Adobe Creative Suite. Norton Antivirus. The Facebook app on your phone - what do all three of these have in common? They are just a few examples of third party programs, and tech expert Burton Kelso is back with us to explain how to be smart when using this kind of software.

Third party programs are any programs that are an addition to your current operating system (IOS, Windows, Android, etc). So Microsoft Word is not a third party program for PC, but AVG Antivirus is. Another example for your iPhone - Safari is not a third party, but the Instagram app is.

Why is it important to be able to identify these kinds of programs? Because as helpful as a third party program can be, it can also be doing sketchy things with your data. What data is it collecting and where is it sending it? It could be sending it to Russia, true story!

Another way these programs get access to your computer is through browser extensions or plugins. You might be tempted to add it to have coupon codes pop up while you’re shopping, but that also means it’s tracking everything you do.

The answer to this potential cybersecurity threat is not to go delete every third party program you use. Burton is quick to point out how much they make our lives easier and more fun! Instead, the key is awareness. Every app or piece of software comes with a Terms of Service. Maybe you’re used to just scrolling through the thousands of words in 2 point font and clicking “accept.” Don’t do that anymore! That fine print is where you learn what is being collected and what they are doing with it.

Burton also points out that most modern computers don’t even need antivirus software, so you might be able to forgo that particular type of third party software altogether.

Making informed decisions about what access you allow programs to have to your computer is a big step towards protecting your information. Next time you go to download an app or plugin, take a second to understand what you’re agreeing to!

Takeaways from this episode:

1. Tech expert Burton Kelso wants you to be aware of what third party programs you are putting onto your computer and phone.
2. Third party programs are any programs that are an addition to your operating system (they didn’t come with the computer or phone).
3. While these apps and programs can be very useful, they can also be a cybersecurity risk. Check the Terms of Service before you add a new one to your device so you know what you are agreeing to share and where it is being sent!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

To learn more about Burton Kelso, please visit:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/burtonkelso

https://www.callintegralnow.com

Article: Russian Kaspersky antivirus software could be used by Kremlin to hack into computers, governments warn

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/russian-kaspersky-antivirus-software-could-123528646.html

If you'd like to learn more about cybersecurity and online identity protection, you can connect with me on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-mantilia/

To protect your company against cyber crime, you can now book me for cybersecurity training:

https://bit.ly/3CtZKzD

To keep your family protected online, learn more about our Identron Identity Theft Protection software:

http://bit.ly/Identron

Your home router is a little piece of equipment that you probably don’t think about that often (as long as it’s working). It’s time to change that mindset and strengthen your home cybersecurity! Don’t worry, I’m going to guide you through steps you can take that aren’t scary at all.

Are you wondering why it’s worth the effort to keep Mr. Creepy from using your internet? Here’s one yucky scenario: if your WifI is unprotected, Mr. Creepy can hop on your network and access illegal websites, leaving you to talk to the police because it was done through your network.

Or Mr. Creepy gets onto your network, and access other devices connected to it - devices like your work computer, or your home computer with sensitive financial info. And then that info gets sold on the dark web, causing you all kinds of headaches. So let’s tighten up your cybersecurity!

First, turn your attention to your router password. Yes, your router has a password! Most routers are set up by your internet provider, and still use the default manufacturer password. You need to change this from the manufacturer settings, and set a unique password that only you know. It sounds intimidating, but if you go to Google and search your brand of router and “change passwords,” I promise you will find a step-by-step YouTube video or article that will walk you through the steps.

Second, time to check on your WIFI network name and password. This network name is also called the SSID, so if you see that term, don’t worry. I'm sharing a couple things to keep in mind when choosing a network name.

Finally, I want you to make a list of all the devices currently connected to your WIFI network and verify that you want them connected and that they have automatic updates turned on. I even have a quick shortcut you can take!

And remember, you don’t have to complete all these steps right this minute, so don’t feel overwhelmed. Just get started and work your way through over time - the additional cybersecurity to protect your family or business is worth the effort!

Takeaways from this episode:

1. The technical words around router and WIFI security sound intimidating, but you can learn these simple cybersecurity steps to take to protect your family or business.
2. Three important actions I’m highlighting today are changing your router password, strengthening your Wifi network security, and checking on your devices to ensure they are as secure as possible.
3. If you don’t know how to change a setting on your router, google the router name plus what you want to do, and you’ll find a YouTube video or article to help! 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

'See who's on your WIFI' PC Magazine Article:

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/see-whos-on-your-wi-fi

If you'd like to learn more about cybersecurity and online identity protection, you can connect with me on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-mantilia/

To protect your company against cyber crime, you can now book me for cybersecurity training:

https://bit.ly/3CtZKzD

To keep your family protected online, learn more about our Identron Identity Theft Protection software:

http://bit.ly/Identron

Did you know 85% of security breaches and ransomware attacks are caused by human error? The good news is that once you know the right pieces of information, and act accordingly, your chances of cybersecurity problems plummet. You have the power.

In this episode, I'm sharing 2 quick actions you can take to decrease your chances of security breaches. This information is vital not only for you as an individual, but also for companies and anyone who handles sensitive customer data and payment information. It’s important to share this knowledge with others since it’s so effective in reducing cybersecurity attacks.

When you share my 2 tips as part of a company or service, it’s a great way to build trust with your customers. They get value from cybersecurity tips that transcends your offering. Plus, it builds trust between you and the customer.

Listen in to find out what they are.

Takeaways from this episode:

-Sending an email letting customers know you won’t ask for their account info is a proactive way to help them protect themselves – and enhances your brand value and reputation.

-Multi-factor authentication is when you opt to receive a text message to verify your identity when logging in to your account, and it prevents others from gaining access to it.

-Speaking to customers in simple, plain language helps build trust because they understand and benefit from your information.

If you'd like to learn more about cybersecurity and online identity protection, you can connect with me on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-mantilia/

To protect your company against cyber crime, you can now book me for cybersecurity training:

https://bit.ly/3CtZKzD

To keep your family protected online, learn more about our Identron Identity Theft Protection software:

http://bit.ly/Identron

Fraud and money laundering may sound like the stuff of James Bond films, but these crimes are impacting real families and businesses every day. Jaime Ramirez has worked in the financial industry for decades, and dedicated the last five years to working specifically with digital identity. He is here to share with us how biometrics & identity confirmation could be the key to keeping “dirty” money out of our banks.

“Dirty” money is the result of illegal activities such as drug sales or terrorism financing. The criminals “launder” it to make it look legitimate and hide the source of the transactions. It definitely takes a creative mind to stay one step ahead of these bad guys!

Cryptocurrency is the new battleground in the fight against money laundering. It’s possible for fraudulent accounts to be created using identity information scammed from victims like you and I. These scammers might ask for a picture of your driver’s license to “confirm” a social security increase - but what they do instead is use it to open an account in your name.

Jaime has several tips that you can follow to help protect your financial security:

First, make sure that anytime you are sharing your credentials or other sensitive information, that you are truly sharing it with who you mean to. Don’t click on links through random emails. Don’t call the phone numbers in those emails, either. Go directly to the verified website and start from there.

Second, keep a close eye on your credit report, bank accounts AND your online shopping accounts. If you see suspicious activity, report it immediately. Don’t let the criminals continue to use your Amazon account because you haven’t noticed!

Finally, we cannot stress how important it is to use a different password for each account. If you use the same email and password all over the place, it’s an open invitation for criminals to hack your identity.

Following these actionable steps will go a long way to protecting your online identity and reduce the chances of fraud or money laundering interrupting your financial peace.

Takeaways from this episode:

1. Fraud and money laundering are crimes that affect people everyday through scams and theft of digital identity.
2. Jaime Ramirez has seen it all during his 30-year career and wants more people to be aware of the problem.
3. To help avoid having your identity stolen, make sure you are always working with the true organization you intend to - and not a scammer pretending to be them.
4. Also, make sure to keep a close eye on all your accounts, and use a different password for each one.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

The $1M Dollar Romance Scam:

https://cyber-smart-with-dana-mantilia.sounder.fm/episode/million-dollar-romance-scam

Connect to Jaime Ramirez:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimeramirez-/

Learn more about Preventor:

https://preventor.com/

If you'd like to learn more about cybersecurity and online identity protection, you can connect with me on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-mantilia/

To protect your company against cyber crime, you can now book me for cybersecurity training:

https://bit.ly/3CtZKzD

To keep your family protected online, learn more about our Identron Identity Theft Protection software:

http://bit.ly/Identron

There is a lot of technical jargon in the world of cybersecurity, have you noticed?For example, the government is working on a project to increase cybersecurity among all its contractors, and they are calling the program CMMC. Now you and I and all the non-technical people are going, "CMMC? What is that? What does that have to do with me?"Good question, and even after turning to Google, I was still confused. The clear next step was to turn to the experts. Except, it turned out they used jargon too and, sadly, their answers weren’t always very clear.  Enter CyberSmart! What I was inspired to do was to bridge the gap between the technical speak of the experts and the language that all the rest of us can understand. I really niched down and decided to target regular folks who aren’t yet aware of the huge threat that is cybercrime.After securing certification with the CMMC Accreditation Board, I started my mission to be the host (the Oprah if you will) of cybersecurity. This decision to narrow down my focus has been very successful. My videos now show up as results on YouTube for the search term CMMC, and there is a lot of interest when I reach out to experts to interview on LinkedIn.My mission is to make cybersecurity information accessible and help you to protect your family and your business. This influences every decision I make for who to talk to and what topic to chase down next. So the next time you have an important message to share, make sure to really narrow down who you are talking to, like I did. It makes a big difference!

Takeaways from this episode:

1. When deciding what topics in cybersecurity to talk about, I was inspired to help bridge the gap between experts and non-technical folks like myself.
2. A lot of people still aren’t aware of the increasing cyber threats in our world.
3. By niching down, I was able to gain visibility and reach more people.
4. We’re spreading awareness and it’s successful in large part due to focusing our efforts! 

If you'd like to learn more about cybersecurity and online identity protection, you can connect with me on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-mantilia/

To take your online content to the next level, learn about what I can do for you and your company:

www.cyberdana.com

To protect your company against cyber crime, you can now book me for cybersecurity training:

https://bit.ly/3CtZKzD

To keep your family protected online, learn more about our Identron Identity Theft Protection software:

http://bit.ly/Identron

Laughter is the best medicine, and Ian Murphy has discovered that it’s also the best teacher. Murphy, a cybersecurity pro, is approaching this entire topic from a brand new angle - with humor.

Clocking in with over 3 decades of cybersecurity experience in both the public and private sector, Ian has been running his own business for the past 17 years. His latest project: creating and sharing educational yet entertaining videos about cybersecurity.

Why infuse humor into such a serious topic? Ian says it’s because boring presentations just don’t work. He wants you to think back to your school years and recall your favorite teacher. It was the funny one, wasn’t it? Those lessons that kept you engaged through laughing were how you retained the most information. It’s no different for adults!

Of course the scary teachers were memorable too, but not because you remembered anything other than fear. And that’s what Ian sees happen all too often with traditional cybersecurity training. Participants walk away from an employer mandated workshop feeling scared and worried, but without remembering specifics. To make things even worse, these presentations often utilize technical jargon that's very difficult for non-technical audiences to understand.

Ian’s approach is totally new and refreshing in the cyber industry as he attaches happier emotions to critical security information and delivers it in everyday language. The result: people actually remember it! And truthfully, would you rather attend a regular cybersecurity webinar or listen to Ian do his comedy routine? That’s a no brainer!

Webinar participants later tell Ian they’ve made their password more secure because of him, or taken other cybersecurity steps because his humor took the spookiness out of the topic. This feedback is what keeps him going!

Takeaways from this episode:

• Although cybersecurity is a serious risk, Ian Murphy discovered that training people on best practices actually works better when you include humor.

• He thought about what helps him retain information and realized that happy emotions are more effective than fearful ones.

• His webinars use everyday language and lots of comedy to engage his audiences and make sure they leave with useful information.

• It works! People tell him they came in without any intent to change their personal cybersecurity and after listening to him changed their mind.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Connect with Ian Murphy on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianmurphy/

To learn more about Ian’s projects please visit:

https://www.cyberoff.co.uk/

If you'd like to learn more about cybersecurity and online identity protection, you can connect with me on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-mantilia/

To protect your company against cyber crime, you can now book me for cybersecurity training:

https://bit.ly/3CtZKzD

To keep your family protected online, learn more about our Identron Identity Theft Protection software:

http://bit.ly/Identron

Did you know that ransomware is a highly effective weapon that countries are deploying against each other? Security consultant and ex-hacker Mike Jones is back with us to talk about how this could affect global politics.

Chances are you’ve heard of ransomware in it’s commercialized form. These attacks are perpetrated against corporations or consumers, causing them to lose access to their information unless they pay a huge ransom to the bad guys. Mike explains that providing ransomware as a service has become so widely used as a business model that there are actually help lines for hackers to call if the ransomware isn’t behaving properly. Help lines, I kid you not!

With that level of effectiveness, it’s not surprising that this technology has evolved to be used as a weapon. Mike coined the term Ransomware as a Weapon or RAW. We can see examples of this being used in Estonia to bring down the power grid, or more recently in the escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

One of Mike’s top concerns is how little the public understands about what is going on, which is why he’s doing his best to get the word out about it. His experience behind the scenes of cyber intelligence has shown him that the full picture includes economic as well as political impacts.

There are three specific areas that Mike believes could benefit from extra funding and attention, including the sharing of information. Right now, companies are hesitant to share key takeaways from overcoming a cyberattack. He wants that type of data to become public information, so other companies can learn from it. This would be an important cultural shift!

There is currently a huge deficit of cybersecurity professionals. Mike sees people coming out of the military as a valuable resource in closing that gap, but vets need support transitioning to private sector jobs. To meet this need, Mike is launching a charity called Hackers for Vets. This charity will provide scholarships for certifications and equipment to vets who need it.

Mike encourages teamwork to fight these threats. He believes that the key to overcoming ransomware as a weapon will be looking out for one another and working together.

Takeaways from this episode:

1. Ransomware has evolved into a powerful weapon in global conflict.
2. Mike Jones, security consultant and ex-hacker, wants to raise awareness and increase information sharing in the private sector to help combat this.
3. There is a huge need for more cybersecurity professionals, and Mike is launching a charity to equip people coming out of the military to help fill that gap.
4. Through this charity, Hackers for Vets, Mike plans to provide certification scholarships and equipment to vets who need it.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It

https://www.amazon.com/Cyber-War-Threat-National-Security/dp/0061962244

004. How vulnerable is your information? A 'good hacker' spills the beans

https://cyber-smart-with-dana-mantilia.sounder.fm/episode/how-vulnerable-are-you-hackers-online

To connect to Mike Jones please visit:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikejonesnotanalias/

Subscribe to Mike's podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h4unt3d-hacker/id1569755148

If you'd like to learn more about cybersecurity and online identity protection, you can connect with me on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-mantilia/

To protect your company against cyber crime, you can now book me for cybersecurity training:

https://bit.ly/3CtZKzD

To keep your family protected online, learn more about our Identron Identity Theft Protection software:

http://bit.ly/Identron

Tell me if you’ve ever had these thoughts: “I’m not going to get hacked,” or, “I don’t have anything a criminal would want”? You’re not alone in thinking these things, but unfortunately they are 100% not true.

That’s right, It’s time to dispel those myths, my cyber warriors! I invited Jessica to share her story with you today, because she learned the hard way that cyber criminals will take anything they can get.

Jessica was a victim of identity theft in 2014 after a data breach at a former employer. Through no fault of her own, her sensitive data was released out there in cyberspace. It came to her attention when she started to receive alerts from her credit monitoring company - accounts in her name were popping up all over the country. Even pharmacies she’d never been to were asking her to come pick up subscriptions.

Now - did you notice the part where Jessica had credit monitoring? Thank goodness she did, or she would not have known right away that this was happening! Immediately, she started to take steps to prevent it with an alert on her credit account.

Now here's another round of bad guys - sleazy credit issuers. They ignored the alert and continued to allow fraudulent accounts to be opened until Jessica eventually froze her credit altogether. Sadly, she ended up with her financial information in a gigantic mess that has taken years to clean up.

The moral of this story? This type of cyber crime can happen to anybody because your name, social security number, and credit identity is all a criminal needs to wreak havoc on your life.

The second moral of this story? Make sure you have good credit monitoring in place! Choose a product like our Identron, that checks all three credit bureaus and allows you to monitor your children’s credit as well. Imagine if this had gone on for years before Jessica even knew about it, yikes!

Even though she is still cleaning up her credit report, this story has an empowering ending. Jessica decided to switch careers and go into cybersecurity. This experience has made one thing clear: she wants to help prevent cyber crimes from happening to anyone else!

Takeaways from this episode:

1. Cyber crimes such as identify theft can happen to anyone, and criminals will cause a lot of damage with just your name and social security number.
2. Identity theft takes a lot of time and energy to recover from, it’s no joke.
3. Credit monitoring is a must-have! Look into a product like our Identron, that will let you know right away if anything suspicious is happening with your credit.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Report Identity Theft Online:

https://www.ftc.gov/faq/consumer-protection/report-identity-theft

Prezley Videos about how to protect your account while gaming:

https://www.youtube.com/c/PREZLEY/search?query=password

If you'd like to learn more about cybersecurity and online identity protection, you can connect with me on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-mantilia/

To protect your company against cyber crime, you can now book me for cybersecurity training:

https://bit.ly/3CtZKzD

To keep your family protected online, learn more about our Identron Identity Theft Protection software:

http://bit.ly/Identron