Is Bad Santa Going to Come Down Your Chimney this Year?

By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Now that Halloween is over, the Christmas shopping season will soon kick into gear.  With it will come a deluge of holiday shopping ads on TV, in the mail and online.  Unfortunately, this is also the time of the year with the highest prevalence of fraud.  If you want to keep the Grinch from ruining your Christmas cheer, you need to keep up on all the shams, scams and flimflams that are launched by the sleigh load during the holiday season. 

Are your devices Bad Santa’s secret helpers?

If you own any kind of computer, tablet PC or smartphone, you have more or less hung out the stocking for Bad Santa.  That’s right, cybercriminals from all over the world are gearing up to hack, crack and attack your devices.  Unlike years gone by where hackers would spend days trying to guess your passwords, todays cyberthieves have an easier route to gaining access.  That’s because they have a million and one ways of enticing you to invite them in.  They know most consumers are suckers for clickbait that advertises ridiculously low prices for coveted gifts or offers to send you high value coupons or gift cards if you’ll take the time to answer their survey.  Get real folks!  If you open the door to thieves, don’t cry when you get Grinched.

Who’s naughty and who’s nice?

Another thing you have to be ultra-wary of at this time of year are emails.  Since the season of giving is also the busiest time of year for the Post Office, FedEx, UPS and scads of other popular shippers, it’s the perfect time to take you for a ride as well.  Beware of emails that claim to come from popular shippers.  The usual email trap starts off something like this, “We’re sorry to trouble you, but your package is hung up in transit.  Click on the link below so we can complete your shipment.”  The minute you click on the link, the bad guys have you.  They will either ask you to verify your payment method, or the link you clicked on will automatically install malware on your device.  Either way, you’re in big trouble.

Image courtesy of Max Pixel

Not only can a hacker break into your system to rifle your files and steal valuable personal and financial information from you, they can also turn your computer into their slave and/or lock you out of your machine only to demand ransom.  Think it can’t happen to you?  In 2017, $281 million was stolen from consumers in the US through their devices.  Another $125 million was paid out in ransomware attacks and an additional $76 million was shelled out to IT professionals to clear out malware from devices owned by consumers in this country.  That’s nearly half a billion dollars.  That doesn’t count the billions more in losses sustained by US businesses or the several hundred million records that were stolen last year from big box retailers and data collection agencies.

Beware the Christmas cards from hell.

Cybercrime is becoming so rampant that you even need to be wary of emails or eCards purportedly sent to you by friends and family.  Once any of your friends or family members devices are hacked, the first thing the hackers do is use their list of contacts to spread their attack further.  During the holidays this usually equates to getting a holiday greeting or eCard from someone you know that asks you to hit a link to accept the card or see a holiday video or photo.  If you fall for this trick, you’ve just given the Grinch the keys to your financial future.  As a thank you, the hackers will then rifle your device for the email addresses and phone numbers of all your friends and family, so they can email or text them a poison present from you.

Image courtesy of flickr

How can you defang the Grinch?

If you expect the government to step into protect your rights or grab the bad guys, think again.  Since cybercrime is a worldwide phenomenon, chances are the cyberthieves who put the byte on you could be anywhere on the planet.  So, don’t call the police or even the FBI if you get hit.  When several police stations in Georgia found their networks infected with ransomware last year, they called the FBI for help.  The advice they got from the G-men?  Pay the ransom.

With that in mind, if you want to take a bite out of cybercrime, you need to take cybersecurity for you and your family seriously. 

1.      Make sure all your devices have anti-malware packages activated and updated.  If your device has no cyber protection, or the package hasn’t been updated in years, you’re asking for trouble.

2.      Not only do you need to avoid risky online behavior to keep hackers at bay, you need to educate everyone in your family and at the office on what they need to avoid.  All it takes is for you to lend your child or an employee your tablet or cellphone and the next thing you know your device could be held for ransom.

3.      Never click on a link, take an online survey or respond to an inquiry online unless you are 100% sure you know with whom you are dealing.  If you get an email telling you your package is stuck in transit, every shipper on the planet has a customer service number you can call.  If you get an eCard or holiday greeting from a friend or family member with an active link, call the friend or family member to ask them if they sent the email. If they deny sending it, not only should you delete the email without opening it, you also need to tell the friend or family member that they have been hacked.

4.      Make friends with a local IT professional.  Most people make the mistake of waiting until they’ve been hacked to seek help.  This is the worst way to go about it, since the damage has already been done.  A much better solution is to contact an IT pro who can survey your devices to let you know how to correct vulnerabilities and steam clean any malware or adware that has already found their way onto your devices.

5.      What to do if you get Grinched.  First and foremost, stop what you’re doing immediately.  Don’t click on a link or hit any other keys.  Simply take your machine on the double to an IT professional.  If you hit any other keys or try to regain access to your machine, you’re just playing into the hackers’ hands.

Heed my advice if you want to have a happy holiday season.  Better still, if you own a business, feel free to contact me to find out about cyber-insurance that’s designed to safeguard your business’ digital assets the year around.  If not, the only jingle you hear this Christmas could be the money you’ll be giving to hackers.

Catherine Powell is the owner of A Plus All Florida, Insurance in Orange Park, Florida.  To find out more about cyber-insurance, check out her website at http://aplusallfloridainsuranceinc.com/