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User education. Very rarely does the prince of Nigeria get dethroned (though it seems like it’s
happening more and more often to him, poor guy) and then contacts you with a way to get him
home. Although we are slowly adapting to such an attack, it would be wise to login into your
login page directly, or hover above the link and see if it takes you to an IP address’s rather than
a known domain name. In my email I changed the link to look the same as the login page to
trick customers, but could have been foiled had they looked at where the url would have taken
them. Also, don’t stick any foreign thumb-drives in the computer and execute them. I do not
want to sound paranoid and say every lost thumb-drive is a hacker attempting to get in, but if
you have things to protect than you should act like every lost thumb-drive is an attacker to get
in.

Run computer without administrative access. As stated before this is a very efficient way to
avoid malware being installed on your computer.

Have a keyword. It’s easy to call anyone and tell them their job is at risk. It’s the fear that get’s
people to show that they are innocent and therefore they are willing to do whatever it takes to
save their job as quickly as possible. However, it’s important to verify who is on the other line of
that call.

Remember, there will always be some risk and vulnerability to get into your system. If you have
the best security system in the world, odds are you won’t be able to get any work done. It all
comes down to productivity/connivance vs security, the best way to protect your self are,
protecting your location, through blocked ports, MAC address filter, verifying identities, and user
awareness.

About the Author

I am a Saint George resident currently attending Dixie State
University, in Utah, with the expectation of graduating in the fall
semester with my major in Informational Technology and Minor in
Digital Forensics. I will be applying for graduate school this
upcoming year to earn my master’s degree in Advanced Security
and Digital Forensics.

43 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – May 2015 Edition
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