My Cybersecurity Journey

As our parents get older we will often find our roles reversed. Us (adult) kids aren’t just tech support, now it’s our responsibility to parent our parents through monitoring their online activity and protecting them from scams. Social Engineering Scams It’s not just tech. Criminals know it is easier to trick a person than to hack a computer. From the age old ‘ don’t talk to (internet) strangers ’ to ‘ don’t click suspicious ’ links, here are the seven social engineering psychology principles scammers will use (which I learned from studying for the CompTIA Security+ Exam), the possible scams they’ll try to pull, and how to thwart or prevent the scams. Psychology Principle Scam Example (Targeting Senior Citizens) How to Thwart or Prevent the Scam Authority IRS or Social Security Impersonation: Attacker calls claiming to be from the IRS or Social Security Administration (SSA).  They state the victim owes back taxes or that...

 How a PDF May Not Be That Innocent PDFs are files we encounter all the time. We download them, open them, and view them. They might be a form we fill out, or they may be an informative document with links we can click to access more resources. We don't often think of these familiar files as possibly dangerous, and that's the core of the problem. This universal trust is a security risk. Hackers know this, and they can sneakily hide viruses, trojans, and other malware right inside the documents you trust most. No matter who you receive them from or where you download them, you need to be careful. Here, we'll cover the most common dangers and what those threats actually do. Threat Explanation of How They Work Phishing / Data Harvesting Forms Attackers send a PDF that often impersonates a trusted entity (like a bank or government agency).  The PDF contains a fillable form asking for sensitive data like login credentials, credi...