New York SBDC Research Network

From the Federal Trade Commission : As a small business owner, you have a lot on your mind. You can’t afford to lose time or money to scammers or a compromised network. We can help you avoid scams, protect your computers and networks, keep your customers’ data safe – and protect your bottom line. You also can find out what the FTC is doing to protect small businesses. Stay connected by subscribing to the FTC’s Business Blog. Check out the article Computer Security Basics for Small Businesses . Also: Start with Security: how businesses can protect their computers and networks against threats . Develop a plan to protect your customers’ personal information. Learn what do if there is a data breach. Read the Stick with Security blog series . Scammers target small businesses. Learn to recognize those scams: Read the Small Business Scams publication. Report scams against small business at ftc.gov/complaint and let us know it affected a small business. Reporting it helps stop ...

From BusinessWire A survey* commissioned by Transaction Network Services (TNS) has found that 85% of adults in the US, UK and Australia believe the number of criminals trying to steal credit and debit card data is increasing. More than two thirds are concerned about the security of their payment card data and 38% feel their private credit or debit card data has been put at risk by a data breach, irrelevant of whether they subsequently were a victim of fraud. Also from BusinessWire : A recent study from Juniper Research predicts that worldwide spending on tools to detect and prevent online payment fraud will rise to $9.3 billion by 2022, an increase of 22% over the spend expected this year. The report says that the threat posed by insecure internet of things (IoT) devices will be a primary driver of anti-fraud investment.

If you’ve ever been told that you could make easy money and it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Pyramid schemes often sound like enticing business deals, but fraudsters may use this “business model” - to take advantage of you. Before you invest your time and money, it’s important to ask good questions and do some research on the company. Here are some typical characteristics of a pyramid scheme: Emphasis on recruiting No genuine product or service is sold Promises of high returns in a short period of time Easy money or “passive income” (money you earn without doing anything) No demonstrated revenue from retail sales Find more information on identifying pyramid schemes and how to protect yourself at: investor

From Form990.org : The Urban Institute’s National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) recently discovered that an unauthorized party or parties have gained access to the Form 990 Online and e-Postcard filing systems for nonprofit organizations. This unauthorized access affected nonprofits that used IRS Forms 990, 990-EZ, and 990-N (e-Postcard). It also affected users of Form 8868 extensions and filings for charitable organizations in Hawaii, Michigan, and New York . Once we discovered the attack, we contacted IRS and made every effort to secure the systems and user accounts. We are working with law enforcement agencies as they conduct an investigation. In addition, we have retained a leading cybersecurity firm to help us analyze the situation and strengthen security. Our investigation is ongoing. Based on current information, we believe no information from the filings themselves was compromised. These forms do not contain Social Security numbers or individual tax filer i...

Learn how to protect your business information online. This self-paced training covers the importance of securing information, the kind of information to secure, types of cyber threats and tips for guarding against online hackers and breaches. Take the 30-minute course from the Small Business Administration HERE .

After two major retailers, Target Corp. and Neiman Marcus, revealed that massive data breaches had compromised tens of millions of customers' data records, everyone from consumers to politicians has asked how such spectacular security blunders could occur. But if experts' anecdotes and insights on the numerous weaknesses in retail point-of-sale (POS) systems are any indication, it may be surprising major breaches don't happen more often. ... And more retail breaches are likely to be revealed soon. A recent Reuters report indicated that other retailers also suffered data breaches during the holiday season. Undisclosed sources told the news agency that "at least three other well-known U.S. retailers" were breached, and the attack techniques utilized were similar to those in the Target breach. Why are attackers currently having so much success penetrating retail environments? While some may look to cast blame on weak legacy point-of-sale security, others say reta...

As more and more companies are falling victim to security breaches, a lot of businesses are worried they could be next. These concerns reached a new height over the course of 2011 as Sony, Citibank, and even certain areas of the government were hacked. More HERE .

From New York's Libraries Information Network offers this advice from the Office of Cyber Security 1.Use Strong Passwords: Passwords should have at least eight characters and include letters (uppercase and lowercase), numbers and special characters. It is important to maintain separate passwords for different accounts to reduce the likelihood of one password being compromised, which may make other accounts vulnerable as well. Developing good password practices will help keep your personal information and identity secure. ALSO 2.Limit the Use of External Devices 3.Avoid Phishing and Social Engineering Attempts 4.Be Cautious When Shopping Online 5.Limit the Use of Administrator Accounts 6.Update Your Software 7.Protect and Secure Mobile Devices 8.Enable Your Firewall 9.Use Anti-virus and Anti-spyware Programs 10.Secure Wireless Networks

For some reason, I have always thought that a password should be super-secretive and only understood by a few select individuals. When I first heard in a movie that the four most common passwords were "God", "Love", "Sex, and "Power" (which the below articles do not list as the four most common), I thought that those 4 words were very poorly-chosen passwords. Later, I learned that weak passwords involve many elements, including a lack of variation in capitalization or not using numbers and/or symbols. The below articles let you know what the weakest passwords you could pick are and how to make sure your password isn't easy to figure out. Top 20 most common passwords of all time revealed: ‘123456,’ ‘princess,’ ‘qwerty’ The top 500 worst passwords of all time If you find your password on one of these lists, I highly recommend changing it.

Last night, I watched the segment on "60 Minutes" that cast light on just how much vigilance is required to protect electronic sytems designed to operate critical financial, social and defense systems in this country (and elsewhere). It was sobering to watch, to say the least. News lives in an echo chamber, it seems. An article from last week's PCWorld dwelled on the proliferation of cyber theft into the world of small and medium-sized businesses and organizations. The bulk of the article focuses on the FBI's awareness of the growth in ACH (automated clearinghouse) fraud, where thieves manipulate online banking systems to create false payees, whereby significant sums can be then transferred out of the country by (sometimes unwitting) online payroll clearinghouse operations. Vigilance, again, is the key word here. Many of these scenarios unfold by an employee unknowingly triggering malware embedded into an email (the article cites the example of Microsoft sending out...

Every so often, McAfee (the company that provides popular security software for home and business computers) evaluates the safety of the links generated by the most popular search engines. In early June, they released " The State of Search Engines " as a 2007 follow-up to similar reports written in 2006. If you've ever run a site analysis using McAfee, you'll know that they use a color-coded system to flag sites that feature security risks such as spyware loaders, high-volume spam generators, hyper pop-up ad creation, etc. This particular study theorizes that people rely on search engines to get what they want. So, the company reviews just how frequently search engines expose you to sites that they consider dangerous to your computer's security. Here are their key findings: Overall, 4.0% of search results link to risky Web sites, which marks an improvement from 5.0% in May 2006. Dangerous sites are found in search results of all 5 of the top US search engines ...