security Box, podcast 106: What Is Pig Butchering when it comes to the Cybersecurity Field?

Hello everyone,

Welcome to podcast 106 of the Security Box series. This is Jared and I’m refreshed with the fact i didn’t sleep well the night before and I am here to give you the Security Box for this week.

Blue Streak Radio should have a copy of the show in their folder.

We just recently put the file up on the rss feed for everyone to have, and we have the 186.13mb file download for those who don’t have RSS or can’t get RSS to work.

Now, let’s get on with the show notes for today’s program, which lasts a little over 3 hours in length.

I hope that you enjoy the program and thanks so much for listening!

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Welcome to podcast 106 of the Security Box. No, we’re not covering animals, but there is a new term called Pig Butchering that is now out there.

According to the article, it seems to be covering a lot of varying scams which may include Crypto, romance, and investment just to name a few.

Don’t let me tell you about it in the show notes, the article is titled Massive Losses Define Epidemic of ‘Pig Butchering’ and it comes from our buddy Brian Krebs.

Besides that, we’ll go through the blog, we’ll see what other things participents want covered, and maybe we’ll answer any questions that might come across.

Thanks so much for listening and make it a great day!

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Just as a side note, we did blog the article in a prior blog post, but we always link where we can. Thanks again, and we’ll be back next week!

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13 more bad cleaning apps for Android users to know about

After taking the rest of the day off after the taping of the show and getting much needed sleep, we’re here with an article I spotted yesterday and is in the newsletter for today, talking about 13 more applications that could potentially be a problem.

That makes the total number of apps since this series started at 146, that is, if we did all of the math correctly during yesterday’s program.

The Komando team categorized these apps, but all are agressive malware hiders and add popup apps.

Want to read all about them? 13 dangerous apps that pretend to clean your phone’s files is the name of the article, and as predicted we weren’t done.

To be honest, I’m glad this research is being done. It protects all users of the operating system, so this is something I think we should be praising.

Heard of any of these apps? Get to it! Let the deleting begin.

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Getting lots of spam texts, here’s the story behind that

Must be time to go through email, because I see Kims newsletter and it is talking about Spam texts.

I’ve followed a few links to see where they’ve gone, but recently quit doing that and for good reason.

While the texts I’ve gotten seemed harmless, you never know where the links are going, so if its something you’re not expecting, than just kill it and don’t click that link.

The Kim Komando article is titled Spam texts never end! 5 sure signs to delete that message which has images and samples of texts and descriptions to help us.

I’ve probably seen a good number of these through the last few years, but it doesn’t surprise me that it is getting worse.

Stay safe!

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3 phone scams, Nick said he’s seen one of these. Do you know which one? No hints!

I was calling Nick today, so maybe this was a cooincident? I called to ask about our upcoming show, and he was telling me about one of these three scams going around by phone.

Here is the list which is in headings in the article.

• 1. Jury duty scam
• 2. Police department’s number on the caller ID and
• 3. Impersonating police officer scam

Guess which one Nick told me about? I’m not giving any clues.

3 phone scams spreading now you should know about

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I’ve turned on the privacy report, here’s how it works

Hello folks,

I am reading some of Komando’s newsletter and realizing there’s good info here.

The hidden privacy report in your phone you should start checking is an article that talks about something that I never knew. We could see what apps access what, which might be interesting, as well as reminding us that we can tell apps not to use something if you feel it doesn’t need it.

I believe there are instructions for Android too. I’d read this no matter what platform you use so you can learn about what is offered and you can share with your friends and family.

Thanks so much for reading!

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Are you all sitting down? 17 more Android apps to remove

We’ve been blogging Kim Komando’s articles on softwqare not to use on your Android phone. Nick and I counted at least 100 of them, and now, we have a brand new list from Komando which has 17 more.

17 MORE dangerous Android apps spotted – Delete these now is the latest article in these ongoing issues to Android.

I’m not saying IOS is better, as there may also be malicious apps, but Android is an open product and with it, programs that might bypass the bouncer as it works as describes itself to be.

Here’s the list.

• 1 . Call Recorder APK — com.caduta.aisevsk
• 2 . Rooster VPN — com.vpntool.androidweb
• 3 . Super Cleaner- hyper & smart — com.j2ca.callrecorder
• 4 . Document Scanner – PDF Creator — com.codeword.docscann
• 5 . Universal Saver Pro — com.virtualapps.universalsaver
• 6 . Eagle photo editor — com.techmediapro.photoediting
• 7 . Call recorder pro+ — com.chestudio.callrecorder
• 8 . Extra Cleaner — com.casualplay.leadbro
• 9 . Crypto Utils — com.utilsmycrypto.mainer
• 10 . FixCleaner — com.cleaner.fixgate
• 11 . Universal Saver Pro — com.qaz.universalsaver
• 12 . Lucky Cleaner — com.luckyg.cleaner
• 13 . Just In: Video Motion — com.olivia.openpuremind
• 14 . Document Scanner Pro — com.myunique.sequencestore

>

• 15 . Conquer Darkness — com.flowmysequto.yamer
• 16 . Simpli Cleaner — com.scando.qukscanner
• 17 . Unicc QR Scanner — com.qrdscannerratedx

As you can see, this has the gammut of all kinds of apps, cleaners, crypto, a VPN, drawing, call recording, and scanners. That puts this well over a hundred by now, and they claim that they don’t think we’re done. Thoughts?

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Flying around the country during the summer? Scammers may be after you too

I thought some time back, I covered some airline scams, but komando.com is sounding the alarm.

This time, they’re letting us know that scammers may text or call about cancellations even if your flight is just fine.

To read the entire article, please read Flight canceled? Don’t fall for these airline scams for complete details on what these guys are trying to do now.

While I’ve not flown for over 10 years, the last time I flew, my tickets were paid for so I didn’t necessarily have anything to worry about. You bet i’d put these tips in to practice, because I would only deal with the airline(s) not some random number that texts/calls me.

Just be on the lookout.

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How many of you think that your phone will replace passwords?

In two different articles, it was talked about that at some point, uyour phone will replace your common every day password.

We normally don’t lose our phones, but maybe we have tech problems with our phones. But what if passwords were able to be replaced by our phone?

Here are two articles that were sent to TSB’s list for consideration as a topic.

• Your Phone May Soon Replace Many of Your Passwords Krebs On Security
• How Apple, Google, and Microsoft will kill passwords and phishing in 1 stroke Ars Technica

Both have great information, so let’s discuss whether this would be something that could happen in our future. Thanks for reading and make it a great day!

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With Scams of all kinds up, an article might be better late than never posted here

Hey folks,

In the better late than never department, I’ve been thinking about an article I read back in may and sent it to the Security Box list.

The article is titled Cryptocurrency regulators are scrambling to catch up with hackers who are swiping billions and it came to us from Cyberscoop.

At the time of reading, I marked it as part of our discussions, but other bigger things came up and so I’ve held on to it.

The problem is, that we have both not seen any updates, and the Crypto Scams are now getting to new lows.

How do I know its gone to new lows? Take this week’s Pig Butching topic.

blog post

I’ve also talked in podcasts 287 and 289 about one person who decided to try and scam me out of Itunes gift cards just so I can have some adult fun with them.

I even talked about someone who decided to basicly flip me off because they weren’t getting their way with me. But what about our regulators who are supposed to make laws to help us stay as safe as possible?

The fact is, this main article we’re covering in this post is talking about billions in fraud, and people on Clubhouse and other social media think its OK to go about contacting us to try and get us to invest.

I’ll say it again, don’t invest more than you can lose. This community only gets so much money, based on our situation. That is our living money! The article never gave a timeline on when these laws would go in to effect, but so far, various people still think that we can invest even a couple hundred dollars and promise us many times the amount.

So, is all of this pig butchering then? I guess we’ll see. May the comments begin. Let’s see where this goes.

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How about exposing people involved in Ransomware? A newsletter type article is doing just that

Hello all,

Here’s something people might want to cover in some way or another, but I leave it in your capable hands.

The article is a Cyberscoop article titled On security researcher’s newsletter, exposing cybercriminals behind ransomware and I honestly think this is a great idea!

Why do I think its a great idea? I think its a great idea because these people think that they’re unstoppable and can’t be touched by the law. In all actuality, I moight be doing some of this by talking about some of these stories, but actually putting in a newsletter and getting it out there is brilliant!

Instead of taking from the article, I leave it wide open so people can read the article and decide how they should approach it. I look forward to your responses via email, blog response, text, or even on the box or voice comment.

Let’s go!

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Let’s end the month on a good note, a guilty plea on an antispam case

While I thought this would be good, and we should celebrate, I lknow that jaredrimer.net is being innodated with Spam on a daily basis.

In any case, in the better late than never department, I’d like to present a good article and something we seldom see. The article was sent to the TSB list in June, and it is titled Adconion Execs Plead Guilty in Federal Anti-Spam Case. It was written by our good friend over at Krebs On Security, Brian Krebs.

Spam is something that we have to fight on a regular basis, and sometimes, the technology can only do so much.

I could turn on spam assassin on the domain, it only marks the messages. I could also turn on box trapper, but then it would send back a message to which the user needs to verify. That’s well in good, but then you run in to those automated emails, the ones for newsletters and the like, so then you have to whitelist those domains.

That’s all well good, but it only works if you put in the time to set it up and you have to have the service.

What if you don’t? You can filter it all, and Gmail is pretty good at a global level, but what if you don’t have Gmail? That’s where arrests and pleadings like this come in. Its a glimmer of hope and I’m curious if you’ve read this article now or when it was released what you think of this.

There are 4 people listed and linked within the article, and plenty of info to boot. Check it out and let me know your thoughts.

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one in 40 businesses hit with ransomware

After a power glitch pretty much woke me up this morning, I come to deal with email What do i see? I see an email talking in a newsletter about ransomware and the fact that one in 40 businesses can be at risk.

Komando’s article talks about two big companies that nade the news, but what about those that don’t? This is according to research done by Checkpoint.

That means over 800,000 companies are hit by ransomware annually. It’s easy to see why it’s such a lucrative venture for hackers, as ransom demands are often set in the millions of dollars per attack.

The average weekly attacks per organization worldwide reached a peak of 1,200 — an increase of 32% compared to last year. In addition, the most heavily attacked business sectors are education and research, increasing by 53%.

Finally

Another worrying statistic points to a 59% increase in ransomware globally compared to last year’s period. Africa was the hardest hit, while the U.S. saw a 1% increase, with average weekly attacks targeting one in 108 companies.

The usual steps of two-factor, using secure passwords and the like are given, as it can help but also not clicking on files and links you’re not expecting.

Jaredrimer.net has been innodated with huge volumes of spam from things indicating I can get gift cards for surveys and the like, from all kinds of companies. Looking at the email address, and looking at few of these links tell me that it isn’t coming from the companies they’re claiming to be.

You can check have I been pwned to see if your address or number is out there, but there isn’t a whole lot we can do after that besides doing what we can with the tips given.

Article: Ransomware affects 1 in 40 – Are you at risk?

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If you own a car, make sure you’re safe in it

Technology is now in our cars, and komando.com is now notifying us of more care recalls.

Just like with our computers, cars can have problems. Its a different type of tech, battery or other issue, so check this komando article out titled Vehicle recalls: Dodge, Toyota, Chrysler and BMWs with dangerous issues for complete details.

Since I don’t know who may come across this blog, I feel that this should be shared and you, the disabled user, can let your sighted counterpartsknow that there are car recalls and share the link to the post which links to instructions on how to check things out.

Here are the headings within this article which impact the type of car. Each heading has information and a phone number the person should call to get further assistance.

• BMW
• Toyota
• Dodge and Chrysler

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Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Capital One and others targeted in Phishing attacks

Good day everyone, going through email, and saw this email newsletter from Kim Komando and the first item is what we’re talking about in this blog post.

This article talks about a new term Phishing as a service where people can pay $50 for one page and $200 for all pages using banks, a ready-phishing tool.

The prices listed are monthly charges not one-time purchases.

fice 365, Adobe Creative Cloud and Google Workspace are all seen as software as a service. Regarding cybercrime, a relatively new tool is Phishing as a Service (PhaaS), where hackers sell their phishing software to criminals for a monthly fee. Unfortunately, one of these PhaaS attacks is rampant in the U.S., targeting Citibank, Bank of America, Capital One, and Wells Fargo customers. According to the cybersecurity company IronNet, “Robin Banks is a ready-made phishing kit aiming to gain access to the financial information of individuals residing in the U.S., as well as the U.K., Canada, and Australia.”

According to this article, this tool can be changed to mimic the likes of Microsoft, Google or other online accounts.

To read the full article, please read New banking scam: Warning for Bank of America, Citi and Wells Fargo customers and remember that it could target others.

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