Why are vaccination scams a thing now?

Now that vaccinations for the COVID-19 virus are rolling out across Ireland, across Europe and across the world, there is going to be a lot of information out there about how people can gain access to vaccinations in their various countries.

Now as it’s a time of crisis with the virus still being very, very active, the bad guys are going to take advantage of this crisis to confuse people and get them to fall victim to scams that are relating to vaccinations.

What will they look like?

They’ll be putting out messages on WhatsApp or on Facebook or on Messenger, even in emails and text messages. They’d be telling you to:

• “Click here to get information about how you get vaccinated in your country.”
• “Give us some money to register for this service.”
• “Give me all of your personal details.”

These are the types of scams that they are going to try on people.

So what should I do?

So don’t believe anything you get in a message or an email, whether its a WhatsApp text message or Messenger, anything like that on social media, don’t believe any information you see there, unless it is coming from official government or national health service sources. Like in Ireland that would be the HSE. So only get the information about vaccinations from those sources not social media.

So that’s it for this week. Lets be careful out there and we’ll talk to you again next week.

How can L2 Cyber Security help you?

We offer a full range of training programmes, which can be delivered online or in-person*.

L2 Cyber Security are also a partner of CyberRiskAware for online self-directed Cyber Security Awareness training and Phishing testing.

Contact us for more information at info@L2CyberSecurity.com.

*With appropriate social distancing and other health and safety measures adhered to.

Follow us on Social media:

Liam is available on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Follow L2 Cyber on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

© L2 Cyber Security Solutions

The post #WeekendWisdom 060 Vaccination Scams appeared first on L2 Cyber Security Solutions.

The year in Ransomware:

2020 started out with a number of #Ransomware incidents that were occurring over the New Year period. Ransomware became a greater threat throughout the year, with increased demands by the criminals looking to extort from their victims. So I continue to hopefully offer advice and guidance to you, on how you can protect your business from these threats.

The end of Windows 7:

We also saw the end of support for Windows 7. So if you’re continuing to use a #Windows7 machine in your organisations, you really need to get off that platform and move on to the more recent Windows 10 or other operating systems.

The COVID-19 Pandemic:

And of course 2020 brought us the biggest news of all with the #COVID19 pandemic. I provided lots of advice and guidance on how you can get your staff working from home safely and securely. Protecting both themselves and your business from the threats that were out there.

The Zoom Bombing phenomenon:

And one of those threats of course was #ZoomBombing, which I dedicated an entire video to, on how you can protect yourself from that.

All the rest in the Review of 2020:

There’s lots of other little bits and nuggets of information which I thought were maybe interesting and useful. I hope you found them similarly and I hope to continue to provide these to you in 2021.

Happy Christmas:

So with that, I would just like to wish you and yours the very happiest of Christmases and I hope you have a safe and secure New Year.

So that’s it for this year. Let’s be careful out there and we’ll talk to you again next year.

How can L2 Cyber Security help you?

We offer a full range of training programmes, which can be delivered online or in-person*.

L2 Cyber Security are also a partner of CyberRiskAware for online self-directed Cyber Security Awareness training and Phishing testing.

Contact us for more information at info@L2CyberSecurity.com.

*With appropriate social distancing and other health and safety measures adhered to.

Follow us on Social media:

Liam is available on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Follow L2 Cyber on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

© L2 Cyber Security Solutions

The post #WeekendWisdom 059 A Review of 2020 appeared first on L2 Cyber Security Solutions.

TLDR – I’m using it, though I’m not convinced of its effectiveness. While you’re here – please #WearAMaskInPublic.

The COVID Tracker App is better than nothing at all

First things first. I applaud the approach the HSE has taken here. They have been very open and transparent about this project. This is a welcome change to previous state agency attempts to abuse their power over our private lives, such as the #PSC card. There is more information available here.

The app however is doing too many things. It should just do the proximity tracking and nothing more. But no, they have a self-diagnosing Sniffle-Meter, they want to gather “metrics” from your app usage and they want your telephone number. At least you don’t have to use these functions if you don’t want to. I certainly won’t be.

So how well will the proximity tracking work? Not as well as some would have you believe. The Bluetooth technology that’s being used was never designed to detect distance and so many things interfere with wireless signals that it will never be truly 100% accurate. However it *IS* better than nothing at all.

It is not a preventative measure

It will not protect friends and family as some claim, because it is *NOT* a preventative measure. It will aid the track and trace efforts of the HSE, but nothing more. If you want good preventative measures then (1) wash your hands (2) cover your coughs and sneezes (3) wear a mask in crowded situations.

I’m very careful in my daily interactions in public places. I wear a mask when I go into shops in the city. Not so much my local rural shops, as they are generally much quieter, plus I’m in and out in a minute or two. I avail of hand sanitizer at every opportunity and have my own in the car. I am very rarely in close proximity to ANYONE for more than a minute or two. I always keep my distance – 2m or more.

There will be false readings

The only living beings that spend more than a few minutes in close proximity to me are my dogs, so if I get a notification from this app, it will almost certainly be a false positive. I expect there to be a noticeable percentage of false positives.

What will be interesting will be whether many false negatives come to light. These would be where an infected person is in close contact with somebody for a lengthy period of time, passes on the virus, but the app never flags it when either person puts in the code to show they have the virus.

We’ll see how it goes, particularly if/when a second wave comes.

Closing thoughts

I think I’ll see little value from using the app, but that’s me. If you happen to spend more time than I in crowded environments, shops, busy streets, offices, public transport then you probably should use the app. If you don’t want to, then fair enough that’s your choice. I won’t judge you.

Just a final note to those sneery people who say “Using Facebook, Twitter, TikTok to give out about data privacy on the COVID Tracker app.” stop doing that please, as it is not helpful. People have a right to be concerned about potential state surveillance. We have very strong laws protecting our right to privacy and we should be careful not to let these be chipped away at. We could very quickly reach a Black Mirror dystopia if we do not keep questioning our government’s intentions.

So stay safe. Wear a mask, wash your hands, wear a mask, keep your distance and did I mention – WEAR A MASK – please.

The post COVID Tracker App – an opinion. appeared first on L2 Cyber Security Solutions.

As I advised back in #WeekendWisdom number 23, the UK and US cyber security authorities have issued a warning about a huge increase in the number of domain names using COVID19 in their title. These will be used by malicious websites to try and get people to register their details or try to fool them in some other way.

What kind of fake domain names

Here you can see an example from a text message which would seem to indicate that you were in contact or close contact with somebody who has now been diagnosed with COVID19 or has the symptoms of COVID19. And they are trying to leverage the uncertainty about the contact tracing that is going on at present. So they want you to click on that link which would not be very good.

What about those COVID19 Tracking Apps

Similarly various countries are beginning to roll out COVID19 tracking apps. And there is going to be again, uncertainty around how these are going to work.

For example just this week, Australia rolled out the COVIDSafe app. And within hours of this app going live, there were text messages going around to Australian mobile numbers seeming to indicate it was coming from the app and that people had been detected outside of the range from their homes and they need to call the number.

So it’s all fake and that’s what these guys are going to try and leverage.

When an app goes live in your country, expect to start seeing some scam text messages about that or other the messages about that.

So don’t fall for the fake domain names and scams about COVID19 tracking apps.

So that’s it for this week. Let’s be careful out there and we’ll talk to you again next week.

www.L2CyberSecurity.com

www.twitter.com/L2Cyber

#SecuritySimplified

The post #WeekendWisdom 026 Fake domain names and COVID19 tracking apps appeared first on L2 Cyber Security Solutions.

Yep! I’m Working from Home for the first time.

Now that the #COVID19 pandemic has truly gripped the planet, lots of employers are asking their employees to work from home. If you’re in the situation for the first time your employer probably has provided you with a laptop or a tablet, or some device to be able to do this work from home.

If they have done this they probably also have given you some kind of secure way of connecting into the company emails and into the company file data storage. Your IT support might also have given you guidance on things you need to do to keep that machine safe and secure while you’re working from home. So please do follow those guidelines.

So Working from Home and Data Protection, what do I gotta do?

But if you’re working with personal data you really, really want to be very careful about that device and how you use this device in your working from home environment. For example you might have younger people in the house and it can be very tempting to let them play with this device or use this device to access the internet, when you’re not working with it. You must resist that temptation because that device contains potentially sensitive data. You cannot let the young people get access to that data. It must be kept secure.

What about paper personal data?

Similarly if you were printing things at home and particularly if you’re printing sensitive personal data, so things like health information or religious, political persuasions, that type of information.

Sensitive Personal Data:

• Race/Ethnic origin
• Political Opinions
• Religious/Philosophical beliefs
• Trade Union Membership
• Physical/Mental Health
• Sexual Orientation/Sex Life
• Genetic data
• Biometric data

If you’re going to print that out at home you really need to be able to secure those printouts, those hard copies appropriately and as securely as it would be in the office. So you really shouldn’t want to be printing that stuff out.

So that’s it for this week. Let’s be careful out there and we’ll talk to you again next week.

www.L2CyberSecurity.com

www.twitter.com/L2Cyber

The post #WeekendWisdom 020 Working from Home and Data Protection appeared first on L2 Cyber Security Solutions.

Pandemic Preparation – extras for Business Continuity Planning:

So in a pandemic situation, there are three items that you might want to additionally consider over and above your normal business continuity planning.

1 – Availability of key personnel

The first one is the availability of key personnel. How would you be able to continue to provide goods and services to your clients if certain key personnel were unavailable due to illness?

2 – Reduced supplier capacity

Similarly your suppliers. If your suppliers are only producing at a reduced capacity, are you going to be able to continue to do what you need to do for your clients?

3 – Set client expectations

Thirdly, on that basis, you should probably talk to your clients about what your plans are for the production of your goods and services that they get from you.

What about the technology side:

From a technology perspective then, if you have to capability for staff to work from home and that will keep you going that’s great.

Test work-from-home technology

But you should really test that situation now, before things become a crisis. So perhaps have all your staff, some evening at home, they all access the systems at the same time. As if it was during the working day and then see if your systems can handle it.

Get staff comfortable with tools

if you’re using Microsoft Office 365 or Google Gsuite or other collaboration tools, they’re great for people working from home, but make sure your staff are comfortable using them. So get them to test them now, in the office and get comfortable with them.

Don’t use personal email

Don’t encourage staff to use personal email accounts for communicating in a work from home situation because there might be security and GDPR considerations there.

Watch out for “crisis” scams

And finally you want to make sure to watch out for additional scams that people might try to perpetrate in this time of crisis.

So that’s it for this week. Let’s be careful out there and we’ll talk to you again next week.

www.L2CyberSecurity.com

www.twitter.com/L2Cyber

The post #WeekendWisdom 018 Pandemic Preparation appeared first on L2 Cyber Security Solutions.