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Avoid Using a Debit Card
When you’re using a debit card rather than a credit card to shop online, it can put you at an increased risk of your information being hacked and fraudulently used. Credit cards are insured against fraudulent charges, making them the safer option, whereas debit cards do not have that advantage.

Use Different Passwords
Using a myriad of passwords for all of your different accounts is a great way to ensure that you’re not hacked. Never use the same password more than once. If you do, it allows hackers to access all of your accounts if they crack one. Also, avoid using “common” passwords such as the word “password” or popular number or letter sequences.

Use Two-Factor Authentication
Another precaution to take against hackers is to strengthen your email accounts with two-factor authentication. This is like having a second password on your account that adds an extra layer of security, which is particularly important when you know you’re going to be doing an abundance of online shopping. This makes it difficult for hackers to access your account, even if they successfully bypass or guess your first security key.

Turn Off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in Stores
This may seem like an unexpected tip, but turning off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when you’re in a store can stop stores from tracking you and your information while you’re there, which they keep on file to use in the future. This unauthorized network access can be put to a halt by simply turning off these phone features as you shop with some peace of mind.

Read More: Can Someone Hack My Android’s Bluetooth?

The SS7 Vulnerability

SS7, also known as the global signaling system, is a protocol suite that allows devices to communicate with one another worldwide. SS7 vulnerabilities are what allow hackers and spies to intercept text messages, listen to others’ phone calls, and track smartphone users’ locations. This means that they can intercept a text message to reset your password, or even divert texts to their devices to gain access to your account.

How Hackers Can Use Your Phone Number

For hackers that know how to use SS7 to their advantage, it’s very simple to hack online accounts through a victim’s phone number. All they need to do is go to the Facebook homepage, click on “Forgot account?”, and then type in your phone number. Then, they’ll redirect the text message (that you should receive) to them, so that they get your one-time password to log into your account. This same strategy can be used to access your Gmail account or other social networking accounts, too.

More recently, this strategy has been used to hack bank accounts and drain victims’ accounts instantly. However, this process is slightly more complicated than hacking into a Facebook account. Hackers first have to steal victims’ passwords, phone numbers, and account information. Then, to authorize the transfer of money, they have to get a fake telecom provider in order to redirect the bank’s one-time password to them. Once they have this information, they can log onto victims’ accounts to transfer the money and approve the transfer because they control the whole process.

How to Protect Your Online Accounts

Because of this SS7 flaw, it’s important to never attach your phone number to your Facebook account or other online accounts. For account recovery, you should instead choose to receive email alerts. This goes for two-factor authentication, as well. Two-factor authentication will make your account much more secure — as long as you receive codes via email, not text message. You may also want to use apps that offer end-to-end encryption — in addition to activating Anti-Theft — to better protect your personal information.

Read More: Advanced Protection: How to Increase Your Privacy on Android

3 Reasons Why Incognito Mode Isn’t Private

1. Your internet service provider (ISP) can still view your activity. Despite using Incognito Mode, there is still a list of websites you’ve visited that your ISP can access. This information is especially pertinent to people browsing at work. Your employer can still see exactly which websites you have viewed. So, be careful where you tread online, even while private browsing is activated. Don’t put your job at risk!

1. Your IP address isn’t hidden. While some VPNs can successfully hide your IP address, Incognito Mode cannot. Think of an IP address as having your fingerprint in a police database. If they wanted to look up your IP address, it would lead directly back to you! Even if you use a private browser, your fingerprints still end up all over every visited site.
2. You’re still logging onto certain websites. This includes Twitter, Amazon, Instagram, or banking accounts. Using Incognito Mode won’t make you invisible to these sites because they are using cookies to track your behavior. If you log on using your account info, they will have a record that you were there. Incognito’s reach isn’t far enough to keep Facebook from knowing that you just spent two hours scrolling through your newsfeed.

The Benefits of Private Browsing

All that being said, Incognito Mode does offer several perks. Since it deletes cookies and disables browser extensions, it’s ideal for browsing social media without third-party services following your online footsteps. Incognito Mode is also great for online banking, lending your computer to a friend, or having a messaging chat that you don’t want saved. This privacy mode also reduces your odds of a malware app attacking your browser. So, despite being only superficially private, Incognito does provide considerable benefits to its users.

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Examine the Text of a Website

How do you know if a website is trying to steal your info? Look at it. While that sounds simple, and it is, it’s an important thing to do. There could be a few typos, grammatical errors, or spelling mishaps. See if there are any repeating words and paragraphs, too. These errors are a strong signal the website is bogus.

Browser Approval

Many Internet browsers let you know if a website is safe by including a “verified” checkmark next to the URL. If the site isn’t verified, and you know it should be, then chances are you are on a phishing site instead.

Product Images

The text isn’t the only important thing on a website. If you notice that the product images are inappropriate or don’t quite match up to what they are supposed to be, get out of there. Look for images and text that appear a little different than what you’d expect.

Office Contact

If you found the best deal ever online, and are trying to make a purchase but uncertain as to whether or not the website is safe, look for the contact info. If you make a phone call during business hours yet there is no answer, you might want to think twice before handing over your credit card information.

Internet Search

If something feels off to you but you don’t know exactly what it is, perform a quick Internet search of the company or site in question to see if anyone else has mentioned it. Chances are, if it is a scam, it’s been seen and reported before.

Flashy Ads

If a legitimate business has flashing, animated ads screaming for attention all along the sidebars, the header, and the footer, think twice before spending much time on the page. A real business cares about their professional appearance and won’t clutter a site with third-party ads.

What Are Cardless ATMs?

At their most basic, cardless ATMs will not be ATMs in a traditional sense. Instead, banking mobile apps will generate a code that consumers use to unlock their bank accounts. They can then use this code to withdraw money (yes, physical, paper money) from their accounts by tapping their phones when they are in front of an ATM. Then, the ATM will dispense money in the same way it would with a debit card.

Read More: A Brief Guide to Using Mobile Banking Apps

What Banks Are introducing Cardless ATMs?

Major American banks like Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Bank of America have all designed plans for cardless ATMs. More major banks should be adding this technology to ATMs soon, too, if they want to remain competitive.

When Will These ATMs be introduced?

If you’re excited to use card-free mobile payments with ATMs, then you won’t have to wait much longer, especially if Wells Fargo is your bank. Wells Fargo users can withdraw money at any of the Wells Fargo ATMs around the country using their smartphone app. After a pilot program, the company implemented the phone-reading technology at its 13,000 ATMs around the country.

Why Are These ATMs Much Harder to Hack?

The reason why cardless ATMs will reduce fraud is primarily because they’ll reduce skimming, which is the practice of copying card and ID numbers from the magnetic strips on plastic cards used in ATM machines. In skimming, scammers use electronic devices, specifically fake card readers, to copy your personal information and your PIN number. Users wanting to withdraw money put their debit cards into the fake device, which, in turn, relays their information. At the same time, the scammers use cameras hidden near the ATM to record users’ pin numbers to use in conjunction with the card itself.

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John Legend’s Hacked Account

Once the hacker gained control of Legend’s account, he posted some amusing and disturbing messages. The poster focused on political subjects, posting tweets about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. For example, the hacker called President Trump “a Cheeto.” Some of these political posts were violent or sexual in nature, and when he regained control of his account, Legend was quick to distance himself from them.

John Legend’s Response

John Legend, like his music, was calm about the hacking. In fact, he laughed at the absurdity of the hacker’s messages. In fact, Legend himself started posting on Twitter, letting his fans know that he had been hacked. For example, he posted the Tweet: “Someone just hacked my account” to let his followers know he hadn’t been posting the bizarre messages. He then posted: “I’m back. My hacker was vulgar and kinda hilarious. I’ll try to be funnier from now on so he won’t feel the need to ghost write for me.”  

Chrissy Teigen’s Response

Chrissy Teigen is one of the most popular celebrities on Twitter with her funny and true-to-life tweets. Like her husband, Teigen found the tweets funny. Teigen was clued into the attack on her husband’s social media after one of her followers private messaged her about her husband’s new Twitter bio, which described the singer’s private parts in a less-than-flattering way. It’s not surprising that this happened, though. In fact, Teigen made fun of her husband the same week his account was hacked, comparing him to the animated aardvark, Arthur, on her own Twitter account.

Here’s What You Can do to Protect Your Private Photos

With so many photo galleries hacked, it’s only reasonable to concern yourself with protecting your own photos. Private Gallery helps you to ensure that your photos are protected. All the photos you put into the Private Gallery are no longer stored in your Android Gallery or in your Whatsapp photos. Only you can open this gallery using specially chosen password. By selecting photos you want to protect and putting them into the Private Gallery, you can ensure nobody sees your most personal photos. Click here to create a Private Gallery for your more private photos:

Why Was Emily Ratajkowski a Target?

Emily Ratajkowski is an American supermodel who became famous after appearing in Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” video. Hackers targeted Ratajkowski’s iCloud account, stealing around 200 of her private photos. The photos show the model scantily clad, in addition to photos from a number of different photo shoots.

Several celebrities, including Celebrity Big Brother contestant, Helen Wood, revealed the hack after she was sent the supermodel’s private photos. The photo’s sender asked Wood to include the photos in her Daily Star column. Ratajkowski didn’t hear about the hacking until she landed in Los Angeles after a flight.

Photo-Hacking is Incredibly Common, Especially for Celebrities

In 2015, hackers targeted the iCloud accounts of many Hollywood stars, leaking their private photos and videos. The event — which is called the “Fappening” by users of the image-sharing site 4Chan — made many Hollywood stars nervous about the privacy of their photos and various accounts. Jennifer Lawrence was famously involved in this wide-scale photo hack.

The hacker that orchestrated that event was caught and sentenced, but that didn’t stop new hackers from targeting Ratajkowski’s private account. Ratajkowski’s agent says that the photos leaked were those retrieved during 2015’s hack, however. While celebrities are large targets, it’s wise to remember that even people who aren’t famous can be targets.

The Android’s mediaserver was the primary fix from these security updates. This mediaserver component helped facilitate the processing of video and audio on the Android device. There were 16 vulnerabilities fixed within the mediaserver, with 7 of them being marked as “critical” flaws.

Read More: Why Would Hewlett Packard Want to Hack Itself?

Many of these problems were found within chipset drivers. As a result, on the security bulletin, the patches are split up between fixes for all Androids and fixes for Androids with chipset drivers. Specifically, 54 high-security flaws were identified within chipset drivers. These flaws could have resulted in a complete compromise of your device.

Several of these patches — 75 to be exact — were marked as device specific. This means that the patches only affected a select number of Android phones, whereas other devices weren’t affected. Among these 75 patches, 12 were marked as “critical,” meaning that the security flaw that was fixed posed a dangerous threat to the device. The Wi-Fi driver and USB driver were two of the components addressed in this security patch.

If you wish to see what security update your phone is currently on, go to your device’s “About phone” setting. There will be a string of text presented to you under your security patch. Google your phone’s security patch number to see what the patch corresponds to. Clicking on this “About phone” setting should also notify you if you have the most recent patch installed.

Am I Safe?

There will always be a proliferation of computer hacking; however, there will also be a persistent attempt to minimize these hackings. Although you are not completely safe, there are steps you can take to help prevent a malware infestation.

Start off by downloading PSafe Total for free on the Google Play Store. PSafe Total contains several features that help foster security and efficiency on your device.

Hacking 911

Researchers have discovered that it would be possible for hackers to disable the 911 system for a whole state by using a TDoS (telephony denial-of-service) attack. This works by infecting mobile phones in a given area. Once infected, the phones will auto-dial 911, which causes the local call center to become overwhelmed with phony calls. This means that people calling with real emergencies may not be able to get through. Because most call centers already operate near full capacity, just a small uptick in call volume could quickly cause problems.

Read More: How to Block Unwanted Text Messages on Android

How Bad Could It Be?

Theoretically, a TDoS attack could be used to infect phones in strategic areas across the country. This could compromise a large portion of emergency response services across the United States. If this were implemented simultaneously with some kind of terrorist activity or attack, it would only add to the tragedy since emergency services would be crippled right when they are needed most.

What’s Being Done?

Now that the problem has been identified, steps are being taken to safeguard our nation’s emergency call centers. The FCC has addressed part of the problem by allowing carriers to block calls that are not associated with any service account. This was initiated because these untraceable phone numbers are often used to place prank calls or to run scams on people — it would stand to reason that hackers could use these phones to help jam the lines in a TDoS attack.

What More Should Be Done?

As 911 security struggles to catch up with modern technology, phone manufacturers can help by reconfiguring hardware to protect against such misuse. This might include installing a firewall that could detect activity — such as repeated calls to 911 — that appears to be auto-generated. The government can also help by creating and enforcing cyber terrorism laws, which might be a minimal deterrent to those who might be considering such an attack. With one of our country’s most vital services sitting vulnerable to hacking, government agencies must work alongside phone manufacturers, service providers, and the public to find the best solutions to protect it. A widespread 911 hack could be devastating, and it’s imperative that we take steps now to make our emergency phone system more secure.

Russia

There have been ties to Russia attempting to hack into US servers. Keep in mind that this does not mean we are 100% sure Russia is hacking the United States. However, there is evidence showing the Democratic National Convention (DNC) has been under fire by the Russians. They were able to gain access to their email and chats, according to DNC security experts.

Read More: Are Voting Machines Susceptible to Hacking?

The DNC was not the only governmental agency under attack by Russian hackers. For instance, the Russians gained access to the entirety of the database of opposition research on the GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Russian spies have also targeted the networks of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. These spies also extended their targets to the Republican National Committee.

These hacks were performed using tactics utilized by Russian hacking groups known as APT28 and APT29, which go by the aliases of “Fancy Bear” and “Cozy Bear.” Following this trail, security experts were able to pinpoint that Guccifer 2.0 did not independently hack. Guccifer 2.0 is simply a decoy used to divert attention from the true suspects.

Ties to WikiLeaks

The accusations of these hacks surfaced around the time that WikiLeaks articles started exposing the DNC for supposed corruption. As a result, many people are connecting the dots and insinuating that the Russian hackers leaked this information to WikiLeaks, enabling them to broadcast these secretive documents.

Other Countries

As stated earlier, there is only circumstantial evidence that ties Russia to these hacks and WikiLeaks articles. That being said, a simple Google search will show you that no other countries are actively hacking the United States. As a result, it is imperative that we continue honing in on the details to make sure that Russia is indeed hacking the United States without making any brash assumptions.