It's National Cyber Security Awareness Month in the US, and a group of companies, government entities, and nonprofit organizations kicked it off with some research. The survey from McAfee and the nonprofit National Cyber Security Alliance found that 90% of people surveyed responded "not completely" when asked how safe they feel from "viruses, malware and hackers while on the Internet." Their … [Read more...] about State of cybersecurity concerns: Study
malware
Key phishing-avoidance trick
Share this easy phishing-avoidance tactic with Facebook users in your family. ZDNET writer Ed Bott provides screenshots of four Facebook email notifications he has received, two of them definitely not from Facebook. He illustrates how hard it is to tell fake Facebook emails from real ones, but here's a great trick that will help you and your kids: Instead of just clicking, hover your cursor or … [Read more...] about Key phishing-avoidance trick
Attacks on Macs
There have been "a number of reports over the past few weeks about an anti-virus scam that goes by a number of aliases, including MacDefender, MacProtector and MacSecurity," reports Larry Magid, my ConnectSafely.org co-director, at the San Jose Mercury News. He says he's been religious about protecting his Windows computers against malware but only just tried out some anti-virus software on his … [Read more...] about Attacks on Macs
Phishing seriously on the rise in social sites
You know what phishing is, right? Tricking Net users into clicking on bad links and sharing sensitive info like passwords and credit card numbers by pretending to be someone the users trust (a friend, their bank, etc.). Well, Microsoft says the number of phishing attacks in social network sites increased 1,200% last year, eWeekEurope.co.uk reports. Phishers "get a higher return on investment … [Read more...] about Phishing seriously on the rise in social sites
Helping Japan with our brains as well as hearts
It's important for us to point out to our children that millions of people are looking for ways to help survivors of Japan's earthquake-related disasters. This is the social norms approach that encourages everybody to take positive action. This is also an opportunity to teach media literacy, as we look at how people are helping via social-media tools and how they can be vulnerable in doing so – if … [Read more...] about Helping Japan with our brains as well as hearts