These tips might save you from being hacked.
A cybersecurity expert from McAfee — the antivirus brainchild of eccentric businessman John McAfee — is warning of ways that spyware can easily make its way onto your computer or smartphone to drain your bank account.
“Avoid downloading files from untrusted sources,” the unidentified employee said, per the Sun, adding that file-sharing programs like torrents are especially perilous.
The worker noted that the age-old risk of pop-ups is as dangerous as ever, too.
“Never click ‘Agree,’ ‘OK,’ ‘No,’ or ‘Yes’ in a pop-up, as these actions can trigger an automatic spyware download,” they warned.
“By stealthily recording sensitive personal and financial information, like usernames, passwords, and credit card numbers, [spyware] presents a significant risk to a user’s identity,” the employee added.
The Post reached out to McAfee for comment.
The McAfee source quoted by the Sun advises closing out of a browser entirely to steer clear of unwanted trouble.
The safest way to do this on a PC is to activate the task manager to remotely close tabs by hitting “end task.” On a Mac, access “force quit” from the dropdown menu.
Another tip is to regularly update the operating system on your device.
“These patches often contain fixes to known vulnerabilities that spyware and other malicious programs exploit,” the McAfee cyber expert explained. “Also, ensure to download and use your web browser’s latest, most secure version.”
AI, meanwhile, is also posing a substantial risk to individuals through its ability to personalize phishing scams, warns Lisa Palmer, an AI strategist for consulting firm AI Leaders.
“This is about crime that can be personalized at a massive scale. [Scammers] can create campaigns that are highly personalized for thousands of targeted victims versus having to create one at a time,” she previously told The Post, adding that phony, deepfake video and audio require much less sophistication to create.
A frightening, recent example of this was when an Arizona mother heard her daughter’s voice on the phone saying she had been kidnapped for ransom.
An AI program had cloned the little girl’s voice — and similar instances have occurred in NYC with children telling their parents they had been arrested and were in need of bail money.
“I never doubted for one second it was her,” Scottsdale mother Jennifer DeStefano told WKYT. “That’s the freaky part that really got me to my core.”
To prevent these situations, Palmer recommends families create a verbal password to share with each other on the phone to authenticate their identity.
Besides individuals, major brands and companies — such as Clorox and some of Las Vegas’ largest casinos — have also been debilitated by recent ransomware attacks.
Palmer warned of this phenomenon in early August.
The aftermath of September’s Vegas incident, which left guests locked out of rooms and experiencing other disruptions, cost MGM Resorts $100 million as it opted not to pay.
“For those that are sophisticated organizations, it’s exceptionally hard to catch them,” Palmer said of cybercriminal rings.
