Today we are going to go talk about email “hackers” and find the best way to fight them. Watch our video and keep reading to learn how to protect your business from hacker attacks:
Are hackers still a thing? They definitely might be, but the people that we’re going to talk about today aren’t hackers, they are just average criminals who don’t hack anything, but use the data that’s already out there to scare people. Imagine, you wake up in the morning, look at your phone, and see a message that says something like this:
Hello. I am a hacker who cracked your device a few months ago. You entered your password on one of the websites you visited, and I intercepted it. You can change it, but my malware updates every time you change it. I can see all of your photos, videos, and other private information. I can even take screenshots of your device and see what you’re doing anytime I want. Pay me $899 in bitcoin and I won’t leak everything to the world. Don’t be silly, police or friends won’t help you. The only way to keep your information private is to pay me for my silence.
What’s more interesting about this email is that it was real. One of our clients got it with the actual password and email that she used. Good news is – we were able to help this client and the so-called “hacker” wasn’t able to leak anything.
Let’s be honest here – if this illegal scheme didn’t work, no one would be sending out these emails. They might be sending thousands of emails until they get to a person who will agree to pay them to keep private information secure. It probably takes an hour or two to send out these emails. $899 for two hours? Well, that doesn’t sound bad at all! Of course, we don’t know the actual statistics – “hackers” might be earning even more than that.
So, how do they even get your email and password in the first place? You visit a lot of websites every day. Some of them ask you to create a profile. To save time you might be using use the same password on every website. This is where you get in trouble! Target was hacked recently. Thousands of users’ logins, passwords, and emails were leaked. Did you use the same password on Target.com as you use on other websites? Now you know how easy it was for our “hackers” to find your data. Same with other big websites – not everyone is safe from a hacker attack.
What these people are doing is illegal, but they typically operate outside of the US, so it’s hard to chase them down. The only thing we can actually do is try to protect ourselves every way possible. First of all, know if you get one of these emails, chances are it’s a scam. If you’re scared and don’t know what to do, call us at 515-4WEB-GUY and we’ll guide you through the process of getting your accounts and private information back.
The best advice we can give you is to change your passwords! Don’t use the same password on every website. It’s basic web safety that everyone should follow. The Surf Your Name team has to have hundreds of different passwords for our client’s sites and other software. We use encrypted password management systems to keep them safe – not only from these scam “hackers”, but from the actual hackers as well. We’ve got one system that we’ve been using for years now. It’s tried, trusted, and true. It works great, encrypts all of our passwords, and updates them for us. Give us a call and we’d be happy to share with you a couple of systems that we recommend.
The most important thing is if you get one of these scam emails, don’t ignore it! It means you’re your information is out there, and hackers have access to it. Remember to change your passwords regularly and don’t use the same password on every website.
SurfYourName provides Security & Maintenance Packages for everyone. We are helping many of our clients keep their data safe from hackers and other intruders. If you want to keep your website and devices safe and secure, give us a call and we will be glad to help! If you have any questions or concerns, that’s what we’re here for! Contact us and we’ll work through it with you!
