Cyber Fraud Prevention Tips
Thu, December 19, 2024
Tips for Staying Cyber Safe Over the Holidays
The holiday season is a time for joy and celebration, but it's also a peak period for cyber threats. Staying vigilant can help you enjoy the season while protecting yourself from cybercrime. As a fiduciary with respect to your financial accounts, we are encouraging you to adopt a series of measures to help protect your identity and mitigate potential security risks.
What You Can Do
- Be cautious of emails or texts about undelivered packages or shipping delays. Verify directly with the carrier or sender instead of clicking on links.
- Be aware of suspicious phone calls, emails, and texts asking you to send money or disclose personal information. If a service rep calls you, hang up and call back using a known phone number.
- Avoid sharing sensitive information over email, as even seemingly legitimate email accounts can be compromised.
- Beware of phishing and malicious links. Urgent-sounding, legitimate-looking emails are intended to tempt you to accidentally disclose personal information or install malware.
- Don’t click on links or open attachments from unknown sources. Instead, type the web address in your browser.
- Check your email and account statements regularly for suspicious activity. Periodically review your credit report to verify that you recognize all the accounts and balances reported to credit bureaus.
- Consider putting a freeze on your credit report with each of the main credit bureaus to prevent the unauthorized opening of accounts.
- Never enter confidential information in public areas. Assume someone is always watching.
- Don’t open text messages from unknown senders. Messages could contain links which when clicked on, might embed malware.
Password Best Practices & Deal-Factor Authentication
- Don’t use personal information as part of your login ID or password and don’t share login credentials.
- Avoid reusing passwords across accounts. If one account is compromised, it can lead to a chain reaction exposing other accounts.
- Create a unique password for each financial institution you do business with; use passwords that are long in length and contain a combination of characters, numbers, and symbols. Consider using a password manager to create, manage, and store passwords that are unique and secure.
- Do not share your passwords.
- Use two-factor authentication tools or a physical security key for added protection.
Technology Best Practices
- Make sure your web browser, operating systems, antivirus, and anti-spyware are updated, and activate the firewall.
- Do not use free/found USB devices. They may be infected with malware.
- Enable the security settings on your applications and web browser.
- Disable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi auto-connect features to reduce exposure to unauthorized access.
- For mobile devices, use device-specific factory reset features and remove SIM and memory cards before disposal.
- Dispose of old hardware safely by performing a factory reset or removing and destroying all storage data devices.
Websites & Social Media
- Verify unfamiliar websites through trusted sources or tools like browser safety extensions.
- Avoid links to sponsored websites.
- Log out completely to terminate access when exiting all websites.
- Don’t use public computers or free Wi-Fi. Use a personal Wi-Fi hotspot or a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
- Hover over questionable links to reveal the URL before clicking. Secure websites start with “https,” not “http.”
- Be cautious when accepting “friend” requests on social media, liking posts, or following links.
- Limit sharing information on social media sites. Assume fraudsters can see everything, even if you have safeguards.
Helpful Sites & Links
How TFC Can Help
Please carefully review the above with all members of your household. We also ask that you do the following:
- Promptly inform us of any changes to your mailing or email address to ensure both our records and those of your custodian remain accurate.
- If you suspect your email or custodial account has been compromised, immediately report that to us.
- For your security, we will initiate a verification call to confirm any email requests to transfer funds, execute trades, or modify account details.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns about any of this information, please don’t hesitate to contact your Advisor or a member of the TFC Client Service Team.
Best regards,
Constance H. Wyllie, Vice President of Client Service and Operations & Chief Compliance Officer
