Ransomware is one of the many threats at large on the internet today. Victims of ransomware range from solopreneurs to regular individuals, ransomware has happened to me personally on two occasions. Don’t think you are safe.

Ransomware started to gain traction over the past few years when software came out that was capable of using encryption to hold data for ransom. Where the term ransomware stems from is that those who use this software ask the victim for money in exchange of releasing their files back to them. This can be photos, accounting, documents, databases… anything!

Overall ransomware has been lucrative for the bad guys as they target hospitals, public schools, government departments and individuals personal computers. That being said there are certain ways that we can protect ourselves from this brutal issue.

My first tip is to never pay the ransom. This funds attackers and obviously encourages them to continue doing the attack. Not only that but who’s to say you’ll get access to those files after you paid them off? I know some will disagree with this point.

Secondly is to back up regularly!  THIS IS KEY because you can always go back and restore those files. Restoring your files from a reliable backup is the fastest way to regain access to anything lost. But make sure you have multiple backups and some of them are offline or archives. Ransomware has hit many companies and encrypted their live backups as well.

Third tip is to avoid any personal information being shared when you email, call, text, or instant message people. Unless you know them personally, the data provided could be used by phishers. These phishers can trick people into installing malware by posing as family, friends or coworkers. As such, make sure you double check if you ever get these unusual communications.

Have a quality antivirus software that helps protect against ransomware is the fourth tip. These are at the forefront of cybersecurity so make sure it’s up to date and that the software is from a reputable company.

Fifth tip is to double check your emails. Scan them and filter your inbox. Any threats or suspicious attachment types should be checked and blocked. And don’t click on those unknown links.

My final tip is when you are travelling, make sure to tell your coworkers or even IT staff. This is especially important if you plan to use public WiFi. This is a precautionary measure in case your phone or computer gets compromised and people at work get strange messages from you. This measure ensures people can be suspicious of it. I highly recommend using a VPN as mentioned in a prior episode to protect yourself over public WiFi, even at home.

Ransomware is real and I’ve personally seen it affect dozens of companies and individuals. Consider my tips to better handle this threat.

Cryptocurrency is a currency that was created in 2008 and since then has grown extensively. With reports stating bitcoins being worth thousands of dollars and many people talking about these coins, it’s important for us to have a basic understanding of what these are.

After all, there are some safety elements that are worth discussing. Especially if you are someone who wants to dabble and explore crypto.

First of all, cryptocurrency is a digital decentralized currency, meaning no country, government or bank controls it.  It uses encryption in order to control the so called money but also to verify transactions. Because of these features, many individuals see the currency as an alternative to all the paper money that we have today.

But what exactly does that mean?

First of all, the encryption process ensures that any person sending money or receiving money is unknown and the chance of fake money transfers are minimal.

And what decentralized means is that the currency isn’t held under a single organization. For example, the fiat currency we have (dollars / pounds / euro) is backed by the government. With cryptocurrency, the money is backed by hundreds of thousands of computers, making it practically impossible for a hacker to crack the system.

Because of these features, it makes sense why people would gravitate towards this. Not to mention that there are hundreds of different coins so it’s easy for people to join in and begin trading and buying particular coins, many which have different associated benefits.

But just because this system is highly secure doesn’t mean that it’s an entirely safe environment to be in. I’ll talk on this point in a later episode but there are still scams about.

What’s also important to note about cryptocurrency is the technology that’s behind all of it: Blockchain. For cryptocurrencies in general, the blockchain is basically used as a public ledger. It’s the source behind new coins and them also being created through a process called mining.

But other companies have looked at this technology and have been working to implement the technology into their business:

-Ford Motor Company launched a blockchain research group for the auto industry.

-Amazon offers cloud integration with a variety of blockchains-.

-Estonia has embraced blockchain for their healthcare system.

-Blockchain can track land title records, copyrights, licenses, agreements, and much more.

Crypto ”currency” itself is only a small portion of this technology, and is part of a bigger picture that we should understand with Blockchain.

There is a massive amount of convenience when shopping online these days. In fact, it’s the very way that most of us live our lives. Businesses understand this and have slowly adapted.

Fast food restaurants have apps where you can order on your phone rather than exclusively at the counter. Clothing stores and grocery stores are creeping online. Allowing you to place orders and they either deliver it to your door or you can pick it up when you get there.

How we shop has changed entirely, but whenever online becomes a factor, security and protecting your personal information becomes a factor too. After all, there is still a cost to this convenience.

A system could be compromised, and hackers can get access to credit card numbers or banking information. And that’s the last thing that you want.

In order to protect yourself, make sure you keep the following in mind:

Ensure that the retailer you are shopping with is legitimate. Think back to Dollar Store merchandise where they sell seemingly similar products but have knock off brands and subtle differences to the logos. On websites look at the name and the logo and do some extra research if it’s place you’re not familiar with.

Check to see if the site is secure. Using Google Chrome can help.  In recent years, sites that don’t have https in their web address will be flagged as a not secure site. Secure sites will have a lock symbol. What https means is essentially that your connection to the website is encrypted and it’s tougher for hackers to sniff your info.

Be familiar with your rights and the company’s return policies. You don’t need to read the entirety of the terms and conditions but generally should know what the company does with returned products if you purchase any. A lack of information in this area is bad for a business.

Have recent virus protection and a different strong password for your accounts. The easier the password is, the easier it is to crack it. Make sure that your passwords are solid and something only you know. Not to mention checking your virus protection is up to snuff.

Never use public Wi-Fi unless you are using a VPN. Wireless connections aren’t secure and hackers can and will attack it.

Use alternative methods to pay like a secondary credit card or PayPal. While getting that information can still spell trouble it’s not as bad as a hacker getting access to your main credit card or bank account.

Keep these in mind while you shop and you should much safer.

Identification and authentication, or I&A is the basis for everything security. It’s the first line of defense in protecting ourselves from any kind of online threat. Not only that but it’s also a means of identifying ourselves.

Regardless of what method is being used, the purpose of I&A is to determine our identity but then granting access to systems or programs in order for us to do whatever it is we wish to do.

It also blocks unauthorized individuals or processes to enter into a network or an individual computer.

If this all sounds familiar, it should. After all, an I&A is a more technical term for passwords, passphrases, and other forms of identification. Those particular methods are the first kind of methods but there are others and each one provides deeper security.

The first method is the most common one we see: passwords, PIN numbers, or a passphrase. These are things that a user knows off hand.

The second method is something that a user has. You’ll find these in higher security areas. A common example is your debit card to access ATMs, or an ID card to enter a government building. These can also be represented by tokens.

The final method is more recent and relies on who someone is. This security method refers to something biometric like a voice pattern, an eye scan, or a fingerprint.

Each of these methods involve deeper security but remember that even the most robust security system in the world can still have flaws. While it’s important for us to consider which method is appropriate for which scenario, it’s important for us to stay vigilant and to take measures to secure ourselves.

As I said before, the Morris worm is the virus that many hackers copy for years to come. Not only that but the Melissa virus also sprang a surge of viruses that behaved that way as well. One of the most notable viruses that was inspired by these two aspects is the ILoveYou virus, also referred to as the Love bug.

This particular virus got spread through mass emails that used the subject line “I love you” in 2000. It is by far one of the most well-known computer viruses.

Following the wake of the Melissa virus, people heard of the damages that the virus caused. While many were concerned, that wasn’t the case for a Philippine computer science student. They set this particular virus free shortly after the Melissa virus was dealt with.

But what was so unique about this particular virus was that it had worm like behaviour.

First of all, it behaved similarly to the Melissa virus. It was sent as an email titled ILOVEYOU (or some variant) and included an attachment. But what was different was actually the attachment itself.

You see, the attachment was a VBS file, short for Visual Basic Script. What this meant was it infected a wide variety of files and hid itself within files on the users computer. What was also notable was that this “love letter” was then sent to everyone in the users address book rather than the top 50.

Because the worm was sent to so many people much faster, the damages it caused were more significant. Damages reported were roughly $6.7 billion.

What this tells us is that we need to be cautious and to make an effort in installing solid virus removal programs. Even though the Love bug is a thing of the past, clearly people are still being inspired to create viruses. After all, as of 2012, most regard the ILOVEYOU virus to be the tenth-most virulent computer virus in history.

Referred to as DoS, denial of service is a singular attack on a security system from one source. If the attack is coming from multiple points, that’s referred to as a distributed denial of service or DDoS. Regardless, the result is the same.

A good analogy for this attack is similar to a group of people blocking an entry way to a store. These individuals are merely clogging up the store and preventing people from entering. As such, this kind of attack is typically targeting large and high profile companies like banks or multi-million dollar companies.

In fact, one notable attack of this nature came in 2000 where a 15-year old boy launched the first recorded DDoS attack. The boy was Michael Calce, known as “Mafiaboy” on an online chat server, hacked into computers from a variety of universities. He then used the servers to crash sites like CNN, eBay, Amazon, and Yahoo.

As for the specific techniques of these attacks there are a wide variety of ways. But most importantly, the idea is to clog and disrupt processes and systems. As such, most attacks will have those sorts of behaviours where an individual or multiple people will hack a system and flood it with useless requests to the point the system will be unable to help those who are actually using the system.

To the average user, there is no chance that you’d be targeted. Instead you may be affected by those attacks as DDoS attacks can and will target banks, credit providers, or places where you frequently buy products. The only real preventative measures you can take is to record or memorize your info and keep it on your person and to never save passwords elsewhere.

Another well known virus is a virus that modern computers can never get anymore: the Melissa virus. It was a virus that behaved similarly to a worm virus, but was not self-sustaining like a worm. The Melissa virus relied on the Window’s email program Outlook in order to infect computers on a large scale.

This means that computers who use Outlook Express will never have to deal with this macro virus.

But if by chance you have an older and functional Windows computer, how the Melissa virus works is through a series of actions. Unlike worms, the Melissa virus only spreads through the program which means you have control of dealing with it or spreading it.

That being said, the Melissa virus is crafty and was originally targeting corporations. How it got spread was when people received an email from a supposed co-worker who sent them an “important document.” Once the individual clicked on the attachment, the virus was downloaded to the computer, read through the top 50 people in their address book and sent the exact same email to them.

The idea with this virus is that sending a mass email through multiple computers may be enough to crash businesses servers and costing them millions of dollars. And that was definitely the case as the FBI determined that David L. Smith caused damages worth up to $80 million.

But even though the Melissa virus is a virus of the past, many viruses can behave like this too. While a lot of junk gets sent to our spam email boxes, there can be emails that we get that seem ordinary to us but are posing as a virus. As such, it’s important for us to pause and check our emails.

Are we expecting an email from someone? Does it contain an odd titled attachment? Or how about a link that you’re uncertain of?

We can take preventative measures from these viruses spreading by taking a few seconds to screen our emails.

Kevin David Mitnick. Some call him The Condor or The Darkside Hacker. For me, he’s a hacker who got “famous.” Today, Mitnick is the head of a security consulting firm - Mitnick Security Consulting, LLC - and is the Chief Hacking Officer of KnowBe4. KnowBe4 is a security awareness training company. He’s also on the advisory board of Zimperium which is a firm that is developing mobile intrusion prevention systems.

He is atoning for his pas actions, which to say the least were nothing but nefarious. Before delving into computers, Mitnick was growing a passion for social engineering. Ultimately this was what he decided to study but used social engineering in a number of occasions.

The most notable time was when he was 16 and gained unauthorized access to a computer network in 1979. The company he infiltrated was Digital Equipment Corp. After that, Mitnick was on the run for several years until he was caught and convicted for the crime in 1988. At the time he was sentenced to a year in prison and had three years of supervised release. However near the end of that three year period Mitnick hacked into Pacific Bell’s voice mail computers. After a warrant was issued, Mitnick fled and was a fugitive for two and a half years.

Mitnick was captured again by 1995 which started a string of events where Mitnick was treated poorly. The whole process sparked a campaign from people called FreeKevin. Supporters were also given bumper stickers to raise awareness of it.

A documentary also emerged talking about Mitnick and his story. It’s called Freedom Downtime. Mitnick also published a book in 2003 called The Art of Deception which explained in detail his intentions and his experiences.

What we can learn from Mitnick is that not all hacking is bad and not all hackers are bad people.  After Mitnick has been released, he has worked with companies to improve security and he’s published three other books since 2003. Those books and the controversy revolving around his life in prison are what makes him famous. And considering his skills, it’s nice to have a hacker on our side and to help protect us against the various cybersecurity threats.

The Internet began hitting it’s stride in 1983 when ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) adopted TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol) into it’s systems. At the time they called it the “network of networks” which evolved into the modern internet.

But only five years later from that creation, something else was being made that sparked a chain reaction that is still relevant to this day: computer worms.

In 1988, Robert Morris created a worm and released it to computer systems within MIT on November 2. The worm originally wasn’t designed to cause any damage, but rather to highlight security flaws.

The worm was meant to suggest that Morris studied at MIT and also exposed some system vulnerabilities like weak passwords. Not only that, but it was intended to enter a computer once and to stay away if a computer told the worm there was already a worm in it.

Unfortunately, a mistake in the programming was that Morris gave the worm a 1 in 7 odds of multiplying itself and infecting a computer regardless of the system’s response. What should have been an easily solvable program became a threat to multiple systems.

As a result, the worm infected 6,000 computers to the point that the computers couldn’t function. This was a result of the worm multiplying so much in a system it slowed down the infected computer. According to the Government Accountability Office, the damages were estimated to be between $100,000 and $10 million.

Despite the good intentions at first, Morris’s name has been placed on this virus which we know as the Morris worm. He was also the first person convicted under the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

But what’s even worse is that the Morris worm provided the framework for every other worm virus that is created today.

Despite the intent for the virus to be helpful in the beginning, hackers still use this technique in various and nefarious methods. Worms have become more sophisticated with one famous example being Stuxnet. It’s a worm that evolved into a cyber weapon that we are still dealing with today.

Lesser known worms have similar characters to the Morris worm: multiplying and filling up file space. Some even delete files which is a sign that your computer may be infected.

It goes to show that despite people’s good intentions, it’s important for people to exercise caution. While not all of us are developing computer programs, one professional mentioned that Morris should’ve tried it on a simulator first.

Do you have children and are you protecting them on the Internet? Have you enabled parent controls and prevented them from using all your mobile data?

Many families are providing phones to their kids so that they can stay in touch and keep up with the times. Many have family plans where all devices share the same monthly data. But unfortunately in these situations, a lot of people, including adults, don't understand the difference between mobile vs WiFi data, or they get addicted to their phones during times that they should be sleeping or doing their homework.

There are some programs out there that can help you in this situation. One is called Screentime. It helps manage the time that your kids spend on their tablets and smartphones. You can set daily time limits, reward additional time with completed tasks or homework, block schedules of sleep time or homework. You can instant pause the device, approve apps that they might want to install, see what they're using the most, access their web history. It has a many different features that you can check and works on iOS and Android.