Cybersecurity Tips: How to Protect Your Data

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month! Are you taking steps to stay protected from fraudsters? It's crucial to take proactive measures to safeguard your information. Although there's no perfect method to prevent an attack, there are numerous steps you can take to mitigate the risk. Our Prevail Bank Information Security Officer, Michael Hostak, recommends the following tips to ensure your safety.

Beware of Scammers Posing as Your Bank

It's important to note that your bank will never ask for personal details about your account such as your account number or PIN over the phone. Scammers are known to target individuals and request this information. If you receive a call and are unsure of the caller's authenticity, it's best to disconnect the call and contact your bank directly to confirm.

Secure Your Accounts

To ensure maximum security, it's essential to use strong passphrases rather than easily guessable passwords. Avoid using the same password for different accounts and make use of a password vault to keep track of all your passwords. Additionally, set up multi-factor authentication for all sensitive online accounts using an authenticator app to keep your accounts more secure.

Beware of Social Engineering tactics

Phishing, Vishing, and impersonation attempts made via phone calls are all classic examples of Social Engineering. These tactics are used to trick individuals into disclosing sensitive information they would not otherwise reveal. 

Here are a few examples of Social Engineering:

• Beware of any links sent in an email or text regarding account information or debit/credit card information, these are fraudsters re-directing you to a bogus website tricking you into entering your online banking credentials. Always call the bank or go directly to the known web address to verify information. 
• Elder fraud continues to be one of the largest growing areas of Social Engineering fraud. Never believe someone who’s calling out of the blue saying a child or grandchild is in trouble. Set up a call tree with family members and hang up on any strange calls, verify using the family call tree.
• Never believe a “pop-up” stating your computer is infected and posting a number to call.
• Romance fraud is on the rise. Romance scams entail individuals being deceived into sending money to fraudsters who use tactics to earn their trust and convince them of a legitimate relationship.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) 3.0 is a new phishing tactic using the platform “Dropbox” to reel in unsuspecting users. Attackers use fake Dropbox login pages to send emails to users, redirecting them to another URL and stealing their credentials. The emails appear to be standard Dropbox notifications to view a document which makes it hard to tell if it’s real or fake.

According to researchers from Check Point, if an individual receives an email from a Dropbox domain and is then redirected to a OneDrive account, this inconsistency should raise a red flag and be a clear indication that the Dropbox campaign is malicious. Users should pay attention to this small detail and delete the message before accessing the phishing page.

Once an email has been compromised, threat actors can monitor email exchanges, wait for emails related to funds, transfers, or wires, and re-route to different accounts. If you are a business of any size, use a secure online banking channel to complete funds, transfers, ACH, and wires.

Protect Your Computers

Always run an anti-virus/malware tool on your computer and keep it updated. Stay away from free tools as they can be unreliable. Set automatic updates/patching on any device connecting to the internet. Vendors are constantly updating their software to combat vulnerabilities.

Shred All Sensitive Documents

It’s important for individuals and businesses to dispose of any unwanted documents containing sensitive information such as social security numbers, bank statements, addresses, medical records, employee 

records, and much more. It's not wise to simply discard these documents by throwing them in the trash, as they could easily fall into the wrong hands.

Every year, our Prevail Bank branches host a FREE shred day event that welcomes everyone from the community. Keep an eye out for our next shred day events and take advantage of this opportunity to safely dispose of unwanted confidential documents.

We hope you found these cybersecurity tips helpful! If you have any questions or concerns regarding your account, give our customer service team a call at 800.205.0914. Our team is ready to help assist you!

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Saturday - Sunday | Closed