Craig Peterson - Secure Your Business, Your Privacy, and Save Your Sanity

Good morning everybody!

I was on with Matt this morning and we had a good discussion about Facebook and their contract moderators who just won a suit for PTSD due to the content they were exposed to and also about Firewalls and Anti-virus in re: the newer attacks being perpetrated by cybercriminals. Let's get into my conversation with Matt on WGAN.

These and more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com

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Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Craig Peterson: Let's say that you were using an email address at Yahoo. You use the same one at your bank account. Credential stuffing is where they've got your Yahoo email and password. They'll try it at banks, and then finally they find one where it works. That's credential stuffing and it is really, really grown.

[00:00:22] Wow. Can you believe it's going to be in the nineties today in Southern Maine? Southern Maine. It's hotter than Kentucky, which is where I am right now. And I'm out here for a wedding. But you know, the whole social distancing thing, there's only gonna be 10 of us there. It's, it was just weird. But Hey, that's the COVID world and that's where you're hearing me on my laptop today.

[00:00:49] I was on with Matt and, here was that conversation.

[00:00:54] Matt Gagnon: Seven 36 WGAN morning news Wednesday morning time to talk to Craig Peterson our tech guru. He joins us at this time every Wednesday, Craig. how are you this morning?

[00:01:03] Craig Peterson: Hey, that's me doing well. I can't believe it's going to be almost 90 degrees today.

[00:01:09] Matt Gagnon: I know, right?

[00:01:10] The complaints about it being too cold or about to turn into complaints about it being too hot.

[00:01:15] Craig Peterson: It's always something.

[00:01:16] Matt Gagnon: It's the way we roll. Right. Well, speaking of, complaints, I have a firewall, Craig, and it makes me feel very secure and my antivirus system is just top-notch, or is it?

[00:01:28] Craig Peterson: Well then you are all set.

[00:01:30] Matt Gagnon: Or is it?

[00:01:32] Craig Peterson: Exactly.

[00:01:33] Well, here's the big problem we're having right now, and that is our firewalls are being used against us, at least. If you're using one of those firewalls, but maybe you bought it a couple of years ago and installed it in your home, these firewalls are now being hacked. Directly. Many of them are running completely unpatched software.

[00:01:56] And that unpatched software now means that there are ways in. So we've got to remember that we don't. Just update our windows machines or Macs or our phones. We have to make sure we're updating our firewalls. And then when it comes to antivirus, and I said this many times on these webinars that I've been giving.

[00:02:16] But antivirus today is 0% effective against modern threats. So the question is where they're not really worth your money. Well, yes it is, but if you're going to get a firewall, get some form of a commercial-grade firewall. There are some consumer firewalls that are pretty decent, and if you want to drop me a line, I can certainly send you a little special report on that and not trying to sell you anything unless you want to buy.

[00:02:42] But I want to get the information out there. Matt, it is a dangerous world out there. And with Coronavirus, it's gotten even more dangerous on the tech side.

[00:02:54] Matt Gagnon: Indeed. Craig Peterson, our tech guru, talks to us about some of those dangers out there every Wednesday at this time. And Craig, interestingly enough, there's a story that, that, that you've been reporting on here a little bit about the people who are moderating our contents.

[00:03:07] And I remember seeing. Maybe a couple of years ago now. maybe it was a story in the post or the times. It was a pretty big expose on exactly what it's like to be one of these people in Facebook or Google or, you know, places that have to moderate content a lot. You would expect it to be kind of just a regular old job, right?

[00:03:26] You know, somebody. Post something racist and you get it, you know, you take it down and all those types of things. Maybe like a moderator of a, of a chat board or something. But some of these people see some really messed up stuff and they're the ones that are, that are charged with getting rid of it so that we don't, and there there's payments for PTSD happening and people are asking for more of these moderators to do content curation.

[00:03:49] So tell us about this.

[00:03:51] Craig Peterson: Yeah, and that's kind of the bottom line here, that the problem is that we've been trying to move over to automated systems to moderate the content. But what we found is that if they just don't work. So there are human moderators there who are looking at it. Now, Facebook and most of these other companies are using third-party contractors to do much of this work. And that lets them go with the ebbs and flows and over all of the other advantages of having some contractors in place. But these contractors just won a judgment against Facebook, $52 million in PTSD payments. Now, this is, of course, the same sorts of things that can happen to anyone that sees something horrific.

[00:04:38] And these moderators are saying they are seeing horrific things dozens, if not hundreds of times a day. And they've been committing suicide, they have to go and see a psychologist, psychiatrists. Their families are breaking up all because of the terrible things that are seen. And you know, Matt, when you get right down to it, it's hard to believe that we as just regular normal people could be so, I don't know if the word is evil, but you know, real evil,

[00:05:12] Matt Gagnon: Awful, and would certainly be a word I would use.

[00:05:14] Craig Peterson: Awful. Yeah. To post stuff that's going to cause people to have post-traumatic stress.

[00:05:21]

[00:05:21] Matt Gagnon: Yeah. And, and, and not to interrupt you or anything, Craig, but like the thing is, I think a lot of people who -hear this kind of a story say, Oh yeah, whatever, toughen up.

[00:05:28] It's not about you, you're on the internet theater. You're. You're waiting through content. Yeah. Some of it might not be great, but you know, toughen ups, you know, suck it up, buttercup. Right? But when you read some of the things, I'm not going to repeat a lot of them, but like when you read some of the things that they're actually forced to see so that they can get rid of, I mean, it's truly the worst of humanity. It really, really is.

[00:05:49] Craig Peterson: Yeah, it is. And people might have heard of red rooms and some of these other things that what people are posting and sharing online is just terrible. So my heart goes out to the support people and this $52 million in PTSD payment is only going to the contractors at Facebook. This has nothing to do with the employees who are faced with much the same thing every day.

[00:06:13] Matt Gagnon: Craig Peterson, our tech guru, talks to us every Wednesday at this time about some technical topics. Craig, what is credential stuffing?

[00:06:22] Craig Peterson: Yeah. This is where we had our information stolen from websites. So we, we know, for instance, about the Equifax hack where our name social security numbers, addresses everything was stolen from Equifax.

[00:06:37] And by the way, no one has received a check yet from Equifax for that breach, other than the banks, the banks are getting their money, but we're not. So the bad guys are taking the usernames, the email addresses, and the passwords that they've stolen from Equifax and all these other places now, and they are trying to use them at other websites.

[00:07:01] So if you're using the same email address. And the same password at multiple websites. The bad guys may have gotten you. So let's say that you were using an email address at Yahoo. You use the same one at your bank account. Credential stuffing is where they've got your Yahoo email and password. They'll try it at banks and then.

[00:07:24] Finally, they find one where it works. That's credential stuffing, and it has really, really grown. So the word of caution here, the step for everybody is changing your password and don't use the same password on every website and use multifactor authentication when possible. Have them send you a text message or use an authenticator app of some sort.

[00:07:50] Matt Gagnon: Craig Peterson our tech guru joins us at this time to go over what's happening in the world of technology. A final question for you, Craig. Encryption can help me protect my sensitive data. How do I actually can pull that off?

[00:08:03] Craig Peterson: Yeah. The easiest thing to do, both windows and Macs as well as Android devices and iOS devices, all have the ability to encrypt your data.

[00:08:14] And the advantage there is if your machine is stolen, they cannot get at your data. Now, it's automatic nowadays in the most recent versions of iOS for your phones and Android for your phones. But what we're looking at here now and is how can you get a good password? We just talked about those and use that password for disk encryption on your machines.

[00:08:39] Use a passphrase. We've talked about that before. Multiple words together. Make sure it's at least 15 characters long that's going to help.

[00:08:49] If you are using cloud services. Make sure you have extra encryption on there. You'll have to check, depending on your cloud service, what you should do. Use HTTPS everywhere. It's a plugin for your web browsers and that's going to make you safer than even a VPN is going to do.

[00:09:09] Matt Gagnon: His name is Craig Peterson, and he is also the host of a show that you hear here on WGAN on the weekend. Craig, tell the people when it is. And where it is.

[00:09:19] Craig Peterson: It is right here on Saturdays from one till three. We go through these topics as well as many others, and we have a little bit longer. There were two hours, so we tend to go into a lot more depth to help everybody understand what they should be doing and how to do it.

[00:09:37] Matt Gagnon: Indeed. Well, thanks so much for joining us here today, as always, Craig, and we will talk to you again next week.

[00:09:42] Craig Peterson: All right, take care, Matt.

[00:09:43] Matt Gagnon: You as well, sir. So coming up next, we're going to give you the latest email.

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www.craigpeterson.com

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For questions, call or text:

855-385-5553

Welcome!

Good morning, everybody. I was on with Jim Polito and we cover how companies are handling telecommuting and the suit that was just won by contract moderators of Facebook for PTSD.

For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com

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Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Craig Peterson: In this case. Yeah. There was a lawsuit against them. Well, a labor dispute. Anyway, that just ended and they agreed to pay $52 million to these moderator contractors who developed mental health issues. Hi everybody. Craig Peterson here down South with my laptop. This was me this morning. With mr Jim Polito and he was at home in his kitchen. Man has coronavirus changed everything. So here we go with Jim.

[00:00:37] He is our friend, our great guy, great, great guy, always taking very, very good care of us. And, he joins us. Now I'm talking about our talk guru Craig. Peterson. Good morning, sir.

[00:00:56] Hey, good morning, Mr. Jim.

[00:00:59]

[00:00:59] Hey, I figured out

[00:01:03] Jim Polito: the problem with the notes you sent me last week. I figured out probably, you know what it is. For some reason, iHeart must've changed something. Even though you provide content to iHeart, their email said, I think we need to put him into the junk mailbox for Jim. I never think to. I never think to check that mailbox.  I know you've told me a million times about the importance of checking that mailbox because important things can sometimes end up there because these filters are not perfect.

[00:01:40] So I guess there's a good lesson here for everybody. I have two copies of last week's notes, and, because I said, Craig, I didn't get the note. Oh, send it again, Craig, I still don't still have them. Then I got smart and I, I got smart and I looked and there they were. Dumb Jim, but there you go. That's why you're here, buddy.

[00:02:06] Craig Peterson: Yeah. The email filters, unfortunately, are a necessity nowadays. The bad guys, it just seems like every time you turn around, they're out there trying to ruin our lives. Man, it is just crazy. You have to keep up on this stuff, and that means you're looking at new software all the time. You're looking at what are the bad guys doing?

[00:02:33] It just, it's a full-time job, you know?

[00:02:36] Jim Polito: Yeah, it is. And that's why we have people like you keep an eye on things for us. and which leads me to something, I mean, I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but speaking of keeping eyes on things, so Facebook has people who watch content. You know, it used to be done more automated and then until I think enough people complained, but they watch the content and you know, take down stuff that's inappropriate.

[00:03:09] Well, unfortunately, these folks probably have to see some pretty disgusting things, some pretty graphic things. And these moderators got a whole bunch of money. After what did they sue for having PTSD for seeing all of this content.

[00:03:28] Craig Peterson: Yeah. Isn't that sad a to think about that. There's a $52 million payment now that Facebook is making to these moderators.

[00:03:39] Now what's really interesting to me is that they're not making this payment to the moderators who actually are on their payroll. Facebook has been outsourcing the moderation of groups to outside contractors. So in this case, yeah, there was a lawsuit against them. Well, a labor dispute anyways, but just ended and they agreed to pay $52 million to these moderator contractors who developed mental health.

[00:04:15] Issues on the job. You know, you think of PTSD for our warriors that are out there, and this is crazy to think about, but so many people are posting such horrific stuff. Here's how it works. Then, the computers will look at things and say, well, this look might be a problem if it's an obvious problem, but the computers will automatically just reject it, and your Facebook posts just appear, or the advertisement disappears.

[00:04:46] But in this case, what happens is that the computer's not quite sure. So it runs by a person, which is obvious.  In this case, a little bit of a problem in some of these moderators have actually committed suicide. That's how bad it's got.

[00:05:03] Jim Polito: Yeah. I mean, listen, I was a crime reporter, a street reporter, quite a while.

[00:05:10] I saw an awful lot of things. and, I'm not saying things didn't affect me, but you do develop somewhat of a tolerance to, but, but nobody. Yeah, I would imagine the onslaught of what these folks were seeing was constant because their job was to look at content, and I'm sure there was a lot of graphic content that they had to look at all day long and, I'm saying, you know, I don't look at this as like people do with the woman who got burned by the coffee or say it's a frivolous lawsuit. I say these folks probably saw some pretty nasty stuff all day long.

[00:05:51] Craig Peterson: Yeah, well, and when people are complaining, it's, as you had mentioned, complaining that Facebook's moderation is on jobs to unfair and in many cases it is, you know, they have been blocked or conserve of content, et cetera, but have been a call for more of the human moderators. I think this is kind of a call to all of us to kick it a little easier. Some of these poor people that are you, they're working. Their job is to moderate. Yeah.

[00:06:22] Jim Polito: Yeah. It's, it's tough. well, I want to stay on Facebook, not, not Facebook itself, but Facebook as an employer, because you probably heard me say 61% of people polled by the pioneer Institute, in Massachusetts said, okay. I would like to, after this is over, still have the option to permanently work at least one day from home, and I'm sure there are people want a lot more now.

[00:06:55] Facebook, I made an announcement about having more people work remotely, but hold on, hold on. They're going to get a pay cut. I would think if I worked remotely, you might want to give me a little bump there because you're not going to have to pay for me, plumbing, electricity, a seat, space, whatever.

[00:07:18] You're not going to have to do that. I'm picking up all of those costs of having the lights on, running my computer, having an internet connection. All of that.

[00:07:27] Craig Peterson: Right. Well, what's happening here with Facebook is interesting there. There are two big shifts now in their corporate policy. Facebook is, by the way, going to let people about 50% of its workforce right now continue working at home through the end of the year.

[00:07:43] But what you're talking about is real. They will be giving pay cuts to people, and here's why. Facebook is saying now, for the first time ever. Hey, You don't have to live out here in looney town, California. What you can do is if your family lives in Worcester, you can move back to Worcester and continue to work there.

[00:08:06] However. The average salary here in Loony town is, let's just say a hundred thousand a year. Let's say it's 50,000 a year, so we're going to give you and let you live in Worcester, and for the first time ever, they're also going to be hiring people. From pretty much anywhere in the country. So that is going to be good for us because we're not going to have all of these people in the liberal echo chamber, moderating or doing design.

[00:08:39] They're going to have what they are. Gonna call hubs in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, where they're going to do heavy recruiting. They're not necessarily going to have an office, but instead of having everybody in the Loony bin in California working for Facebook, now they're going to have some, hopefully, more reasonable people located throughout the country.

[00:09:00] Jim Polito: Yeah. See, that's the thing. Now, the federal government pays people that way. I learned this from an old friend. Who worked for the FBI. He was happy that he was stationed in Connecticut, B, because where he was in Connecticut was still considered part of New York City, so he got paid New York city pay as opposed to say, living on Cape Cod, you know, where the pay would be different or in New Hampshire where the pay would be different and interesting that Facebook is going to do that. Now here's the question. Let, let me bring politics into this is, you know, that's what I do for a living. So if I'm one of these Looney tunes who works for Facebook and I move. To a red state. I'm now bringing my blue attitude to a red state. I don't care if they're all in San Francisco.

[00:10:06] Silicon Valley have at it. You know, you guys want to do your crazy stuff, do it. But. I've got a friend in Texas who tells me, you know, they're ruining this state. Cause all the people from California who don't want to pay taxes are moving here. And you know, destroying our state that, so it's not only an economic phenomenon, it could be a political phenomenon.

[00:10:32] Craig Peterson: Yeah. I'm both directions here, Jim, because there certainly would be a problem with polluting the voting pools that these other States, having the people from Seattle and California moving out to Omaha, Nebraska, or wherever it is they move to, right. That's going to be a problem. But just like the federal government, I really think the federal government should move all of these agencies out of the Washington DC area, out to different parts of the country.

[00:11:07] Because what it does now is it exposes them. To real people in real life and real conditions. So although, you know, there aren't anywhere near as many people working for Facebook as there are other federal governments, it would certainly cause some pollution. But in reality, I think would be a little bit better off because there will be just regular people.

[00:11:31] Look at us right here, that the whole one 28 corridor, in fact, going all the way up into Southern New Hampshire was one of the major tech hubs in the, in the world. Frankly, now it's still a tech hub, but fewer computers and more medical space.

[00:11:49] Jim Polito: Yeah

[00:11:49] Craig Peterson: It's a good thing to have these remote from New York City or San Francisco or Seattle.

[00:11:56]Jim Polito: I'd like to think that that's true, that, that, you know, they do get a taste of reality and will, will make their decisions differently. I mean, I used to love, a couple of guys, I can't think of their first names. Trout and Reese, they wrote books about marketing and their whole concept was what they called bottom-up marketing.

[00:12:20] Like, you've got to go down to the end. Of your, of your chain of employees, where the, where the customer first meets the employee. And at that point to figure out what to do. Boardroom decisions are not good decisions. And, that's kind of the same approach, which is getting these people out there and they, they think differently.

[00:12:46] Well, listen, I gotta tell you, I think differently. Thanks to, you. Craig Peterson, and I wish I just had thought a little quicker. Take a look at my spam folder and said, Oh, there it is, and I'll listen. I'm gonna. I want you to know I'm going to call the head of IT for iHeart media. Right after the show today, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna read them the riot act about Craig Peterson.

[00:13:16] Craig Peterson: I appreciate that. And right now my text number is down.

[00:13:24] Jim Polito: Oh, okay.

[00:13:25] Craig Peterson: Yeah. If people want to get on some of the free webinars that I'm doing, I have come up with a, we're writing things, we've got a special report. Just visit quick peterson.com and right there on every page to sign up. So that you can find out about these things. You know, I, even though I ended up in your email filter, I am sending emails all the time.

[00:13:55] I do try and get good information out to people just like Al Reese and Jack Trout has done for years.

[00:14:02] Jim Polito: Oh, you've got the names.

[00:14:10] I read every one of their books. Yeah. I read 'em I was taking graduate classes at B U a long time ago, and that's where I got introduced to them. And, I read, I'm going to say at least three, three of their books, because I, I was working in the business at the time, but bottom-up marketing that concept makes a lot of sense.

[00:14:34] So, the same. And we'll see if it has an impact on Facebook. Craig, thank you so much. I really appreciate the time and we will catch up with you, sir next week.

[00:14:45] Craig Peterson: All right, thanks. Take care guys.

[00:14:47] Jim Polito: You too, Craig Peterson. Everybody was all right. When we return. Oh yeah, and Craig Peterson.com he spells it like Peterson, but you know he's Canadian.

[00:14:58] That's how they pronounce it. peterson.com you're a final word when we return, you're listening to the Jim Polito show your safe space.

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More stories and tech updates at:

www.craigpeterson.com

Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating:

www.craigpeterson.com/itunes

Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at:

www.twitter.com/craigpeterson

For questions, call or text:

855-385-5553

Welcome!

Good morning, everybody. I was on with Jim Polito and we cover how companies are handling telecommuting and the suit that was just won by contract moderators of Facebook for PTSD.

For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com

--- 

Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Craig Peterson: In this case. Yeah. There was a lawsuit against them. Well, a labor dispute. Anyway, that just ended and they agreed to pay $52 million to these moderator contractors who developed mental health issues. Hi everybody. Craig Peterson here down South with my laptop. This was me this morning. With mr Jim Polito and he was at home in his kitchen. Man has coronavirus changed everything. So here we go with Jim.

[00:00:37] He is our friend, our great guy, great, great guy, always taking very, very good care of us. And, he joins us. Now I'm talking about our talk guru Craig. Peterson. Good morning, sir.

[00:00:56] Hey, good morning, Mr. Jim.

[00:00:59]

[00:00:59] Hey, I figured out

[00:01:03] Jim Polito: the problem with the notes you sent me last week. I figured out probably, you know what it is. For some reason, iHeart must've changed something. Even though you provide content to iHeart, their email said, I think we need to put him into the junk mailbox for Jim. I never think to. I never think to check that mailbox.  I know you've told me a million times about the importance of checking that mailbox because important things can sometimes end up there because these filters are not perfect.

[00:01:40] So I guess there's a good lesson here for everybody. I have two copies of last week's notes, and, because I said, Craig, I didn't get the note. Oh, send it again, Craig, I still don't still have them. Then I got smart and I, I got smart and I looked and there they were. Dumb Jim, but there you go. That's why you're here, buddy.

[00:02:06] Craig Peterson: Yeah. The email filters, unfortunately, are a necessity nowadays. The bad guys, it just seems like every time you turn around, they're out there trying to ruin our lives. Man, it is just crazy. You have to keep up on this stuff, and that means you're looking at new software all the time. You're looking at what are the bad guys doing?

[00:02:33] It just, it's a full-time job, you know?

[00:02:36] Jim Polito: Yeah, it is. And that's why we have people like you keep an eye on things for us. and which leads me to something, I mean, I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but speaking of keeping eyes on things, so Facebook has people who watch content. You know, it used to be done more automated and then until I think enough people complained, but they watch the content and you know, take down stuff that's inappropriate.

[00:03:09] Well, unfortunately, these folks probably have to see some pretty disgusting things, some pretty graphic things. And these moderators got a whole bunch of money. After what did they sue for having PTSD for seeing all of this content.

[00:03:28] Craig Peterson: Yeah. Isn't that sad a to think about that. There's a $52 million payment now that Facebook is making to these moderators.

[00:03:39] Now what's really interesting to me is that they're not making this payment to the moderators who actually are on their payroll. Facebook has been outsourcing the moderation of groups to outside contractors. So in this case, yeah, there was a lawsuit against them. Well, a labor dispute anyways, but just ended and they agreed to pay $52 million to these moderator contractors who developed mental health.

[00:04:15] Issues on the job. You know, you think of PTSD for our warriors that are out there, and this is crazy to think about, but so many people are posting such horrific stuff. Here's how it works. Then, the computers will look at things and say, well, this look might be a problem if it's an obvious problem, but the computers will automatically just reject it, and your Facebook posts just appear, or the advertisement disappears.

[00:04:46] But in this case, what happens is that the computer's not quite sure. So it runs by a person, which is obvious.  In this case, a little bit of a problem in some of these moderators have actually committed suicide. That's how bad it's got.

[00:05:03] Jim Polito: Yeah. I mean, listen, I was a crime reporter, a street reporter, quite a while.

[00:05:10] I saw an awful lot of things. and, I'm not saying things didn't affect me, but you do develop somewhat of a tolerance to, but, but nobody. Yeah, I would imagine the onslaught of what these folks were seeing was constant because their job was to look at content, and I'm sure there was a lot of graphic content that they had to look at all day long and, I'm saying, you know, I don't look at this as like people do with the woman who got burned by the coffee or say it's a frivolous lawsuit. I say these folks probably saw some pretty nasty stuff all day long.

[00:05:51] Craig Peterson: Yeah, well, and when people are complaining, it's, as you had mentioned, complaining that Facebook's moderation is on jobs to unfair and in many cases it is, you know, they have been blocked or conserve of content, et cetera, but have been a call for more of the human moderators. I think this is kind of a call to all of us to kick it a little easier. Some of these poor people that are you, they're working. Their job is to moderate. Yeah.

[00:06:22] Jim Polito: Yeah. It's, it's tough. well, I want to stay on Facebook, not, not Facebook itself, but Facebook as an employer, because you probably heard me say 61% of people polled by the pioneer Institute, in Massachusetts said, okay. I would like to, after this is over, still have the option to permanently work at least one day from home, and I'm sure there are people want a lot more now.

[00:06:55] Facebook, I made an announcement about having more people work remotely, but hold on, hold on. They're going to get a pay cut. I would think if I worked remotely, you might want to give me a little bump there because you're not going to have to pay for me, plumbing, electricity, a seat, space, whatever.

[00:07:18] You're not going to have to do that. I'm picking up all of those costs of having the lights on, running my computer, having an internet connection. All of that.

[00:07:27] Craig Peterson: Right. Well, what's happening here with Facebook is interesting there. There are two big shifts now in their corporate policy. Facebook is, by the way, going to let people about 50% of its workforce right now continue working at home through the end of the year.

[00:07:43] But what you're talking about is real. They will be giving pay cuts to people, and here's why. Facebook is saying now, for the first time ever. Hey, You don't have to live out here in looney town, California. What you can do is if your family lives in Worcester, you can move back to Worcester and continue to work there.

[00:08:06] However. The average salary here in Loony town is, let's just say a hundred thousand a year. Let's say it's 50,000 a year, so we're going to give you and let you live in Worcester, and for the first time ever, they're also going to be hiring people. From pretty much anywhere in the country. So that is going to be good for us because we're not going to have all of these people in the liberal echo chamber, moderating or doing design.

[00:08:39] They're going to have what they are. Gonna call hubs in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, where they're going to do heavy recruiting. They're not necessarily going to have an office, but instead of having everybody in the Loony bin in California working for Facebook, now they're going to have some, hopefully, more reasonable people located throughout the country.

[00:09:00] Jim Polito: Yeah. See, that's the thing. Now, the federal government pays people that way. I learned this from an old friend. Who worked for the FBI. He was happy that he was stationed in Connecticut, B, because where he was in Connecticut was still considered part of New York City, so he got paid New York city pay as opposed to say, living on Cape Cod, you know, where the pay would be different or in New Hampshire where the pay would be different and interesting that Facebook is going to do that. Now here's the question. Let, let me bring politics into this is, you know, that's what I do for a living. So if I'm one of these Looney tunes who works for Facebook and I move. To a red state. I'm now bringing my blue attitude to a red state. I don't care if they're all in San Francisco.

[00:10:06] Silicon Valley have at it. You know, you guys want to do your crazy stuff, do it. But. I've got a friend in Texas who tells me, you know, they're ruining this state. Cause all the people from California who don't want to pay taxes are moving here. And you know, destroying our state that, so it's not only an economic phenomenon, it could be a political phenomenon.

[00:10:32] Craig Peterson: Yeah. I'm both directions here, Jim, because there certainly would be a problem with polluting the voting pools that these other States, having the people from Seattle and California moving out to Omaha, Nebraska, or wherever it is they move to, right. That's going to be a problem. But just like the federal government, I really think the federal government should move all of these agencies out of the Washington DC area, out to different parts of the country.

[00:11:07] Because what it does now is it exposes them. To real people in real life and real conditions. So although, you know, there aren't anywhere near as many people working for Facebook as there are other federal governments, it would certainly cause some pollution. But in reality, I think would be a little bit better off because there will be just regular people.

[00:11:31] Look at us right here, that the whole one 28 corridor, in fact, going all the way up into Southern New Hampshire was one of the major tech hubs in the, in the world. Frankly, now it's still a tech hub, but fewer computers and more medical space.

[00:11:49] Jim Polito: Yeah

[00:11:49] Craig Peterson: It's a good thing to have these remote from New York City or San Francisco or Seattle.

[00:11:56]Jim Polito: I'd like to think that that's true, that, that, you know, they do get a taste of reality and will, will make their decisions differently. I mean, I used to love, a couple of guys, I can't think of their first names. Trout and Reese, they wrote books about marketing and their whole concept was what they called bottom-up marketing.

[00:12:20] Like, you've got to go down to the end. Of your, of your chain of employees, where the, where the customer first meets the employee. And at that point to figure out what to do. Boardroom decisions are not good decisions. And, that's kind of the same approach, which is getting these people out there and they, they think differently.

[00:12:46] Well, listen, I gotta tell you, I think differently. Thanks to, you. Craig Peterson, and I wish I just had thought a little quicker. Take a look at my spam folder and said, Oh, there it is, and I'll listen. I'm gonna. I want you to know I'm going to call the head of IT for iHeart media. Right after the show today, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna read them the riot act about Craig Peterson.

[00:13:16] Craig Peterson: I appreciate that. And right now my text number is down.

[00:13:24] Jim Polito: Oh, okay.

[00:13:25] Craig Peterson: Yeah. If people want to get on some of the free webinars that I'm doing, I have come up with a, we're writing things, we've got a special report. Just visit quick peterson.com and right there on every page to sign up. So that you can find out about these things. You know, I, even though I ended up in your email filter, I am sending emails all the time.

[00:13:55] I do try and get good information out to people just like Al Reese and Jack Trout has done for years.

[00:14:02] Jim Polito: Oh, you've got the names.

[00:14:10] I read every one of their books. Yeah. I read 'em I was taking graduate classes at B U a long time ago, and that's where I got introduced to them. And, I read, I'm going to say at least three, three of their books, because I, I was working in the business at the time, but bottom-up marketing that concept makes a lot of sense.

[00:14:34] So, the same. And we'll see if it has an impact on Facebook. Craig, thank you so much. I really appreciate the time and we will catch up with you, sir next week.

[00:14:45] Craig Peterson: All right, thanks. Take care guys.

[00:14:47] Jim Polito: You too, Craig Peterson. Everybody was all right. When we return. Oh yeah, and Craig Peterson.com he spells it like Peterson, but you know he's Canadian.

[00:14:58] That's how they pronounce it. peterson.com you're a final word when we return, you're listening to the Jim Polito show your safe space.

--- 

More stories and tech updates at:

www.craigpeterson.com

Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating:

www.craigpeterson.com/itunes

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Welcome!

Good morning, everybody. I was on with Jim Polito and we cover how companies are handling telecommuting and the suit that was just won by contract moderators of Facebook for PTSD.

For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com

---

Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Craig Peterson: In this case. Yeah. There was a lawsuit against them. Well, a labor dispute. Anyway, that just ended and they agreed to pay $52 million to these moderator contractors who developed mental health issues. Hi everybody. Craig Peterson here down South with my laptop. This was me this morning. With mr Jim Polito and he was at home in his kitchen. Man has coronavirus changed everything. So here we go with Jim.

[00:00:37] He is our friend, our great guy, great, great guy, always taking very, very good care of us. And, he joins us. Now I'm talking about our talk guru Craig. Peterson. Good morning, sir.

[00:00:56] Hey, good morning, Mr. Jim.

[00:00:59]

[00:00:59] Hey, I figured out

[00:01:03] Jim Polito: the problem with the notes you sent me last week. I figured out probably, you know what it is. For some reason, iHeart must've changed something. Even though you provide content to iHeart, their email said, I think we need to put him into the junk mailbox for Jim. I never think to. I never think to check that mailbox. I know you've told me a million times about the importance of checking that mailbox because important things can sometimes end up there because these filters are not perfect.

[00:01:40] So I guess there's a good lesson here for everybody. I have two copies of last week's notes, and, because I said, Craig, I didn't get the note. Oh, send it again, Craig, I still don't still have them. Then I got smart and I, I got smart and I looked and there they were. Dumb Jim, but there you go. That's why you're here, buddy.

[00:02:06] Craig Peterson: Yeah. The email filters, unfortunately, are a necessity nowadays. The bad guys, it just seems like every time you turn around, they're out there trying to ruin our lives. Man, it is just crazy. You have to keep up on this stuff, and that means you're looking at new software all the time. You're looking at what are the bad guys doing?

[00:02:33] It just, it's a full-time job, you know?

[00:02:36] Jim Polito: Yeah, it is. And that's why we have people like you keep an eye on things for us. and which leads me to something, I mean, I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but speaking of keeping eyes on things, so Facebook has people who watch content. You know, it used to be done more automated and then until I think enough people complained, but they watch the content and you know, take down stuff that's inappropriate.

[00:03:09] Well, unfortunately, these folks probably have to see some pretty disgusting things, some pretty graphic things. And these moderators got a whole bunch of money. After what did they sue for having PTSD for seeing all of this content.

[00:03:28] Craig Peterson: Yeah. Isn't that sad a to think about that. There's a $52 million payment now that Facebook is making to these moderators.

[00:03:39] Now what's really interesting to me is that they're not making this payment to the moderators who actually are on their payroll. Facebook has been outsourcing the moderation of groups to outside contractors. So in this case, yeah, there was a lawsuit against them. Well, a labor dispute anyways, but just ended and they agreed to pay $52 million to these moderator contractors who developed mental health.

[00:04:15] Issues on the job. You know, you think of PTSD for our warriors that are out there, and this is crazy to think about, but so many people are posting such horrific stuff. Here's how it works. Then, the computers will look at things and say, well, this look might be a problem if it's an obvious problem, but the computers will automatically just reject it, and your Facebook posts just appear, or the advertisement disappears.

[00:04:46] But in this case, what happens is that the computer's not quite sure. So it runs by a person, which is obvious. In this case, a little bit of a problem in some of these moderators have actually committed suicide. That's how bad it's got.

[00:05:03] Jim Polito: Yeah. I mean, listen, I was a crime reporter, a street reporter, quite a while.

[00:05:10] I saw an awful lot of things. and, I'm not saying things didn't affect me, but you do develop somewhat of a tolerance to, but, but nobody. Yeah, I would imagine the onslaught of what these folks were seeing was constant because their job was to look at content, and I'm sure there was a lot of graphic content that they had to look at all day long and, I'm saying, you know, I don't look at this as like people do with the woman who got burned by the coffee or say it's a frivolous lawsuit. I say these folks probably saw some pretty nasty stuff all day long.

[00:05:51] Craig Peterson: Yeah, well, and when people are complaining, it's, as you had mentioned, complaining that Facebook's moderation is on jobs to unfair and in many cases it is, you know, they have been blocked or conserve of content, et cetera, but have been a call for more of the human moderators. I think this is kind of a call to all of us to kick it a little easier. Some of these poor people that are you, they're working. Their job is to moderate. Yeah.

[00:06:22] Jim Polito: Yeah. It's, it's tough. well, I want to stay on Facebook, not, not Facebook itself, but Facebook as an employer, because you probably heard me say 61% of people polled by the pioneer Institute, in Massachusetts said, okay. I would like to, after this is over, still have the option to permanently work at least one day from home, and I'm sure there are people want a lot more now.

[00:06:55] Facebook, I made an announcement about having more people work remotely, but hold on, hold on. They're going to get a pay cut. I would think if I worked remotely, you might want to give me a little bump there because you're not going to have to pay for me, plumbing, electricity, a seat, space, whatever.

[00:07:18] You're not going to have to do that. I'm picking up all of those costs of having the lights on, running my computer, having an internet connection. All of that.

[00:07:27] Craig Peterson: Right. Well, what's happening here with Facebook is interesting there. There are two big shifts now in their corporate policy. Facebook is, by the way, going to let people about 50% of its workforce right now continue working at home through the end of the year.

[00:07:43] But what you're talking about is real. They will be giving pay cuts to people, and here's why. Facebook is saying now, for the first time ever. Hey, You don't have to live out here in looney town, California. What you can do is if your family lives in Worcester, you can move back to Worcester and continue to work there.

[00:08:06] However. The average salary here in Loony town is, let's just say a hundred thousand a year. Let's say it's 50,000 a year, so we're going to give you and let you live in Worcester, and for the first time ever, they're also going to be hiring people. From pretty much anywhere in the country. So that is going to be good for us because we're not going to have all of these people in the liberal echo chamber, moderating or doing design.

[00:08:39] They're going to have what they are. Gonna call hubs in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, where they're going to do heavy recruiting. They're not necessarily going to have an office, but instead of having everybody in the Loony bin in California working for Facebook, now they're going to have some, hopefully, more reasonable people located throughout the country.

[00:09:00] Jim Polito: Yeah. See, that's the thing. Now, the federal government pays people that way. I learned this from an old friend. Who worked for the FBI. He was happy that he was stationed in Connecticut, B, because where he was in Connecticut was still considered part of New York City, so he got paid New York city pay as opposed to say, living on Cape Cod, you know, where the pay would be different or in New Hampshire where the pay would be different and interesting that Facebook is going to do that. Now here's the question. Let, let me bring politics into this is, you know, that's what I do for a living. So if I'm one of these Looney tunes who works for Facebook and I move. To a red state. I'm now bringing my blue attitude to a red state. I don't care if they're all in San Francisco.

[00:10:06] Silicon Valley have at it. You know, you guys want to do your crazy stuff, do it. But. I've got a friend in Texas who tells me, you know, they're ruining this state. Cause all the people from California who don't want to pay taxes are moving here. And you know, destroying our state that, so it's not only an economic phenomenon, it could be a political phenomenon.

[00:10:32] Craig Peterson: Yeah. I'm both directions here, Jim, because there certainly would be a problem with polluting the voting pools that these other States, having the people from Seattle and California moving out to Omaha, Nebraska, or wherever it is they move to, right. That's going to be a problem. But just like the federal government, I really think the federal government should move all of these agencies out of the Washington DC area, out to different parts of the country.

[00:11:07] Because what it does now is it exposes them. To real people in real life and real conditions. So although, you know, there aren't anywhere near as many people working for Facebook as there are other federal governments, it would certainly cause some pollution. But in reality, I think would be a little bit better off because there will be just regular people.

[00:11:31] Look at us right here, that the whole one 28 corridor, in fact, going all the way up into Southern New Hampshire was one of the major tech hubs in the, in the world. Frankly, now it's still a tech hub, but fewer computers and more medical space.

[00:11:49] Jim Polito: Yeah

[00:11:49] Craig Peterson: It's a good thing to have these remote from New York City or San Francisco or Seattle.

[00:11:56]Jim Polito: I'd like to think that that's true, that, that, you know, they do get a taste of reality and will, will make their decisions differently. I mean, I used to love, a couple of guys, I can't think of their first names. Trout and Reese, they wrote books about marketing and their whole concept was what they called bottom-up marketing.

[00:12:20] Like, you've got to go down to the end. Of your, of your chain of employees, where the, where the customer first meets the employee. And at that point to figure out what to do. Boardroom decisions are not good decisions. And, that's kind of the same approach, which is getting these people out there and they, they think differently.

[00:12:46] Well, listen, I gotta tell you, I think differently. Thanks to, you. Craig Peterson, and I wish I just had thought a little quicker. Take a look at my spam folder and said, Oh, there it is, and I'll listen. I'm gonna. I want you to know I'm going to call the head of IT for iHeart media. Right after the show today, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna read them the riot act about Craig Peterson.

[00:13:16] Craig Peterson: I appreciate that. And right now my text number is down.

[00:13:24] Jim Polito: Oh, okay.

[00:13:25] Craig Peterson: Yeah. If people want to get on some of the free webinars that I'm doing, I have come up with a, we're writing things, we've got a special report. Just visit quick peterson.com and right there on every page to sign up. So that you can find out about these things. You know, I, even though I ended up in your email filter, I am sending emails all the time.

[00:13:55] I do try and get good information out to people just like Al Reese and Jack Trout has done for years.

[00:14:02] Jim Polito: Oh, you've got the names.

[00:14:10] I read every one of their books. Yeah. I read 'em I was taking graduate classes at B U a long time ago, and that's where I got introduced to them. And, I read, I'm going to say at least three, three of their books, because I, I was working in the business at the time, but bottom-up marketing that concept makes a lot of sense.

[00:14:34] So, the same. And we'll see if it has an impact on Facebook. Craig, thank you so much. I really appreciate the time and we will catch up with you, sir next week.

[00:14:45] Craig Peterson: All right, thanks. Take care guys.

[00:14:47] Jim Polito: You too, Craig Peterson. Everybody was all right. When we return. Oh yeah, and Craig Peterson.com he spells it like Peterson, but you know he's Canadian.

[00:14:58] That's how they pronounce it. peterson.com you're a final word when we return, you're listening to the Jim Polito show your safe space.

---

More stories and tech updates at:

www.craigpeterson.com

Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating:

www.craigpeterson.com/itunes

Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at:

www.twitter.com/craigpeterson

For questions, call or text:

855-385-5553

Welcome!  

Since lockdown, we have been relegated to primarily shopping online.  That has given the cybercriminals a new large attack surface from which to prey.  Listen in and we find out what you can do to be safe online.

For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com

---

Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Craig Peterson: Hello, everybody. Craig Peterson here on WGAN and of course [email protected]. A few of you guys probably got some emails from me this week. I'm trying to clean up my email list. I have thousands of people on them that we send email to every week and trying to keep costs under control if you know what I mean.

[00:00:26] So, you know, we've been kind of sending things out to people to remind them to, you know, if, if you're not clicking on the emails, if you're not downloading the graphics that come on some of those emails, I just plain won't know that you're there and that you're reading them. Because that's how I do it.

[00:00:45] Right? And I'm always telling you, you know, being careful with downloading the graphics while, in my case at least once a month to make sure you download the graphics. So I know you're there. I don't mind paying to send you the emails if you're reading them. That's absolutely for sure. Hey, if you are using a website, I've got a warning for you and a particular warning for people who are in a business setting up websites.

[00:01:08] Maybe you've never really had one before. Frankly, all businesses coming up, right? You know right about now that we're brick and mortar with a small website presence. Everything's changing now. You're going to be primarily an online store, maybe with a brick and mortar presence. And I hate to say that because so many of us have worked so hard over the years, and if you're online shopping, I think you've got an even bigger problem.

[00:01:38] Because what we've found right now is that there are massive numbers of attacks going on against websites. This is a study that was put out by SiteLock, and they're saying that the typical websites are experiencing about one attack every 15 minutes or almost a hundred tax per day on average. Now, why have seen with some of our customers a hundred attacks in the course of a minute?

[00:02:07] We are getting scanned like crazy. The bad guys may not have Coronavirus, but they certainly do have attack methodologies that they can use against us and they are, they're using them full time. So we've got to talk about what does that means to you. And what can you do? What should you do? What shouldn't you do when you are online?

[00:02:28] Because we're talking about over 2,600 automated bots per week. Are visiting each website. That is a huge, huge number. And we're talking about attacks on websites jumping 52% over the previous year. So what are they doing? Well, they are doing a few things. One is they are trying to get into the. Credit card processing code that might be on your website.

[00:03:00] Now you might say, well, you know, I don't do it myself. I use Stripe or PayPal or square or something else on my website and so I don't have it. I'm not doing it. But no, that, that's not what these bad guys are doing cause they realize you don't process a credit card yourself online. I had a call this week, in fact, from some restaurants that are having a problem because they are trying to reopen, they are opening up outdoors and they're trying to get the point of sale systems to work outside sell there.

[00:03:28] They're not working. And that's where my recommendations of a good match network come in and we've been installing a lot of those lately. We've, we have this  $2,000 package that includes the consulting, all of the help, all the equipment that you need in order to extend out into the parking lot. And then after that, continued to have good service in the business.

[00:03:52] This is business-grade stuff, right? This is all stuff that is kept up to date by the minute, which I think is ultimately really important as well. But you, we're talking about POS here, right? Where people are trying to use point of sale equipment. Well, I'm gonna get right down to it.

[00:04:12] So on the website, you go to a shopping cart, for instance, maybe you're using like woo commerce, for instance, which is a real top-notch eCommerce site, a plugin for WordPress. But to say you're using the word a woo woo commerce on WordPress, what that means now is that you can upload your inventory. 

[00:04:34] You can place everything in there. You can tie it into some backend credit card processors, all well and good, right? But to see if these bad guys that are attacking us thousands of times a week, each website, if the bad guys can find that you haven't done enough. Date, or maybe there's a zero-day flaw with your website.

[00:04:54] What they're doing is putting in a credit card skimmer, so think of ATM. You've heard about this before, the automated teller machines, and how bad guys put this little device right there on the slot that you slide your credit card into. That means while your card is getting pulled into the ATM, it is being read by the credit card skimmer.

[00:05:16] Now. in an ATM, they also will frequently put a little pin pad reader too, so they can see what numbers you're typing. And oftentimes there's a little camera that's pointing up at the pin pad so that they have that. Well, you're not entering a pin when you're shopping, are you when you're online. So. They can now have this little skimmer in there and maybe it's your business, it's your website, and that skimmers collecting credit card data, you are now liable under the payment card industry, the PCI standards, those agreements that you entered into.

[00:05:51] Hey. Hey, does that sound like fun? No, it is not because we're talking over a hundred dollars per credit card that you have processed over the last year. It's just plain crazy how large the fines for these breaches get to be. So businesses are trying to be careful. Consumers obviously are trying to be careful, and I think I've got a little, Piece of advice that's going to help you out. We have, for instance, a credit card number, right? And they'll often ask you for that little code on the back of that credit card number, right? Well, there are what are called one-time use cards out there, and I'm looking right now at visa and these one time use credit cards.

[00:06:38] Or a, basically a disposable. Credit card number that's tied into your main credit card, so you can have various alias credit card numbers for the same account. That means that each merchant age website that you go to online and you give the credit card number two is assigned a different account number.

[00:07:01] So your real credit card number is never revealed. It's generating a fake one. Well, it's not fake every time. It is a different credit card number. So you need to talk to your bank or you can see it on many websites. I noticed it on my credit card processors website the other day. And they had a, just a sign up right there.

[00:07:25] You can just click on it and it was a visa card and it will immediately just set you up for the service. It makes it very simple. You're linking this preexisting credit card. You can even do it in many cases from a different bank to an online service. So that's my first piece of advice for people who are looking to use credit cards online, usually is virtual or single-use credit cards.

[00:07:50] Very, very important. Now another thing that you can do now. If you have an iPhone, there's something called Apple pay, and more and more websites are taking them, particularly if it's like an Apple site. For instance, I was over it at Mac sales the other day, buying some more memory for the computer, and guess what they had right there.

[00:08:12] ApplePay, and that's available on the website and it functions in a very similar way. You have a credit card associated with your Apple pay account. And when you go to the website and you click on use Apple, pay the website, now we'll go to your phone and your phone will pop up with Apple pay and you have to authorize it with your pin or with your fingerprint reader and you tell her which credit card you want to use.

[00:08:39] And then Apple only gives the website a one time use. A card. Basically. In reality, what it is is it's a transaction ID that they can use to claim the money, but it's the same basic concept. Samsung has something similar, it's called Samsung pay, and if you have a Samsung, you can use it. SamsungPay, I'm just typing in, and right now is we're talking about, in order to make payments.

[00:09:09] And again, it can be used. Well, you're right there as a near field communications. You know, where you, you put your phone up right up to the credit card reader and then you authorize it with your pin or your face ID or your fingerprint reader. Just like with ApplePay, there's also AndroidPay and SamsungPay which are known as digital wallet platforms.

[00:09:43] And there are others that are out there as well. My kids tend to use pretty frequently, a couple of these, and I've used them as well, but I have never seen them on websites, so they'll, they're probably coming in the future. So instead of going to an unknown website, or even a known website, like you're shopping at Target or Walmart or Amazon online, it's a known site and you trust them right.

[00:10:08] Even in those cases, using an onetime credit card or one of these digital wallet platforms could save you a ton of grief. Now, I know that with Apple pay, there is no monthly charge for that. I'm not sure about Android pay. Android pay is not. That widely accepted. Frankly, from the banking side, many vendors will accept it, but it's designed so that it just won't be hacked.

[00:10:41]but you know, if there is a security issue with Apple or Google or whomever if they have a security issue with their main websites that actually have the credit card numbers, cause you remember you have to have a credit card number at some point. Right. So if that vendor is hacked, that credit card number could be stolen.

[00:11:05] Your personal information could be stolen. Kind of like the Equifax breach. Hey, did you read this week? Speaking of Equifax, you know, almost every American had their information stolen. Equifax apparently hasn't paid a single American a dime yet, and now they're fighting with the banks about how much money the banks want from Equifax because of all the credit cards they had to reissue.

[00:11:29] Isn't that something so that you're either, there you go. A couple of tips here on shopping from home or during the covert 19 and far beyond, so stick around when we get back. We're going to talk about identity theft, but we're talking about business identity theft. You're listening to Craig Peterson on WGAN, so stick around.

[00:11:50] We'll be right back.

---

More stories and tech updates at:

www.craigpeterson.com

Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating:

www.craigpeterson.com/itunes

Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at:

www.twitter.com/craigpeterson

For questions, call or text:

855-385-5553

Welcome!  

Since lockdown, we have been relegated to primarily shopping online.  That has given the cybercriminals a new large attack surface from which to prey.  Listen in and we find out what you can do to be safe online.

For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com

---

Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Craig Peterson: Hello, everybody. Craig Peterson here on WGAN and of course [email protected]. A few of you guys probably got some emails from me this week. I'm trying to clean up my email list. I have thousands of people on them that we send email to every week and trying to keep costs under control if you know what I mean.

[00:00:26] So, you know, we've been kind of sending things out to people to remind them to, you know, if, if you're not clicking on the emails, if you're not downloading the graphics that come on some of those emails, I just plain won't know that you're there and that you're reading them. Because that's how I do it.

[00:00:45] Right? And I'm always telling you, you know, being careful with downloading the graphics while, in my case at least once a month to make sure you download the graphics. So I know you're there. I don't mind paying to send you the emails if you're reading them. That's absolutely for sure. Hey, if you are using a website, I've got a warning for you and a particular warning for people who are in a business setting up websites.

[00:01:08] Maybe you've never really had one before. Frankly, all businesses coming up, right? You know right about now that we're brick and mortar with a small website presence. Everything's changing now. You're going to be primarily an online store, maybe with a brick and mortar presence. And I hate to say that because so many of us have worked so hard over the years, and if you're online shopping, I think you've got an even bigger problem.

[00:01:38] Because what we've found right now is that there are massive numbers of attacks going on against websites. This is a study that was put out by SiteLock, and they're saying that the typical websites are experiencing about one attack every 15 minutes or almost a hundred tax per day on average. Now, why have seen with some of our customers a hundred attacks in the course of a minute?

[00:02:07] We are getting scanned like crazy. The bad guys may not have Coronavirus, but they certainly do have attack methodologies that they can use against us and they are, they're using them full time. So we've got to talk about what does that means to you. And what can you do? What should you do? What shouldn't you do when you are online?

[00:02:28] Because we're talking about over 2,600 automated bots per week. Are visiting each website. That is a huge, huge number. And we're talking about attacks on websites jumping 52% over the previous year. So what are they doing? Well, they are doing a few things. One is they are trying to get into the. Credit card processing code that might be on your website.

[00:03:00] Now you might say, well, you know, I don't do it myself. I use Stripe or PayPal or square or something else on my website and so I don't have it. I'm not doing it. But no, that, that's not what these bad guys are doing cause they realize you don't process a credit card yourself online. I had a call this week, in fact, from some restaurants that are having a problem because they are trying to reopen, they are opening up outdoors and they're trying to get the point of sale systems to work outside sell there.

[00:03:28] They're not working. And that's where my recommendations of a good match network come in and we've been installing a lot of those lately. We've, we have this  $2,000 package that includes the consulting, all of the help, all the equipment that you need in order to extend out into the parking lot. And then after that, continued to have good service in the business.

[00:03:52] This is business-grade stuff, right? This is all stuff that is kept up to date by the minute, which I think is ultimately really important as well. But you, we're talking about POS here, right? Where people are trying to use point of sale equipment. Well, I'm gonna get right down to it.

[00:04:12] So on the website, you go to a shopping cart, for instance, maybe you're using like woo commerce, for instance, which is a real top-notch eCommerce site, a plugin for WordPress. But to say you're using the word a woo woo commerce on WordPress, what that means now is that you can upload your inventory. 

[00:04:34] You can place everything in there. You can tie it into some backend credit card processors, all well and good, right? But to see if these bad guys that are attacking us thousands of times a week, each website, if the bad guys can find that you haven't done enough. Date, or maybe there's a zero-day flaw with your website.

[00:04:54] What they're doing is putting in a credit card skimmer, so think of ATM. You've heard about this before, the automated teller machines, and how bad guys put this little device right there on the slot that you slide your credit card into. That means while your card is getting pulled into the ATM, it is being read by the credit card skimmer.

[00:05:16] Now. in an ATM, they also will frequently put a little pin pad reader too, so they can see what numbers you're typing. And oftentimes there's a little camera that's pointing up at the pin pad so that they have that. Well, you're not entering a pin when you're shopping, are you when you're online. So. They can now have this little skimmer in there and maybe it's your business, it's your website, and that skimmers collecting credit card data, you are now liable under the payment card industry, the PCI standards, those agreements that you entered into.

[00:05:51] Hey. Hey, does that sound like fun? No, it is not because we're talking over a hundred dollars per credit card that you have processed over the last year. It's just plain crazy how large the fines for these breaches get to be. So businesses are trying to be careful. Consumers obviously are trying to be careful, and I think I've got a little, Piece of advice that's going to help you out. We have, for instance, a credit card number, right? And they'll often ask you for that little code on the back of that credit card number, right? Well, there are what are called one-time use cards out there, and I'm looking right now at visa and these one time use credit cards.

[00:06:38] Or a, basically a disposable. Credit card number that's tied into your main credit card, so you can have various alias credit card numbers for the same account. That means that each merchant age website that you go to online and you give the credit card number two is assigned a different account number.

[00:07:01] So your real credit card number is never revealed. It's generating a fake one. Well, it's not fake every time. It is a different credit card number. So you need to talk to your bank or you can see it on many websites. I noticed it on my credit card processors website the other day. And they had a, just a sign up right there.

[00:07:25] You can just click on it and it was a visa card and it will immediately just set you up for the service. It makes it very simple. You're linking this preexisting credit card. You can even do it in many cases from a different bank to an online service. So that's my first piece of advice for people who are looking to use credit cards online, usually is virtual or single-use credit cards.

[00:07:50] Very, very important. Now another thing that you can do now. If you have an iPhone, there's something called Apple pay, and more and more websites are taking them, particularly if it's like an Apple site. For instance, I was over it at Mac sales the other day, buying some more memory for the computer, and guess what they had right there.

[00:08:12] ApplePay, and that's available on the website and it functions in a very similar way. You have a credit card associated with your Apple pay account. And when you go to the website and you click on use Apple, pay the website, now we'll go to your phone and your phone will pop up with Apple pay and you have to authorize it with your pin or with your fingerprint reader and you tell her which credit card you want to use.

[00:08:39] And then Apple only gives the website a one time use. A card. Basically. In reality, what it is is it's a transaction ID that they can use to claim the money, but it's the same basic concept. Samsung has something similar, it's called Samsung pay, and if you have a Samsung, you can use it. SamsungPay, I'm just typing in, and right now is we're talking about, in order to make payments.

[00:09:09] And again, it can be used. Well, you're right there as a near field communications. You know, where you, you put your phone up right up to the credit card reader and then you authorize it with your pin or your face ID or your fingerprint reader. Just like with ApplePay, there's also AndroidPay and SamsungPay which are known as digital wallet platforms.

[00:09:43] And there are others that are out there as well. My kids tend to use pretty frequently, a couple of these, and I've used them as well, but I have never seen them on websites, so they'll, they're probably coming in the future. So instead of going to an unknown website, or even a known website, like you're shopping at Target or Walmart or Amazon online, it's a known site and you trust them right.

[00:10:08] Even in those cases, using an onetime credit card or one of these digital wallet platforms could save you a ton of grief. Now, I know that with Apple pay, there is no monthly charge for that. I'm not sure about Android pay. Android pay is not. That widely accepted. Frankly, from the banking side, many vendors will accept it, but it's designed so that it just won't be hacked.

[00:10:41]but you know, if there is a security issue with Apple or Google or whomever if they have a security issue with their main websites that actually have the credit card numbers, cause you remember you have to have a credit card number at some point. Right. So if that vendor is hacked, that credit card number could be stolen.

[00:11:05] Your personal information could be stolen. Kind of like the Equifax breach. Hey, did you read this week? Speaking of Equifax, you know, almost every American had their information stolen. Equifax apparently hasn't paid a single American a dime yet, and now they're fighting with the banks about how much money the banks want from Equifax because of all the credit cards they had to reissue.

[00:11:29] Isn't that something so that you're either, there you go. A couple of tips here on shopping from home or during the covert 19 and far beyond, so stick around when we get back. We're going to talk about identity theft, but we're talking about business identity theft. You're listening to Craig Peterson on WGAN, so stick around.

[00:11:50] We'll be right back.

---

More stories and tech updates at:

www.craigpeterson.com

Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating:

www.craigpeterson.com/itunes

Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at:

www.twitter.com/craigpeterson

For questions, call or text:

855-385-5553

Welcome!

Since lockdown, we have been relegated to primarily shopping online. That has given the cybercriminals a new large attack surface from which to prey. Listen in and we find out what you can do to be safe online.

For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com

---

Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Craig Peterson: Hello, everybody. Craig Peterson here on WGAN and of course [email protected]. A few of you guys probably got some emails from me this week. I'm trying to clean up my email list. I have thousands of people on them that we send email to every week and trying to keep costs under control if you know what I mean.

[00:00:26] So, you know, we've been kind of sending things out to people to remind them to, you know, if, if you're not clicking on the emails, if you're not downloading the graphics that come on some of those emails, I just plain won't know that you're there and that you're reading them. Because that's how I do it.

[00:00:45] Right? And I'm always telling you, you know, being careful with downloading the graphics while, in my case at least once a month to make sure you download the graphics. So I know you're there. I don't mind paying to send you the emails if you're reading them. That's absolutely for sure. Hey, if you are using a website, I've got a warning for you and a particular warning for people who are in a business setting up websites.

[00:01:08] Maybe you've never really had one before. Frankly, all businesses coming up, right? You know right about now that we're brick and mortar with a small website presence. Everything's changing now. You're going to be primarily an online store, maybe with a brick and mortar presence. And I hate to say that because so many of us have worked so hard over the years, and if you're online shopping, I think you've got an even bigger problem.

[00:01:38] Because what we've found right now is that there are massive numbers of attacks going on against websites. This is a study that was put out by SiteLock, and they're saying that the typical websites are experiencing about one attack every 15 minutes or almost a hundred tax per day on average. Now, why have seen with some of our customers a hundred attacks in the course of a minute?

[00:02:07] We are getting scanned like crazy. The bad guys may not have Coronavirus, but they certainly do have attack methodologies that they can use against us and they are, they're using them full time. So we've got to talk about what does that means to you. And what can you do? What should you do? What shouldn't you do when you are online?

[00:02:28] Because we're talking about over 2,600 automated bots per week. Are visiting each website. That is a huge, huge number. And we're talking about attacks on websites jumping 52% over the previous year. So what are they doing? Well, they are doing a few things. One is they are trying to get into the. Credit card processing code that might be on your website.

[00:03:00] Now you might say, well, you know, I don't do it myself. I use Stripe or PayPal or square or something else on my website and so I don't have it. I'm not doing it. But no, that, that's not what these bad guys are doing cause they realize you don't process a credit card yourself online. I had a call this week, in fact, from some restaurants that are having a problem because they are trying to reopen, they are opening up outdoors and they're trying to get the point of sale systems to work outside sell there.

[00:03:28] They're not working. And that's where my recommendations of a good match network come in and we've been installing a lot of those lately. We've, we have this $2,000 package that includes the consulting, all of the help, all the equipment that you need in order to extend out into the parking lot. And then after that, continued to have good service in the business.

[00:03:52] This is business-grade stuff, right? This is all stuff that is kept up to date by the minute, which I think is ultimately really important as well. But you, we're talking about POS here, right? Where people are trying to use point of sale equipment. Well, I'm gonna get right down to it.

[00:04:12] So on the website, you go to a shopping cart, for instance, maybe you're using like woo commerce, for instance, which is a real top-notch eCommerce site, a plugin for WordPress. But to say you're using the word a woo woo commerce on WordPress, what that means now is that you can upload your inventory.

[00:04:34] You can place everything in there. You can tie it into some backend credit card processors, all well and good, right? But to see if these bad guys that are attacking us thousands of times a week, each website, if the bad guys can find that you haven't done enough. Date, or maybe there's a zero-day flaw with your website.

[00:04:54] What they're doing is putting in a credit card skimmer, so think of ATM. You've heard about this before, the automated teller machines, and how bad guys put this little device right there on the slot that you slide your credit card into. That means while your card is getting pulled into the ATM, it is being read by the credit card skimmer.

[00:05:16] Now. in an ATM, they also will frequently put a little pin pad reader too, so they can see what numbers you're typing. And oftentimes there's a little camera that's pointing up at the pin pad so that they have that. Well, you're not entering a pin when you're shopping, are you when you're online. So. They can now have this little skimmer in there and maybe it's your business, it's your website, and that skimmers collecting credit card data, you are now liable under the payment card industry, the PCI standards, those agreements that you entered into.

[00:05:51] Hey. Hey, does that sound like fun? No, it is not because we're talking over a hundred dollars per credit card that you have processed over the last year. It's just plain crazy how large the fines for these breaches get to be. So businesses are trying to be careful. Consumers obviously are trying to be careful, and I think I've got a little, Piece of advice that's going to help you out. We have, for instance, a credit card number, right? And they'll often ask you for that little code on the back of that credit card number, right? Well, there are what are called one-time use cards out there, and I'm looking right now at visa and these one time use credit cards.

[00:06:38] Or a, basically a disposable. Credit card number that's tied into your main credit card, so you can have various alias credit card numbers for the same account. That means that each merchant age website that you go to online and you give the credit card number two is assigned a different account number.

[00:07:01] So your real credit card number is never revealed. It's generating a fake one. Well, it's not fake every time. It is a different credit card number. So you need to talk to your bank or you can see it on many websites. I noticed it on my credit card processors website the other day. And they had a, just a sign up right there.

[00:07:25] You can just click on it and it was a visa card and it will immediately just set you up for the service. It makes it very simple. You're linking this preexisting credit card. You can even do it in many cases from a different bank to an online service. So that's my first piece of advice for people who are looking to use credit cards online, usually is virtual or single-use credit cards.

[00:07:50] Very, very important. Now another thing that you can do now. If you have an iPhone, there's something called Apple pay, and more and more websites are taking them, particularly if it's like an Apple site. For instance, I was over it at Mac sales the other day, buying some more memory for the computer, and guess what they had right there.

[00:08:12] ApplePay, and that's available on the website and it functions in a very similar way. You have a credit card associated with your Apple pay account. And when you go to the website and you click on use Apple, pay the website, now we'll go to your phone and your phone will pop up with Apple pay and you have to authorize it with your pin or with your fingerprint reader and you tell her which credit card you want to use.

[00:08:39] And then Apple only gives the website a one time use. A card. Basically. In reality, what it is is it's a transaction ID that they can use to claim the money, but it's the same basic concept. Samsung has something similar, it's called Samsung pay, and if you have a Samsung, you can use it. SamsungPay, I'm just typing in, and right now is we're talking about, in order to make payments.

[00:09:09] And again, it can be used. Well, you're right there as a near field communications. You know, where you, you put your phone up right up to the credit card reader and then you authorize it with your pin or your face ID or your fingerprint reader. Just like with ApplePay, there's also AndroidPay and SamsungPay which are known as digital wallet platforms.

[00:09:43] And there are others that are out there as well. My kids tend to use pretty frequently, a couple of these, and I've used them as well, but I have never seen them on websites, so they'll, they're probably coming in the future. So instead of going to an unknown website, or even a known website, like you're shopping at Target or Walmart or Amazon online, it's a known site and you trust them right.

[00:10:08] Even in those cases, using an onetime credit card or one of these digital wallet platforms could save you a ton of grief. Now, I know that with Apple pay, there is no monthly charge for that. I'm not sure about Android pay. Android pay is not. That widely accepted. Frankly, from the banking side, many vendors will accept it, but it's designed so that it just won't be hacked.

[00:10:41]but you know, if there is a security issue with Apple or Google or whomever if they have a security issue with their main websites that actually have the credit card numbers, cause you remember you have to have a credit card number at some point. Right. So if that vendor is hacked, that credit card number could be stolen.

[00:11:05] Your personal information could be stolen. Kind of like the Equifax breach. Hey, did you read this week? Speaking of Equifax, you know, almost every American had their information stolen. Equifax apparently hasn't paid a single American a dime yet, and now they're fighting with the banks about how much money the banks want from Equifax because of all the credit cards they had to reissue.

[00:11:29] Isn't that something so that you're either, there you go. A couple of tips here on shopping from home or during the covert 19 and far beyond, so stick around when we get back. We're going to talk about identity theft, but we're talking about business identity theft. You're listening to Craig Peterson on WGAN, so stick around.

[00:11:50] We'll be right back.

---

More stories and tech updates at:

www.craigpeterson.com

Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating:

www.craigpeterson.com/itunes

Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at:

www.twitter.com/craigpeterson

For questions, call or text:

855-385-5553

Welcome!  

Although most of us are still locked down due to this Pandemic, things are beginning to open up. However, while we were hidden away not paying detailed attention to our security the cybercriminals have been actively attacking our businesses with identity theft. So sit back and see what you can do to protect yourself.

For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com

---

Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Hey, welcome back everybody. Craig Peterson here on WGAN of course online is wild at CraigPeterson.com that's Peterson as in S. O. N. Hopefully you can join me there. I have all kinds of the great information we send out every week, so I'll make sure you sign up for the email list as well. Well, we have talked about identity theft before, and I want to get into it a little bit here now from two different aspects.

[00:00:31] First of all, you as a consumer are a target of identity thieves, and the younger you are, the more valuable a target you are. Now, many times these identity thieves are just casting an extremely wide net. They're sending out these phishing emails that are just trying to get you to click. They might have the name of your bank in it, but it just happens to be your bank.

[00:00:58] They don't know that. Or they might have the name of. Someone that you deal with like Starbucks, Walmart, those are always big ones. Amazon is the biggest one. Lately, I've been getting a lot of Amazon scams over the last couple of weeks, and of course every year you got the IRS. Now you've got the world health organization.

[00:01:19] We've got all of this stuff going on. So what they'll try and do is get you to look at this email and maybe puzzle over it for a half a second, but hopefully, not even puzzle over it. Hopefully, you're just going to look at it and say, wow, I was wondering when I was going to get that email, and then you're going to click on it and now they got ya.

[00:01:41] Because what you're trying, what they're trying to do is get you to go to your bank or go to Amazon, and then you're going to click on that link. This is supposedly going to take you there, right? And then you're going to type in your username and your password, and then what they'll typically do is they'll just send you on your way to Amazon.

[00:02:00] And Amazon's going to say, you know, log in again and you're just, you're going to chalk that up to, Oh man, darn, I must have fat-fingered something or stupid internet. It's just not reliable at all. And it keeps doing this stuff to me. And you're not going to think twice about it. But here's what happened.

[00:02:18] You clicked on the link thinking it was really Amazon or whomever. It took you to a website that looked. Exactly like Amazon or whatever. In fact, they're selling templates right now on the black market for these websites, so the guys don't even have to spend any time setting it up. It's just set up for them and then it goes to.

[00:02:41] The next step, which is okay, putting in your username, your password, you put it in and you just gave your username and password to the bad guys. Now, this is why two-factor authentication is so important. We'll get into in just a second. Okay. But the bad guys have your username and password and then they now redirect you to the real Amazon website and you're none the wiser.

[00:03:05] And the, you know, the real Amazon websites can ask for username and password, as I said, just going to chalk it up to, Oh man, they screwed that up. they shouldn't have screwed it up. But you know, whatever, and, life's gonna go on. In the meantime, they can now go to Amazon. They've got choices, name your password, and they can order stuff just as an example, right?

[00:03:25] They can give themselves an Amazon gift card, whatever it is that they might've wanted to do. Well, the reason that you want the two-factor authentication, in this case, is, okay, you have my username and my password, but you don't have my two-factor authentication setup. So the best type of login for security is something you know along with something you have.

[00:03:52] So in this case, as something you know, is your username and your password. The two-factor authentication or multifactor authentication, is that something you have? So what we do is we use one password and one password has something in it that's kind of like Google authenticator and it generates a new six-digit number.

[00:04:15] I think it's everything. 30 seconds or might be 60 seconds. And so now when I try and log into a site, it challenges me. Okay, here's my username, here's my password, and instead of asking me one of these password recovery questions, it says, type in your pin. So now I go into one password, one password shows me what the pin is the second.

[00:04:38] And so I type it in quickly so it hasn't expired. And now I'm in. So in the case of these bad guys, if I fell victim to their phishing scam, and they now were trying to get my login credentials so they could log in and get more identity information about me. Like what address do I have stuff shipped to? What's my full name?

[00:05:00] What are my family members? Maybe the last four of my social security number and some credit card numbers. You know what? That's enough in most cases for them to commit a scam in your name. To call up a bank and try and get right into your account. They have enough information. But if you're using the two-factor authentication again, or the multifactor authentication, they can put in the username.

[00:05:26] They can put in the past who are, but they can't get that pin. That's changing, as I said, every 60 seconds. So they, they just don't, they don't have it. They can't get it. So even if they ask you for a pin. They have on average 30 seconds to use that pin before it expires and they're just not likely to do that.

[00:05:47] So they don't even bother asking for pins cause most people don't bother putting pins in right now. Here's another thing to consider when we're talking about multi-factor authentication, and that is people's use of SMS. In other words, text messages. Some of these websites will let you have multifactor authentication where you put in your username, you put in your password, and then it texts you a number.

[00:06:13] While there's a problem with that. Yeah, I bet you knew Husky to say that. Right. There is a problem with that and the problem is that SMS texts that are being sent to you could be intercepted. See what the bad guys do is they're, they got, let's say they got into your Amazon account. They probably got access to your phone number.

[00:06:37] And now that they have access to your phone number, they can call up the phone company and switch your service from your phone to a quote, new phone on growth that you just bought. So now when that SMS message comes in as part of your multifactor authentication for Amazon or your bank or whatever they're trying to get from you when that text comes in, it doesn't come to you and you don't even notice anything until you try and use your phone.

[00:07:05] That text goes to the bad guy. So keep that in mind. Use things like one password or Google authenticator. Microsoft has their own authenticator, but it's not compatible with anything except Microsoft. Yeah. Big surprise there. Right. So use Google authenticator. That's what I use even on the Microsoft side.

[00:07:23] So that's how the bad guys are stealing our identity. Let's talk now about companies here. 79% of companies are now reporting identity-related breaches in the last two years. 80% of companies absolutely amazing, and they are using fishing. The bad guys using fishing. That's the same thing I just described.

[00:07:52] To do it. Nearly all businesses that were surveyed here have experienced an identity-related security breach. We're talking 94. Percent of businesses and of those 94% 79% have suffered one in the last two years. That is absolutely amazing. This is from researchers with the identity defined security Alliance.

[00:08:19] They there a bunch of identity and security vendors and they looked at 502 security and identity professionals to figure this whole thing out. But we've got to be careful because the top cause of identity-related breaches for businesses as well as individuals is fishing. It's so simple. Emails, and now that we have so many people working from home, it's gotten.

[00:08:45] Even worse because people are just clicking on stuff. They're not paying the type of attention they should be, and in many cases, they're working from home and they don't have the protection of the company's protected firewalls, DNS servers, fire jumpers, right. The firepower firewalls that we use from our friends over at Cisco, they do make small ones.

[00:09:09] It'll work for a home and there are ways to make them work from home as well. But that's just not the case overall, right? Yeah. If everybody was Craig, you wouldn't need Craig. I'm so glad to be here and I really want to help you guys out, so make sure you subscribe. Go to Craig peterson.com/subscribe get on my email list so you get this and so much more every week.

[00:09:35] Hey, will we come back? We're going to talk about what's going to happen to college. This is amazing. This is from a New York mag, all of that and more. So stick around. You're listening to Craig Peterson on WGAN and [email protected]. Stick around. We'll be right back.

---

More stories and tech updates at:

www.craigpeterson.com

Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating:

www.craigpeterson.com/itunes

Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at:

www.twitter.com/craigpeterson

For questions, call or text:

855-385-5553

Welcome!  

Although most of us are still locked down due to this Pandemic, things are beginning to open up. However, while we were hidden away not paying detailed attention to our security the cybercriminals have been actively attacking our businesses with identity theft. So sit back and see what you can do to protect yourself.

For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com

---

Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Hey, welcome back everybody. Craig Peterson here on WGAN of course online is wild at CraigPeterson.com that's Peterson as in S. O. N. Hopefully you can join me there. I have all kinds of the great information we send out every week, so I'll make sure you sign up for the email list as well. Well, we have talked about identity theft before, and I want to get into it a little bit here now from two different aspects.

[00:00:31] First of all, you as a consumer are a target of identity thieves, and the younger you are, the more valuable a target you are. Now, many times these identity thieves are just casting an extremely wide net. They're sending out these phishing emails that are just trying to get you to click. They might have the name of your bank in it, but it just happens to be your bank.

[00:00:58] They don't know that. Or they might have the name of. Someone that you deal with like Starbucks, Walmart, those are always big ones. Amazon is the biggest one. Lately, I've been getting a lot of Amazon scams over the last couple of weeks, and of course every year you got the IRS. Now you've got the world health organization.

[00:01:19] We've got all of this stuff going on. So what they'll try and do is get you to look at this email and maybe puzzle over it for a half a second, but hopefully, not even puzzle over it. Hopefully, you're just going to look at it and say, wow, I was wondering when I was going to get that email, and then you're going to click on it and now they got ya.

[00:01:41] Because what you're trying, what they're trying to do is get you to go to your bank or go to Amazon, and then you're going to click on that link. This is supposedly going to take you there, right? And then you're going to type in your username and your password, and then what they'll typically do is they'll just send you on your way to Amazon.

[00:02:00] And Amazon's going to say, you know, log in again and you're just, you're going to chalk that up to, Oh man, darn, I must have fat-fingered something or stupid internet. It's just not reliable at all. And it keeps doing this stuff to me. And you're not going to think twice about it. But here's what happened.

[00:02:18] You clicked on the link thinking it was really Amazon or whomever. It took you to a website that looked. Exactly like Amazon or whatever. In fact, they're selling templates right now on the black market for these websites, so the guys don't even have to spend any time setting it up. It's just set up for them and then it goes to.

[00:02:41] The next step, which is okay, putting in your username, your password, you put it in and you just gave your username and password to the bad guys. Now, this is why two-factor authentication is so important. We'll get into in just a second. Okay. But the bad guys have your username and password and then they now redirect you to the real Amazon website and you're none the wiser.

[00:03:05] And the, you know, the real Amazon websites can ask for username and password, as I said, just going to chalk it up to, Oh man, they screwed that up. they shouldn't have screwed it up. But you know, whatever, and, life's gonna go on. In the meantime, they can now go to Amazon. They've got choices, name your password, and they can order stuff just as an example, right?

[00:03:25] They can give themselves an Amazon gift card, whatever it is that they might've wanted to do. Well, the reason that you want the two-factor authentication, in this case, is, okay, you have my username and my password, but you don't have my two-factor authentication setup. So the best type of login for security is something you know along with something you have.

[00:03:52] So in this case, as something you know, is your username and your password. The two-factor authentication or multifactor authentication, is that something you have? So what we do is we use one password and one password has something in it that's kind of like Google authenticator and it generates a new six-digit number.

[00:04:15] I think it's everything. 30 seconds or might be 60 seconds. And so now when I try and log into a site, it challenges me. Okay, here's my username, here's my password, and instead of asking me one of these password recovery questions, it says, type in your pin. So now I go into one password, one password shows me what the pin is the second.

[00:04:38] And so I type it in quickly so it hasn't expired. And now I'm in. So in the case of these bad guys, if I fell victim to their phishing scam, and they now were trying to get my login credentials so they could log in and get more identity information about me. Like what address do I have stuff shipped to? What's my full name?

[00:05:00] What are my family members? Maybe the last four of my social security number and some credit card numbers. You know what? That's enough in most cases for them to commit a scam in your name. To call up a bank and try and get right into your account. They have enough information. But if you're using the two-factor authentication again, or the multifactor authentication, they can put in the username.

[00:05:26] They can put in the past who are, but they can't get that pin. That's changing, as I said, every 60 seconds. So they, they just don't, they don't have it. They can't get it. So even if they ask you for a pin. They have on average 30 seconds to use that pin before it expires and they're just not likely to do that.

[00:05:47] So they don't even bother asking for pins cause most people don't bother putting pins in right now. Here's another thing to consider when we're talking about multi-factor authentication, and that is people's use of SMS. In other words, text messages. Some of these websites will let you have multifactor authentication where you put in your username, you put in your password, and then it texts you a number.

[00:06:13] While there's a problem with that. Yeah, I bet you knew Husky to say that. Right. There is a problem with that and the problem is that SMS texts that are being sent to you could be intercepted. See what the bad guys do is they're, they got, let's say they got into your Amazon account. They probably got access to your phone number.

[00:06:37] And now that they have access to your phone number, they can call up the phone company and switch your service from your phone to a quote, new phone on growth that you just bought. So now when that SMS message comes in as part of your multifactor authentication for Amazon or your bank or whatever they're trying to get from you when that text comes in, it doesn't come to you and you don't even notice anything until you try and use your phone.

[00:07:05] That text goes to the bad guy. So keep that in mind. Use things like one password or Google authenticator. Microsoft has their own authenticator, but it's not compatible with anything except Microsoft. Yeah. Big surprise there. Right. So use Google authenticator. That's what I use even on the Microsoft side.

[00:07:23] So that's how the bad guys are stealing our identity. Let's talk now about companies here. 79% of companies are now reporting identity-related breaches in the last two years. 80% of companies absolutely amazing, and they are using fishing. The bad guys using fishing. That's the same thing I just described.

[00:07:52] To do it. Nearly all businesses that were surveyed here have experienced an identity-related security breach. We're talking 94. Percent of businesses and of those 94% 79% have suffered one in the last two years. That is absolutely amazing. This is from researchers with the identity defined security Alliance.

[00:08:19] They there a bunch of identity and security vendors and they looked at 502 security and identity professionals to figure this whole thing out. But we've got to be careful because the top cause of identity-related breaches for businesses as well as individuals is fishing. It's so simple. Emails, and now that we have so many people working from home, it's gotten.

[00:08:45] Even worse because people are just clicking on stuff. They're not paying the type of attention they should be, and in many cases, they're working from home and they don't have the protection of the company's protected firewalls, DNS servers, fire jumpers, right. The firepower firewalls that we use from our friends over at Cisco, they do make small ones.

[00:09:09] It'll work for a home and there are ways to make them work from home as well. But that's just not the case overall, right? Yeah. If everybody was Craig, you wouldn't need Craig. I'm so glad to be here and I really want to help you guys out, so make sure you subscribe. Go to Craig peterson.com/subscribe get on my email list so you get this and so much more every week.

[00:09:35] Hey, will we come back? We're going to talk about what's going to happen to college. This is amazing. This is from a New York mag, all of that and more. So stick around. You're listening to Craig Peterson on WGAN and [email protected]. Stick around. We'll be right back.

---

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Welcome!

Although most of us are still locked down due to this Pandemic, things are beginning to open up. However, while we were hidden away not paying detailed attention to our security the cybercriminals have been actively attacking our businesses with identity theft. So sit back and see what you can do to protect yourself.

For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com

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Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Hey, welcome back everybody. Craig Peterson here on WGAN of course online is wild at CraigPeterson.com that's Peterson as in S. O. N. Hopefully you can join me there. I have all kinds of the great information we send out every week, so I'll make sure you sign up for the email list as well. Well, we have talked about identity theft before, and I want to get into it a little bit here now from two different aspects.

[00:00:31] First of all, you as a consumer are a target of identity thieves, and the younger you are, the more valuable a target you are. Now, many times these identity thieves are just casting an extremely wide net. They're sending out these phishing emails that are just trying to get you to click. They might have the name of your bank in it, but it just happens to be your bank.

[00:00:58] They don't know that. Or they might have the name of. Someone that you deal with like Starbucks, Walmart, those are always big ones. Amazon is the biggest one. Lately, I've been getting a lot of Amazon scams over the last couple of weeks, and of course every year you got the IRS. Now you've got the world health organization.

[00:01:19] We've got all of this stuff going on. So what they'll try and do is get you to look at this email and maybe puzzle over it for a half a second, but hopefully, not even puzzle over it. Hopefully, you're just going to look at it and say, wow, I was wondering when I was going to get that email, and then you're going to click on it and now they got ya.

[00:01:41] Because what you're trying, what they're trying to do is get you to go to your bank or go to Amazon, and then you're going to click on that link. This is supposedly going to take you there, right? And then you're going to type in your username and your password, and then what they'll typically do is they'll just send you on your way to Amazon.

[00:02:00] And Amazon's going to say, you know, log in again and you're just, you're going to chalk that up to, Oh man, darn, I must have fat-fingered something or stupid internet. It's just not reliable at all. And it keeps doing this stuff to me. And you're not going to think twice about it. But here's what happened.

[00:02:18] You clicked on the link thinking it was really Amazon or whomever. It took you to a website that looked. Exactly like Amazon or whatever. In fact, they're selling templates right now on the black market for these websites, so the guys don't even have to spend any time setting it up. It's just set up for them and then it goes to.

[00:02:41] The next step, which is okay, putting in your username, your password, you put it in and you just gave your username and password to the bad guys. Now, this is why two-factor authentication is so important. We'll get into in just a second. Okay. But the bad guys have your username and password and then they now redirect you to the real Amazon website and you're none the wiser.

[00:03:05] And the, you know, the real Amazon websites can ask for username and password, as I said, just going to chalk it up to, Oh man, they screwed that up. they shouldn't have screwed it up. But you know, whatever, and, life's gonna go on. In the meantime, they can now go to Amazon. They've got choices, name your password, and they can order stuff just as an example, right?

[00:03:25] They can give themselves an Amazon gift card, whatever it is that they might've wanted to do. Well, the reason that you want the two-factor authentication, in this case, is, okay, you have my username and my password, but you don't have my two-factor authentication setup. So the best type of login for security is something you know along with something you have.

[00:03:52] So in this case, as something you know, is your username and your password. The two-factor authentication or multifactor authentication, is that something you have? So what we do is we use one password and one password has something in it that's kind of like Google authenticator and it generates a new six-digit number.

[00:04:15] I think it's everything. 30 seconds or might be 60 seconds. And so now when I try and log into a site, it challenges me. Okay, here's my username, here's my password, and instead of asking me one of these password recovery questions, it says, type in your pin. So now I go into one password, one password shows me what the pin is the second.

[00:04:38] And so I type it in quickly so it hasn't expired. And now I'm in. So in the case of these bad guys, if I fell victim to their phishing scam, and they now were trying to get my login credentials so they could log in and get more identity information about me. Like what address do I have stuff shipped to? What's my full name?

[00:05:00] What are my family members? Maybe the last four of my social security number and some credit card numbers. You know what? That's enough in most cases for them to commit a scam in your name. To call up a bank and try and get right into your account. They have enough information. But if you're using the two-factor authentication again, or the multifactor authentication, they can put in the username.

[00:05:26] They can put in the past who are, but they can't get that pin. That's changing, as I said, every 60 seconds. So they, they just don't, they don't have it. They can't get it. So even if they ask you for a pin. They have on average 30 seconds to use that pin before it expires and they're just not likely to do that.

[00:05:47] So they don't even bother asking for pins cause most people don't bother putting pins in right now. Here's another thing to consider when we're talking about multi-factor authentication, and that is people's use of SMS. In other words, text messages. Some of these websites will let you have multifactor authentication where you put in your username, you put in your password, and then it texts you a number.

[00:06:13] While there's a problem with that. Yeah, I bet you knew Husky to say that. Right. There is a problem with that and the problem is that SMS texts that are being sent to you could be intercepted. See what the bad guys do is they're, they got, let's say they got into your Amazon account. They probably got access to your phone number.

[00:06:37] And now that they have access to your phone number, they can call up the phone company and switch your service from your phone to a quote, new phone on growth that you just bought. So now when that SMS message comes in as part of your multifactor authentication for Amazon or your bank or whatever they're trying to get from you when that text comes in, it doesn't come to you and you don't even notice anything until you try and use your phone.

[00:07:05] That text goes to the bad guy. So keep that in mind. Use things like one password or Google authenticator. Microsoft has their own authenticator, but it's not compatible with anything except Microsoft. Yeah. Big surprise there. Right. So use Google authenticator. That's what I use even on the Microsoft side.

[00:07:23] So that's how the bad guys are stealing our identity. Let's talk now about companies here. 79% of companies are now reporting identity-related breaches in the last two years. 80% of companies absolutely amazing, and they are using fishing. The bad guys using fishing. That's the same thing I just described.

[00:07:52] To do it. Nearly all businesses that were surveyed here have experienced an identity-related security breach. We're talking 94. Percent of businesses and of those 94% 79% have suffered one in the last two years. That is absolutely amazing. This is from researchers with the identity defined security Alliance.

[00:08:19] They there a bunch of identity and security vendors and they looked at 502 security and identity professionals to figure this whole thing out. But we've got to be careful because the top cause of identity-related breaches for businesses as well as individuals is fishing. It's so simple. Emails, and now that we have so many people working from home, it's gotten.

[00:08:45] Even worse because people are just clicking on stuff. They're not paying the type of attention they should be, and in many cases, they're working from home and they don't have the protection of the company's protected firewalls, DNS servers, fire jumpers, right. The firepower firewalls that we use from our friends over at Cisco, they do make small ones.

[00:09:09] It'll work for a home and there are ways to make them work from home as well. But that's just not the case overall, right? Yeah. If everybody was Craig, you wouldn't need Craig. I'm so glad to be here and I really want to help you guys out, so make sure you subscribe. Go to Craig peterson.com/subscribe get on my email list so you get this and so much more every week.

[00:09:35] Hey, will we come back? We're going to talk about what's going to happen to college. This is amazing. This is from a New York mag, all of that and more. So stick around. You're listening to Craig Peterson on WGAN and [email protected]. Stick around. We'll be right back.

---

More stories and tech updates at:

www.craigpeterson.com

Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating:

www.craigpeterson.com/itunes

Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at:

www.twitter.com/craigpeterson

For questions, call or text:

855-385-5553