The United Difference - Education Corner
Alex Baruth, UBI Fraud Prevention and Security Officer, recently attended a Security and Fraud Conference. During the conference, he watched the presenter “hack” someone’s iPhone password simply by knowing the answers to a few common questions – what year did you graduate? When is your birthday? What is your mother’s birthdate? What are your kids’ birthdates?
After obtaining the answers to these simple questions, it only took the presenter a few tries to guess the 6-digit passcode to gain access to this person’s iPhone. While this was in a controlled environment with someone willing to share her information for the purpose of the demonstration, it isn’t difficult for fraudsters to find this and other information about you. The process of obtaining this information is called Social Engineering.
Be Aware of What You Share
We often think and act on protecting information such as our bank account or social security number, but what about other personal information? Birthdates, graduation years, kids’ names – these pieces of information are of high value to scammers who are looking for a target. What information do you have on your social media channels? Are there birthday posts, posts about school, family members, job locations, etc.? Any personal information you share in a post can be used by a fraudster. They also gather information from other sources such as newspaper articles, business or school websites, and even the dark web.
Once a scammer gathers your personal information, they can start developing a plan to scam you. If they find the name of your grandchild, they can impersonate them during the classic “Grandparent Scam.” If they learn your place of employment, they can start probing your work email with fake emails, hoping you click on a link to compromise your computer. If they are able to guess your email password, they can gain access and send out scam emails or even start resetting your passwords. Social Engineering is the gateway for a large variety of scams, and it can start with just a simple Happy Birthday post on your social media page. While you cannot control every piece of information about you that is out in the world, it is important to control what you can. Take the time to consider the information you share to the world.
As always, if you are in a situation and feel like something is off and could possibly be a scam, stop right away, take a step back and analyze what is going on.