How to protect yourself against SIM swapping
SIM swap, the latest fraud technique, happens when a hacker is able to transfer your mobile phone number to another SIM card in their possession thereby securing their exclusive use of your number and in doing so, part of your identity. Fraudsters can physically change it if they have access to your phone or do so remotely by calling your mobile phone provider to impersonate you and activate a new SIM card. How do you find out if you've been the victim of a SIM swap? A SIM card is the bridge between your mobile device, your number and your provider. You may have already had to ask to swap your SIM card yourself either because you lost your device or changed to another mobile service provider. Your phone number then was legitimately transferred to a new SIM card. However, if you’re the victim of fraud via a SIM swap, your mobile device could suddenly lose its connection to the cellphone network you’re subscribing to. So you won’t get any more calls, texts or emails because now the hacker is receiving them on their device. The fraudster can also reset your passwords and access your online accounts to use them as they please, especially when your phone number is used as an authentication factor or for recovering your accounts. How can you protect yourself from this type of fraud? To avoid making yourself an easy target for fraudsters, here are a few tips to improve security for your SIM card: Add a complicated PIN to lock your SIM card and keep it secret. Choose complex usernames and passwords that are different across all your accounts (emails, social networks, banks, government, etc.). Use two-factor authentication that is more secure than emails or texts, for example a security key or an app like Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator. Make sure you’re not needlessly sharing personal details. Your birthday, phone number, card numbers, driver’s licence numbers, subscriptions numbers or any other number should remain confidential and should not appear in your emails or on social networks. Be vigilant when it comes to phishing attempts by email, text or phone. Never give out personal information through those means. What do you do if you’re the victim of SIM swapping? To report the fraud, contact the police and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. Warn your financial institution and have them block your credit cards to protect your accounts. You can also apply to credit assessment agencies to make sure this fraud is recorded in your file. Videotron cares about your safety. If you realize that hacker has swapped your SIM card, go to a store with your IDs so our representatives can quickly remedy the situation and replace your SIM card. Find a storeCryptojacking – When your computer mines cryptocurrency without your knowledge
In the past few months, we’ve seen a lot of news about cryptocurrency, including harried headlines about extreme fluctuations. All this can be attributed to an unending speculative bubble and possibly also the fear of government regulation. This partially explains why bitcoin’s value took such a spectacular plunge, falling from CA$25,000 to just over CA$10,000 between December 17 and today. Beyond the technical challenges that these headless currencies bring to the table, the fluctuations in exchange rate parity likely played a key role in the resurgence of attempted pirating, theft of digital wallets and personal data, and other fraudulent acts. If we’re to believe the predictions of certain industry leaders, more major heists could be coming. So far this year, we’ve already witnessed the record theft of $60 million in bitcoin from NiceHash, a violent attack on a British couple for their virtual wallet, and Coincheck reporting more stolen assets than MtGox did in 2014. Given that bitcoin could recover and hit $60,000 sometime this year, security has become a big issue for this type of investment and for cryptocoin mining as well. However, with a little common sense and caution, the risk is minimal. What is mining? Unlike the coins and banknotes we carry in our pockets, which are issued by central banks, cryptocurrencies are virtual. They can be transferred across the network and are secured by alphanumeric strings called “hash.” To create virtual currencies, protect them and keep them functional, the mining process uses software that connects computers to a mining pool, making it possible to leverage the power of several devices at the same time. The processors work 24/7 to keep the currency going. The transactions (blocks) are then correctly added and recorded on the blockchain, which is a public document that lists all transactions—and it’s also a real headache for financial institutions and governments. Miners contribute their computers’ processing power to the network and are paid in cryptocurrency. Day after day, these profits add to the amounts already in circulation. Mining is rarely done alone because it uses a lot of power and is not very profitable. Instead, pools or farms do most of the work. There is power in numbers, and in mining it increases both the processing power and speed (i.e. hash rate). More calculations = more blocks added = more profits. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ When hackers target miners Clearly, mining isn’t totally safe and provides an opportunity to attack honest individuals whose computers are connected. In fact, it is becoming increasingly common for the CPU (processer) of a computer to be “taken hostage” so that it can be used for mining, without the computer’s owner even knowing about it. For instance, this can be done with Coinhive. This simple script discreetly mines Monero (one of the many forms of crypocurrencies out there). You’d never even know it was there. If your computer lags x 1000 and your electricity bill skyrockets, you might inadvertently be making cryptocurrency. And the worst part is that you won’t see any of the bitcoins that your computer is generating. According to a handful of experts, we can expect this CPU-borrowing trend to increase in 2018. After Youtube, The Pirate Bay and several government sites, we could even see a broader range of websites and platforms used for cryptocurrency mining. Currently, none of the available browsers offers protection against this type of activity, but there are solutions like No Script extension for Chrome, Firefox and Opera. You can also turn to traditional ad blocking services like 1Blocker, uBlock Origin and Adblock Plus. These can help relieve stress, since they minimize the chances that someone will get rich off your back. Helpful definitions courtesy of bitcoin.org: Hash: One of the essential components of BTC security is the SHA 256 hash function. It’s a mathematical function that uses a compilation of data (words, numbers, characters) to create a unique output value called a “hash.” Block chain: The block chain is a public record of Bitcoin transactions in chronological order. The block chain is shared between all Bitcoin users. It is used to verify the permanence of Bitcoin transactions and to prevent double spending. Block: A block is a record in the block chain that contains and confirms many waiting transactions. Roughly every 10 minutes, on average, a new block including transactions is appended to the block chain through mining.Choosing Password Management Software
If there’s one problem we all experience, it’s having too many online accounts and passwords to remember. To solve this problem, we’ve developed a very bad habit: using the same passwords all the time. But there’s a much better solution: using a kind of software called a password manager. By Marc-André Gagnon, information security specialist. The way a password manager works is that you enter all your passwords into a database that itself is highly secure—a kind of digital vault. There are two kinds of password managers: local and cloud-based. Local password managers Local password managers save your passwords in a local database on your own computer. Your information never leaves your computer, and you are responsible for backing up your database manually at regular intervals. The two big players in this category are KeePass and Password Safe. Both of these software packages are open-source and free. KeePass for Windows was audited by the European Commission's EU Free and Open Source Software Auditing project (EU-FOSSA) in 2016, and no critical vulnerabilities were found in it. This represents a good guarantee that the source code is free of any major flaws or “back doors”. Because both KeePass and Password Safe are open-source, there are dozens of clones and derived versions of them, for all platforms (Windows, Linux, iOS, Android). But you have to be careful, because these clones do not provide any guarantees against vulnerabilities. If you’re concerned about security, use only the official versions. Local Password Manager Price Platforms KeePass free Windows (Linux/OSX: use the KeePassX clone) Password Safe free Windows Cloud-based password managers Cloud-based password managers save your database of passwords in the cloud. They represent an interesting compromise, in terms of ease of use and security. If well implemented, cloud-based password managers are considered secure and offer some additional benefits: they support all browsers; they let you access your passwords on all your devices at any time; they let you share certain passwords with other users, such as your spouse or your children; they let you monitor attempts to access your account, define trusted devices, and so on; some of them let you define an emergency contact who will be able to access your password database if anything happens to you. Like all other cloud-based services, cloud-based password managers charge an annual fee (although LastPass does offer a worthwhile free version). Cloud-based Password Manager Price Allows two-factor authentication? Platforms LastPass free or $US 24 per year Yes Internet Explorer/Edge Mozilla Firefox Google Chrome Apple Safari Opera 1Password $US 35.88 per year No Chrome Firefox Safari Opera Dashlane $US 39.99 per year Yes Internet Explorer Chrome Firefox Safari Can the software provider (or a hacker) access my passwords? The provider cannot read your database, because it is encrypted with your master password. All of the encryption and decryption operations are performed locally on your own computer, and your master password is never transmitted to the provider in any way. If this complex technology is properly implemented in accordance with best practices, it is considered impossible for the provider or potential hackers to decrypt your passwords without your master password. Essential advice Choose a master password that is complex and unique. Try to have 15 characters or more, including letters, numbers, and special characters. This password is going to protect all your others, so you can’t afford to be lazy! One good method is to use the first letter of each word in a sentence that will be easy for you to remember. For example, you could set your master password as “ta12aitb, ok?” and remember it with the sentence “There are 12 apples in this bag, OK?” For more details on this method, I recommend an article by Bruce Schneier. You’ll have to remember your master password, because there is no way to recover it. Some cloud-based password managers may offer options to make it easier to recover, but these options are still limited, because the provider can’t decrypt your information and doesn’t know your master password. Activate two-factor authentication For cloud-based password managers, two-factor authentication involves associating your account with your smart phone or other smart device (there are other options as well). Once you activate two-factor authentication, you will be allowed to access your database only if you enter your master password AND you demonstrate that you have physical access to the smart device that you have associated with your account. Thus, even if your password is compromised (by a virus, for example), the attack will be blocked by a second factor. I think this is the best way to make your account secure with the least effort. By the way, that’s true not just for your cloud-based password manager but for all your other cloud-based accounts—Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, etc.!
