Welcome to the Centuric Education Center  The place where you can get IT updates and resources to make intelligent IT decisions We want to provide resources for our customer base that will help educate you on making IT decisions for advancing your business. Topics will range from creating a secure and memorable password to how you can more efficiently utilize your IT budget. Subscribe to our RSS feed or register to receive our monthly enewsletter. Have a question regarding your infrastructure or IT strategy? Ask our experts here.

 

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Cyber Scammers

Date: September 2009
Author: Frank Peluso, CEO Centuric, LLC

The unstable economy is creating a large market for cyber criminals. Law enforcement officials who track Internet crime say scams have intensified over the past year, as fraudsters take advantage of the economic anxiety and confusion to target both consumers and businesses. Financial institutions have become the number one target. The latest technique is attacking consumers through their mobile devices.

The scam begins with an innocent text message. The text message appears to come from a legitimate source. The text message may direct the recipient to call a telephone number where an automated attendant prompts them for their account number or their login ID and PIN. The text message may also contain a URL link, leading the recipient to a phishing site. Phishing sites use a criminally fraudulent process in an attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames and passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity.

Until recently, most attacks were random. One text message could be sent to thousands of people. Now scammers are getting smarter. They are doing their homework and targeting specific people or groups of people. This is called spear phishing. Text messages will seem to come from a trusted co-worker or an organization in which the consumer is a member. These messages will come personalized to the individual, addressing them by name, even going as far as referring to the company they work for, or using other personal information they acquire to use against the consumer.

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center confirms an increase in cyber-attacks. The latest statistics reports losses due to cyber scammers to nearly $265 million. States that have reported text message scams include New York, Pennsylvania and North Dakota.

Here are some tips you can follow that will help you indentify legitimate text messages and those that have malicious intent.

This type of criminal activity will only get more sophisticated with time. The best way to avoid becoming a victim is by educating yourself and Centuric is committed to providing learning resources to consumers through our Centuric Education Center at www.centuric.com.

Centuric specializes in Security for regulated industries and we have partnered with industry leading vendors. We can build a fortress around your company and keep these cyber criminals away. We have proven experience in financial institutions, healthcare, publically traded companies, and large commercial entities.

Contact us today for a Call

• Never respond to unsolicited text messages
• Never click on a URL in a unsolicited text message
• Always navigate to the website by typing in the addressAlways dial the phone number that you have on file
• Always check credit cards for fraudulent activity
• Always check bank statements for fraudulent activity

• Always report suspicious activity. Reports can be filed at the Internet Crime Compliant Center (IC3) http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
• Never reveal personal or financial information in a response to a text message, no matter who appears to have sent it
• Free Security Evaluation.

We will analyze your technical infrastructure and provide you with an extensive security report.

Now Toll Free at 866.376.6767

 

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Creating a secure password that is easy to remember

Date: January 2004
Revised: February 2008
Author: Frank Peluso, CEO Centuric, LLC

Password authentication is part our daily lives. To maintain security it is important to create a strong and secure password. Choosing a strong password is not hard and is something everyone can do. Creating a strong password means using between eight and sixteen characters, with a mix of upper and lowercase characters, numbers, and symbols. Strong passwords, that you create, should be easy for you to remember and hard for others to guess.

Below are some guidelines to help you in creating a strong secure password that will be easy for you to remember.

Don'ts

1. Never use terms that are associated with your industry
2. Never use words in a dictionary (This includes non English words)
3. Never use sequences at the end of a password. e.g. mypassword00, mypassword01, etc.
4. Never share your password with anyone.
5. Never write down your password
6. Do not use proper names. e.g. your first or last name or names of places
7. Do not use your login ID
8. Do not user your or anyone else’s birth date
9. Don't use simple patterns of letters on the keyboard, like "qwerty" or "asdfgh"
10. Don't use all the same letters.
11. Do not spell words backwards

 Do's

1. Memorize your password
2. Passwords must be 8 characters or more
3. Use phrases
4. Use uppercase, lowercase, numeric and special characters  

Examples

1. I Love My Pet
   • Substitute an "!" for the "I", this will meet the special character requirement.
   • Substitute a "0" (zero) for "o" and a "3" for "e".
   • I like to have the 1st letter of the last word in uppercase - e.g. i love my Pet
   • Thus the password for "I Love My Pet" would be: !l0v3myP3t
2. Enjoy Health
   • 3nj0yH3@!th
   • Notice the substitutions: "3" for "e", "0" (zero) for "o", "@" for "a" and the "!" for "l", also the "H" in the last word is capitalized. You can also use "1" to substitute the letter "a".
3. Pass-phrase: "Four score and seven years ago, our fathers..."
   • Password: "Fs&7yAoF"
   • The result: Derived by choosing the first letter from each word, using a mixed case of letters, adding a non-alphabetic character and number where possible.

It is up to you. Create phrases and patterns that are easy for you to remember. You will be surprised how easy it is to get used to the concept and how secure your password truly is.

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