The rise of the hacker-for-hire, email matters, and an update from F-Secure.
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The rise of the hacker-for-hire, email matters, and an update from F-Secure.

The Cyber Advisor Letter

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Email Matters.

Hello there, 

Every new customer that came to us last week all shared the same problem; their email had been hacked. Most were on Gmail, a few on Hotmail, and recently we haven't seen many coming from AOL or Yahoo, but expect that to change soon.

Last week's worst case came to us from a real estate transaction hacked over the agent's "free" email account. The client, the buyer in the deal, lost vital financial and personal information, and no one will know the full damages of the breach potentially for years to come.

The fallout will be watched closely by many inside and out of the industry, and the breach comes just after we wrote about the nation's largest title insurer issuing a memorandum to agents and offices warning against using "free" email for real estate closings.

http://www.totaldigitalsecurity.com/blog/cyber-security-for-real-estate-professionals 

We're witnessing the first innings of a supercycle of cybercrime and for the time being, "free" email is the lowest hanging fruit. Using public WiFi's without protection, and Windows computers without device-based defenses, are tied for second. But, for the moment, "free" email is where things are catching fire.

Why? Because the billion+ email addresses and passwords Russian cyber-gangs have stolen over the past couple of years, have been curated, sorted, sifted, and engineered into sophisticated attacks that steal, scam, blackmail, and extort from individuals and their personal technology. In volume. The money is big, and for the professional criminal; the job is scalable into potential riches that are multiples of anything else going today - including drugs. 

We were not alone finding the "free" email breach driving our activity last week as the topic showed up in headlines around the world. This isn't surprising or just coincidental -  we protect individuals and their personal technology and from our distinct perch in the business, we are a remarkably accurate barometer for real issues taking place in real life and that matter to the customers we serve.

You will find more information in the "news" section below, but the numbers are staggering, the "red flags" are waving, and the risks of using "free" email services are too significant to be ignored.

Watch the video to see how you can establish a private email domain for yourself and your family with an approach that will provide security, privacy, and the best, pre-emptive defenses available against spam, incoming viruses, and email-targeted attacks.

The Best Way to Establish a Family Email Domain

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Video - How to Establish a Private Email Domain

https://youtu.be/fIzoLk_UQXU


F-Secure for Macs

Customers will notice an upgrade to their F-Secure PSB Device Protection service on their Mac laptops and computers. Hostilities targeting Macs are heating up, and F-Secure is in the leading position as a best-in-class provider for Mac owners. 

To protect your Mac, click here.


 

Hacker-for-Hire

This could get ugly. 

Vendetta? Score to settle? Crave revenge? With the advances in the hacker-for-hire market, anyone's most heated and primal urges are just key strokes from instant gratification. I wrote about it earlier this week, here: http://www.totaldigitalsecurity.com/blog/the-rise-of-the-hacker-for-hire

Hard to believe? Just Google it and see.


 

Coming Events

We are thrilled to have been invited back to present again at both the Association for Financial Professionals - Annual Conference, in Orlando this coming October to present on "Cyber Security and the Employee",

and,

the annual Total Wealth Symposium by The Sovereign Society, this September in Bermuda. We made a ton of new friends at last year's Symposium in the Bahamas, and if you are going again this year, please send me a line and let's meet at the event.  

 

Thanks for reading,

 

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The Week in the Headlines

"Exclusive: Big data breaches found at major email services - Hundreds of millions of hacked user names and passwords for email accounts and other websites are being traded in Russia's criminal underworld, a security expert told Reuters.Reuters.

"Russian hacker collects 272m email addresses and passwords, some from Gmail."  The Guardian.

"Intelligence analysts found that business is booming in underground markets for Russian and other hackers, ...some touting 24/7 customer service and "free trial attacks."  The Wall Street Journal

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The Rise of the Hacker-for-Hire

Vendetta? Score to settle? Crave revenge? The hacker-for-hire aims to please. 

  • Stolen email to manipulate financial and legal disputes.

  • Hijacked accounts for deception, fraud, extortion and character assault.

  • Corporate email hack for competitive advantage.

To protect your Mac, click here.

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Dell's  Annual Hacker Markets Report for 2016

Key nuggets.

  • Bank account information sold on the black market for a percentage of the account's cash balance. 

  • Gmail and Yahoo email accounts hacked for $129.

  • U.S. online business account credentials from $29.

  • Hacking tutorials - from $20.

  • Website hack - $350.

  • Russian hackers expanding operating hours and using guarantors to ensure customers' confidence and happiness.

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It Always Comes Back to Email

Email is becoming your front door.

Where ever you look, free email is being targeted and the losses are increasing. Make a change that will last for life.

Video - How We Help You Create Your Own Private Email Domain.

Create an email domain for your family and provide a life time of protection and security.

 

Private Email  

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We've Been Invited Back!

The AFP and The Sovereign Society Annual Conferences.

  • Merrill Lynch event attendees - please go here.

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Total Digital Security - because this isn't getting better any time soon.

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Total Digital Security finds the best IT security technology available to anyone anywhere, and makes it accessible, easy to use, and affordable for the rest of us. 

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